Jonathan Jones's Blog, page 81
November 8, 2019
What to see this week in the UK
From The Irishman to Henry VI, here’s our pick of the best films, concerts, exhibitions, theatre and dance over the next seven days
Continue reading...
November 6, 2019
A spirit the Nazis couldn't erase: Charlotte Salomon: Life? or Theatre? review
Jewish Museum, London
Discovered after her death at Auschwitz, the artist’s graphic record of her life unfolds in startlingly poignant scenes, from her mother’s graveside to her lover’s bed
Charlotte Salomon was murdered in a gas chamber shortly after her arrival at Auschwitz in October 1943. She was 26 and pregnant. Salomon was supposed to be forgotten, erased from history, along with the millions of Jews murdered in the 1940s. But after the defeat of Nazi Germany, her father and stepmother – who in genocide’s lottery survived their daughter – found a cache of her paintings that included one of the most astonishing autobiographical documents of the 20th century. Before she was put on a train to her death, Salomon had set down everything about herself, her family and her world in a coruscating expressionist comic book that she named Life? or Theatre?
To be caught up in Salomon’s modern masterpiece is to meet her, love her – and mourn her. Through this intimate visual narrative, we come to know Salomon. Today, we commemorate the victims of the Holocaust with monuments: ranks of concrete blocks or libraries of books closed for ever. But Life? or Theatre? is an open book that makes more sense today than when it was found because it is, in fact, that most contemporary of things: a graphic novel.
Continue reading...November 1, 2019
Tutankhamun review – thrills and fun as King Tut gets the Hollywood treatment
Saatchi Gallery, London
This magnificent piece of pop archaeology is full of songs, statues, gems, gods and gold – reminding us that this pharaoh was no warrior king, just a frail boy who loved his boomerangs
It is not the gold that takes your breath away, it’s the craft. More than 3,300 years ago, Egypt’s top artists – we don’t know their names – were summoned to create all the equipment their young pharaoh Tutankhamun would need in the afterlife. Their creations are some of the most graceful and intimate masterpieces of all time – and this sumptuous selection is at the Saatchi for the last leg what claims to be Tut’s farewell tour before he and his treasures get a permanent home at Giza’s new Grand Egyptian Museum next year.
Behold what they made for the boy: vessels of translucent white calcite with delicately carved handles look like the work of some Renaissance mannerist rather than the products of a civilisation contemporary with Stonehenge. Tutankhamun’s art even anticipates much later styles. A bed has lovely lion paws carved with a superb eye. A dainty little portable board game could be played today in the back of a boy-king’s limo. Statues of the pharaoh stride forward with a quality that defies gender stereotypes.
Continue reading...Egypt's golden boy, Hodgkin's highlights and China's cracking bridges – the week in art
Mummy’s the word at the Saatchi Gallery, Howard Hodgkin’s personal prints go on show, and China reckons with its mania for glass bridges
Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh
A glimpse into the uniquely well preserved tomb of a sickly young pharaoh who is far more famous today than he was in antiquity.
• Saatchi Gallery, London, 2 November to3 May.
What to see this week in the UK
From Doctor Sleep to Lizzo, here’s our pick of the best films, concerts, exhibitions, theatre and dance over the next seven days
Continue reading...October 28, 2019
Private passions: the sexual secrets hidden in the world’s greatest art
It has been suggested that a portrait by the Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck hides a secret about his love life. If so, he is part of a history that stretches from Caravaggio to Kahlo
Anthony van Dyck’s portrait of Isabella Brant – the wife of his mentor, Rubens – is usually seen as a homage to the painter who helped him on his way. But a new interpretation by the Cambridge academic John Harvey suggests that Van Dyck was actually Brant’s lover – and her wry smile in the portrait is a coded brag. If so, it is part of a long tradition of sexual secrets hidden in art. Spotting the love story is a game that still teases us centuries later.
In the 1600s, an English traveller in Rome was shown Caravaggio’s Amor Vincit Omnia – in which a naked Cupid looks with a sneering smile from the wreckage of culture – and was told it portrays “Caravaggio’s boy, that laid with him”. This youth was called Cecco, and appears in other paintings by Caravaggio. He is Isaac about to be killed by his father, and a nude Saint John the Baptist. Caravaggio taught him, as well as laying with him, and he became an artist in his own right.
Continue reading...October 25, 2019
Posh frocks, space oddities and Lucian Freud – the week in art
Pit yourself against Freud’s pitiless gaze, step into the 1920s wardrobe of a well-to-do woman or shoot into space, via Edinburgh – all in your weekly dispatch
Lucian Freud: The Self-Portraits
This harsh observer of reality takes a long look at himself in the mirror to paint some of the most unforgiving self-portraits of modern times.
• Royal Academy, London, 27 October to 26 January.
What to see this week in the UK
From Monos to Charli XCX, here’s our pick of the best films, concerts, exhibitions, theatre and dance over the next seven days
Continue reading...October 21, 2019
More than Mona Lisa: Louvre's Leonardo da Vinci is a blockbuster with brains
Louvre, Paris
From a windmill-punk helicopter to a VR Mona Lisa that the artist himself would have loved, this show blows away his old-master reputation to present a relentlessly modern mind
At first sight, the Louvre’s grand Leonardo da Vinci exhibition, the most keenly awaited event of his 500th anniversary year, might look like a wasted opportunity. Disputes with Italian museums – and a general resistance to letting the gallery that happens to own the Mona Lisa appoint itself Leonardo Central – mean there are fewer paintings here than in the blockbuster show at the National Gallery in 2011. But you soon realise this is no mistake – or it’s a very happy one. This is the great Leonardo show of our time because it reveals his true identity as a scientist, inventor, engineer and infinitely curious observer of life. It’s a blockbuster with a brain that reveals why we will never tire of the genius who dreamed of our future, five centuries ago.
The greatest Leonardo work that France owns is not the Mona Lisa. It’s a medium-sized notebook known as Manuscrit B that’s been lent by the Institut de France. It is displayed open on a double spread that had me inwardly whooping with delight. You go, Leonardo! On the left hand page, there’s a design for a helicopter that works like a giant screw drilling upward through the air, drawn precisely in firm ink lines. Above is a rapid sketch of what looks like a flying saucer but is an armoured car that he suggested might be fun for jousting.
Leonardo da Vinci is at the Louvre, Paris, from 24 October to 24 February.
Continue reading...October 18, 2019
Mars decor, stunning psychedelia and the hound of Hades – the week in art
Humanity looks to colonise the Red Planet, Bridget Riley messes with heads and Mark Bradford unleashes a monster dog – all in your weekly dispatch
Moving to Mars
Can humanity find a new home on Mars? That provocative sci-fi solution to our woes is explored in this glimpse of a possible future.
• Design Museum, London, 18 October to 23 February.
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