Art Review: John Martin's Greatness and High Kitsch

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Souren Melikian

"Belshazzar's Feast" (1820) by John Martin

UNITED KINGDOM - In short, [John] Martin alternately epitomized the finest of advanced English art in the second quarter of the 19th century and the worst of what was to come immediately after. In that, the proletarian artist from the Northern underclass, intensely disliked by the establishment, which he scorned in equal measure, was truly unique. The ease with which Martin swung from one mode to another almost up to his death in 1854 is baffling. He kept producing, apparently with equal relish, daintily poetic landscapes like “View on the River Wye,” dated 1844, and melodramatic affairs like “The Last Judgement,” circa 1849–53, as awkwardly executed as it is cheap in sentiment. "John Martin: Apocalypse." Tate Britain. Through Jan. 15.  [link]