Visual arts
David Shrigley talk, Brighton Festival review - comedic stroll through a career in artThursday, 24 May 2018
As the Brighton Festival 2018 draws towards its closing weekend, its Guest Director, the artist David Shrigley, has committed to an illustrated talk about his work that “will contain numerous rambling anecdotes but not be in the slightest bit boring... Read more... |
Big Sky, Big Dreams, Big Art: Made in the USA, BBC Four review - unexpected facts aplentyThursday, 24 May 2018
“Oh say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light” was a vision of the American flag, that star-spangled banner, riding proud from Francis Scott Key’s patriotic poem of 1814 based on an episode in the War of 1812. His sentiments were decades later... Read more... |
Highlights from Photo London 2018 - something old, something newSaturday, 19 May 2018
Photo London seems much better this year, mainly because I am at last able to find my way around the labyrinthine Somerset House without getting lost in photography. Things got off to a good start when I bumped into Annie Leibovitz in reception.... Read more... |
The New Royal Academy and Tacita Dean, Landscape review - a brave beginning to a new eraFriday, 18 May 2018
This weekend the Royal Academy (R.A) celebrates its 250th anniversary with the opening of 6 Burlington Gardens (main picture), duly refurbished for the occasion. When it was dirty the Palladian facade felt coldly overbearing, but cleaning it has... Read more... |
David Shrigley/Brett Goodroad, Brighton Festival review - showcases puncturing the medium's pretenceTuesday, 15 May 2018
In his 1991 novel Mao II, Don DeLillo called the literary medium “a democratic shout”. His oft-quoted claim is that any man or woman on the street could strike it lucky, find their voice, and write a great book. Not only does everyone carry round a... Read more... |
Win a Luxury Weekend for Two to celebrate Brighton Festival!Tuesday, 08 May 2018
Brighton Festival is the UK’s leading annual celebration of the arts, with events taking place in venues both familiar and unusual across Brighton & Hove for three weeks every May. This year, the Festival boasts an eclectic line-up spanning... Read more... |
Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece, British Museum review - magnificence of form across the millenniaFriday, 04 May 2018
In bronze, marble, stone and plaster, as far as the eye can see, powerful figures and fragments – divine and human, mythological and real; athletes, soldiers and horses alongside otherworldly creatures like Centaurs – stride out. They pose, re-pose... Read more... |
Shape of Light, Tate Modern review - a wasted opportunityThursday, 03 May 2018
"From today painting is dead" was the pessimistic outcry of Paul Delaroche on first seeing a photograph. Ever since its inception, photography has had a vexed but fruitful relationship with painting. Delaroche specialised in hyper-real historical... Read more... |
10 Questions for Artist David ShrigleyTuesday, 01 May 2018
David Shrigley (b. 1968) is an artist whose work has become broadly popular via a wide range of formats. At first glance, his stark pen-on-paper drawings seem akin to humorous newspaper cartoons – and, indeed, he’s contributed to The Guardian for... Read more... |
Leaving Home, Coming Home: A Portrait of Robert Frank review - the artist puts himself in the frameMonday, 30 April 2018
Shot in 2004 when photographer Robert Frank was 80 (main picture), this award-winning film was aired on The South Bank Show the following year, but is only now on release. I hope the experience was cathartic for Frank, because to the viewer it feels... Read more... |
Taryn Simon: An Occupation of Loss, Islington Green review - divine lamentationTuesday, 24 April 2018
What a superb location for a performance! The flats on the north-east corner of Islington Green back onto a crummy atrium from which a staircase leads down to a vaulted, concrete pit (pictured below). A cross between a car park and a bull ring, or a... Read more... |
Monet and Architecture, National Gallery review - a revelation in paintTuesday, 17 April 2018
Art historians can so easily get carried away looking for a thesis, a scaffolding on which to hang theories which can sometimes obscure as much as reveal. Not so here: as near perfect as might be imagined, this is a beautifully laid out, fresh look... Read more... |
