Author: jaywp

  • Bilbao island dreams

    Bilbao island dreams Zaha Hadid, Britain’s brilliant female architect, has a superb project to dream of, on Bilbao’s Zorrozaurre peninsula. Under her current development plans she will convert the end promontory into an island. Although some 450 inhabitants still occupy…

  • The painting of modern life

  • Artists imagine action to stimulate change

    The Lisson Gallery, 5 July-22 September 2007 The Lisson Gallery in London took the phrase ‘Imagine Action’ as the title for its recent summer exhibition, crystallising the contributing artists’ focus on the social, the political, the utopian and the spaces…

  • Frieze Art Fair 2007

    Regent’s Park, London 11-14 October 2007 In only five years, Frieze has gone from a standing start to being a major fixture in the art world and beyond, to the extent that this year’s fair was praised by James Purnell…

  • Matthew Barney: Drawing Restraint

    20 September-11 November 2007 Serpentine Gallery, London When we speak of executing something – an article, a work of art, a musical composition – we speak of working towards some kind of resolution, of there being a sequence of events…

  • Migrant architects from Britain: the RIBA Stirling Prize 2007

    As we digest the results of the annual celebration of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Award, it is also useful to cast an eye over the general state of the art. David Chipperfield was announced as the…

  • Logo, logo, all agogo

    Whatever happened to the £400,000 Olympic Games logo flashed around by the London 2012 Organising Committee in June? It went down like a lead balloon, as they say in Australia. Ken Livingstone had a total aversion to it, although Sebastian…

  • Its Lee Miller on the line (overseas call)

    It’s Lee Miller on the line (overseas call)

  • An enlightened state of denial

    The director of the British Museum Neil MacGregor, champion of the Museum’s ongoing exchanges overseas, notably with China and with India recently, has gone out of his way to make a point about this historic institution dating from the Enlightenment…

  • 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.