Published 21/01/2013

Special issue 2004, Volume 203 Number 1026

Studio International Yearbook 2004

Special issue 2004, Volume 203 Number 1026.

Publisher: The Studio Trust
Content: 174 pages, full colour
Language: English
ISBN: 0962514144 (Hardcover).
Dimensions: 11.0 x 8.7 x 0.75 inches
Price: Hardcover: US $29.99, UK £24.99

Editor: Michael Spens
Deputy Editor: Dr Janet McKenzie
Creative Director: Martin Kennedy
Vice-President: Miguel Benavides

To order your copy please contact studio@mwrk.co.uk

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Introduction

For this Special Issue, the selection I have chosen from our website www.studiointernational.com demonstrates our intention to commission articles from a growing team of art critics and art historians. In this Yearbook, the subject matter of reviews was focused predominantly on painting as a medium, whether contemporary or historic exhibitions were reviewed. Nonetheless, one-quarter of the articles in this volume cover architecture and industrial design, and there are others on sculpture and photography. Particularly interesting here is Dr Clive Ashwin’s review of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s unforgettable 19th-century designer Christopher Dresser. Ashwin has had a long-standing connection with Studio International, from as far back as the 1970s.

The burgeoning activity in the arts in Asia has led to much increased coverage in our e-journal. I have been very pleased with our coverage of this exciting and ground-breaking movement in contemporary art. China and Japan have led the way, but India is now making inroads. We have a dedicated Asian team, which will be further expanded in the near future.

What is most obvious, during the last few years, has been the continuing legacy of 20th-century American art in painting, and we have printed articles here on the great African American painter Romare Bearden, as well as Childe Hassam, Jasper Johns, Edward Hopper and Philip Guston. We also include the works of Bruce Nauman and Don Judd, and the permanently fascinating and enthralling Constantin Brancusi. Our selection of art historical exhibitions includes the successful presentations of the work of Raphael, of Degas and of Vuillard, all currently subject to reappraisal in terms of their importance and influence. The Raphael exhibition at the National Gallery in London in 2004, however, missed any reference to Raphael’s outstanding contribution to late Renaissance architecture, which was unfortunate. The public remains largely uninformed about this additional talent of a great painter.

Architecture itself has become the stalking ground of a new, acquisitive generation of well-informed and well-budgeted clients and curators, and this dynamic has led to some truly innovative new buildings the world over. We chose for this Yearbook our review of new work by Frank Gehry, and the technologically highly innovative ‘Gherkin’ tower by Norman Foster in the City of London. Looking back at the troubled decade of the 1930s in England, we include coverage of the timely restoration of the Wells Coates’s Lawn Road Flats in Hampstead, London. One is reminded again of the continuing ability of British artists and architects to innovate and to surprise their clientele.

We wish our readers of the Yearbook and the website an inspiring and fulfilling New Year. The future promises a rapid and scintillating sequence of new exhibitions worldwide, and on the website we are now able to provide rapid coverage and reviews of those international exhibitions we consider merit full coverage, as well as re-evaluation and comment

Michael Spens
Editor

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