Thursday, 23rd October 2008
11:27am
For the first time in over 50 years Titian’s Diana and Actaeon has left the National Gallery in Edinburgh, where it has been on loan from the Duke of Sutherland since 1945. Unveiled today in Room I of the National Gallery, London, this great masterpiece is in a sense returning to its old home, as it forms part of the Bridgewater collection, which from the early 19th century until World War II was on view to the public in the gallery at Bridgewater House, overlooking Green Park in London, having been bought by the Duke’s ancestor, the 3rd Duke of...
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Friday, 17th October 2008
11:47am
Last weekend Manchester Art Gallery unveiled the first international exhibition in over 40 years about the life and work of the Pre-Raphaelite master William Holman Hunt. Writing for Apollo Muse, curator Jan Marsh discusses The Awakening Conscience, one of the highlights of the exhibition.
According to the critics, it was ‘an utterly disagreeable picture’, illustrating ‘a very dark and repulsive side of modern domestic life’. Yet today’s viewers find The Awakening Conscience the most fascinating of all Holman Hunt’s paintings (above).
It shows a young woman dallying with her lover – they are playing popular music in the middle of...
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Tuesday, 14th October 2008
4:56pm
After the unprecedented success of his groundbreaking £111m sale at Sotheby’s, London – which would have stolen headlines even without the current financial context – how could Damien Hirst fail to rank as anything but no.1 in ArtReview’s annual list, published tomorrow, of the art world’s ‘Power 100’?
There’s also an air of inevitability that Science – the company responsible for the team of studio assistants that produce, market and publicise the works that have turned Hirst into a superbrand – is the only corporate institution on the list this year. UBS and Deutsche Bank, key art sponsors who ranked...
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Friday, 10th October 2008
4:36pm
Tate secures Rubens for the nation
A Rubens sketch for the ceiling of the Banqueting House, Whitehall, is to remain in the UK after Tate successfully raised £5.7m by the final day of the deadline. The Apotheosis of James I was produced by Rubens during the course of his diplomatic mission to England in 1629 and has been described as ‘a unique treasure in the history of British art’. The sketch was at risk of being sold abroad by its owner, Viscount Hampden, who imposed a funding deadline of 30 September. On the final day the asking price was...
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Thursday, 9th October 2008
1:22pm
The Tate’s annual Turner Prize exhibition opened last week with a shortlist of artists that, for once, has stirred interest beyond its tributes in journalese. The list includes two key figures whose work is already recognised within contemporary art in Britain as a key influence to a younger generation.
Glasgow-based, Cathy Wilkes has evolved a language through building sculptural installations that combine objects and materials from spheres of public and private ritual. I Give You All My Money (2008; pictured above) is a checkout tableaux that gathers the inanimate clutter of the shop floor within a constellation of domestic...
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A recent exhibition in Nottingham showcases contemporary artists' exploration of the Communist-era space race.
Cast aside by Modernists for much of the 20th century, Classicism
has a comeback of sorts, with an excellent new book reappraising
architecture partnerships and a recent exhibition at one of the very
institutions that so derided the style.
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