Jonathan Jones's Blog, page 28
September 22, 2023
Sarah Lucas’s scandalous sculptures, a new slant on Rubens and Abramović’s RA takeover – the week in art
There’s a Constable in the living room, the Turner prize in Eastbourne and a sensual statuette at the Wallace – all in your weekly dispatch
Rubens and Women
The rich, heady paintings of Peter Paul Rubens are seen from a fresh perspective.
• Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, from 27 September to 28 January
September 21, 2023
‘You could fill a museum with it’: the $963m Roman Abramovich art collection revealed
Leak suggests the oil and gas tycoon and his ex-wife Dasha Zhukova amassed one of the most significant collections of modern art in private hands
Art critic Jonathan Jones reviews Abramovich’s collectionAt first glance, the red-brick facade near a line of railway arches resembles an ordinary south London warehouse.
A more careful observer might notice spiked railings, a steel door, and imposing metal gates through which lorries come and go.
Continue reading...Roman Abramovich amassed one of the world’s most impressive private stores of modern art | Jonathan Jones
The Guardian’s art critic examines the collection assembled by the oligarch and his ex-wife Dasha Zhukova, which includes Freuds, Picassos and Russian modernism
The $963m Roman Abramovich art collection revealedUp to now the scope and quality of the art collection amassed by Roman Abramovich and Dasha Zhukova has not been in public view. Gossipy as the art world is, only a few highlights such as Lucian Freud’s Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, Paula Rego’s The Policeman’s Daughter and David Hockney’s Beverly Hills Housewife had been reported as among the acquisitions.
Yet, as the Oligarch Files reveal, in the space of a decade the former owner of Chelsea football club and his ex-wife appear to have created one of the world’s most impressive private stores of modern art.
Continue reading...September 18, 2023
Mantegna: The Triumphs of Caesar – you can hear the trumpets and smell the elephant dung
National Gallery, London
The full glory of ancient Rome blazes once more in this grand, yet very human, exhibition of paintings on loan from the royal collection
More than 500 years ago, Andrea Mantegna, court artist to the Gonzaga family who ruled the north Italian city state Mantua, painted his dream of ancient Rome. In nine large, crammed canvases, he depicted scenes from a Roman victory pageant, or triumph. When the Gonzagas finally ran out of cash, these nine square pictures were bought by the avid art collector Charles I and installed in Hampton Court Palace, where they’ve spent the best part of four centuries, most recently in an outbuilding in the gardens. Now six of them have been loaned for “about two years” by Charles III to the National Gallery. This means you can see them for free, in a museum packed with Renaissance art with which to compare them. It’s a new lease of life for these masterpieces.
The glory that was Rome blazes all over again in this grand, yet very human, recreation of the triumphs granted to Julius Caesar for his conquests in Gaul. Smoky colours and brooding faces, empty armour and paraded elephants fill the twilit cavalcade. Characters in the crowd hold you: a Black standard bearer, a melancholy youth pondering what it all means, an old slave bent double under the booty he’s carrying. What fascinates Mantegna about the Roman empire is its human and natural plenitude. We see the wealth of empire – the statues, tableware, siege machines and animals brought as tribute to Rome. It’s both a parade for Caesar and a summing up of all such rites, a distillation of the military might and scale of this lost empire.
Continue reading...September 15, 2023
Watercolour slamdown, changing Chanel and Ofili’s Grenfell mural – the week in art
Turner and Bonington duke it out, a fashion icon gets a major show and Chris Ofili tackles the burning tower with swirling emotion – all in your weekly dispatch
Turner and Bonington
Two great artists of the Romantic age go head-to-head in this comparison of their intense watercolour landscapes.
• Wallace Collection, London, 20 September to 21 April
September 8, 2023
African identities, surreal genius Ken Dodd and doors, doors, doors – the week in art
The Fitzwilliam museum re-examines its legacy and recycling found objects points toward the planet’s future – all in your weekly dispatch
Julianknxx: Chorus in Rememory of Flight
An audio-visual poetic installation that meditates on African identity, including choirs from across Europe.
• Barbican Curve, London, from 14 September until 11 February.
September 2, 2023
Season to be cheerful: 50 autumn arts events to make you forget the nights are drawing in
From outdoor festivals and big-screen spectaculars to binge-watches and thumb-twiddlers, all the TV, theatre, film, art, games, music and more you need to get through to Christmas
Continue reading...September 1, 2023
A sculptural whirlwind lands in Yorkshire and butterfly wings hit the canvas – the week in art
Portraits by Freud, Rego and Himid come together and we go deep on a portrait of a Napoleonic battle – all in your weekly dispatch
People
People who need people … a survey of the art of the human starring Rebecca Warren, Lucian Freud, Michael Andrews, Paula Rego and more.
• Modern Art, London, 6-30 September
August 30, 2023
Get your own art detective! My simple solution for the British Museum fiasco
Museums don’t win awards or get rave reviews for their security systems – but they should. I have seen for myself how lax British Museum security was. It needs to stop living in a fantasy world
A few years ago, I was involved in removing a priceless treasure from the British Museum. Ian Jenkins, the museum’s senior curator of Greek antiquities, was my co-speaker at a Guardian event and he brought along a small bronze divinity, more valuable than any of the 2,000 or so pieces now missing from the museum’s vaults. This was something senior staff could do, he explained, so long as they returned the item before midnight. We shared a taxi afterwards, and I saw him go into the darkened museum with it.
In retrospect, this looks like part of a quaint, gentlemanly regime in which curators were permitted an easy, intimate relationship with objects in their care. That has gone wrong in a seismic way in the very department Jenkins ran up to his death in 2020, with the chronic, cumulative loss of overlooked items from the stores, many from the renowned Townley Collection assembled in the 18th century.
Continue reading...August 25, 2023
York gets flower power, Kew goes immersive and Wendy Red Star heads to London – the week in art
Still lifes by Henri Fantin-Latour, Islamic architectural inspiration and recent acquisitions at the British Museum – all in your weekly dispatch
Bloom
Images of flowers, including still-life paintings by the wonderful Henri Fantin-Latour, Jan van Os and others, and an installation by Jade Blood.
• York Art Gallery until 8 October
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