Visual Arts Features

The Excruciating Power of the Parental Legacy: My First Foray Into Curating

Mark Hudson Saturday, 04 February 2012

Remember when you were out playing football with your mates, and your dad pulled up beside the pitch in a slightly too flashy car and told you it was time for tea or – even worse – tried to join in the game – and how you died inside. Actually, I don’t remember this Nick Hornbyesque scenario, having spent most of my childhood avoiding playing football, but I certainly recognise the sentiment.

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theASHtray: Beyoncé, 'Bond', and Eddie Redmayne's lips

ASH Smyth Saturday, 04 February 2012

So, Birdsong is over, and for all the arts-crit ink spilled upon it I am still none the wiser vis-à-vis my three main points of concern. First: it is a truth universally acknowledged (I asked around) that the most memorable episode in the Faulks novel was the one about the blowjob. This scene was not so much absent from the TV version as, er... cunningly re-gendered. Why?!

theartsdesk Debate: But What Does It Mean? + Can Art Still Shock?

theartsdesk Friday, 20 January 2012

The latest in the live events staged by theartsdesk aims to shed light on controversies and myths about the value and purpose of contemporary visual art. Taking place at the heart of the London Art Fair, where more than 100 galleries will present work this week, this double debate, chaired by our visual arts critic Fisun Güner, is the place to come and ask the tough questions about the relationship between artist and viewer.

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The Underbelly Project: Paris

Jasper Rees Sunday, 15 January 2012

Witnesses will have been puzzled. In a southern suburb of Paris, a group of maybe 16 figures trudge with purpose along the pavement at the witching hour of half past four in the morning. Some are carrying rucksacks. We are mostly male. Mostly tattooed. We loiter, attempting anonymity.

New Year Brantub - Free Tickets Competition

theartsdesk Thursday, 29 December 2011

Competition alert! Start 2012 with a surprise arts trip. On theartsdesk we love crossing the borders - "Surprise me," was the edict of the great impresario of theatre, music, art and dance, Serge Diaghilev, and it's one we hold to here, because we believe in the pleasure of surprises. So please enter our competition, and a pair of tickets to one of the splendid events listed below could be coming your way, but you will take pot luck with which one you win, and who knows?

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Opinion: Oligarchs and oiligarchs have made art a luxury

Sarah Kent Wednesday, 28 December 2011

For me, 2011 will go down as the year in which the fact that artworks have become luxury goods – playthings for the rich – could no longer be ignored. In response Damien Hirst, one of the first artists to turn himself into a brand, is sprinkling the globe with spot paintings (pictured below left).

theartsdesk Christmas Quiz

ismene Brown Sunday, 25 December 2011

You're going to test your stomach and sweet temper to the maximum today - test your brain and memory too with our monster quiz about the arts covered by theartsdesk in 2011. Every artform is represented here in 12 dozen questions. Settle down between courses, films and presents and see how many you and your near and dear can do.

theartsdesk Christmas Quiz - Answers

theartsdesk Sunday, 25 December 2011

Here are the answers to our monster Christmas arts quiz of 12 dozen questions on the year past, as seen by theartsdesk writers. There are clues in all the questions in the main quiz page. If you don't want to know the answers just yet till you've grappled with them, close this page now.

Christmas on theartsdesk: Brainteasers, Bran Tub, and the Best of 2011

theartsdesk Wednesday, 21 December 2011

Any day now most of us will be hunkering down and for the most part drawing a curtain about the world outside. Before that happens, we’d like to tell you about theartsdesk’s plans for Christmas and the New Year.

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh

Fisun Güner Friday, 09 December 2011

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery has been transformed with a £7.6 million facelift. As a first-timer I confess I don’t have a clue what it looked like before, but I am assured it was dark and gloomy and had the air of a building cast aside in favour of Edinburgh’s better attractions.