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

Sunday, 29 October 2017 21:50

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

Written by Phil Brett

in Visual Arts

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…

Friday, 20 October 2017 20:37

Alfredo Jaar's Garden of Good and Evil

Written by Emma Carboni

in Visual Arts

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

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Monday, 02 October 2017 19:02

Never again war: the life and work of Käthe Kollwitz

in Visual Arts

Written by Jenny Farrell

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…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Tuesday, 29 August 2017 18:21

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

in Visual Arts

Written by Dennis Broe

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

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Sunday, 06 August 2017 06:00

Guernica

in Visual Arts

Written by Jenny Farrell

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

Tuesday, 11 July 2017 06:00

For the many, not the few: Liars of Earth at the Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art

Written by Mike Quille

in Visual Arts

Mike Quille reviews the national premiere of Liars of Earth, and interviews the artist. Review of the Drawing Chad McCail’s 100-foot long drawing depicts a series of stories from an imagined world in which the many have combined to overthrow the few. The liars are levelled, and the rich and…

For the many Chad McCail NGCA Wilhelm Reich National Glass Centre

Monday, 22 May 2017 20:15

Banners for Spain

Written by Nick Wright

in Visual Arts

Nick Wright reviews the current exhibition of banners produced by Hammersmith Communist Party in the 1930s, to help the Spanish Republic. Legend has it that while Picasso was living in Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II, a visiting German officer asked him, upon seeing a photo of the painting Guernica…

Spanish Civil War Marx Memorial Library

Tuesday, 16 May 2017 14:18

Women's Art

Written by PL Henderson

in Visual Arts

PL Henderson introduces the #WOMENSART project, which demonstrates how women have continued to create art, often as radicals, rebels and pioneers, despite the social, cultural and economic restrictions placed upon them. In 1972, Austrian artist VALIE EXPORT created a small manifesto entitled ‘Women’s Art’ in which she highlighted the cultural…

#Womensart VALIE EXPORT Guerilla Girls