Jonathan Jones's Blog, page 99
December 18, 2018
Stendhal syndrome: can art really be so beautiful it makes you ill?
A man is recovering from a heart attack after looking at Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus – the latest case of a medical condition thought to be unique to Florence
A visitor to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence has had a heart attack while contemplating Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. The man is recovering in hospital, but it is the latest apparent case of Stendhal syndrome, a medical condition specific to the Tuscan city in which people become ill after too much beauty. I suspect the occult. Could there be some old black magic lingering in this Renaissance wonderland that gives its art a unique potency? For Botticelli may have intended The Birth of Venus as a magical spell, and Michelangelo’s David, another Florentine must-see, was accused in the early 1500s of casting an evil eye over the city.
There is substantial evidence that Stendhal syndrome is real and unique to Florence. It is named after one of the earliest recorded cases, when the French novelist and critic Stendhal made himself sick on art here in 1817. Why don’t people succumb to the same symptoms, from dizziness to heart trouble, in galleries elsewhere? In London, Tate Modern has occasionally given me a headache, but that’s more to do with its labelling. And people look at Botticellis in the National Gallery with no noticeable ill effects.
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December 17, 2018
What happened next? How Banksy's shredder proved he is a serious, important artist
The self-destructing masterpiece was the art world’s funniest joke. Was it really an act of sabotage or has it doubled the piece’s value?
It had been a very good auction. Sotheby’s had already taken more than £32m at its contemporary art sale on 5 October. Then came the final lot of the evening. No sooner had it gone under the hammer for just over £1m than, to the shock and bafflement of the assembled collectors and art professionals, the work’s own frame started to eat it. Banksy’s Girl With Balloon was pulled downward into what was – with hindsight – a suspiciously bulky frame and emerged sliced into thin strips.
Was it an attack on the art market or a cheap publicity stunt? A Dada masterpiece or just a way for Banksy to raise his prices? Speculation and gossip have fuelled this instant art classic’s fame, yet the cynics have mostly been disproved – so far. Admittedly, in spite of denials by Sotheby’s, the placing of Banksy’s booby-trapped picture at the end of the auction in October looks, to some, too perfect.
Continue reading...December 16, 2018
A Caravaggio for Christmas: is his stolen Nativity masterpiece about to reappear?
Missing since the 1960s, Caravaggio’s Christ in the manger is believed to have been stolen by the mafia and eaten by hogs. But could the painting now be recovered in time for Christmas?
It’s that time of year when the nativity paintings in Europe’s churches and museums get their month in the glow of fairy lights. Printed on Christmas cards, these religious masterpieces might make us pause and think for a moment about their serious themes of life, death, change, hope – and loss.
One of the most moving of all such scenes of reverence for a newborn child is about to mark its 50th year in limbo. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s Nativity With Saints Lawrence and Francis was painted in Palermo, capital of Sicily, in 1609 and stolen 360 years later. It hasn’t been seen since, at least not by any honest citizen. Yet as the anniversary of its disappearance approaches, it may be about to resurface.
The problem with the evidence of repentant mafia members is how to tell the truth from self-serving lies
Related: Lost, stolen, blown up and fed to pigs: the greatest missing masterpieces
Continue reading...December 14, 2018
Kid-friendly pirates and the sublime side of Anselm Kiefer – the week in art
Snakeskins hit Southampton, Bethlehem comes to Brussels and Anselm Kiefer shows why he’s the greatest artist alive – all in our weekly dispatch
Siobhán Hapaska
A complex array of synthetic and natural materials, including artificial snakeskin and wax, helps to create the Irish sculptor’s sensual effects in a survey of her recent work.
• John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, 15 December–9 February.
What to see this week in the UK
From Lizzie to Wolf Alice, here’s our pick of the best films, concerts, exhibitions, theatre and dance over the next seven days
Continue reading...December 7, 2018
The naked truth and three tonnes of clay – the week in art
David Hockney and Tracey Emin show how nudity can bare the soul and Mantegna and Bellini feature Christmassy moments – all in our weekly dispatch
Exposed: The Naked Portrait
Artists including David Hockney and Tracey Emin show how nudity can strip the soul bare.
• Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, until 3 March.
What to see this week in the UK
From Mariah Carey to Modern Couples, here’s our pick of the best films, concerts, exhibitions, theatre and dance over the next seven days
Continue reading...December 6, 2018
Living coral: Pantone's 2019 colour of the year
This muted terracotta is an oasis of calm. But what does such a solid shade say in these uncertain times?
The colour of the year comes as a huge relief. I might have predicted sewer-water grey or perhaps the livid yellow of the high-visibility vests worn by France’s gilets jaunes movement, a colour that screams distress like an Edvard Munch painting. From a Britain approaching the black hole of no deal Brexit to Malibu’s ashen burnt-out villas, the hues of these uncanny times must surely be disturbing. Not so, claims Pantone, the authority on colour for the design industry. Today it has announced that the colour of the year for 2019 is a kind of muted terracotta or pastel desert adobe, the sort of tempered earthen tone that might well have graced floors and walls in those Californian homes before they were devastated by November’s wildfires.
Someone has got to be feeling optimistic – and it seems to be the people met and Instagram accounts followed by Pantone, as it strove to determine the world’s chromatic mood. “It represents a feeling that’s out there in the zeitgeist,” says Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute. If so, perhaps the world is calmer and happier than we thought; or perhaps in troubled times we crave the reassurance of a colour that is warm, natural and solid.
Related: Ultra violet: Pantone’s 2018 colour of the year
Continue reading...November 30, 2018
Peanut butter on toast and digital installations in Chernobyl – the week in art
The V&A reopens its Cast Courts, Turner prize nominees are considered and Theseus slays the Minotaur – all in our weekly dispatch
Martin Creed: Toast
Toast and peanut butter are among the elements in Creed’s latest proof of his equation that the whole world + the work = the whole world.
• Hauser and Wirth, London, from 30 November until 9 February.
What to see this week in the UK
From Roma to Popcaan, here’s our pick of the best films, concerts, exhibitions, theatre and dance over the next seven days
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