A member of the public looks at The Charnel House as part of the Picasso: Peace And Freedom exhibition. Lenin used the term “useful idiots” to describe Western liberals who turned a blind eye to the true nature of totalitarianism – and few were more idiotic or more useful to the Soviet cause than Pablo [...]
Ai Weiwei, Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995). Photograph: Ai Weiwei The cavernous space of Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall has been dwarfed by a massive spider, cleaved by a 167-metre crack and baked by an artificial sun. Now, the gallery has announced, the space is to be filled by its most politically adventurous commission yet.
The “five-to-10 good years” phenomenon, first articulated by former Tate director Alan Bowness, suggests that virtually all artists do their best work in a relatively short period, whether it was the 10 years Delacroix had between 1824 and 1834, Courbet’s six (1849 -1855) or Munch’s three (1892-95). After a major artist makes his breakthrough, he [...]
Jean Tinguely, Black and white relief méta-mécanique 1957 Jean Tinguely (1925-1991) was one of the most radical, inventive and subversive sculptors of the mid twentieth-century. A founding member of the Nouveau Réalistes, his work was playful, ironic and often anarchic. Joyous Machines: Michael Landy and Jean Tinguely at Tate Liverpool will be co-curated by renowned [...]
Michael Prodger looks at the works of the internationally acclaimed Danish artist Per Kirkeby. telegraph.co.uk
JMW Turner was an obsessively competitive painter who laboured to prove how much better he was than his predecessors, a major exhibition at Tate Britain will attempt to prove this autumn. A self portrait painted by JMW Turner, that will be exhibited as part of the new Tate Britain exhibition Turner and the Masters The [...]
Don’t even think about a trip to the Clore Gallery to see Turner/Rothko – an even more meagre display, purporting to highlight the similarities between the English landscape painter and the American Abstract Expressionist. “Black on Maroon” by Mark Rothko The comparison is specious. Hanging Turner’s Three Seascapes of c1827 next to a typical Rothko [...]
