Jonathan Jones's Blog, page 37
January 20, 2023
Historic Hispanic masterpieces, freaky ceramics and London’s bloody rites – the week in art
A treasure trove of Spanish art is revealed, Antoni Tàpies’ raw modernism is on display and Aphra Shemza reboots the work of her grandfather – all in your weekly dispatch
Spain and the Hispanic World
Goya, medieval Al-Andalus and the New World all feature in this treasure chest.
• Royal Academy, London, from 21 January to 10 April.
January 13, 2023
Beuys’ dreams, bejewelled paintings and Avatar for art lovers – the week in art
The watercolours behind Beuys’ sculptures are revealed, Soheila Sokhanvari commemorates Iran’s feminist icons and Sahej Rahal creates a digital world – all in your weekly dispatch
Joseph Beuys: 40 Years of Drawing
Drawings and watercolours that reveal the myths and dreams behind this great artist’s sculptures.
• Thaddaeus Ropac, London, from 19 January to 22 March.
January 6, 2023
Giorgio Morandi review – sublime still lives shimmer with mystery and joy
Estorick Collection, London
Humble, haunting and deeply enigmatic, these masterful works resist obvious symbolism to show us the poetry of the everyday
He could be a peasant or a manual worker, in his collarless shirt and brown waistcoat, looking at you frankly. But the brush and palette in his hands confirm Giorgio Morandi’s true profession in the deeply likable Self-Portrait he painted in 1925 when he was in his mid-30s.
It’s so approachable, yet Morandi is one of the most mysterious artists of the 20th century. His is the only human figure in the Estorick Collection’s beautifully direct encounter with his metaphysical art. Everything else is a silent reckoning with objects and places. There are poplar trees and rivers sketched in his trips to the countryside but mostly there are paintings, etchings and drawings of the bottles, pots and other domestic stuff he endlessly rearranged in his studio at the family home in Bologna, where he lived all his life with his sisters while teaching drawing in schools.
Continue reading...Italian eeriness, British villainy and Cornish splendour – the week in art
Giorgio Morandi gets a startling new show, Marcus Harvey takes on antiheroes and Barbara Hepworth in St Ives – all in your weekly dispatch
Giorgio Morandi
One of the greatest artists of modern Italy gets a lovely and eye-opening show of his eerie still lifes.
• Estorick Collection, London, until 30 April
December 31, 2022
The anti-hibernation culture guide: something to enjoy for every day in January
You can spend the next few weeks under the duvet and in front of the telly, or enjoy world-class art, theatre, music, film and standup – here’s an event for each of the next 31 days
MUSIC Floating Points
HERE at Outernet, London
New Year’s Eve is clearly a huge night in the clubbing calendar, but the following evening is a surprisingly big deal, too. This sure-to-be transcendental six-hour set from Sam Shepherd – whose clever, subtle and atmospheric electronic music makes him the thinking person’s producer (the fact he has a PhD in neuroscience also helps) – is ideal for those determined to delay the moment cold January reality sets in. Rachel Aroesti
December 27, 2022
Are you bored yet? Five art shows to be dazzled by over the Christmas season
From Lucian Freud to Turner and the mysteries of ancient Egypt, here are some of the best exhibitions across the country right now
Midwinter is one of the best times to see good, rewarding art. Here are five shows worth getting off the sofa and putting on your woollies for.
Continue reading...December 26, 2022
The best art and design shows to visit in 2023
Queer Renaissance sculptor Donatello, Marina Abramović, David Hockney and a long-delayed mega-museum in Manchester – your art-design to-do list for the year ahead
More from the 2023 culture preview Continue reading...December 20, 2022
The best art and architecture of 2022
As Londoners got to know the grand new spaces of the Elizabeth line, Cézanne took over Tate Modern and Venice drank The Milk of Dreams. Our critics rank the year’s highlights
More of the best culture of 2022Tate Britain, London, until 22 January
Locke’s 2022 Tate Britain commission was by far the most accomplished, ambitious and fascinating work I have seen by the 62-year-old artist. About 150 figures progressed the length of the Duveen Galleries, many on foot, some on horseback, some carried, one in a wheelchair. There were guys in sharp suits and characters who might have stepped out of a Velásquez painting of the Spanish court. Others wore ferocious animal heads or faces like the creature from the Black Lagoon. Locke turned the Duveen into a dreamlike, carnivalesque space for encounters across time and borders.
December 18, 2022
I wanted a space rocket so my dad built me a wooden Apollo 11 in his garage – the Christmas present I’ll never forget
My parents weren’t rich but they always made me feel I could have exactly what I dreamed of
I was three and Christmas 1969 was approaching. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon that summer and I wanted what millions of kids must have wanted for Christmas: the Apollo 11 rocket. I announced this and went off to listen yet again to my favourite record: Puff, the Magic Dragon.
Our house on a nice new estate in Wrexham was full of craft furniture. My dad, who taught woodwork at the town’s grammar school, made our tables and chairs and the abstract copper-wire artworks on the walls. The space age was happening on television but our Wales was still in the days of oak.
Continue reading...December 17, 2022
‘Almost as botched as Monkey Christ!’ Has the National Gallery ruined a Nativity masterpiece?
The restoration of this treasure took three years. So why do the shepherds look so gormless? Is the curly-haired one at a school disco – and is the other trying to remember where he parked the donkey?
The National Gallery has ruined Christmas. Or, to be more precise, it has had a very good go at wrecking one of the world’s greatest Nativity paintings. The fact that Piero della Francesca’s Nativity is back on view for the festive season, after a three-year restoration the London gallery vaunts as careful and revealing, should be glad tidings. But my joy turned to ash when I saw it. What in the name of God inspired the restorers to paint two completely new and distractingly moronic shepherd’s faces? Or a big white blob on the stable wall?
The Nativity, a mysterious and elusive work of haunting wonder, has been, oh so carefully and responsibly, rendered clumsy and plodding, if not downright comical. Almost every colour has been altered, every line re-emphasised. It’s like a garish digital reconstruction of what the painting may have looked like in 1475 when it was new – except, instead of offering this as a hypothetical, it has been physically repainted or, in the evasive language of restorers, “retouched”.
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