Archive

  • A cold bath

    The new debate about the ancient, enlightened city of Bath has been precipitated strongly and positively by design critic and author Stephen Bayley, and none too soon. The city fathers have turned down an excellent building project for a new…

  • Something more for Boris

    Author, academic and television commentator Germaine Greer has come up with a very intelligent suggestion on the subject of graffiti. She has recommended that good ‘aerosol art’ be listed and protected on a points system highlighting the work that is…

  • Turner Prize 2007

    Some views on the future of this successful but – to ‘younger British artists’ – controversial award have been aired in the press. As the Tate Gallery and the award sponsor Channel 4 warm up for the announcement, the jury…

  • Warhol: A celebration of life … and death

    National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh 4 August–7 October 2007 From February 2007 through to September 2008 there have been over a dozen dedicated Warhol exhibitions/events/publications across the globe, from the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam to the Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul,…

  • Keith Arnatt: I’m a Real Photographer

    The Photographers’ Gallery 5 & 8 Great Newport Street, London, WC2H 7HY 29th June – 2nd September 2007 Currently exhibiting at the Photographers’ Gallery, Arnatt’s work focuses mainly on images of waste. But in the spirit of John Cage, who…

  • Terracotta Chinese Army Marches On

    The exhibition ‘The First Emperor’ opens on 13 September at the British Museum. This emperor so celebrated in Chinese history was Qin Shichuangdi, famous for unifying China in the third century AD, and for laying the foundations there for future…

  • Serpentine Splendour

    The Serpentine Gallery, in London’s Hyde Park has pulled it off again with this year’s Summer Pavilion. Designed by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson and Norwegian architect Kjetil Thorsen (he of Alexandra Library fame) the Pavilion is a remarkable bringing together…

  • Farewell Piccadilly

    Godfrey Pilkington, who died aged 88 on 8 July 2007, was the doyen of Cork St gallery directors through the 1970s and 1980s. Supported by his wife Eve, had continued long after reaching an age when most successful art dealers…

  • Relocation, Relocation: Mandela Placed

    The new statue of Nelson Mandela now installed in Parliament Square, London greatly enhances this key location for tributes to the great and good, and marks the fresh growth of democracy on the African continent in the 21st century. The…

  • Lowry Fair

    This December, a hitherto unknown work by the painter LS Lowry will be sold at auction by Sotheby (London). Entitled ‘A Fairground’ it had been lost (but not buried) in a private collection. The painting appears to relate to a…

  • The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2007

    Royal Academy of Arts, London. June-August, 2007

  • Faith, Narrative and Desire

    Masterpieces of Indian Painting in the British Museum Room 91, The British Museum 9 August – 11 November 2007 The British Museum has taken the opportunity of the current celebration of 60 years of Indian independence to offer the public,…

  • Picasso in Edinburgh

    Picasso on Paper Dean Gallery, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh. 14 July – 23 September 2007

  • BP Portrait Award 2007

    National Portrait Gallery, London 14 June – 16 September 2007 When this annual exhibition was launched 28 years ago it suffered some hostile critical reception but has now built itself into something of a national institution, and I personally try…

  • Book review: Contemporary Garden Aesthetics, Creations and Interpretations

    Edited by Michel Conan Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection and Spacemaker Press Distrib.by Harvard University Press 2007.

  • Eye-Music: Kandinsky, Klee and all that Jazz

    Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, 30 June – 16 September 2007

  • Designing for a Change

    Design for the Other 90%, Smithsonian National Museum of Design, Cooper-Hewitt 4 May – 23 September 2007 Twenty-first century design and manufacturing power is at a historical high point, but most of the talent and money that goes into creating…

  • AfterShock: Conflict, Violence and Resolution in Contemporary Art

    Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich 14 July–2 September 2007

  • Francesca Woodman

    In the Phaidon monograph on Woodman, Chris Townsend says that she “never saw herself as a fully realized artist, even if that is how we see her now”1 and many of her photographs were experiments, attempts, forays into technique and…

  • Up Against Jeff Wall

    Museum of Modern Art, New York 25 February – 14 May 2007.

  • Hélio Oiticica returns to London

    The Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica (Rio de Janeiro, 1937-1980) used to say that he was not a ‘career artist’, reflecting his wish not to be categorised under an established label. Oiticica’s early works were influenced by the Brazilian neo-Concretists and…

  • ‘Destricted’: sex as performance art

    Directed by Marina Abramovic, Matthew Barney, Marco Brambilla, Larry Clark, Gaspar Noé, Richard Prince and Sam Taylor-Wood The creators of ‘Destricted’ describe the production as a set of ‘explicit films’. The seven short films that make up ‘Destricted’ are, in…

  • Sharon Booma’s Odes and Intimations of Immortality

    The seductive allure of Sharon Booma’s paintings defies description. Viewing one of the artist’s oil and mixed media inventions, one feels an attraction to surface beauty, the pull of colour and texture, and then the plunge into deeper mystery. Booma’s…

  • How We Are

    Tate Britain, London 22 May-2 September 2007 Right on time to contribute to the national discussion on what it means to be British, comes Tate Britain’s first photography exhibition – and what a very welcome and ambitious venture it is.…