Jonathan Jones's Blog, page 127
August 1, 2017
Edinburgh art festival review – follies, broken statues and a surprise star
Various venues
Douglas Gordon knocks Robert Burns off his pedestal and Pablo Bronstein goes gothic at Jupiter Artland. But it’s the video art of Stephen Sutcliffe and Kate Davis that delves deepest at this year’s festival
In the soaring gothic entrance hall of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, big chunks of black marble are heaped on the ground in front of a glistening statue of the national poet Robert Burns. You recognise a leg, and see that Douglas Gordon has commissioned a jet black replica of John Flaxman’s white marble figure – then smashed it.
The divided psyche haunts this Turner prize winner’s art, and Scottish literature. Robert Louis Stevenson, author of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, is among the worthies whose marble busts have been turned to the wall for this installation, as if they were looking away in disgust from the exposed inner darkness of Robert Burns.
Continue reading...
July 31, 2017
Matisse in the Studio review – genius crowded out by bric-a-brac
Royal Academy, London
Instead of providing insight into the mind of Matisse, this collection of the artist’s antique chairs and chocolate pots belittles his art and highlights his conservatism
The women who posed for Henri Matisse are long gone. A black and white photograph, taken in 1928, portrays a model known as Zita reclining in culottes amid a carefully contrived boudoir of colourful throws and hangings – at least we imagine the furnishings and her clothes were colourful when this was a living world, instead of its silvery monochrome echo. Matisse sits by her bed, bearded and bespectacled, sketchbook in hand. Zita looks at him with what might be dry amusement. The photographer wondered about their relationship, and so do we. Yet it is gone, that human electricity.
Related: How to paint happiness: a masterclass from Matisse
Continue reading...July 28, 2017
A flamingo frenzy, Matisse's personal stash and a Warhol in the attic – the week in art
Edinburgh fizzes for the festival, a bio-artist makes books bloom with bacteria and low-riders enter high art – all in your weekly dispatch
Matisse in the Studio
The diverse world art collection of Henri Matisse is recreated by an exhibition that explores how it shaped his vision.
• Royal Academy, London, 5 August to 12 November.
Shadows of War and Douglas Gordon: this week’s best UK exhibitions
Roger Fenton’s photographs of the Crimea show the emergence of modern warfare, while a Turner prize winner takes on Robert Burns
The war photographs of Roger Fenton are stilled landscapes haunted by bloodshed. In 1855, this Victorian camera pioneer took photographs of the aftermath of battle in the Crimea. Fenton conveys the conflict’s horror by photographing a valley laden with cannon balls, while his portraits preserve the inscrutable faces of soldiers at the dawn of modern warfare.
The Queen’s Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, 4 August to 26 November
July 26, 2017
Britain’s best-loved artwork is a Banksy. That’s proof of our stupidity | Jonathan Jones
Banksy’s Girl with Balloon comes top in a popular vote, despite its oversimplification of human emotion. Real art is ambiguous and difficult
• Jonathan Jones writes on art for the Guardian
People are stupid. Wait, hear me out. I didn’t say that – although in a time when Donald Trump can get elected US president and a referendum can doom Britain to inglorious isolation, haven’t you occasionally wondered?
I was merely paraphrasing the Victorian art critic John Ruskin, who in his book Modern Painters opines that “the average intellect and feeling of the majority of the public” give them zero competence “to distinguish what is really excellent”. Only a critic, such as himself, with superior sensibility and knowledge can judge what is truly great in art.
He has invented the artistic equivalent of a tweet. You see it, you get it. Is that really all we want?
Continue reading...July 25, 2017
The apocalypse, clowns and cows: an art critic on the autumn fashion campaigns
Gucci pays homage to sci-fi cinema, Kenzo is referencing the faded glamour of La Dolce Vita and Calvin Klein thinks we’re in the middle of the apocalypse. This autumn’s fashion campaign ads are a reflection of a bleak and astounded age
It’s advertising, Jim, but not as we know it. The layers of irony and cultural quotation that are the norm in fashion campaigns are so sophisticated they seem to come from another planet, far beyond mere materialism or glamour – and this autumn/winter campaign images are more bizarrely inventive than ever. Yet there is something uneasy and apocalyptic going on beyond the cleverness. In a world that has lost contact with what it thought it was, the art of high fashion may be peculiarly good at defining our numbed and astounded age.
Continue reading...July 21, 2017
Sex and social realism, Scotland's new gothic folly and Frieze all summer long – the week in art
The Frieze fair flings open the doors of its outdoor sculpture garden, Pablo Bronstein’s striking new sculpture is unveiled in Edinburgh and a show devoted to comics opens in Derby – in your weekly dispatch
Pablo Bronstein
A gothic folly is connected with a Chinoiserie pavilion by a narrow rose walk in Bronstein’s new permanent commission for Scotland’s superb sculpture park.
• Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh, opening 27 July.
Pablo Bronstein and Jac Leirner: this week’s best UK exhibitions
Architecture and the human body are intertwined at Edinburgh’s sculpture park, while across the city deeply personal minimalist works pack an uneasy punch
If you have ever wondered about the connections between the chinoiserie and gothic styles in the 18th century, this one’s for you. Bronstein is fascinated by architectural history and the human body. In his new permanent commission for Edinburgh’s wonderful sculpture park, he links two pavilions – one in the pseudo-Chinese style popular in Georgian Britain, one in the neo-medieval mode – with a narrow rose walk. Will it be genius or a folly?
Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh, 28 July to 1 October
July 14, 2017
The fruitiest Victorian, the miracle of plywood and a beach-ready conceptualist – the week in art
Roman sensuality is laid bare by a visionary Victorian, a goddess creates a galaxy with breast-milk and Superman bends to black power – all in your weekly dispatch
Rose Finn-Kelcey
This retrospective of the important British conceptual artist surveys her works from the 1970s until her death in 2014.
• Modern Art Oxford, 15 July – 15 October.
Emma Hart and Mat Collishaw: this week’s best UK exhibitions
This year’s winner of the Max Mara prize for women shows off anthropological ceramics, while VR brings to life the first ever photography show
The winner of this year’s Max Mara art prize for women is a ceramicist with an interest in anthropology. Her exhibition includes jug-like portrait sculptures inspired by the maiolica tradition of colourful glazed ceramics that started in the Italian Renaissance and is still going strong. Working with artisans in Faenza, she has created work that’s modern in feeling yet ancient in technique.
Whitechapel Gallery, E1, to 3 September
Jonathan Jones's Blog
- Jonathan Jones's profile
- 8 followers
