Kienholz: The Hoerengracht

Time Out“It's horrible because the artists pose these women as sacrificial lambs...” Staring out through big dead eyes, Kienholz's dummy-women simply suffer meekly. Rather than engage us in the complex issues surrounding prostitution, Hoerengracht's implicit finger wagging is the real turn-off here...

The Times“There’s something courageous about the entire idea that bodes well...” As always with Kienholz, the details are fascinating, the mood is glum and the unseen caption appended to the frame of the experience appears to read: This Is Us. It’s all rather exciting...

The Independent“I'm surprised to find that I enjoyed The Hoerengracht...” In other circumstances, I'd have found the Kienholzes' work annoying. Being so blatant about something so blatant cancels its power. Putting glass boxes over the prostitutes' faces makes the whole open-window thing too obvious…

The Observer“A garish, noisy, cruddy, lifesize shocker of a peepshow...” There is no sense of tension and whatever outrage or grief the expressions, poses, props and decor should prompt is stifled by the fairground-cum-Hammer-Horror closed shop...

this is london“I wish only that it had been allowed to stand alone...” I am convinced of his importance, greatness even, as often neutral as political, as much compassionate as savage. I am therefore grateful to the National Gallery for exhibiting this late wistful and dejected work...

Guardian“They're abused, they're barely women at all. This is hateful...” The small display of 17th century Dutch genre paintings that accompany the Hoerengracht, by Jan Steen, Godfried Schalcken and Pieter de Hooch, are livelier, more atmospheric and morally ambiguous than this lumbering tableau...

The Telegraph“A richly textured and multi faceted work of art that you shouldn’t miss..” When you look into the blank, unseeing eyes and tear stained faces of the whores, it is not love you see for sale but suffering, boredom, and resignation. Virtually all the surfaces –of skin, clothing, and furniture -look filthy...

Art Forum“Not yet reviewed”

Art Review“Not yet reviewed”

Financial Times“Not yet reviewed”