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

Monday, 12 December 2016 16:00

Cuimhneachain nan Gaisgeach - Remembering the Heroes

Written by Matt Bruce

in Visual Arts

The dire accommodation situation in London may seem a long way from the situation in Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, 150 years ago. Not so, explains Matt Bruce, whose wife's grandfather took part in the Pairc Deer Raid of 1886. He writes in response to our request in summer for more…

13C Gold Rhino, hidden by the racist apartheid regime of South Africa because it contradicted their ideology of an empty land

Monday, 12 December 2016 14:52

South Africa: The Art of a Nation

Written by Nick Wright

in Visual Arts

Nick Wright reviews South Africa: The Artof a Nation Filmgoers of a certain age will remember the 1964 film Zulu, which shows a group of British soldiers holding out against the massed warrior formations of the Zulu nation. A relatively minor 1879 episode in this country’s bloody colonial history, it originally…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 10 November 2016 15:43

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio: Heretical, Subversive and Revolutionary

in Visual Arts

Written by Mike Quille

A radical cultural struggle against the established order: Mike Quille reviews the Caravaggio exhibition at the National Gallery. Curators sometimes overuse the word revolutionary when promoting exhibitions but it is an apt description of the six paintings by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio which hang alongside those of his admirers, rivals…

Caravaggio Supper at Ammaus The Taking of Christ National Gallery

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 05 October 2016 14:39

You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels at the V and A

in Visual Arts

Written by Phil Brett

Phil Brett finds an intoxicatingly high level of class struggle in the latest V and A exhibition. Rock music is ageing and whilst not dead, does appear to be becoming a museum piece with a growing a number of major exhibitions of rock musicians and bands. Elvis, The Stones and…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 28 September 2016 14:22

Tracey Emin meets William Blake

in Visual Arts

Written by Darren Pih

Darren Pih, Exhibitions & Displays Curator, Tate Liverpool writes about Tracey Emin & William Blake in Focus at Tate Liverpool: 16 September 2016 to 3 September 2017. Tracey Emin was born in 1963, around 200 years after the Romantic artist and poet William Blake. While perhaps it seems counterintuitive to…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 31 August 2016 14:00

'Increasingly more political': the art of Cornelia Parker

in Visual Arts

Written by Phil Brett

Phil Brett introduces the art of Cornelia Parker. I was only vaguely familiar with the artist Cornelia Parker, when in 1998, Steve, a good friend of mine, suggested that we visit the London Serpentine Gallery for an exhibition of hers. At the time, I wasn’t in…

A picket mounted by the Women's Peace Camp at Greenham Common, 1982.

Monday, 01 August 2016 16:06

The persistence of protest: the preventative photography of Edward Barber

Written by Mike Quille

in Visual Arts

A woman sits on a fold-up chair, with a sign – 'Hello, can you stop for a talk?' – inviting passersby to stop for a chat about nuclear proliferation. An elderly woman stands on her own with a sign 'No to nuclear war' round her neck. A sandalled foot sticks…

Edward barber Greenham Common CND

Thursday, 02 June 2016 09:45

Unknown Knowledge: Richard Hamilton's Last Works

Written by Marc James Leger

in Visual Arts

Marc James Léger follows up his last article with an essay on the British artist and self-defined communist, Richard Hamilton. Léger continues his quest for a renewal of emancipatory politics on the left through a critique of discourse theory. Introduction In March 2016 I published Ecce Homo! Occupy God? in Culture Matters,…

cultural theory foucault lacan richard hamilton

Wednesday, 01 June 2016 10:34

Free all political prisoners

Written by Mina Boromand & Chris Bird

in Visual Arts

Monday, 23 May 2016 09:43

Cultural beheading: art from Syrian refugees

Written by Amir Darwish

in Visual Arts

Since the start of war in Syria, politics has taken over discussion whenever the country’s name is mentioned. However, the Hikayetna project concentrates on the human side of the issue, focusing on the refugee crisis and victims' experiences and journeys to escape the conflict. This is an apolitical and independent…

Syria refugees