Jonathan Jones's Blog, page 142
December 9, 2016
Addictive colours, wildlife photos and Christmas – the week in art
Ken Price brings the Californian sunshine to grey London, while Anselm Kiefer and William Kentridge’s shows continue – plus the rest of the week’s art happenings
Ken Price
This terrific artist creates wildly imaginative and addictively colourful ceramic sculptures and drawings. They bring a bit of Californian warmth into the depths of winter.
• Hauser and Wirth, London, from 9 December until 4 February.
Five of the best art exhibitions
Gavin Turk | The Bauer Brothers Collection | Martin Boyce | Trade Routes | Wynford Dewhurst
From posing as Sid Vicious to dabbling in psychoanalysis, the not-so-Young British Artist has long put himself in the picture. But there’s a dry wit to his work that makes it more than mere posturing; his sense of reality is tough and thought-provoking. Those who made British art famous in the 90s are often unfairly dismissed, so it’s good to see Damien Hirst showcase one of his contemporaries at his gallery.
Newport Street Gallery, SE11, to 19 Mar
December 8, 2016
The Bearded Woman of Abruzzi: a 17th-century hero of gender fluidity
When Neapolitan artist Jusepe de Ribera painted local celebrity Magdalena Ventura, he turned her from a freak into an almost supernaturally powerful assertion of individuality
Gender is a fluid concept in the 21st century. Male and female are ceasing to be conceived as binary opposites. Categories of sexual identity are complex. But when Magdalena Ventura posed to be portrayed by Jusepe de Ribera in 1631, the world was in theory a much simpler and more stable place. In that age men were men and women were women – or were they?
Ribera’s painting Magdalena Ventura, also known as La mujer barbuda – The Bearded Woman – shows its subject breastfeeding her baby. This is Ribera’s none too subtle way of showing us that Ventura is anatomically a woman, for there is no sign of that in her face. Her huge, black beard makes her look like an Old Testament patriarch. Her facial features too are heavy and powerful, in other words they conform to common assumptions of what looks “masculine.” Her body is big and muscular, her hands strong and hairy. Her clothes are finely coloured but gender-neutral – again, they evoke a Biblical prophet.
Related: Beyond Caravaggio review: a masterpiece of surprise
Continue reading...Time magazine didn't give Trump devil horns. God did | Jonathan Jones
Why is there a Twitter fantasy about his satanic cranial outgrowths? Because his election really does feel like something out of a horror film
Time magazine denies doing it on purpose, yet the sign is there. The mark – and this one is much more visible than the 666 that I have been told by a maverick Vatican priest is tattooed on Donald Trump’s left buttock.
Related: Photographers on their best Trump shot: 'I think he's a damaged person'
Related: Don't assume Trump is dumb. He knows exactly what he's doing | Richard Wolffe
Continue reading...December 7, 2016
The cult of the picturesque view ignores the reality of modern Britain
Campaigners from the Lake District to London are outraged at building plans that could alter cherished landscapes – but their inflexibility to change is elitist
Across Britain, views, apparently, are being spoiled. In Cumbria, the great-great-great-great grandson of William Wordsworth is supporting a campaign to stop the National Grid building pylons close to the Lake District National Park that would allegedly wreck some beautiful vistas. Meanwhile down south, Richmond is appalled by a new skyscraper in Stratford – on the opposite side of London – that will wreck a famous view of St Paul’s from Richmond Park.
Related: London mayor urged to act over tower that 'compromises' St Paul's view
Continue reading...December 6, 2016
Martin Creed's bleak anti-carol should be Christmas No 1
With his song It’s You, Turner-winning artist Martin Creed has made the perfect antidote to the commercialised positivity of Christmas
Christmas is a time for thinking about the fundamental isolation of being human, if you are Martin Creed. The artist who made the lights go on and off appears in a succession of Christmassy hats and jumpers in the music video for his song It’s You, beside a Christmas tree, with a small dog in his arms, accompanied by a serious-looking family and a choir featuring two young women dressed as angels. He sings:
It’s you in the front
And it’s you at the back
It’s you
It’s you
It’s you.
Related: 10 of the best Christmas light festivals in the UK
Continue reading...December 5, 2016
Google's satellite timelapses show the inconvenient truth about our planet
Google’s new Timelapse project allows you to see how anywhere in the world has changed in the last 32 years; from evaporating lakes to exploding cities, it’s a document of recklessness
The image of the Earth from space is so seared into human consciousness that it is hard to conceive what it was like to live without the picture of our planet as a blue sphere that we all now carry in our minds.
The first photographs of the Earth’s surface seen from 100 miles were taken in 1947. By 1968, the famous Earthrise image photographed by the crew of Apollo 8 framed our planet as a beautiful oasis in black space. Today, stunning and intensely informative pictures of the Earth’s surface are being taken from space constantly: so comprehensively, for so long, that Google has now created timelapses that show three decades of change.
Continue reading...December 2, 2016
Our obsession with the natural world isn't about power – it's about love
Why do we get a kick out of looking at animals? We’re asserting our dominion over nature – but also trying to understand and preserve it
We humans love to look at other species. The BBC series Planet Earth II is a huge hit. As well as the authority of David Attenborough’s voice, this is because it offers a series of incredible HD glimpses of the secret lives of animals. The latest sequence that had my family glued to the screen featured a pride of lions chasing a giraffe. Astounding.
Or is it? Is watching nature documentaries an enlightened attempt to comprehend our fellow creatures, or just another example of human beings imposing a gaze of power and knowledge on animals – classifying, controlling and ultimately skinning and stuffing them in the name of science?
Related: Natural curiosity: how we have always wanted to talk to the animals
Continue reading...Wild animals, YBAs and Aussie impressionism – the week in art
Australian and Mancunian varieties of impressionism are unveiled this week, along with the beautiful scientific art of Franz and Ferdinand Bauer – plus the rest of the week’s art happenings
Australia’s Impressionists
This is, if nothing else, an unexpected angle on the birth of modern art, following such painters as Tom Roberts and John Russell in their quest to emulate Monet and bring the light of impressionism to Australia. Hey, it worked with French wine – why not French art?
• National Gallery, London, 7 December-26 March.
Five of the best art exhibitions
Zaha Hadid | Joan Eardley | Andy Warhol | Huma Bhabha | Magnus Plessen
The subversive architecture of Zaha Hadid is one of the true visionary achievements of our time. This exhibition of her drawings and paintings offers a trip inside a spectacular mind, her designs revealing an expansive, abstract sense of adventure. It will be a long time before we see her like again.
Serpentine Sackler Gallery, W2, 8 Dec to 12 Feb
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