photo: Kevin Wilson
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It is the sheer visual presence of my subjects that fascinates me—not just the way they are, but the way they seem to be. This has necessarily meant working slowly from life, one canvas at a time.
My fictional Renaissance ‘masterpiece’ Boy with Apple will be on display for the first time in the UK in a major new London exhibition of the archives of film director Wes Anderson at the Design Museum, London. A commission from Anderson for his Oscar winning movie The Grand Budapest Hotel, the painting has been rather drolly mounted behind bullet proof glass (“Crucial protection!…” Anderson).
As well as finished props and sets, the exhibition features work-in-progress material and maquettes, and looks at the variety of traditional and hand-made film-making techniques that the director continues to celebrate through his work.
The Museum website states: This landmark exhibition will chart the evolution of Wes Anderson’s films from early experiments in the 1990s to recent productions as well as collaborations with key long-standing creative partners. Over 700 objects will bring together the director’s meticulous craft of film-making through original storyboards, Polaroids, sketches, paintings, handwritten notebooks, puppets, miniature models, and dozens of costumes worn by much-loved characters’
Open now until the 26 July at the Design Museum, Kensington High Street, London W8 6AG.
Elsewhere you can find Boy with Apple, the fictional Renaissance portrait by the equally fictional Johannes van Hoytl the Younger that is the plot driver in The Grand Budapest Hotel. Painted over four months by the British artist Michael Taylor, who discussed with Anderson everything from the boy’s clothes to a piece of paper on the wall behind him, it may be the most meticulously created MacGuffin in cinema history.
THE TIMES *****
Self Portrait with Grave Goods is to feature in the exhibition FOLIA, opening in Istanbul at the incredible Abdülmecid Efendi Mansion shortly. The painting was a commission from Turkish collector Ömer Koç who gave me free rein to realise an idea I had been exploring for a while. I’m very pleased the picture is to be included because as far as I know it will be the first time it has been on public display.
The exhibition is drawn from works in the Ömer Koç collection and will be open to the public from September 21, 2025, to March 1, 2026. Themed around “the enchanted garden” Folia says it promises to explore the poisonous side of nature, purportedly connecting with the Abdülmecid Efendi Mansion’s hunting history. Ah so.
‘Still Life’; an exhibition of recent work at the Portland Gallery opens on 5th June 2025. The exhibition can be viewed online at their website.
To quote from the catalogue notes:
‘Michael Taylor’s new collection of still lifes are an invitation to look — and to think about looking. The paintings allow us to inhabit spaces and range over textures.
Viewed at a distance or on a screen, they seem smooth and flawless. Get close, in person, and a mosaic of inventive brushstrokes appears….
Focussing on small collections of objects, these newer paintings seem minimalist when compared to Taylor’s figurative works of a few years earlier…..
The desire to make pots is just as strong as the desire to make likenesses of hands and faces. Other than our own skeletons, the thing we humans reliably leave behind are shards of ceramics.’ Alfie Robinson
About Portland Gallery:
‘Our exhibition programme has concentrated primarily on representing the best modern and contemporary figurative artists working in traditional media. In parallel, Portland have enjoyed considerable success as dealers in abstract paintings and sculptures by some of the most prominent figures of 20th century British Art.’
The exhibition continues until 20th June. Enquiries to jasmine@portlandgallery.com
Alfie Robinson
Old masters’ still lifes tell us ‘memento mori’. Michael Taylor’s still lifes tell us, among other things, ‘non omnis moriar’ — I shall not wholly die.
I am currently working towards my forthcoming exhibition at the Portland Gallery this coming June.
Largely consisting of peaceful and contemplative new still life compositions, the exhibition (my first with the Portland) runs from 5th-20th June 2025 and will be held on the lower floor of the gallery.
For enquiries about the exhibition please contact Jasmine Winter jasmine@portlandgallery.com Portland Gallery, 3 Bennet St, London SW1A 1RP
Illustrated is a detail from one of the new works featuring a porcelain Korean calligrapher’s water dropper.
Welcome to my new website. Intended primarily as an online gallery featuring a selection of my paintings from over the years, I will also keep it updated with recent, current and forthcoming news in these posts.
To mark the occasion I have selected one picture from each of the five categories listed in the menus: Figures, Interiors, Still Lifes, Heads and Portraits. I am aware that these groupings may appear fairly arbitrary. Indeed many paintings might be in any, or several catagories, but we felt it helpful to break them up a bit for convenience and accessibility.
Many thanks to Philip Rees (Reflecting Head) for creating it for me, for taking such care and pains over its design and construction and for his patience with my low-tech nature.
I hope you enjoy it, and thank you for looking.
