Blek Le Rat in Action

Showing - Nick Waplington 'Wax and Wane' @ Museum 52 - London

The Hackney Artists Birthday Exhibition - London

Private View - Hans Holbein ‘Holbein in England’ @ Tate Britain – London

Those old masters – the Dutch ones – I was never that much of a fan. They were always too fussy, too precise, too, too much of everything that’s over the top and outrageous. Nope. The Dutch masters never really did it for me – until last night, that is. Holbein, a name that generally sends me straight to sleep, turned out something of a stunner at Tate Britain’s 'Holbein in England'. Hands down, I was sucked in with the rest of them, pulled around roundabout style, surrounded by all those sketches, prints and oils hanging on the walls of Tate Britain.

Now, the gallery, admittedly, isn’t quite a saucy as its fellow Tates. However, it plays a cool host to the exhibition with a smooth run through Holbein’s various guises. As an artist, his catalogue is astounding. It’s like a waltz through history – the kind of lesson that makes you feel small and antlike, and all too aware that there world has spun round for years before your arrival. Indeed, back in the 1500s, it was all happening in the UK. It was a bit of a gory scene, extra opulent with a lot of nastiness going on underneath that gold-gilt surface. Course, Holbein caught the extravagant, elegant side of things. As the court painter, he covered the main players; Anne Boylen, Jane Seymour, Erasmus, and the big man himself, Henry VIII.

There’s no doubt that Holbein was a prolific artist. His woodcuts are ridiculously intricate, while his designs for fireplaces and clock-salts (whatever they are…), broaches and seals, are something else – so over the top and ornate – they’re outrageous – a touch Liberace, with lot more style. They are, like the show, full of elaborate detail and coveted information. Bottom line, and big surprise, this is the kind of stuff that exhausts and excites me. It’s quietly extreme, seemingly sophisticated, leaving you feeling like you’ve been hit by some sort of culture truck. And that’s great – because that’s exactly the way it should be with art.

Holbein in England at Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1, 28 September 2006 – 7 January 2007