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From: art reviews Category: Art Date: 08 March 2007 Time: 04:11 AM Review: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/timgardner/default.htm I met Gardner once, and he didn't seem ironic in his shorts and baseball cap/traditional American native garb in Venice. His photorealistic watercolours of his friends, and now kitschy pastels, look like photos. So no surprise there either. He had a residency at The National, and has made some KD Friedrich style pictures of lakes in the moonlight to indicate that. "This exhibition is part of an expanded National Gallery commitment to contemporary art: to exhibit younger artists early in their careers, as well as the work of more established figures." He seems a safe choice not to offend the customers. Perhaps Gardners paintings are good. Perhaps they're just boring copies of boring photos. Perhaps the boringness of the photos is interesting. Like everything. I wonder whether a really great painter could make great paintings in this style. Is photorealism all used up, was it ever that great, or is just used by people with nothing much to say, just a pleasure in skill.