However badly this year has treated us – and in the UK, it has treated those working in the arts very badly indeed – we have still been lucky enough to hear an astonishing amount of great music. Before joining ArtMuseLondon, I would normally assemble a couple of ‘round-up’ posts for my own blog ‘Specs’…
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…
An unexpected cultural bonanza: ArtMuseLondon Editor’s review of the year
When in March 2020 the concert halls and opera houses fell silent, and the museums and galleries shut their doors, I expected ArtMuseLondon to take something of a sabbatical. What was there to review if culture in London, and beyond, had closed down for the foreseeable future? In fact, this year has proved unexpectedly rich…
The Making of an artist’s career
Guest article by Dr Chris Davies With museums and galleries still restricted by the effects of the pandemic, Dr Christopher Davies explores the making of an artist’s career. The approach is Socratic, provocative, inviting debate Introduction Why one artist succeeds whilst others fail has long intrigued art historians. It raises a number of questions: Are…
Queen’s Dutch and Italian masterpieces go on display
A Girl Chopping Onions by Gerrit Dou 1646 Dripping wet from a heavy downpour I was very relieved to step inside the rarefied atmosphere of the Queen’s Gallery to see Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace. The exhibition is the latest offering from the Royal Collection with sixty-five priceless Dutch and Italian works on display. The first blue…
Past presence: Dead Space Chamber Music and Kate Arnold
Two brilliantly-timed records that for me sum up the word ‘spirit’: both in the eerie, evocative atmospheres they conjure up, and the sheer inventive brio with which the music was created. * Dead Space Chamber Music are an intriguing collective from Bristol, UK, who seemingly belong to all genres or none. Within the first few…
Alleviate – Simon Templeton
I have found myself drawn more and more, as both player and listener, to the kind of post-Classical ambient piano music which Simon Templeton writes, and never more so this year when I have felt a certain estrangement from the kind of classical music I usually enjoy hearing in concert. Ambient is a misnomer, for…
‘Owen Wingrave’. A Family at War
For its Interim Season, Grange Park Opera is offering several new filmed operas to the public. Owen Wingrave, filmed in September of this year, is a rarely performed work by Benjamin Britten and was originally conceived as a TV opera. It was broadcast on BBC2 in 1971. For this reason alone I was very curious to see it. For…
Black Artists’ Experience in Britain: Sir Frank Bowling and Sonia Boyce
Guest article by Dr Chris Davies IntroductionIt was two hundred and thirty seven years before the Royal Academy of Arts elected a black Academician. And since its inception in 1984, only two black artists have been nominated out of one hundred and twenty five for the Turner Prize. For the two artists explored in this…
Boakye’s Show at Tate Britain Alluring and Enigmatic
The Matters 2016 Of Ghanaian descent, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye was born in London in 1977. Now into her fourth decade, she has already achieved so much as an artist. Her oil paintings are to be found in museum collections across the world and since 2015 she has had solo shows in London, Munich, Basel…
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