art blog since 2009
Between the condoms by the notorious bed to the film about abortion, childlessness has emerged as a major theme in the work of Tracey Emin. As if she has traded creative fecundity for motherhood, her prolific art has more in common with masturbation rather than procreation. She sketches the former activity at length. In a …
October 24, 2012
Apologies for the fortnight off, but my weekly link selection is I hope back on track: Romance of the ruin doesn’t sound half bad, but Steven Thomson is concerned that, in the wake of the Olympics, two of the most signifcant East London art projects were too nostalgic. A new service brings you “Everything you …
September 24, 2012
This piece floats on a perilous sea of style mags; they buoy up a marble-effect plinth. Matthew Stone is not cool, he is stone cold. But these publications have more gravity than usual. Their covers are stuck to blocks of wood, giving each more permanence than a sheaf of glossy pages. A muted printing technique …
September 18, 2012
Criticismism has just got back from warmer climes. The excuse to visit Toledo was a family wedding. So I headed to Spain for the party and stayed for the El Greco. Doménikos Theotokópoulos, the painter known to art history as The Greek, plays a large role in the identity of this historic city. Here is …
September 13, 2012
Some athletically aggregated art links for the week. (That’s the only Olympics reference here): Like most nurses, C-Monster’s Art Nurse could surprise you with her technical knowledge. Here she is advising on a tricky restoration project This sculptural installation looks good on screen. Is that a strength of the photographer or a strength of Robert …
August 6, 2012
Another week on the news-and-views merry-go-round: Frieze claims the art world has swallowed up the art itself and Dieter Roelstraete bemoans the amount of reference-heavy work that has come about as a result. In the Guardian #1: Rachel Cooke visits Jenny Saville to conduct a wide ranging interview about the painter’s life and work. In …
June 11, 2012
This week’s Found Objects are a taxidermy and economics special: This NYT piece claims the art market is a totally separate economy to the one the rest of us work in, thanks to Ultra High Net Worth Individuals. But UHNWIs maybe about to lose out, for a while at least, as the art bubble bursts. …
June 5, 2012
It’s been a rum week in the art world. So here’s some rum, distilled: A painted penis belonging to a portrait of the South African President is making plenty of headlines. In the latest twist Jacob Zuma’s lawyer weeps in court. Back in London meanwhile it is YBA artist Damien Hirst who some claim has …
May 29, 2012
Quite a newsy Found Objects this week, so hold page 23: German artists threaten to guillotine a sheep if the public don’t vote to save it. Let’s hope it has the X Factor; story in The Telegraph. Larissa Sansour has reimagined Palestine as a tower block. But the Swiss Musée d’Elysée got cold feet, or …
April 30, 2012
Another frenzy of links from the last seven days: Is anyone using Artstack yet, or is everyone using it already? *panics* Whatever the case here’s an enticing primer from the Guardian. As a victim of procrastination, I love this curated twitter stream by media artist Cory Arcangel: wrknonmynovel or “working on my novel”. Daily Serving …
April 23, 2012