sat 02/08/2025

Visual arts

Norman Rockwell's America, Dulwich Picture Gallery

'Tender Years - Treating a Cold', 1957 is typical of Norman Rockwell's gentle humour

Norman Rockwell’s America. What did it look like? At the height of Rockwell’s incredible fame as an illustrator, you might say it looked a lot like a movie still. Think of the films of Frank Capra, for instance: heartwarming scenes of family life...

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theartsdesk's Christmas Presents Guide

With the lightning speed of online delivery, there is still masses of time to select the best and most enjoyable presents for Christmas, thanks to the taste and wisdom of theartsdesk's pack of writers. With battered guitars, Belgian cartoons, Pacino...

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Photo Gallery: Ballet in Focus

A display of rarely seen photographs of key ballet dancers from the start of the 20th century goes on display at the National Portrait Gallery. The gallery holds the largest surviving archive of the once-fashionable Bassano Studio, London, including...

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A whip-cracking Christmas at Tate Britain

Giorgio Sadotti 'celebrates the power of nothing' with his unadorned Norwegian Spruce

It’s the time of year when Tate Britain unveils its much-anticipated, artist-designed Christmas tree. Over the years, we’ve had Fiona Banner decorating hers with unpainted Airfix models of fighter planes, while Sarah Lucas hung hers with stuffed...

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Bloomberg New Contemporaries, ICA

Johann Arens ('Untitled', above) 'steals the show with a video installation'

As I wandered round this year’s New Contemporaries at the ICA, a few yards away in Trafalgar Square, thousands of students braved the cold for the third time to protest against the Government’s proposed spending cuts on education. How many art...

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A Turner Prize first for sound artist

Susan Philipsz is the first sound artist to win the Turner Prize

Dexter Dalwood appeared to be an early favourite, while many wished Angela de la Cruz, who had suffered a debilitating stroke five years ago, a deserved comeback triumph (though the artist who makes evocative “sculpture/paintings” of crumpled...

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Art Gallery: Unseen Salvador Dalí

The unseen Dalí? Surely not. Anyone who ever popped into Dalí Universe, the now defunct gallery on the South Bank which was devoted to the flamboyant Surrealist's work, might well ask. Since there have been so many editions of his well-known...

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Art Gallery: GSK Contemporary - Aware: Art Fashion Identity

A masked lace dress by the late Alexander McQueen, from 1998, turns the catwalk into pure theatre

Fashion and conceptual art come together, sometimes awkwardly, often provocatively, in the Royal Academy’s third and final annual GSK Contemporary exhibition. Instead of celebrating glamour and excess, designers and artists – as well as those, such...

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Peter Lanyon, Tate St Ives

A retrospective at Tate St Ives can be a poisoned chalice for the major artist. It postpones his or her prospect of a showing at Tate Britain by a couple of decades, and can appear to consign them to the comfort zone of "Cornish Art": the heritage...

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theartsdesk in Siberia: Cold Comfort Krasnoyarsk

In England you may joke about having Siberian weather with minus 7 degrees. This is really what Siberian winter looks like - at minus 26 degrees. The river is gushing steam, a hellishly peculiar sight. After travelling for 16 hours and through seven...

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Carlos Zuniga, Edel Assanti Gallery

'Falkland Islands, Portrait 5' by Carlos Zuniga: Evoking memories of war

The thin line between Art and Craft gets slimmer as artists like Carlos Zuniga ignore the borders and delve into hands-on production processes. This Chilean photographer, architect and graphic designer works compulsively on large, imposing portraits...

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Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson 1955-2010

"Sleazy" in electronic prayer

I once passed up the chance of meeting Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, who - it was announced by his Throbbing Gristle bandmates on Twitter - died in his sleep last night aged 55. In the late 1990s I was invited to interview him and his long-term...

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