‘Hallyu’ – the eye-catching title of this big-ticket exhibition at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum (‘V&A’) – translates as ‘Korean wave’, the phrase used to describe Korean culture’s steady rise to prominence over the last 25 years or so. Informed by a K-pop aesthetic, it’s a heady, day-glo, assault-on-the-senses experience. Throw yourself into it and…
Category: Art
Picture This : Australian artist, Daryl Austin, presents his latest work
“Veiled monument, Tarndanyangga, 2022” is one of a series of paintings depicting my immediate urban environment. As a daily habitual walker negotiating these spaces it is evident that they are in a process of continual change and disruption. I try within these paintings to utilise motifs as depicted here of a known/unknown monument undergoing restoration….
Picture This : French Illustrator Serge Bloch ‘I Wear the Hat’
What I find interesting in collage, is the relationship between the glued object and the graphic line, and what transpires between the collection of the collage and the drawing. For me, collage is humour, the coming together of two artistic impulses. The titles to my drawings are often playful, made up of strands of poetry…
Lightbulb moments: Cornelia Parker at Tate Britain
The exploding shed is probably the image familiar to most. But the joy of seeing so much of Cornelia Parker’s work all in one place shows just how consistently she has sought to reach the heart of the (subject) matter by systematically taking it apart or changing its form – violently or otherwise. * The…
Hang about: Andreas Gursky (White Cube, Bermondsey); ‘For the Record’ (Photographers’ Gallery)
A few Saturdays ago, I went to two photography exhibitions. When you see two shows more or less together like this – even though they are nothing to do with each other – it’s hard to stop unlooked-for, and occasionally revelatory, connections popping into your head and affecting how you perceive the work. Both the…
Walter Sickert Unsettles and Enchants at Tate Britain Retrospective
Walter Sickert is a bit of an enigma. Brilliant certainly, rather weird, probably. Author, Patricia Cornwell, wrote a book about him, claiming that he was the Jack the Ripper. She is not the first writer to associate Sickert with the infamous murderer. Other writers postulate that Sickert was the Ripper’s assistant. What is undeniable, is that Sickert…
Field work: Zadok Ben-David, ‘Natural Reserve’ at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Art emergency! If you are planning – or even vaguely considering – a visit to Kew Gardens over the next week or so, make sure you take in its current exhibition: ‘Natural Reserve’, the latest show from Zadok Ben-David. I first came across Ben-David’s art through being a Peter Gabriel fan. Even since his early…
Poussin and the Dance at the National Gallery, London
Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) A thought-provoking exhibition which offers a different view of Poussin’s early work in Rome and displays his paintings in a sympathetic and joyous environment. Guest review by Sarah Mulvey Detail from a Bacchanalian Revel Before a Term, ca.1632-33, London, National Gallery I am spellbound before Poussin’s painting of the Adoration of the Golden Calf in the…
Misery and Hope Through Motion | Visual Musings of William Blake’s ‘The Whirlwind of Lovers’
Guest post by Justin Pennington Simply called the Commedia, Dante Alighieri’s fourteenth-century magnum opus has fascinated scholars since its conception. It has produced many artistic, literary, and psycho-analytical examinations of its concern with eschatology. For those unfamiliar with the poem’s structure, it is the Inferno, with the pilgrim’s journey through Hell, and the powerful visual…
The Christmas Story in Art
Guest post by Dr Chris Davies Paintings of The Feast of the Nativity, The Adoration of the Shepherds and The Adoration of the Magi The Feast of the Nativity The most challenging task for any artist seeking to represent Christ is how to depict his dual nature, human yet fully divine. Christian art is above…