art blog since 2009
One of the more surprising things you might hear about the work of Francis Bacon is that one of his paintings hangs in a museum at the Vatican. The work is a study for a better known painting of Pope Innocent X. In the subsequent work his holiness appears in a gold cage screaming blue …
April 28, 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
It is the largest cultural celebration in the history of the modern Olympics, but you could be forgiven for letting the 2012 Cultural Olympiad pass you by so far. And if it conjures images of community dance projects and corporate sponsors holding up giant cheques at photo calls, you may be trying to ignore it …
April 19, 2012
More links to edify and entertain: Plimack Mangold demonstrates you can stay at home, paint and still be conceptual. That’s what gets so well argued in this essay by John Yau on Hyperallergic (Parts one, two and three) Everyone’s favourite least-favourite art critic now has his own two part sampleboard on a website dedicated to …
April 16, 2012
Freedom from Eva and Franco Mattes aka 01.ORG on Vimeo. In the terms of the ongoing wars, there is really only one side you or I can be on in the infiinte struggle between freedom and tyranny. But Eva and Franco Mattes have questioned the extent of that freedom, with a novel approach to playing …
April 14, 2012
For no real reason, this week is a Bank Holiday special: It’s always good to hear what the animal world might have to tell us. Guardian chats with their spokesman Marcus Coates (via @LizzieHom.) Beverley Knowles writes up a pleasing memory feat and takes in art, human rights and, emo. Intrigued? 90% of guns seized …
April 9, 2012
If needing just one word to sum up Damien Hirst at Tate Modern, you might resort to some made up slang invented for a work of dystopian fiction. The violence of his killed and pickled animals is horrorshow, as is the vitrine pictured. Real horrorshow, the ultimate accolade for gang member Alex in A Clockwork …
April 8, 2012
This week has indeed had its quota of hard-to-ignore links: Let’s get Damien out of the way. Here’s a well argued piece from Tom Jeffreys which puts the new Tate show in the bigger picture. And in case you should need to know what Jay Jopling eats for lunch, here’s a highly readable interview with …
April 4, 2012
It turns out that despite ourselves, even the most urbane and politically correct audience can still love a beauty pageant. The sequence of young women in swimsuits could not be more easy on the eye It is obvious what heterosexual men might get from this. But women too were enjoying it. There were no shortage …
March 31, 2012
Almost too many links to choose from this week, but here are the best all the same: Government ministers sack head of Arts Council England. Could it be they want someone who will cosy up to big business instead? (via @MutualArt) Here’s a reality check for London and New York. The world’s most visited exhibition …
March 26, 2012