Visual Arts Features
theartsdesk in Riga - 43,290 Latvians sing and dance for their countryTuesday, 24 July 2018
"They incessantly break down, destroy and fragment the mistrust that exists among people," wrote a Latvian journalist of a folklore group during the start of the Baltic countries' "singing revolution" against Soviet rule in 1988. Read more... |
'That brick red frock with flowers everywhere': painting Katherine MansfieldFriday, 15 June 2018
The well-known portrait of New Zealand’s greatest writer, Katherine Mansfield, is exactly 100 years old on 17 June 2018 (main picture). It was painted by the American artist Anne Estelle Rice. Read more... |
Helaine Blumenfeld: Britain’s most successful sculptor you’ve never heard ofTuesday, 17 April 2018
Sexy is an overused word in the arts but it’s an adjective you can’t help applying to some of Helaine Blumenfeld’s voluptuous marble sculptures as you run your fingers over their surfaces. These abstract bodily forms, often in the purest icing-white crystalline stone, are so tempting that you almost want to lick them. Read more... |
'There's a poetry in painting that gives endless possibilities'Tuesday, 20 March 2018
It was always my dream to be an artist but I never expected to be a curator. Graduates considering vocations in critical and curatorial practice went to the Royal College of Art or studied art history at university. Not me: I trained at Chelsea College of Art and then went to the British School at Rome where I was the Abbey Scholar in Painting. Read more... |
theartsdesk in Korea: national pride and candourTuesday, 06 March 2018
Fear not. The Arts Desk has not suddenly sprouted a Sports Desk. Heaven forfend. Korea in late February had more to offer than luge, bobsleigh, skeleton and all the other bemedalled and potentially life-threatening variants of hurling bodies down icy slopes. The host region of every Olympic Games throws open a window to the world on its culture, and PyeongChang 2018 was no different. Read more... |
Highlights from the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2017 - raw emotion, not always humanThursday, 16 November 2017
What does it take to be included in the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition? This year 2,423 photographers entered 5,717 images: 2,373 of those photographers are left wondering what it takes to make the grade. Read more... |
Out from the Darkness: painting out prisonMonday, 13 November 2017
When I was sent to an adult high security prison aged 14 all the normal colour, shapes and movement that I saw around me each and every day as a child disappeared. It wasn’t there. Prison does that; it’s all straight lines, hard on the eye, hard to the touch. There are square walls or oblongs but there are no triangles, no interesting shapes. Read more... |
ArtReview Power 100 - an artist tops the listFriday, 03 November 2017
Annual lists of the richest, the most powerful, the movers and shakers, have an awful fascination: like gossip, we like to look and comment while feeling slightly morally compromised. But they also have a function as a snapshot of where we are at. Read more... |
Young Reviewer of the Year Award: the four finalists are...Friday, 29 September 2017
In July we launched a competition in association with The Hospital Club to unearth talented young critics. We were clear about what we were looking for: “We want to read reviews that make us think – provocative, entertaining writing that gets under the skin of the art it addresses, that dares to ask uncomfortable questions and offer new answers. Read more... |
h.Club 100 Awards: Art, Design and Craft - weaving magic at Dovecot Tapestry StudioTuesday, 05 September 2017
Art, design and craft is such a broad category that it is no surprise – even less a criticism – that most of the nominees comfortably inhabit just one of these areas of endeavour. Read more... |
Pages
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 10,000 pieces, we're asking for £3.95 per month or £30 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take an annual subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
latest in today
Proms at...Cadogan Hall 6, BBC Singers, Oramo review - excel...
Those of us schooled in the English choral tradition...
DVD/Blu-ray: It Happened Here
Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo’s It Happened Here surely deserves the acclaim often accorded it as “the...
h 100 Awards: Publishing and Writing - other stories, other...
If history repeats itself, better hope that it corrects its mistakes as well. This year’s nominations for the...
theartsdesk at Itinéraire Baroque 2018 - canaries in front o...
Brits are the folk you expect to encounter the most in the rural-England-on-steroids of the beautiful Dordogne. In my experience they outnumber...
Roger Scruton: Music as an Art review - how to listen?
Hegel, Kant, David Hume, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Leibniz are all adduced, referred to, and paraphrased, and that’s just for starters. Add Rameau...
Reissue CDs Weekly: Teenage Fanclub
The cover images of the four albums Teenage Fanclub issued on ...
CD: Kate Nash - Yesterday Was Forever
Kate Nash is no quitter. For years her heavy London accent and kitchen-sink lyrics made her an easy target for mockery. Nash always brushed it off...
theartsdesk at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music - st...
North of Brisbane, south of Cairns and a short boat trip from the turquoise waters around the Great Barrier Reef, Townsville is the site of a...
h Club 100 Awards: Video games - pioneers with heart and sou...
Technical innovators, industry role models and champions of inclusivity make up the shortlist of nominees in the...