Visual arts
Imagine: Art is Child's Play, BBC OneWednesday, 23 June 2010
It took Picasso four years to learn to paint like Raphael, but it took him a lifetime to paint like a child, or so he said. For Brancusi it wasn‘t a case of relearning childhood, but of being careful not to lose it in the first place. “When we are... Read more... |
Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception, Tate ModernTuesday, 22 June 2010
In 1994, Francis Alÿs joined the regular hiring-line in the central square in Mexico City. Standing next to plumbers and carpenters with their hand-lettered signs touting their skills, his sign read "Turista", as he offered his ability to be an... Read more... |
Joseph Cornell & Karen Kilimnik, Sprüth Magers LondonSunday, 20 June 2010
The gallery has been turned into a little girl’s dressing-up closet. The walls are painted midnight blue and dusted with glitter. Ballet shoes, made for small feet, and a discarded tutu are to be found in a decorous pile on the floor. There are... Read more... |
Ernesto Neto / The New Décor, The Hayward GalleryFriday, 18 June 2010
The Hayward has been closed for the past six months for "housekeeping": those boring cleaning and repair jobs we all do. It's entirely suitable, therefore, that the two exhibitions that reopen the gallery showcase ideas of how we live both... Read more... |
Art Gallery: Ray Lowry - London CallingWednesday, 16 June 2010
It’s hard to believe that it’s 30 years since the release of The Clash's London Calling, an album that sounds as vital, immediate and relevant today as it did then. Yet there are probably people who remain more familiar with London Calling’s iconic... Read more... |
The Surreal House, Barbican Art GalleryFriday, 11 June 2010
Surrealism, it occurred to me while looking round this fine exhibition, is like pornography: it is hard to define, but everyone knows it when they see it. The Surreal House examines what precisely is conjured up in our collective minds by the word “... Read more... |
Art Gallery: Rude Britannia - British Comic ArtThursday, 10 June 2010
There’s a rich vein of comic and satirical humour that runs through British art. Hogarth set the trend in the mid-1700s and heralded a golden age of graphic satirists. These included the three masters of the form: Gillray, Rowlandson and Cruickshank... Read more... |
Rude Britannia: British Comic Art, Tate BritainWednesday, 09 June 2010
Satire, like roast beef, is what Brits are famous for and this exhibition takes us right back to its earliest days in graphic print. In the 1600s, Dutch allegorical prints were adapted by British printmakers to comment on contemporary issues and one... Read more... |
Interview: Michael Winner on collecting Donald McGillTuesday, 08 June 2010
This week a new exhibition with no pretence to seriousness opens at Tate Britain. Rude Britannia: British Comic Art is a comprehensive tour of a great national tradition: having a laugh in a line drawing. The show covers the boardwalk from Gilray... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Artist Mark WallingerSunday, 06 June 2010
For his new show at Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London, Turner Prize-winning artist Mark Wallinger will be unveiling a first: a life-sized, three-dimensional "self-portrait". But it won't be a straightforward representation of the 50-year-old... Read more... |
Antony Gormley: Test Sites, White CubeFriday, 04 June 2010
Many people use that weaselly phrase about Antony Gormley, saying he “divides the critics”. For the most part this is not true: for the most part the critics loathe Gormley’s work. They suggest he is either a bad figurative sculptor masquerading as... Read more... |
Newspeak: British Art Now, Saatchi GalleryWednesday, 02 June 2010
These days, it seems that approaching any new Saatchi exhibition, especially one that promises to be even bigger than all the previous ones held at the multi-galleried, three-storey Chelsea venue, makes the heart fairly sink. How much bigger, you... Read more... |
