Reviews

‘Arts of Distraction’ [review of Claire Bishop, Disordered Attention: How We Look at Art and Performance Today, Verso, London 2024], New Left Review, no. 154, July-August 2025, pp. 161-8.

Bishop review illus Download

‘The Cartoon Body of Boris Johnson’, e-flux, 13 January 2023: https://www.e-flux.com/criticism/512957/the-cartoon-body-of-boris-johnson

‘Fake Royal Magic on Show in Palace Photographs’ [review of Life Through a Royal Lens, Kensington Palace], opendemocracy, 28 August 2022: https://johnmenadue.com/julian-stallabrass-fake-royal-magic-on-show-in-palace-photographs/

‘Cristiano Volk: Laissez Faire’ [book review], Art Monthly, no. 457, June 2022, pp. 39-40.

‘Documents from the Edge of Conflict’ [exhibition review, James Hockey Gallery, Farnham], Art Monthly, no. 453, February 2022, pp. 26-7.

‘Sublime Calculation’ [review of LUX: New Wave of Contemporary Art, 180 Strand, London, October – December 2021], New Left Review, no. 132, November-December 2021, pp. 83-8.

‘A Cute Critique? The Work of Shen Jingdong’, in Asia House, Shen JingDong: The Beautiful Fairy Tales, London 2020, pp. 33-9.

‘Irony Error’ [Dougie Wallace’s East Ended], New Left Review, no. 123, May/ June 2020, pp. 143-9. This is the NLR version for subscribers only. And this a freely accessible, illustrated version.

‘Jeff-Wall’ [White Cube, London exhibition], Source, no. 99, 2019, pp. 64-5.

‘British Art and Moving Image’ [review of Artists’ Moving Image in Britain Since 1989, edited by Erika Balsom, Lucy Reynolds and Sarah Perks], Burlington Contemporary, 10 March 2020: http://www.contemporary.burlington.org.uk/reviews/reviews/british-art-and-moving-image?fbclid=IwAR0KibgoUYJQSUj-6oU41JjazYjYHk_-aPYVKslJW10L2bB8Sh0fATUUEg8

‘Lawler’s Victory’, in Museum of Modern Art, Louise Lawler: Receptions, New York 2017, pp. 92-7.

‘Spies and Saboteurs: Prevent Spying in the Classroom’, Versopolis: European Review of Poetry, Books and Culture, July 2016: http://www.versopolis.com/panorama/143/spies-and-saboteurs

‘Electronic-Superhighway-illus’ (Whitechapel Gallery), The Burlington Magazine, vol. clviii, April 2016, pp. 305-6.

‘Wu Wenguang’, Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation, Other Future: 56th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale: China Pavilion , Beijing 2015, pp. 172-4.

‘At Tate Modern’ [review of Time, Conflict, Phototgraphy], London Review of Books, vol. 37, no. 4, 19 February 2015, p. 12.

‘The Child Tempered by War: Julian Stallabrass on the work of photographer Ayman al-Amiri’, RUYA Foundation for Contemporary Culture in Iraq

‘The Missile and the Paperclip’, in Lisa Barnard, Hyenas of the Battlefield, Machines in the Garden, Gost Books, London 2014, pp. 6-15. An extract can be found here: Barnard-BJP.

‘War-Photography: Images of Armed Conflict and its Aftermath’ [exhibition review of Anne Wilkes Tucker and Will Michels, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2012], Photography & Culture, vol. 7, no. 2, July 2014, pp. 223-28.

‘How to Own It’ (review of Ethan Wagner/ Thea Westreich Wagner, Collecting Art for Love, Money and More, Phaidon, London 2013), Texte zur Kunst, March 2014, pp. 189-92.

‘Allan Sekula 1951-2013’, obituary, Art Monthly, no. 369, September 2013, p. 18.

‘Rhetoric of the Image’ [review of Paul O’Neill, The Culture of Curating and the Curating of Culture(s), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012/ Terry Smith, Thinking Contemporary Curating, New York: Independent Curators International, 2012], Artforum, March 2013, pp. 71-2.

‘Hatred of Photography’ [review of Out of Focus, Saatchi Gallery], Bazaar Art (Beijing), September 2012, pp. 72-3. Chinese version: Bazaar-saatchi

‘Distinction and Scepticism: Kiefer at White Cube’, Bazaar Art (Beijing), March 2012.

‘Battle of the Brands’ [Kusama at Tate Modern, Bazaar Art (Beijing), April 2012.

‘The Hockney Industry’, New Left Review, no. 73, January/ February 2012.

‘Eugenie Dolberg’s Open Shutters Iraq’, Aperture, no. 203, Summer 2011, pp. 74-6.

‘Brand Identity’, [review of Isabelle Graw, High Price: Art Between the Market and Celebrity Culture, Sternberg Press, Berlin 2009], Artforum, Summer 2010, pp. 79-80.

Review of Guy Tillim: Leopold and Mobutu (Photographers’ Gallery, London), Photoworks, Autumn/ Winter 2005-06, pp. 32-5.

‘Different Ways of Seeing’ [review of John Berger, ‘Here is Where We Meet’, National Theatre], Socialist Review, May 2005.

‘Partying’ [review of Jonathan Harris, Art, Money, Parties: New Institutions in the Political Economy of the Arts, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool 2004], Art Monthly, no. 286, May 2005, pp. 1-4.

‘Off Their Trolleys?’, New Statesman, 15 November 2004, pp. 38-9.

‘Literally No Place by Liam Gillick’, Bookworks website, June 2003: http://www.bookworks.org.uk/sharptalk/04/index.htm

‘Pretty Pictures in a Show Without Focus’ [Wolfgang Tillmans at Tate Britain], Evening Standard, 9 June 2003.

‘Take a Reality Check’ [Witness: Contemporary Artists Document Our Time, Barbican], Evening Standard, 4 March 2003, p. 41.

‘Thomson and Craighead’, January 2003: http://thomson-craighead.net/docs/julian.html

‘Symbols of Success’ [Chris Evans’ UK Corporate Sculpture Consultancy], New Statesman, 18 December 2000, pp. 45-6.‘An Artist After Break Down’ [Michael Landy, Nourishment, Interim Art], Evening Standard, 17 December 2002.

‘Making a Show of Herself’ [Tracey Emin at Modern Art Oxford], Evening Standard, 13 November 2002, p. 47.

‘The Big Issue…’ [Anish Kapoor’s Marsyas, Tate Modern], Evening Standard, 10 October 2002, p. 53.

Interview on art and the Internet, http://www.art-site.org/ (August 2002)

‘David Shrigley’, Eye, vol. 11, no. 44, Summer 2002, pp. 78-9.

‘Thinking of England’ [review of Martin Parr at the Barbican Art Gallery], New Statesman, 18 February 2002, pp. 38-9.

‘Bjorn Again’ [reviews of ‘Vision and Reality’ and ‘Organising Freedom’, Moderna Museet, Stockholm], New Statesman, 20 November 2000, p. 43.

‘Collector’s Pieces’ [Jim Shaw’s Thrift Store Paintings, ICA], New Statesman, 16 October 2000, pp. 42-3.

‘Token Images: A User’s Guide’ [review of Marc Quinn, Incarnate, Booth-Clibborn Editions, London 1998, and Jonathan Barnbrook and Jason Beard (designers), Young British Art: The Saatchi Decade, Booth-Clibborn Editions, London 1999], Third Text, no. 52, Autumn 2000, pp. 91-4.

‘Cashing In’ [Protest and Survive, Whitechapel Gallery], New Statesman, 2 October 2000, pp. 44-5.

‘Clever Clogs’ [Intelligence, Tate Britain], New Statesman, 18 September 2000, pp. 47-8.

‘Looking at the New’ [The British Art Show 5], RA Magazine, no. 68, Autumn 2000, p. 27.

Review of James Hall, The World as Sculpture: The Changing Status of Sculpture from the Renaissance to the Present Day, Tate, no. 19, Winter 1999, pp. 72-3.

‘High Art Lite at the Royal Academy’ [review of Sensation], Third Text, no. 42, Spring 1998, pp. 79-84.

Review of Heinz K. Henisch and Bridget A. Henisch, The Painted Photograph, 1839-1914, The Burlington Magazine, vol. cxl, no. 1139, February 1998, pp. 134-5.

Review of Tomoko Takahashi, Beaconsfield, London, AN Visual Arts, February 1998, p. 17.

Review of Jean-Pierre Montier, Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Artless Art, The Burlington Magazine, vol. cxxxix, no. 1135, October 1997, pp. 705-6.

Reviews of Margarita Tupitsyn, The Soviet Photograph; Peter Hamilton, Robert Doisneau: A Photographer’s Life; Weston Naef, In Focus: Alfred Stieglitz; John Wood, Scenic Daguerrotype: Romanticism and Early Photography, The Burlington Magazine, vol. cxxxix, no. 1134, September 1997, pp. 637, 640-1.

Review of Calvin Tomkins, Duchamp: A Biography, Literary Review, March 1997, pp. 29-30.

Review of Susan Danly and Cheryl Liebold, eds., Eakins and the Photograph, The Burlington Magazine, vol. cxxxix, no. 1127, February 1997, p. 129.

Review of John Pulz, Photography and the Body, The Burlington Magazine, vol. cxxxix, no. 1126, January 1997, p. 53.

‘Cold Eye’ [review of Pierre Bourdieu, Photography: A Middle Brow Art], New Left Review, no. 220, November-December 1996, pp. 147-52. Reprinted in Peter Hamilton, ed., Visual Research Methods, Sage Publications, London 2006.

‘Paul Graham’ [review of book by Andrew Wilson, Gillian Wearing and Carol Squiers], Art Monthly, no. 201, November 1996, pp. 50-1.

‘Publications Received: review of The J. Paul Getty Museum: Handbook of the Photographs Collection’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. cxxxviii, no. 1121, August 1996, p. 552.

‘Animal Voices’ [review of Scott Bradfield, Animal Planet, London 1996], The Crying Wolf, no. 1, Summer 1996, p. 30.

‘Faithful Servant’ [review of Stuart Morgan, What the Butler Saw, London 1996], Art Monthly, no. 197, June 1996, p. 48.

‘London, Spellbound’ [Hayward Gallery], The Burlington Magazine, vol. cxxxviii, no. 1118, May 1996, pp. 342-3.

‘A History of Women Photographers. By Naomi Rosenblum’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. cxxxviii, no. 1117, April 1996, pp. 259-60.

‘Art and Power’ [Hayward Gallery], Art Monthly, no. 192, December 1995-January 1996, pp. 3-5.

‘The Iron Cage of Boredom’ [Andreas Gursky at the Tate Gallery, Liverpool], Art Monthly, no. 189, September 1995, pp. 16-20. This article was selected for inclusion in the Social Issues Resources Series Renaissance electronic database, 1996.

‘Olivier Richon, Zone Gallery, Newcastle/ Matthias Wähner, Portfolio Gallery, Edinburgh’, Art Monthly, no. 188, July-August 1995, pp. 29-30.

‘Authentic Fakes’ [review of photography by Cindy Bernard and John Kippin], Art Monthly, no. 187, June 1995, pp. 12-15.

‘London, Serpentine Gallery: Man Ray’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. cxxxvii, no. 1105, April 1995, pp. 261-2.

‘Discrete Images’ [Frith Street Gallery], Art Monthly, no. 181, November 1994, pp. 35-6.

Review of Beyond Belief at the Lisson Gallery and other shows involving photography, Art Monthly, no. 177, June 1994, pp. 29-30.

Review of Visions of the Modern by John Golding, The Guardian, 12th April 1994, p. 10.

‘The Flesh is Weak’ [review of Elective Affinities at the Tate Gallery, Liverpool and Bad Girls at the I.C.A.], Art Monthly, no. 172, December 1993-January 1994, pp. 27-9.

‘The Portrait in Photography, edited by Graham Clarke’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. cxxxv, no. 1081, April 1993, p. 284.

‘Power to the People’ [review of work by Judith Cowan, Andrea Fisher & Gillian Wearing], Art Monthly, no. 165, April 1993, pp. 15-17. Criticisms of this article were published in the next issue (no. 166, May 1993) by Michael Archer (pp. 14-16) and Andrew Wilson (p. 31). My reply to their comments was published in no. 167, (June 1993) pp. 28-9.

‘Young British Artists II’ [review of Rose Finn-Kelcey, Sarah Lucas, Marc Quinn and Mark Wallinger at the Saatchi Collection], Art Monthly, no. 164, March 1993, pp. 19-20.

‘Lea Andrews’ [Camerawork], Art Monthly, no. 163, February 1993, pp. 24-5.

‘Painting Desert Storm’ [review of the John Keane exhibition at the Imperial War Museum], New Left Review, no. 195, September-October 1992, pp. 102-9.

‘Max Ernst’ [book reviews], Art Monthly, no. 151, November 1991, pp. 27-8.

‘Without Reality, the Crudeness of Art would be Unbearable’ [review of a group exhibition including Sol Lewitt], Alba (Edinburgh), vol. I, no. 2, April-May 1991, p. 24.

‘Publications Received: The Photography of Gustave Le Gray by Eugenia Parry Janis’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. cxxxiii, no. 1057, April 1991, pp. 273-4.

‘John Stezaker’ [Salama-Caro Gallery], Art Monthly, no. 144, March 1991, p. 18.

‘Matt Collishaw/ Re-writing History’, Art Monthly, no. 143, February 1991, pp. 17-18.

‘The Artful Ad’ [Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield), Art Monthly, no. 142, December 1990-January 1991, pp. 14-15.

‘London, Hayward Gallery, Magnum Photographers’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. cxxxii, no. 1046, May 1990, pp. 371-2.

Review of Martin Parr, The Cost of Living (The Photographers’ Gallery, London), Art Monthly, no. 135, April 1990, p. 19.

Review of Kenneth E. Silver, Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-garde and the First World War, 1914-1925 (Thames and Hudson, London 1989), Art Monthly, no. 134, March 1990, pp. 27-8.

With Nancy Jachec: ‘London, Barbican Art Gallery: Through the Looking Glass: Photographic Art in Britain, 1945-1989’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. cxxxi, no. 1039, October 1989, pp. 723-4.

‘Photography in the Weimar Republic’ [exhibition at the Goethe Institute], Art Monthly, no. 128, July-August 1989, pp. 15-16.

With David Lomas: ‘London, Barbican Art Gallery: 100 Years of Russian Art’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. cxxxii, no. 1036, July 1989, pp. 498-9.

With Nancy Jachec: ‘London. Photography Exhibitions’ [Brian Griffin, National Portrait Gallery and Photography Now, Victoria and Albert Museum], The Burlington Magazine, vol. cxxxi, no. 1035, June 1989, pp. 440-1.

‘Moscow and Amsterdam. Kasimir Malevich’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. cxxxi, no. 1032, March 1989, pp. 240-1.

‘Publications Received: Twentieth Century Architecture and Design’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. cxxx, no. 1025, August 1988, pp. 641-2.