Jackson Pollock’s dark years, Mat Collishaw’s monstrous animations, Bridget Riley’s debt to Seurat and Goya’s terrifying imaginings: all were wonderful but topping the list is a brilliant portal on the prehistoric imagination – Celts • More on the best culture of 2015 I loved this exhibition. It’s the first show that has made perfect use of the British Museum’s huge new exhibition space (although Defining Beauty, the blockbuster about Greek art, was also excellent). The virtue of this slightly cavernous space is now apparent: you can breathe and move about. Critics tend to get early access to exhibitions – when I saw this the first time the only other visitor was Julian Cope – but I’ve gone back with my family, and it’s been captivating every time. The misty shadows, glints of gold and swirling patterns in green or brown bronze open up another world; gods and myths haunt hoards and manuscripts. This is a portal on the prehistoric imagination. It’s Game of Thrones without the slaughter, The Hobbit without the overlong film version. If you leave untouched by mystic fire, you have no imagination. Or are a Saxon. Read the full review Continue reading...