Visual Art

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

Wednesday, 21 October 2020 11:04

Photographs that sing: In memory of Chris Killip, 1946-2020

Written by Graeme Rigby

in Visual Arts

Graeme Rigby writes a memorial piece about Chris Killip, who died recently. Above image of Chris ® Kent Rodzwicz It was late 1982. My first paid gig as a writer was from Side Gallery, which Amber film and photography collective had set up in 1977. It was to write a…

Friday, 02 October 2020 10:42

Peace

Written by Friedrich Farshaad Razmjouie

in Visual Arts

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Tuesday, 18 August 2020 11:42

Coal mines become gift shops: Black Suns at Louvre Lens

in Visual Arts

Written by Dennis Broe

Dennis Broe reviews Black Suns at Louvre Lens in France, on until the end of January 2021 Lens was a small but highly important town in the industrial era of the late 19th century, located in the former French-Belgium coal belt. It is now the home of the satellite museum…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 09 July 2020 11:06

Disgraced Monuments

in Visual Arts

Written by Adam Stoneman

Adam Stoneman discusses how public monuments and statues mask the arbitrariness of power. Above: the Edward Colston Statue (photo: Bristol City Council) “Great monuments are erected like dams, opposing the logic and majesty of authority to all disturbing element; it is in the form of cathedral or palace that Church…

Black Lives Matter

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Saturday, 04 July 2020 15:08

Happy birthday NHS

in Visual Arts

Written by Martin Gollan

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Saturday, 13 June 2020 13:01

Statues also die

in Visual Arts

Written by Dennis Broe

Dennis Broe reflects on the recent attacks on European colonialism and support shown to Black Lives Matter, through the defacement and removal of statues The first week of European and particularly French and Francophone protests in the wake of the US Black Lives Matter movement concerned parallel police actions against…

Black Lives Matter Edward Colston Leopold II

Thursday, 04 June 2020 13:01

Portraits from the pandemic: Artists highlight the role of NHS workers

Written by Nicholas Baldion

in Visual Arts

Nicholas Baldion discusses art, portraiture and the Covid-19 crisis, illustrated by some of his portraits of NHS workers. The painting above is of Karl, who works for the NHS in Oxford, and it's by Tim Benson In the ancient Roman Republic, there were laws preventing anyone but the patrician class…

Covid19 Picasso

Monday, 11 May 2020 15:07

The three wise monkeys: rich, powerful and extremely alert......

Written by Martin Gollan

in Visual Arts

...except to the cry of the poor.

Prime Minister Queen Archbishop of Canterbury

Tuesday, 05 May 2020 08:20

The arts, trade unions, and working-class identity

Written by Anthony D. Padgett

in Visual Arts

Anthony D. Padgett reflects on the arts, trade unions, and working-class identity “Hold tight” I call as we ride on my vintage motorcycle through the steep terraced streets of Lancashire towns. My last day of freedom as I lose all my work to the Coronavirus crisis. We pass the tall…

Peterloo Memorial The Matrix Walter Benjamin

Thursday, 30 April 2020 11:09

The unflinching radicalism of Kim James

Written by Nick Wright

in Visual Arts

Nick Wright remembers Kim James' materialist approach to art What strikes me most about Kim James' place in the discourses around art, creativity and consciousness is his unrelenting philosophical materialism. Of course this is not simply a question of seeing mind and consciousness as part of the material and social…