EVER worried that decades of modern British art have passed you by? Well okay, maybe not, but I'd wager you'll still be astonished at the sheer wealth of treasures on display at the Hayward Gallery's How to Improve The World - 60 Years Of British Art exhibition.
You might also be pleasantly surprised at how many of the pieces you recognise, even if you imagine you know little or nothing about modern art.
The Arts Council Collection is one of the UK's foremost national collections of post-war British art.
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It often functions as a kind of "museum without walls", contributing some of its collection, for instance, to the British Art Show at the Lowry and Cornerhouse not long ago.
Their collection, acquired over the last sixty years now boasts over 7,500 works by close to 2000 artists and How To Improve The World presents key works by 131 of these artists.
The title of the show, while it's certainly striking, is not quite as grandiloquent as it might at first seem, being actually borrowed from one of the artists in the show, Cerith Wyn Evans, who in turn borrowed it from John Cage.
Some of the other artists featured include Francis Bacon, Patrick Caulfield, Tracey Emin, Lucian Freud, Gilbert & George, Damien Hirst, David Hockney, Henry Moore and Bridget Riley, as well as Manchester-born Chris Ofili (his Popcorn Shells from 1995) and Steve McQueen, a key contributor to next year's Manchester International Festival.
Unique
Encompassing painting, sculpture , video, sound, photography and digital media, it offers a unique perspective on a period in which British art has arguably exerted an international impact unparalleled in its history.
For what it's worth, some of my personal favourites include Gilbert & George's hilarious "Gordon's Makes Us Drunk" from 1972, Richard Hiorne's literally dazzling Nunhead from 2004 and the challenging mid-Nineties piece from Gustav Metzger which dares you to actually crawl into it.
I had the advantage of being shown around the exhibition by a curator, and you could hear the gasps of admiration and amazement from more timid onlookers as Roger Malbert boldly flung aside the dust-cover and did just that.
It's an enlightening and tremendously entertaining show but it's coming perilously close to the end of its run at the Hayward, so hurry if you don't want to wait for next year's national tour.
A perfect base for exploring the collection and indeed the whole of the South Bank, Covent Garden and central London is the luxurious and hip new hotel One Aldwych, just across Waterloo Bridge, not least as the hotel prides itself on its own collection of contemporary art.
Four hundred paintings and sculptures are displayed throughout the hotel and every guestroom has at least one piece of art. The collection has been chosen and bought by One Aldwych's managing director and creator Gordon Campbell Grey.
He emphasises that each piece of artwork was purchased for its aesthetic value, not as an investment. "Would I want this in my home?," was the deciding question, he says.
