Jonathan Jones's Blog, page 73
June 2, 2020
David Hockney's lockdown sunrise and other masterpiece dawns – video
David Hockney created a glorious depiction of a sunrise on his iPad in April and emailed it from his lockdown in Normandy to the Guardian's art critic Jonathan Jones.
He has made pictures from nature every day through this bitter spring as his artistic stand against despair – and what is more hopeful than the sun coming up?
Jones describes how the picture reminded him of all the sunrises shut away inside the National Gallery, in London. From Bellini to Monet, Titian to Turner, a private view of some of the greatest masters' sunrises
'Waves of mysterious meaning': Mark Rothko murals at Tate Modern – video
The Guardian's art critic Jonathan Jones goes on a journey around the Rothko Room at the Tate Modern, in London, while it is still closed to the public.
Masterpieces of both tragedy and inexplicable hope, the iconic murals were gifted to the UK in 1970. Jones looks at the surprising story behind their creation
Continue reading...May 22, 2020
A lost childhood home, magic mushrooms and arty face masks – the week in art
Arshile Gorky and Jack Whitten provide serious art for serious times, David Shrigley designs a face mask for charity, and early Beatles photographer Astrid Kirchherr has died – all in your weekly dispatch
Arshile Gorky and Jack Whitten
We live in serious times and so we need serious art. The Armenian-born American painter Arshile Gorky saw his mother die on a hunger march and summoned his lost childhood home in art that is brightly coloured yet spiky with sorrow. Alabama abstractionist Whitten was his lifelong admirer.
• Hauser and Wirth
May 18, 2020
Pompeii Live: they didn't see catastrophe coming – and neither did we
Available online
The British Museum has resurrected its blockbuster show about the deadly volcanic eruption. In the age of coronavirus, it’s more chilling and vital than ever
In AD 79, a society that thought it was modern, sophisticated and fully in control of its destiny was taught otherwise by nature. Sounds familiar? The eruption of Vesuvius that overwhelmed Pompeii, Herculaneum and many villas dotted around the Bay of Naples caught the Roman empire by surprise. The parallels with the coronavirus crisis are uncanny. So the British Museum’s release this week of Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum, an online tour of its harrowing 2013 blockbuster show, offers a troubling gaze into history’s mirror.
Related: Life and death in Pompeii and Herculaneum – review
Continue reading...May 16, 2020
Reviewing the arts in lockdown: 'Life is lonelier, but also more thoughtful'
Guardian critics on working from their living rooms, and why wifi could be the saviour of culture
The biggest surprise of the lockdown is realising I can still do my job as a theatre critic, even when every theatre has gone dark. The industry responded quickly, first by putting archive shows online (many of them available free of charge) and then by creating specially commissioned works, online festivals, and other ingenious ways to keep audiences connected to venues.
The best thing a critic can do now is point to art that strengthens. It’s impressive how many artists are producing such images
Continue reading...May 15, 2020
Walks for art lovers, and artists who walk – the week in art
Wherever and however you are allowed to exercise, why not seek out public sculptures and monuments? Meanwhile, artists including Gilbert & George do their best to keep working – all in your weekly dispatch
Bottle of Notes by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen
Middlesbrough’s excellent MIMA remains closed like all galleries, but if you’re out for a walk you can see the city’s engaging sculpture created in homage to local boy Captain Cook by one of America’s great modern artists.
• Centre Square, Middlesbrough.
May 12, 2020
Lockdown with Gilbert and George: they've lost the world, but the walk goes on
For decades the suited pair have spent their days strolling around London. Now due to coronavirus they’ve stoically adapted their routine, as shown in a strangely moving video diary
The best arts and entertainment during self-isolationAged 76 and 78 respectively, the renowned artist couple Gilbert and George are of the age supposedly most in need of isolating against the coronavirus. Yet exploring the streets of London has been their life since they met as students in 1967 – taking photographs, picking up unusual objects, observing the people around them. There is no second home for them abroad or in the country – their only residence is the house on Fournier Street in east London where they have lived since the 1960s.
So that is where they are holed up. And this week, they are releasing a series of glimpses into their lockdown life, as they unveil their video diary on White Cube’s Instagram account.
Continue reading...May 8, 2020
Hirst goes virtual and Banksy creates a caped crusader – the week in art
A punk philosopher picks up the brush, past surrealists bloom again and Frieze serves fries – all in your weekly dispatch
Rodney Graham
The Canadian punk conceptualist famous for his philosophical videos here exhibits a set of disconcertingly impressive paintings that echo early 20th-century modernism.
• Lisson Gallery online space
May 1, 2020
Surrealist games for lockdown and a Magritte masterpiece – the week in art
Tap into your unconscious with Tarot, check out feudal chess or gaze into Magritte’s magic mirror – all in your weekly dispatch
Surrealist games
The surrealist movement started out by playing games in Parisian cafes. They wanted to tap the creative potential of the unconscious mind, and games like Exquisite Corpse – the avant-garde answer to consequences – helped. Exquisite Corpse quickly turns into a swearing and obscenity contest, at least in my family, and is totally hilarious.
April 29, 2020
Apocalyptic vision: the unsettling beauty of lockdown is pure sci-fi
The streets lie silent, the skies are clear, as office buildings reflect our empty cities. Coronavirus has brought with it the same eerie scenes that have long haunted the modern imagination
The best arts and entertainment during self-isolationThe end of everything we took for normal has a dire aesthetic fascination. The streets lie silent and still under unnaturally clean skies. A lone walker stares into a deserted bookshop. Office buildings, once vulgar, fulfil their true potential as sets for a sci-fi nightmare, glassily reflecting the empty city. While I do not want to in any way downplay the tragedy that has left thousands dead and will kill thousands more, there has been one eerie byproduct: the apocalyptic beauty of lockdown Britain.
Take a walk through quiet streets for your daily exercise and you come across vistas sci-fi has spent more than a century preparing us for. A main road so still you can stand in the middle of it, among the squatting pigeons. A row of expensive shops all closed and dark midweek. Such scenes of The End have haunted the modern imagination since HG Wells described the abandoned streets of the imperial metropolis and devastated Surrey in The War of the Worlds. We’ve all absorbed these visions of apocalyptic Britain, generation after generation, from the 1970s TV chiller Survivors to Danny Boyle’s uncannily convincing dawn photography of an emptied landscape in the film 28 Days Later. Surely we can be forgiven a frisson of macabre awe at seeing all these fantasies become real.
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