MERLIN JAMES: WRITINGS ON ART

Authored books, individually published lectures & catalogues

Merlin James, Engaging Images: 'Practical Criticism 'and visual art, Menard Press/King's College, London, 1992 (86 pp.)

Merlin James, David Jones: Map of the artist's mind (exhibition catalogue) Lund Humphries, London, 1995 (74 pp.)

Merlin James, The Non-Existence of Art Criticism (published lecture), the 1996  Stanley Picker Lecture (Tate Gallery; New York Studio School; Kingston University), Kingston University Press, London 1997 (26 pp.)

Alex Katz : Twenty-Five years of Painting (Edited by David   Sylvester; text by Merlin James pp. 30 - 102) Saatchi Gallery, London 1997

Edges  (Etchings, Alex Katz; poem, Robert Creeley; essay, Merlin James), Peter Blum Editions, New York, 1999

Merlin James, Lowry’s People (exhibition catalogue text) The Lowry Centre, Salford, 2000 (48 pp.)

Merlin James, Lowry’s Places (exhibition catalogue text) The Lowry Centre, Salford, 2000 (48 pp.)

Morandi: The Collector’s Eye (exhibition catalogue, main essay by Merlin James), Estorick Collection, London, 2001

Alex Katz: The Woodcuts and Linocuts (exhibition catalogue, essay by Merlin James), Blum Editions, New York, 2001

Merlin James: Painting per se, (published lecture) , Cooper Union School of Art, New York, 2002 (32 pp.)

William Nicholson (exhibition catalogue, essay by Merlin James) Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2004

Merlin James, Alex Katz: Cartoons and Paintings (exhibition catalogue, essay by Merlin James), Albertina Museum, Vienna, 2004

 

Selected articles by Merlin James

David Jones Today, ILEA Arts Review, Summer 1983
Relating to David Jones, Anglo-Welsh Review, No.80, 1985

The Art of Criticism (practical criticism in art education), Times Educational Supplement, March 6th, 1987

Jean Hélion at Louis Carré, Burlington Magazine, September 1987           

Seeing Hélion, London Magazine, October 1987

Dream Lands, (contemporary painting and El Greco's Fabula), London Magazine, January 1988

Enthusiastic Underwriting (contemporary painting and Thomas Jones's Italian sketches), London Magazine, February 1988

Critical Bearings, (contemporary art, Ivon Hitchens, Dutch painting in the Harold Samuel collection), London Magazine, December/January 1988-9

Animate Objects (contemporary sculpture and Rembrandt Bugatti), London Magazine, February/March 1989

Richard Diebenkorn by Gerald Nordland, Burlington Magazine, March 1989

David Jones (at Kettle's Yard Cambridge and Austin/Desmond Gallery London), Burlington Magazine, June/July 1989

Being Reasonable (contemporary painting, Vlaminck and the Ecole de Paris), London Magazine, June/July 1989

Cecil Collins (at the Tate Gallery), Burlington Magazine, July 1989

Impure Abstraction (the recycling of minimalism), London Magazine, August/September 1989

Paul Nash (York City Art Gallery), Burlington Magazine,  December 1989

The Autumn of the Ecole de Paris (Charchoune, Hélion, Magnelli, van Velde, Fautrier), London Magazine, December/January 1989-90

Ivon Hitchens (Edinburgh City Art Centre), Burlington Magazine, January 1990

Euphoric Archeology (Milan Kunc's paintings), London Magazine, February/March 1990

Bram van Velde, Masson, Alechinsky's illustrations to Balzac, Burlington Magazine, February 1990

Recent Abstraction, Burlington Magazine, May 1990

After the Authentic (The Pursuit of the Real: British figurative art from Sickert to Bacon, Barbican Art Gallery) Times Literary Supplement, May 25-31 1990

Matthew Smith (Crane Kalman Gallery), Burlington Magazine, July 1990

Hofmann and Kokoschka (Crane and Marlborough Galleries), Burlington Magazine, August 1990

Barye, González and Wlérick (at Sladmore, Whitechapel and Bruton Galleries), Burlington Magazine, September 1990

Hélion (at the Liverpool Tate), Burlington Magazine,  October 1990

In and Out of Time (contemporary painting), London Magazine, October/November 1990

Spencer's Grand Design (Stanley Spencer at the Barbican Art Gallery) Times Literary Supplement, February 1  1991

Satellite Airwaves (Jules Olitski and permissive pluralism), London Magazine, February/March 1991

Derain (at MOMA Oxford), Art Monthly, March 1991

Bomberg (at Jacobson Gallery London), Burlington Magazine, March 1991

Up and Down the Euston Road (Victor Pasmore at the Serpentine Gallery), Times Literary Supplement, May 3  1991

Jack Yeats (at Whitechapel Art Gallery), Burlington Magazine, May 1991

Camille Claudel (at Musée Rodin), Burlington Magazine, June 1991

Enslaved to the Figure (Arturo Martini at the Accadamia Italiana, London), Times Literary Supplement June 21 1991

The Flip-Side of Minimalism (Francesco Clemente), Times Literary Supplement, October 4  1991  

Richard Diebenkorn (at the Whitechapel Art Gallery), Burlington Magazine, December 1991

Vuillard (South Bank Centre touring exhibition), Burlington Magazine, January 1992

Derwent Lees, London Magazine, February/March 1992

Giacometti (at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris), Burlington Magazine, March 1992

The Rebellious Debutant's Cause (Leonora Carrington at the Serpentine Gallery), London Magazine, April/May 1992

Rouault (at the Centre Georges Pompidou), Burlington Magazine, June 1992

Rembrandt Bugatti, London Magazine, June/July 1992

The Non-Objective World (Pre-World War Two abstraction at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool), Burlington Magazine, November 1992

Studying Art's Form (painting and sculpture versus conceptualism), London Magazine, December/January 1992-93

Sickert (at the Royal Academy), Burlington Magazine, March 1993

Ivon Hitchens (centenary exhibitions), Burlington Magazine, May 1993

Flowers and Desert Places (Georgia O'Keeffe, Hayward Gallery retrospective and recent publications), Times Literary Supplement, May 14  1993

Rembrandt Bugatti (Sladmore Gallery, London), Burlington Magazine, July 1993

Copier Créer (transcriptions from old masters, at the Musée du Louvre), Burlington Magazine, August 1993

Paris Post War: art and existentialism 1945-55 (Tate Gallery, London), Burlington Magazine, September 1993

Preludes to Completeness (Ben Nicholson at the Tate Gallery), Times Literary Supplement, November 12, 1993

Mystery and Materiality (Medardo Rosso, South Bank touring exhibition), Times Literary Supplement, May 13  1994

Identity Parade (R.B.Kitaj), Tate Magazine, Summer 1994

Bonnard (South Bank Centre touring Exhibition), Burlington Magazine, September 1994

The Artist's Eye: a user's guide to Poussin by painter Merlin James

(Poussin at the Grand Palais), Modern Painters Winter 1994-95

Bonnard's Dark Side (letter), Modern Painters, Winter 1994-95

André Derain (at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris), Burlington Magazine, May 1995

From London (Bacon, Freud, Andrews, Kossoff, Auerbach and Kitaj; British Council exhibition), Burlington Magazine, October  1995

Learning the Lingo (letter on painting,conceptualism and deconstruction), Modern Painters, Winter 1995-6

William Nicholson (essay, and reproduction of a painting by Merlin James), William Nicholson: Painter. Landscape and Still Life, exhibition catalogue,

South East Arts touring exhibition, 1995-6

Alex Lowery, London Magazine, Winter 1995

Identity and Alterity (Jean Clair's Venice Biennale exhibition),

Burlington Magazine, December 1995

Influence and Originality (Winifred Nicholson, Frances Hodgkins, Ivon Hitchens at Nottingham), Burlington Magazine, May 1996

Going Along with the Light (William Nicholson touring exhibition review), Times Literary Supplement, May 17 1996

Abstraction in the Twentieth Century (Guggenheim Museum), Burlington Magazine, June 1996

Reckoning Katz (conversation with Alex Katz), Modern Painters, Summer 1996

Soulages (Musée d'Art Moderne de la ville de Paris), Burlington Magazine, August 1996

Re-grouping (Carol Rhodes and contemporary painting), Modern Painters, Winter 1996-7

Sidney Nolan (retrospective at Agnew's, London) Burlington Magazine, September 1997

Alex Katz: Trans-Modernism (catalogue introduction) Jablonka Galerie, Cologne, November 1997

Letter (criticism versus context analysis), Art Monthly, February 1998

Bonnard (Tate Gallery retrospective) Burlington Magazine, April 1998

Soutine (Jewish Museum retrospective) Burlington Magazine, July 1998

New York exhibitions (including Rothenberg, Winters) Burlington Magazine, September 1998

Chagall (Jewish Theatre murals at the Royal Academy) Burlington Magazine, October 1998

The Deficiencies of a Thematic Art History (review of Jonathan Miller’s Shadows  National Gallery, London) Times Literary Supplement, 23rd October 1998

David Smith, photographs and sculptures (Matthew Marks Gallery, New York), Burlington Magazine, January 1999.

The Pursuit of Painting (curated by Stephen McKenna, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin), Burlington Magazine, January 1999

Bob Thompson (Whitney Museum retrospective) Burlington Magazine, January 1999.

New York exhibitions (including Thomas Scheibitz and Luc Tuymans) Burlington Magazine, February 1999

Recent painting shows in Austria (including Robert Zandvliet), and their relation to expressionism Burlington Magazine, March 1999

Museum as Muse (at MoMA New York; exhibition review), Burlington Magazine, June 1999

The Colloquy of Shades (Morandi at the Estorick Collection, London) TLS, June 18th 1999

Drawings exhibitions in New York (Pevsner, Kelly and Drawn From Artists’ Collections at the Drawing Center), Burlington Magazine, August 1999

The Shaman’s Self-Invention (Joseph Beuys drawings) Times Literary Supplement, August 27th 1999.

New York exhibitions (including Bacon, Alfred Jensen) Burlington Magazine, December 1999

Gwen John, Balthus (New York exhibitions) Burlington Magazine, January 2000

Recent Abstraction in New York (including Tom Nozkowski, Santi Moix) Burlington Magazine, April 2000

Daumier (exhibitions at Paris and Washington) Art in America, April 2000

New York, Modernism Surveys (at MoMA, the Met and the Jewish Museum), Burlington Magazine, May 2000

New York, Picabia (at Michael Werner), Burlington Magazine, July 2000

Paris, Manet Still Life (at Musée d’Orsay), Burlington Magazine, January 2001

Morandi (at the Tate Gallery), Burlington Magazine, September 2001

Alfred Jensen (at DIA Center, New York), Burlington Magazine, January 2002

André Derain  (at IVAM Valencia), Burlington Magazine, May 2003

Thomas Jones (National Gallery of Wales), Times Literary Supplement, 13th June 2003

Nicolas de Stäel (Pompidou Centre, Paris), Burlington Magazine,  July 2003

Believing Thomas (Thomas Jones at the National Gallery, London), Modern Painters, Winter 2003/4.

Raoul De Keyser (at the Whitechapel Gallery, London), Burlington Magazine, July 2004

Edward Hopper (Tate Gallery), Burlington Magazine, September 2004

‘Picture Research’ (Alinari phorographs and contemporary painting) Turps Banana magazine, issue 1, London 2005

Jean Hélion (Pompidou Centre, Paris), Burlington Magazine, April 2005

Degas, Sickert, Toulouse-Lautrec (Tate), Burlington Magazine, January 2006

Degas, Sickert, Toulouse-Lautrec (Tate), Burlington Magazine, January 2006

Modigliani (Royal Academy, London), Burlington Magazine, October 2006

James Pryde (Fleming Collection, London), Burlington Magazine, December 2006

 

Book reviews by Merlin James:

Mind, Body and Painting (Richard Wollheim's Painting as an Art), London Magazine, March 1988

Alex Katz by Anne Beattie, Burlington Magazine, April 1988

Tides in the Affairs of Modernism (Visions and Blueprints: avant-garde culture and radical politics in early twentieth-century Europe by

Edward Timms and Peter Collier, and Modern Painters Magazine, issue one), London Magazine, October/November 1988

A Guide to Research (Balzac's Chef d'Oeuvre Inconnu translated and introduced by Anthony Rudolf), London Magazine, April/May 1989

Bad Art by Quentin Bell, London Magazine, June/July 1989

David Jones by Nicolete Gray, Burlington Magazine, November 1989

Cherishing Illusions (The School of London by Alistaire Hicks, and the paintings of Chris Fisher), London Magazine, October/November 1989

Conditions and Conditioning (The Conditions of Success by Alan Bowness, and The Velvet Prison by Miklos Haraszti), London Magazine, June/July 1990

Inner and Outer Landscapes (Unquiet Landscape by Christopher Neve, and The Landscape Vision of Paul Nash by Roger Cardinal), Times Literary Supplement, October 12-18 1990

Ivon Hitchens by Peter Khoroche, Burlington Magazine, June 1991

Ideas of Classicism (On Classic Ground ed. by Elizabeth Collings, and Derain by Jane Lee), London Magazine,  June/July 1991

Exerpts from Paintings (100 Details from pictures in the National Gallery, by Kenneth Clark), Times Literary Supplement, June 1991

How to Look at Modern Art by Philip Yenawine, Times Literary Supplement, December 6  1991

Artistic Urges (Roth by Glynn Hughes), Times Literary Supplement, August 19  1992

Epstein by Steven Gardiner, London Magazine, September/October 1992

Those Magnificent Machines (William Heath Robinson by James Hamilton), Times Literary Supplement, November 27  1992

The man who knew the entire world (Marsden Hartley by Townsend Ludington), Times Literary Supplement, June 1993

Jack B. Yeats: a Catalogue Raisonné  by Hilary Pyle (and other Yeats publications), Burlington Magazine, April 1994      

André Derain: Catalogue Raisonné de l'Oeuvre Peint by Michel Kellerman, Burlington Magazine, June 1994

A Hard Won Perspicacity (Looking at Giacometti by David Sylvester), Art Newspaper, October 1994

Chaim Soutine Catalogue Raisonné by Maurice Tuchman et.al., Burlington Magazine, October 1994

Maillol by Bernard Lorquin, Burlington Magazine, August, 1995

Archepelagos of Serendipity (Patrick Heron by Mel Gooding), Times Literary Supplement, September 2  1995

Should Cataloguers Criticise? (The Thyssen-Bornimisza Collection: The European Avant-Gardes by Christopher Green), The Art Newspaper, April 1996 About Modern Art by David Sylvester, The Observer, 28th July 1996

Modernity and Nostalgia: art and politics in France between the wars by Romy Golan Burlington Magazine, December 1996

On Abstract Art by Briony Fer Burlington Magazine, Fenruary 1998

Balthus by Claude Roy Times Literary Supplement, 3rd. March 1998.

André Derain: Catalogue Raisonné de l'Oeuvre Peint Vol.II by Michel Kellerman, Burlington Magazine, May 1998

Avant Gardes and Partisans Reviewed by Fred Orton and Griselda Pollock Burlington Magazine, May 1998

Ideosyncratic Identities by Donald Kuspit, Burlington Magazine, June 1998

Air Guitar by Dave Hickey Burlington Magazine, October 1998

Assembling the Absurd: The Sculpture of George Fullard by Gillain Whiteley, Burlington Magazine, December 1998

Bonnard by Tim Hyman, Burlington Magazine, January 1999

George Fullard by Gillian Whiteley, Burlingotn Magazine, January 1999

Puvis de Chavannes by Brian Petrie (book review), Burlington Magazine, April 1999

Picabia publications Burlington Magazine, September 1999.

‘Choreographed Artifice’ (review of Balthus by Nicholas Fox-Webber) New Criterion.December 1999

‘Recognising the Real Thing’ (review of Jed Perl’s eyewitness) New Criterion, June 2000

Signifying Art by Marjorie Welish, Burlington Magazine, May

André Derain: Catalogue Raisonné de l'Oeuvre Peint Vol.III by Michel Kellerman (book review), Burlington Magazine, May 2001

Bhupen Khakhar and Canrivalesque by Timothy Hyman (book review) Burlington Magazine, July 2001

Sidney Nolan by T. G Rosenthal (book review) Burlington Magazine, February 2003

Roger Hilton by Adrian Lewis (book review) Burlington Magazine, January  2003

Fairfield Porter: A Catalogue Raisonné by Joan Ludman (book review) Burlington Magazine, May  2004

Derain publications, Burlington Magazine, April  2005

Alex Katz, First Sight: Working Drawings by Jean Cristophe Ammann (book review) Burlington Magazine, March 2006

Vuillard Catalogue Raisonné by Guy Cogeval et. al. (shorter notice article/book review) Burlington Magazine, March 2006