THE National Gallery of Victoria has decided the direct approach is best. It is confronting our tendency to drift away for a month or two of beachside villeggiatura during the hot months with the slogan "Summer is best spent indoors".

The NGV does indeed have a wide choice of worthwhile exhibitions that can be enjoyed in airconditioned comfort on hot days, especially Radiance: The Neo-Impressionists, which will be reviewed in this column next week. And if all the hedonism of an Australian summer makes you ponder the ineluctable end of all things, you will enjoy the Four Horsemen exhibition discussed here some weeks ago.