art blog since 2009
Here’s a belated round up of last week’s stories for Culture24. Click below on any that interest… Preview: Howard Hodgkin – Time and Place, at Modern Art Oxford Review: Ice Traffic in See Further: The Festival of Science and Arts at Royal Festival Hall Preview: Fiona Banner – Harrier and Jaguar, The 2010 Duveens Commission, …
July 4, 2010
Book review: The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell, pp.992, published by Chatto & Windus Of all the millions killed in WWII, the fate of a fictional character has concerned me more than any. Stranger still, I have found myself rooting for a German and a high ranking SS officer at that. The same might be …
July 1, 2010
Perhaps all art has ever done is provide visual enjoyment, depsite the questionable values inherent in traditional, modern or contemporary subject matter. Fiona Banner’s latest commission at Tate Britain is indeed problematic, but without question it is still enjoyable. The London-based artist has installed two decommissioned fighter planes in the neoclassical Duveens Gallery. One, upside down, …
June 29, 2010
Here’s another round up of my week’s output for Culture24. Happy reading… Review: Lucienne Cole, Karen Mirza & Ruth Beale, Phil Coy and Alex Pearl at Whitstable Biennale Preview: Persistence of Vision at FACT, Liverpool Preview: Wolfgang Tillmans at Serpentine, London
June 26, 2010
It must be tempting for an artist to think the painted, drawn or sculpted subject has a life beyond the canvas, page or block. This was maybe the original impulse of art – with cave paintings as an invocation for the success of the tribal hunt. Most paintings of beauty could be viewed the same …
June 26, 2010
Take one iPod and Spotify addict, give him the text of a lecture by John Cage, take away his music for a week, and see what happens. It was a recent, quite unscientific experiment and the guinea pig was me. The first few days were harsh. Putting on the stereo was one of those things …
June 22, 2010
Here’s a round up of the pieces I wrote for Culture24 last week. Enjoy! Review: Surreal Friends: Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo and Kati Horne at Pallant House Review: James White: New Paintings, Max Wigram Gallery Review: Clare Twomey: A Dark Day in Paradise, Brighton Pavilion Review: Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception, Tate Modern
June 20, 2010
Like many a great still life, this one by James White is a dazzling piece of representation. But the scene represented is at one remove, painted from a photograph. His use of black and white draws attention this fact, as skilful as the reproduction may be. The result is a literal sort of photo-realism. It …
June 16, 2010
The art of Francis Alÿs is a reflection of political realities. In this film he pushes a block of ice around the streets of Mexico City for six or seven hours until it melts. On the same streets, thousands of locals spend their days pushing, carrying or towing wares or chattels. The results are the …
June 14, 2010
Exhibition: Cage Mix – Sound and Sculpture, BALTIC, Gateshead, until September 19 2010 If ever a course sounded challenging, it was this one: Experimental Composition at the New School for Social Research; tutor: John Cage. Cage taught the classes towards the end of the 1950s and his students were by and not musicians, but artists. …
June 11, 2010