Visual Arts

"What do you think an artist is? He’s a political being, constantly alive to heartrending, fiery, or happy events, to which he responds in every way. No, painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war, for attack and defense against the enemy."

Pablo Picasso

Saturday, 23 December 2017 21:23

The Aleppo Room: a lost world of cultural harmony

Written by Jenny Farrell

in Visual Arts

Jenny Farrell shows the poignant seasonal relevance of the wonderfully inclusive art in the Syrian Aleppo House. With everything that is happening in the world at the moment, it might seem facile to think of this season as one of good will. And yet Christmas is as good a time…

Monday, 27 November 2017 13:39

The Art of Revolution

Written by Jenny Farrell

in Visual Arts

Jenny Farrell celebrates the democratising power of Revolutionary art. With the Russian Revolution of 1917, the dispossessed took control over their destiny, for the first time in history. How did artists respond to this liberation? Artists from all artistic movements worked with Soviet power. The revolution offered the state and…

Lebedev Mayakovsky Rosta Altman Chagall

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Monday, 27 November 2017 13:31

Every revolution needs some smashing plates

in Visual Arts

Written by Mark Perryman

Mark Perryman went to the 1985 Exhibition of Soviet Design in London, and learned the real meaning of revolution. In 1985, Thatcherism reigned triumphant. The Miners' Strike was coming to a sorry end. With Reagan in the White House the second Cold War dominated what remained of international relations. It…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Sunday, 29 October 2017 21:50

Beyond the boundaries: A review of the Diaspora Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale

in Visual Arts

Written by Phil Brett

Phil Brett takes us on a tour of an exhibition at the Venice Biennale which explores the challenges which emigrants and immigrants face. Away from the main sites of this year's Venice Biennale Arte (See Dennis Broe for a review of the festival) is the Diaspora Pavilion. It’s housed in…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Friday, 20 October 2017 20:37

Alfredo Jaar's Garden of Good and Evil

in Visual Arts

Written by Emma Carboni

Emma Carboni introduces Alfredo Jaar's Garden of Good and Evil, at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Yorkshire Sculpture Park are presenting a major solo exhibition by pioneering Chilean artist, Alfredo Jaar. Widely regarded as one of the world's most politically engaging yet poetic artists, Jaar addresses humanitarian trauma and the politics…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 19 October 2017 07:16

The sinful greed of the rich: Bosch's painting of The Haywain

in Visual Arts

Written by Jenny Farrell

On the 500th anniversary of Luther's revolt, Jenny Farrell gives us a critical appreciation of Hieronymous Bosch's famous painting The Haywain, a coded criticism of the ruthless extortion by the ruling religious and secular elites in mediaeval society. Hieronymus Bosch, the famous Dutch Renaissance painter, died in 1516. A year later,…

Hieronymous Bosch The Haywain Luther

Monday, 02 October 2017 19:02

Never again war: the life and work of Käthe Kollwitz

Written by Jenny Farrell

in Visual Arts

Jenny Farrell introduces the life and work of Käthe Kollwitz, one of Germany’s greatest artists and sculptors, who produced unforgettable images of the violence, injustice and crimes against humanity perpetuated by the capitalist econmic and political system. Käthe Kollwitz's artistic work reflects the events of the first half of the 20th…

Tuesday, 29 August 2017 18:21

Nantes: On the Trail of Jules Verne, Phantasmagorical Machines and The Slave Trade

Written by Dennis Broe

in Visual Arts

Dennis Broe visits and reviews an art trail in Nantes, France. In the elevated quartier of Chantenay, where access to the sea is protected by the watchful eye of Saint Anne, Mary's mother, a little further along the embankment a starry-eyed boy gazes at an intent sea captain with a…

Nantes Jules Verne slave trade

Sunday, 06 August 2017 06:00

Guernica

Written by Jenny Farrell

in Visual Arts

Jenny Farrell takes us through one of the greatest political artworks ever, Picasso's Guernica. There are a handful of pictures that may be said to be almost universally known. They include Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, Edvard Munch’s The Scream and Picasso’s Guernica. Eighty years ago, on 26 April 1937 the small…

Guernica Picasso

Saturday, 22 July 2017 06:00

The most popular art exhibition ever!

Written by Christine Lindey

in Visual Arts

Christine Lindey admires the slyly subversive, anti-establishment and egalitarian themes of Grayson Perry's latest exhibition. Flamboyant, transvestite artist Grayson Perry, who delights in exposing middle-class and art-world pretensions, has plenty to say and provides plenty to look at in The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever!, the free show of his…

Grayson Perry