Arts

Not just painting

The most appropriate characterisation of my day came from an eight-year-old stranger on the escalator behind me. "Art's not just painting is it, Mummy?"

I've been in London. Specifically to visit two galleries, and as a consequence I walked the south bank from Tower Bridge to the new Golden Jubilee Bridges.

There were three pieces I'd wanted to see at Tate Modern: Olafur Eliasson's The Weather Project (absolutely stunning), Bill Viola's Five Angels for the Millennium (beautiful, but I couldn't really get into it) and Jackson Pollock's Summertime: Number 9A (not as vivid as I'd expected, but still rather wonderful).

Then the main reason for my trip: the Saved! exhibition at the Hayward. And here that rhetorical question came back; on display were a vast range of items: paintings, drawings, photographs, sculpture, coins, video and letters. It's a fantastic exhibition. Personal highlight for me was seeing Canova's The Three Graces standing slim and elegant next to Epstein's very solid statue of Jacob wrestling his Angel.

The exhibition runs until 18 January. I highly recommend it.