art blog since 2009
This is a work of many layers, the earliest one being a portrait of Dorothy Quincy by American realist painter John Singleton Copley. Quincy was the wife of the first man to sign the Declaration of Independence. So her portrait is also a slice of history, nevermind art history. Shawn Huckins has reproduced this grave …
July 7, 2012
The Disney Corporation is perhaps the most obvious of targets. Obvious because its saccharine values bear no relation to the harsh realities of life in late capitalist society. But taking on Disney is no easy matter. The values are promoted by one of the world’s most recognisable brands. The brand is protected by the world’s …
June 30, 2012
If superstition ran riot, might not every human casualty take on the complexion of a sacrifice. Every death would register as an appeasement of one of our many gods. Admittedly, that is wacko. But here Chris Agnew juxtaposes what must be the most rational system of government, communism, with one of the least, Mayan. In …
June 28, 2012
Another plethora of destinations for your mice or mobiles: Anish Kapoor proves fair game for the Occupy movement as several dozen rock up at one of his second homes. Two French museums dedicated to Henri Matisse to share a newly discovered cache of colourful, but unfinished, paper cut-outs. The 340-tonne boulder which travelled from rural …
June 27, 2012
Treehuggers may well like this show in which paper from books is shredded line by line to form a copse of six or seven arboreal candidates for the sentient term Being. The pages now flow down from book shelves just underneath the ceiling. And you have to get within hugging distance to appreciate the painstaking …
June 23, 2012
Another conglomeration of interest piquers for you: Scientists have found the first suggestion that Neanderthals made cave art and tis strangely exciting. Upon the realisation this review has two inclusions of the word “Thwunk!†it had to be included: Adrian Searle on Yoko Ono. The iconic artist comes out somewhat better from this encounter with …
June 19, 2012
The Pure Good of Theory is one of the most oft quoted poem titles around. Wallace Stevens seems to have nailed it, but are there more spheres of pure good? Visitors to Brighton University last week might think so. At a degree show, you could argue for the pure good of art education, which after …
June 17, 2012
This in-depth documentary about a great living artist premiered at Brighton Festival not so long after network TV screened an in-depth doc about its maker Jeremy Deller. The results were two quite different films. But the subjects have more in common than both having worked together on The Bruce Lacey Experience. Like Deller, Lacey has …
June 15, 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
Whether you call it a weatherbox or, more correctly a Stevenson Screen, this object provokes even more curiosity than usual. It doesn’t belong in a gallery. It doesn’t often exude a blue light. The light comes from a speaker wired up in there to make this sculpture appear sentient twice over. It glows and it …
June 7, 2012