Rachel Jones Courtauld Commission Review - Two paintings enliven decidedly plain Entrance Hall

Tien Albert, Editor-in-Chief

Despite Courtauld clichés, Jones successfully balances reflection and forward thinking in new commission.

 Rachel Jones (b.1991) STRUCK (2025), oil sticks and oil pastel on linen, courtesy of the artist. c. Fergus 

Carmichael, The Courtauld

In typical Courtauld fashion, Rachel Jones’s new commissions look back at Van Gogh. The two paintings, which are placed in the John Browne Entrance Hall and Ticketing Hall, contain colourful gestural brushstrokes, blank canvas, and yes, engage with Van Gogh’s landscape paintings. Did you know that Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889) is housed in the LVMH Great Room upstairs(?), the press release reminds us.

This self-reflective approach is common for a gallery that can feel stuck in its impressionist past. This year’s Monet and London exhibition, which followed 2022’s Van Gogh. Self Portraits, have felt at times like beating a dead horse, and 2026’s Seurat and The Sea, although eagerly anticipated, will no doubt fall into similar themes and historicisms.

This week also saw the opening of the student-organised East Wing Biennial (no longer held in Somerset House’s East Wing but now in the institute’s new Vernon Square campus). This edition’s title, RE:VISION, was as clear a sign as any of the Courtauld’s self-reflective tendency.

Yet, just as RE:VISION managed to present an expanded history of art not limited to a single end destination (watch out for our review coming out tomorrow) , Rachel Jones has escaped from the looming possibility of Courtauld navel-gazing and produced truly transformative work. 

The paintings, both titled STRUCK, fuse their inevitable Van Gogh references with those to a 1947 Tom & Jerry cartoon. For senior Courtauld Curator of Contemporary Art Elena Crippa, ‘It’s not a question of ‘or’’. Whilst Crippa says she was not searching for artists reflecting on the Courtauld, Jones’ eclectic references were perfect to brighten up the space.

And brighten up the space it has. Crippa calls it an ‘explosion’ of colour, with much accuracy. The John Browne entrance hall is painted completely in white with little ornament, bar muted fluted pilasters on both sides of the room, an egg-and-dart motif running across the top of the wall with uniform imperceptible festoons, which only upon close inspections can a lion’s head be discovered separating each swag. STRUCK does far more to represent the colour and vivacity that lives in the Courtauld’s permanent collection, from the intricate Courtauld bag to the often forgotten ivory carvings on the first floor.

 Rachel Jones (b.1991) STRUCK (2025), oil sticks and oil pastel on linen, courtesy of the artist. c. Fergus Carmichael, The Courtauld

The bare patches of canvas provide a great counterpoint to the colour in the rest of the site-specific installations, and this negative space flows harmoniously to the white walls of the gallery. Jones’s brushstrokes in the Entrance Hall draw the eye to the centre of her composition. In doing so, their liveliness expands to fill the rest of the space.

What a shift from the panel that previously occupied the space. ‘There was an introductory text, which no one seemed to read’, says Crippa. For Rachel Jones’ artwork, it seems admissible to forgive the Courtauld’s self-reflexivity. It has actually removed a wordy Courtauld spiel. Instead, it has been replaced with vivacity that is needed in a gallery that so often rejects the notion of moving forwards.