art blog since 2009
First up, you can win, Win, WIN this artwork and then stick it on your phone, tablet, monitor screen or TV. Thanks to s[edition], it’s the very first criticismism competition. So what to say about After Closer? It pulls together more than two decades of iconic design for an inseparable pair of bands from Manchester: …
October 18, 2012
There’s a rug shop in Brighton called GAFF (Great Art For Floors). This might raise a few eyebrows and concerns for art’s proper place in the world. But then there’s this piece Mona Hatoum. Perhaps great art does belong on the floor. Quality rugs, such as this one, demand a measure of true respect. They …
October 17, 2012
We begin and end with Frieze, which seems only Fair (ahem). The other stories are good too: Chloe Nelkin was on a pleasingly alliterative gallery binge last week. Take a deep breath and enjoy her Frieze Frenzy. The Independent may be pushing it to call the Wiltshire monument an art gallery. But the findings of …
October 15, 2012
Back from another short break with another flimsy excuse; please forgive these links for their occasional sporadicity: Story of the fortnight goes to the attention-starved goon who defaced a Rothko painting. Lets hope this is the first and the last we hear of Yellowism. Speaking of philistines, read all about minister Michael Gove’s architecture policy. …
October 8, 2012
Read just a little of the literature about cave art and you’ll come across a report of some or other high-minded archaeologist bursting into tears at the sight of it. But this was never going to happen at the Museo de Altamira. The caves are closed to the public. Instead visitors are invited into a …
September 29, 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
To some degree this is art for the feet. Serra’s eight sculptures invite you to walk them in sequence. In fact they demand it. How else will you get to see them? Thus it takes half an hour to simply cover the ground of this semi-permanent show in the Arcelor-Mittal Gallery here at the Guggenheim …
September 22, 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
Just a note for anyone pondering the meaning of my absence over the next fortnight. Fact is, I’m off on holiday. Apologies for lack of links and posts, but plenty due on my return. Yes, I am going to Bilbao.
September 4, 2012