Archive

  • Saatchi Gallery

    Cameras stand in keen anticipation around County Hall, London, for the planned April opening of the re-located Saatchi Gallery. Here, Nigella will soon be heard and young British artists (YBAs) will rise again, cloning a second generation, escaping the Turner…

  • Obesity to order

    At Edinburgh’s National Gallery of Modern Art, (a short run from Sainsbury or Tesco) a celebration of over-indulgence can be found, or one might say, psychopathic obsession. Food is not on display, but Duane Hanson’s unerringly life-sized figures reveal in…

  • Art Deco at V&A

    The Victoria and Albert Museum will open a sequel to its successful Art Nouveau show, held in 2000, with Art Deco 1910-1939 on 27 March through 20 July. Drawing upon the wealth of material from the 1920s, a period that…

  • Tate Modern beckoning

    Overlapping here with the Art Deco exhibition, the Beckmann exhibition at Tate Modern will reveal the murkier, gloomy and claustrophobic world-weariness of Germany in a time of uncertainty and growing depression. What the Tate team will excel at will be…

  • Albrecht Dürer and his Legacy: The graphic work of a Renaissance artist

    British Museum, London. 5 December-23 March 2003

  • Painting, Passion and Politics: Masterpieces from the Walpole Collection

    Somerset House, London (28 September 2002-30 March 2003)

  • Aztecs at the Royal Academy

    Royal Academy, London. Until 11 April 2003. Martin-Gropius-Bar, Berlin, 17 May – 10 August 2003. Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn, 26 September 2003 – 11 January 2004.

  • Saatchi riding high

    At last there is a strong critic of the public institution of Tate Modern, so long protected by taboos in the ongoing power game. This is Charles Saatchi. Who has finally ‘decloseted’ about the upcoming Turner Award. A groundswell of…

  • Mies van der Rohe

    The forthcoming exhibition at the Whitechapel, London (10 December 2002 – 2 March 2003) Mies van der Rohe 1905-38 is a definitive retrospective of his career in Europe. This is the first such show in Britain, bringing together 38 important…

  • High temperatures break the thermometer

  • Eva Hesse

    The short but brilliant artistic career of Eva Hesse is celebrated by Tate Modern (13 November 2002 – 9 March 2003). Born in Hamburg in 1936, Eva Hesse escaped the Nazi atrocities by evacuating with her sister in 1938. Reunited…

  • David Drummond

    And another, discrete but highly influential arts catalyst has also died, aged 95. David Drummond, Earl of Perth worked assiduously behind the scenes to bring about major windfalls to the world of art and culture. The present National Gallery of…

  • Daniel\’s dance

    The new book Natasha’s Dance by Orlando Figes, which provides a romantic but revelatory overview of historic Russia lacks a full visual arts corollary. The current wide interest in things Russian needs fuller understanding – it’s not just the newly…

  • Bryan Robertson

    Bryan Robertson has died – the greatest Tate Gallery Director we never had. Still active at 72, Robertson transformed the Whitechapel Gallery from 1952. Director at the early age of 27, he also transformed the public awareness worldwide, of Australian…

  • Aztecs

    Aztecs, Royal Academy of Arts, London opened on 16 November. It is a remarkable and brilliant exhibition. This is a groundbreaking show of the same ilk as the Tutankhamen show of the 1970s or the Africa exhibition of 1995.

  • Vettriano’s popular success in art

    Painter Jack Vettriano, bête noir of the Scottish arts establishment yet feverishly pursued by collectors from both sides of the Atlantic, has been exercising intelligent philanthropy in Scotland, supporting student ventures, and yet keeping a relatively low profile in his…

  • Doodle day

    Doodle day Are architect’s doodles worth keeping, like the sketches of painters and sculptors? One of the problems is space. In the late 1970s, Robert Adam’s old home saw faded drawings being used as fire kindlers. Times have improved. Tragically,…

  • Letter from Long Island

    There have been some carping comments in British art magazines, such as ‘The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) isn’t what it used to be’. But the fact is, a major transformation is in place, and activity at MoMA Queens is…

  • Howard Hodgkin: Large Paintings 1984-2002

    Howard Hodgkin is regarded as one of the most important artists in Britain working today. Born in 1932, he studied in London and Bath. He first exhibited in 1960 and has gained recognition since that time. He was a Trustee…

  • Metamorphing: Transformation in science, art and mythology

    ‘Metamorphing’ is a Wellcome Trust exhibition at the Science Museum, London, 4 October 2002 – 16 February 2003. For humans, change has always been essential, but difficult nonetheless. For most of our history, the mysteries of change and transformation have…

  • The story of K&M

    Vitaly Komar, Alexander Melamid. ‘Dmitry Tveritinov’s story’ at Marat Guelman’s gallery.

  • Artist as Peacemaker – Beyond Conflict

    Beyond Conflict is an exhibition of 24 Scottish artists, which was conceived as a cultural dialogue between Scotland and Islam, in the wake of 11 September.

  • Documenta 11

    Australia is often out of synch with much of the rest of the world. The progressive Whitlam Labour era of the 1970s was described as ‘half an hour ahead’; more recently the conservative and xenophobic Howard government was accused as…

  • Kitagata Garden City, Japan

    The second scheme was essentially led by a brief by architect Arata Isozaki, in which Martha Schwartz was to be the co-ordinating landscape architect for four separate architect-designed housing groups. This was at Kitagata Garden City, Japan. The Garden City…