Archive

  • Take Gabo

    Tate St Ives has been running a successful show of the work of the major constructivist sculptor Naum Gabo since mid-July and continues until 13 October. The fact that Gabo had no truck with dealers or commercial galleries during his…

  • Freud for all

    The massive hype generated for, rather than by, Tate Britain’s Lucian Freud exhibition had critics vying with one another to write the best eulogy. Still with another month to run, the greatest display of flesh ever since Smithfield revealed unwittingly…

  • Ethical Tate Modern

    Earlier this summer, on 20 June, Nicholas Serota introduced Artworks: Young Artists of the Year Awards, where 30 schools will be beneficiaries. The awards are designed to persuade children to engage with art through visits and through their own work.…

  • Edinburgh’s national gallery on schedule

    Edinburgh’s annual Arts Festival has long been handicapped by the limited space available in the l9th century galleries. Now a remarkable plan steered by architect John Miller will link the ailing Royal Scottish Academy to its neighbour by means of…

  • Awfully Chris

    Chris Ofili is the first painter in ten years to have actually won the Turner Prize. His show at the Victoria Miro Gallery (ended 3 August) further consolidated his reputation. Four vast paintings fill the lower gallery, running up to…

  • Chelsea physick

    The famous SW3 sanctuary has opened its gates to contemporary art this summer. The oldest botanical gardens in Europe have invited a group of artists to make works for installation within that convey the essence both of the almost secret…

  • Buren far from boring

    Daniel Buren, the French experimental artist whose ambition since the 1960s has been to remove apparent human involvement (and error?) from painting, is currently occupying the entire sixth floor (2500 square metre) of the Pompidou Centre with 61 rooms to…

  • The mid-Atlantic sea contemporary art bubble burst

    There was one a bright new venture called Eyestorm, which would revolutionise the way the general public could buy art. It got off to a zoomy start in 1999, too late at the top of the dotcom boom. It would…

  • British Museum’s continuing cash crisis

    The real problem for the British Museum, as Suzanna Taverne said, has been the fact that the government grant has been cut by 30%.

  • Beekeeper in Swansea

    Bill Woodrow has produced an excellent thematic essay on the age-old allegorical figure of the beekeeper, on show at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea until 17 November. The elemental quality of such figures, their protective and protected engagement…