Jonathan Jones's Blog, page 125
September 8, 2017
Rachel Whiteread's ghostly triumphs and resplendent Reni – the week in art
Frank Bowling’s abstract masterworks hit the capital, Corbyn makes fashion history and Reni provides a divine revelation – all in your weekly dispatch
Rachel Whiteread
The ghostly casts of everyday things and places that Whiteread makes are wonders of our time.
• Tate Britain, London, from 12 September to 21 January.
Is it time for the arts to start saying no to oil money?
An artist has given away part of his winnings to protest against BP’s role in climate change. The company’s money has helped an unfashionable artform, but what’s at stake is far more important
We can’t stop looking at human faces. Can’t stop being interested in ourselves, our species. The BP Portrait Award, whose annual exhibition of winners and strong contenders can be seen at the National Portrait Gallery until 24 September, is full of humanity. It is, perhaps, the most humanist art prize in the world, an art award that specifically celebrates the painted human image and looks for modern heirs to the profoundly compassionate tradition of portraiture that includes Rembrandt, Velázquez and Lucian Freud.
Yet it may be time to get over ourselves. Has the moment come to put nature before portraiture, and abolish this oil-tainted oil painting prize?
Related: Artist donates part of BP prize money to Greenpeace in oil sponsorship protest
Continue reading...Rachel Whiteread and Antony Gormley: this week’s best UK exhibitions
Abstract, spooky works come to the Tate Britain, while Cyberman-style statues are placed in the sea off two south coast towns
The ghostly power of Whiteread’s casts is one of modern British art’s wonders. Her sculptures – preserving the shapes of lost objects – combine the authority of abstraction with the spookiness of Victorian photographs. Her work has a poetic intensity that has not diminished since she created her now-demolished public sculpture House in 1993. It is very possible her art will survive and be admired when so much else of our time is forgotten.
Tate Britain, SW1, 12 September to 21 January
September 1, 2017
Skull cakes, seaside sculpture and a Renaissance dream team – the week in art
The Notre Dame embarks on a gargoyle-rescue mission, Gormley arrives in Kent and a master provocateur comes to Tate Modern – all in your weekly dispatch
Folkestone Triennial
The contemporary art scene hits the seaside in this admired festival of experimental interventions whose eclectic mix this year ranges from sculptor of found objects Bill Woodrow to Turner prize-nominated Lubaina Himid, among an array that also takes in Emily Peasgood, Amalia Pica, Sinta Tantra and more. Read our review here.
• Folkestone venues from 2 September to 5 November.
Soul of a Nation and Turkish Tulips: this week’s best UK exhibitions
Superb art and revolutionary politics fill the Tate’s epic show on black power, while the flower craze of 17th-century Amsterdam comes to life at the Bowes
Superb art and revolutionary politics fill this epic show. The age of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and the Black Panthers saw a new consciousness take hold of black US artists. David Hammons made powerful satirical prints before evolving into an incisive conceptual provocateur. Betye Saar created poetry out of junk. Barkley Hendricks portrayed himself as a hero of modern life. An exciting new perspective on the greatest era of American art.
Tate Modern, SE1, to 22 October
August 30, 2017
Drug stores, jazz and a smoking Statue of Liberty: pop-art provocateur Larry Rivers – in pictures
Larry Rivers became an artist in the 1940s, and was soon part of a New York avant-garde scene of dancers, musicians and writers. A saxophonist-turned-painter, he refused to adhere to any genre, and his puckish work has an air of jazz improvisation. He’ll be celebrated at (RE)APPROPRIATIONS, an exhibition spanning five decades of his work at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York from 6 September
Continue reading...August 25, 2017
A drop-dead Da Vinci and Magritte's stash of snaps – the week in art
The ‘beer-mat Banksy’, 130 photos by René Magritte, Leonardo, the magic of Mantegna and more – all in your weekly dispatch
Soul of a Nation
David Hammons, Betye Saar and Frank Bowling are among the many important artists in this epic and intense journey through black art in a racially divided America. The civil rights era saw similar rifts of race to those tearing at the soul of the US today. Here is how the struggle for justice played out in art that time.
• Tate Modern, London, until 22 October.
Germany 1919-1933 and Whales: this week’s best UK exhibitions
Dix and Sander offer a look at Germany on the eve of Hitler’s rise to power, while the Natural History Museum profiles the extraordinary giants of our oceans
The Natural History Museum wants to prove whales are just as exciting as dinosaurs. Not only has it replaced the famous diplodocus in its great hall with a blue whale, but this exhibition takes you further into the world of the largest animals that have ever lived. It is a moving and absorbing encounter with extraordinary creatures, including the whale stranded in the Thames in 2006, the humpback whales who invent new songs that spread through the oceans, and evidence that whales and dolphins look after their disabled.
Natural History Museum, SW7, to 28 February
August 20, 2017
The magical world of Parisian mysticism – in pictures
Forget The Da Vinci Code. Why look for secret symbols in Leonardo’s paintings if they can be found in modern art? The Guggenheim show Mystical Symbolism reveals the curious world of French Symbolism that art critic Joséphin Péladan revealed in his salon exhibitions of the 1890s
Continue reading...August 18, 2017
Prince's purple, black consciousness and Pink Floyd – the week in art
The Pantone Color Institute’s Love Symbol #2, African American art at the Tate, plus Turkish tulips, a medieval master and more – all in your weekly dispatch
Turkish Tulips
Mat Collishaw, Cornelia Parker, Damien Hirst and Peter Blake are among the artists delighting in the botany and art history of the tulip in this exhibition curated by the eponymous Gavin Turk.
•Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham, until 5 November.
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