Archive

  • Not in memory of libraries (old style)

    Information technology has been the greatest boon to the library sector. We no longer miss the curious olfactory ambience that was the preserve of the Victorian or Edwardian library, any more than we do the scuffed and annotated volumes or…

  • Dome from home

    What can be done about the Dome? Well, it’s actually transportable anywhere outside the country. A rather tasteless idea was put forward after 11 September that it could be ‘given’ to New York. Fortunately for New York this has not…

  • British Museum secures treasure

    The government’s decision to appoint Neil MacGregor as Director of the British Museum

  • Ron Kitaj returns

    Sadly this is not Kitaj’s personal re-entry into London as a working base, since he is now based in California. The collective guilt of the London art world has not yet made amends for the incredibly misplaced critical onslaught that…

  • Rembrandt’s women reach London

    This summer’s Edinburgh exhibition (National Galleries of Scotland) has reached the Royal Academy. Critics feel that this is a less successful hang, however. Then there is the conjunction with Auerbach’s exhibition, possibly too sharply disjunctive a combination of ages and…

  • New York, 25 October 2001

    There is still a queue on Saturdays outside the Museum of Modern Art, where Giacometti is showing superbly. But things are different from before in Chelsea. It’s all in the mind’s eye. Gagosian Gallery is showing ‘Torqued Spirals, Toruses and…

  • Lush countess banned from tube for bare bosom

    Well, in a manner of speaking. Viacom Outdoor vets all advertising for London Underground. It was announced that an uncovered breast and nipple would not be accepted for the National Portrait Gallery’s poster advertising the ‘Painted Ladies’ exhibition, (even if…

  • John Berger returns

    John Berger has made a very welcome return to print in London this autumn, and his presence is well felt. In Modern Painters (Autumn Issue) Berger interviews Maggi Hambling about her drawings, bereavement, nakedness and likeness. He has also written…

  • Critical eye

    A very recent work by artist Damien Hirst has been all too rapidly binned by self-made critic and cleaner Emmanuel Asare. The Eyestorm Gallery, Maddox Street, London W1 (off Regent Street) had set ready their window with Hirst’s installation (untitled)…

  • Caro’s challenges

    Sir Anthony Caro does have independence of mind: he has stoically resisted the blandishments of the Royal Academy, an accolade that most of his distinguished contemporaries have felt unable to resist. Caro’s exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (opened 26 September)…