The arty East End grows up

Since this is like restaurants being taken over by waiters rather than chefs, you might think the change unwise. Certainly, there have been recent signs of a backlash against professional curating, which may be why the 100-year-old Whitechapel - arguably ground zero of the tendency - denies a 'single curatorial idea' behind its own centenary show.

Instead, artists Anish Kapoor and Rosemarie Trockel have been let loose to choose 80 artworks from the gallery's previous exhibitions, with the proviso their choice should be 'diverse and unpredictable'. Wheee.

The result is a show that is chock-full of goodies - a Philip Guston self-portrait, a Stubbs horse study, Mondrian's Red Tree (1908), a Rembrandt angel - and has no curatorial coherence whatsoever.

It's like buying a box of chocolates and finding the little piece of paper that tells you which are cherry creams and which are nuts has been left out. The Whitechapel Centenary show is delicious but it is also oddly unsatisfying. Until May 1, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Whitechapel High Street E1, Tue, Thu and Fri 11am to 5pm, Wed 11am to 8pm, Sat and Sun 11am to 6pm, free.
Tel: 020 7522 7888
www.whitechapel.org
Tube: Aldgate East