Walker's parting gifts
For 43 years, Alexander Walker was the Evening Standard's film critic, but until the unveiling of his bequest to the prints and drawings department at the British Museum, it was little known that he was also a serious art collector.
Walker, who died last July, collected works on paper rather than paintings, chiefly because they were more affordable. Early modernist works by French artists from Matisse to Dubuffet kick off the display of 150 or so works, though the bulk of the collection focuses on American and British artists post-1960s, and here there are some outstanding pieces.
Post-war American modernists include Jasper Johns, Philip Guston, Jim Dine and Robert Ryman. Often they show the artist at a point of transition, such as Guston's early series of figurative works: mummyheaded cartoon men that were later to become the pointy-headed Ku Klux Klansmen.
From British artists, there are a handful of impressive portraits by Lucien Freud, while younger Brits include Antony Gormley, Rachel Whiteread and Anish Kapoor. A series of related prints by Kapoor are of such shimmering delicacy and gorgeousness that they outshine anything he's done in three dimensions.
As Walker was a longterm resident of Maida Vale, his local gallery, the Ben Uri, is also displaying a part of the collection, along with photos and personal items of the critic.
Until Jan 9, British Museum, Great Russell Street WC1, daily 10am to 5.30pm, free. Tel: 020 7323 8000. Tube: Holborn/Tottenham Court Road Until Jul 4.
Ben Uri Gallery, 108a Boundary Road NW8, Mon to Fri 10am to 5.30pm, Sun midday to 4pm, free. Tel: 020 7604 3991. Tube: Maida Vale/St John's Wood
Alexander Walker: A Tribute
