In our twelve issues last year, we published one hundred and fifty reviews of exhibitions, mostly taking place in Europe and North America but also in Australia, Mexico and South America. The range of subjects was equally wide – from ‘late period’ Pharaonic sculpture to contemporary art in commercial galleries in London and New York; from the spoils of the captured vessel the Westmorland to the couture of Schiaparelli; and monographic shows and retrospectives from Leonardo and Raphael to Beckmann and de Kooning. Many of these exhibitions left our reviewers satisfied, even if there were reservations about omissions, display and the standard of accompanying catalogues.

THE RESPECTIVE INSTALLATIONS of Edward Hopper, seen by this reviewer at both the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid (closed 16th September), and the Grand Palais, Paris (to 28th January), were a study in such contrasts that they almost seemed to treat different artists. In Madrid, the selection numbered approximately seventy works, which were expansively disposed across seven major spaces on the ground floor of the Palacio de Villahermosa itself, rather than in the more cramped modern wing customarily chosen for temporary shows. By comparison, Paris is hosting a blockbuster: 128 works by Hopper arrayed on two floors over a big corner section of the Grand Palais complex.