Visual Arts Features

theartsdesk in Australia: The oldest civilisation on show

Jeremy Eccles Sunday, 08 September 2013

London is by now festooned with images showing the back-end of a horse surmounted by a black figure holding a gun across his chest. The man's head is a square black mask – a rectangular slit in it fails to reveal the expected eyes, instead taking us straight through to the clouds and sky.

theartsdesk in the Hamptons: The $26 Million Barn

Markie Robson-Scott Wednesday, 28 August 2013

There’s never a good day for traffic in the Hamptons, and a Friday in August takes the biscuit. The Montauk Highway, also known as Route 27, was bumper to bumper on the way to the Parrish Art Museum, recently relocated from nearby Southampton village to an exciting new building in the Watermill area.

Opinion: Let's put a brake on this facile culture of 'celebration'

Fisun Güner Saturday, 10 August 2013

What happens when art is everywhere? Does it become wallpaper? Visual white noise?

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theartsdesk in Mozambique: Maputo Stories

Thembi Mutch Sunday, 21 July 2013

The capital of Mozambique pulls no punches. Parked at the old airport among sheaves of wild grass are old MiG fighter planes, as sculpturally beautiful as the massive monument made from decommissioned weapons a few hundred metres away. The new airport, a multi-million pound effort completed last year with significant Chinese help, has Dom Perignon champagne for $230 a bottle. That’s twice the national annual wage.

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Art: theartsdesk at Manchester International Festival 2013

Fisun Güner Sunday, 07 July 2013

I’m watching someone with a mic pacing the linking bridge on the second floor of the Arndale Shopping Centre. He’s repeating the same phrase over and over again, which he’ll do for the next 20 or so minutes. “We’re souls refreshed,” I think it is. Nearby, sitting cross-legged, Lotus fashion, is a girl who, like the man with the mic, is wearing white cotton gloves. In front of her are three stones, painted white, on a white handkerchief, and two hymnals.

theartsdesk in Copenhagen: Degas' Method, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

Fisun Güner Sunday, 23 June 2013

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek is famous for its collection of antiquities: Egyptian carvings, Greek statues and Roman sculpture form the heart of its collection. Indeed, its collection of Roman portrait busts are among the finest in the world. But the 19^th century also has a strong sculptural presence.

theartsdesk in Istanbul: Art pours out of Gezi Park

Sebastian Merrick Sunday, 16 June 2013

I can’t wait to check out Istanbul’s galleries in a couple of years. Already endowed with an exploding arts and design scene, with Istanbul Modern in its unique location hanging over the Bosphorus, the retrospectively-looking Santral half integrated into an Ottoman power plant, and the area around Tophane sprouting art boutiques and design outlets like nobody’s business, its creative output has just been given a huge boost.

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theartsdesk in Warsaw: A New Jewish Museum

Simon Broughton Sunday, 19 May 2013

The Ghetto Heroes Square in the Muranow district of Warsaw is a bleak place surrounded by drab apartment blocks. But at its centre there’s now a new building that attracted over 15,000 visitors in the first two days of its opening on 20 and 21 April, the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. It’s particularly remarkable as the building doesn’t yet have any exhibits on show.

theartsdesk in Prague: Two Faces of Mucha

Simon Broughton Sunday, 05 May 2013

The work of Alphons Mucha (1860-1939) is immediately identifiable with its decorative flowers, delicate colours and wide-eyed women staring seductively at the viewer. He was one of the pioneers of art nouveau and the art of advertising. In Prague an exhibition recently opened which is packing them in at the glorious art nouveau Obecni Dům (Municipal House) in the centre of the city.

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theartsdesk in Austin, Texas: The Library with Everything

Markie Robson-Scott Sunday, 28 April 2013

April in Austin means South by South West is over, but the city’s permanent attractions remain: Torchy’s tacos, bats under Congress bridge, grackles (the most in-your-face birds ever) as well several cultural destinations on the University of Texas’s huge, pristine campus. Everything really is bigger in Texas, and that includes literary archives.