Soviet Union
Greece showers Soviet art riches on LondonFriday, 28 October 2011
There’s a lot of Soviet art about at the moment – the excellent show that opens this Saturday at the Royal Academy has Constructivist and Suprematist paintings and drawings loaned by the George Costakis Collection in Thessaloniki. Now, at Annely... Read more... |
Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture, 1915-1935, Royal AcademyWednesday, 26 October 2011
I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so ambivalent about a show, and so strongly both pro and con. The pros first, then. This is an astonishing, revelatory exhibition of avant-garde art and architecture in the Soviet Union in the brief but hectic period from... Read more... |
DVD: The Colour of PomegranatesThursday, 01 September 2011
A master of visual cinema, primus inter pares, Sergei Paradjanov was a law unto himself in Soviet cinema of the 1960-1980s; his body of work from the Caucasus in that period is as visually innovative and brightly colourful as anything in cinema. A “... Read more... |
The Hour, Series Finale, BBC TwoTuesday, 23 August 2011
Part of the fun of watching The Hour, in the absence of a coherent plot, convincing characters and plausible period dialogue, was ruminating on the myriad different ways it could be sliced: a grown-up Press Gang meets Mad Men? The Spy Who Came in... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Tbilisi: The Dilemma over Georgian ArchitectureSaturday, 20 August 2011
In Tbilisi, Georgia, artists and art historians are calling for the Government to stop destroying their classic Old Town with its winding streets and wooden balconies. New organisations have been formed, exhibitions held to publicise this creeping... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Odessa: Monty Python on the Black SeaSunday, 31 July 2011
Odessa must be one of Central Europe’s more distinctive cities, characterised by a profoundly cosmopolitan ethnic mix over more than two centuries. It was one of the most international cities in the Tsarist empire, while in Soviet times it honed... Read more... |
The Light ThiefThursday, 28 July 2011
You don’t tend to get many films from the breakaway republics of the former Soviet Union. And certainly not from Kyrgyzstan. The Light Thief is the kind of work which schleps respectably around the festival circuit harvesting nods of approval from... Read more... |
DVD: The Kremlin LetterMonday, 25 July 2011
John Huston’s 1970 spy movie is the sort of baggy, eccentric work that is routinely dismissed by critics at the time, but whose untidy pleasures become apparent with age. Max von Sydow and Orson Welles are among the cheap but arresting all-star... Read more... |
DVD: MacbethThursday, 30 June 2011
Your Macbeth opens in the round, tailored to a small studio theatre. In entrusting it to television, do you engage someone experienced in the medium to render faithfully the spaces and the talking heads, as Trevor Nunn did for the deservedly... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Conductor Neeme JärviSunday, 19 June 2011
Honour your senior master conductors: there aren't so many of them left now. Abbado and Haitink spring most readily to mind, but orchestral musicians may also nominate Neeme Järvi, who celebrated his 74th birthday last week. A passionate patriot and... Read more... |
X-Men: First ClassTuesday, 31 May 2011
If there's one thing Hollywood hates more than people bootlegging its latest blockbusters on mobile phones, it's letting a lucrative franchise go to waste. Thus, after the initial three X-Men films and 2009's Wolverine spin-off, you are invited to... Read more... |
Christine Borland & Kerry Tribe, Camden Arts CentreMonday, 16 May 2011
“As a student at Glasgow School of Art I used to visit the amazing anatomy, zoology and ethnographic collections at Glasgow University,” says Christine Borland. “I couldn’t understand why I was so intrigued, except for the question of how something... Read more... |
