Picasso To Souza: The Crucifixion Imagery Rarely Exhibited – Revd Jonathan Evens
Overshadowed by iconic images from Picasso 1932 and Bacon/Freud two of the Tate’s current exhibitions feature powerfully expressive crucifixion images.
15 April 2018
Opinion
Stuckism Is Alive And Well And Living In Prague – Edward Lucie-Smith
I’m just back from a visit to Prague. I went there specifically to see an exhibition of new British painting organised by an organisation called ArtLines
2 April 2018
David Bowie Statue Not Fitting A Man Who Loved Fine Art
The latest in a long line of examples is a new statue honouring the late artist David Bowie, unveiled over the weekend in Aylesbury.
26 March 2018
Tate’s Big Faux-Pas: Picasso Exhibition Opens On International Women’s Day
Today (8th March) is International Women’s Day, it’s also the public opening of the new Picasso exhibition at Tate Modern. For those of you familiar with Picasso and his self-mythologized monster; you may need to read that sentence again.
8 March 2018
Pablo Picasso: Genius Or Just Another Misogynistic Pig – Edward Lucie-Smith
With Pablo Picasso 1932 – Tate Modern’s major exhibition for the first half of this year – ready to open (March 8th), the drumbeats are already beginning.
6 March 2018
Edward Lucie-Smith Bids A Final Farewell To The Avant-Garde
The contemporary art world seems an increasingly strange place to be.
21 February 2018
Frank Gehry: Fondation Louis Vuitton Paris – An Architect’s Impression – Alex Murray
I had never experienced a Frank Gehry up-close. Never stood slack-jawed, gawping at the gymnastic splendours that the photographs in the glossies promise.
6 January 2018
Sean Scully Indisputably The Most Universal Living Contemporary Artist- Edward Lucie-Smith
One name immediately sprang to mind – that of the born Irish, once British, now American painter Sean Scully.
4 January 2018
Things I Hate About The British Art World Today – Edward Lucie-Smith
The British contemporary art world is apparently in a healthy state at the moment.
31 December 2017
Elisabeth Murdoch Appointed To Arts Council England National Council – Should We Worry?
On 5th December, seven new appointments were quietly made to Arts Council England’s (ACE) National Council, its governing board. This included the controversial choice of Elisabeth Murdoch, daughter of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
18 December 2017
Basquiat: Colour Blind Expressions Of A Society Unheard – The Barbican
Basquiat used what he knew was out there on the streets the injustices towards black people.
21 September 2017
Matisse vs The Multi-Cultural Multi-Ethnic 21st Century Art World – Edward Lucie-Smith
I went to see the R.A.’s new Matisse show, but not at the press view, as I was abroad. I did go very shortly after it opened. Not unexpectedly, it was jammed with visitors, and I mean jammed. You had to dodge round backs to get a proper view of some of the smaller items, notably the drawings.
11 August 2017
Virtual Masterpiece The Masterpiece Art Fair By Edward Lucie-Smith
What people choose to describe as ‘a masterpiece’ is usually pretty much a matter of context. On the whole, at this annual beanfeast for conspicuous consumers, you won’t find much in the way of graffiti art lurking around, though it’s just possible that you might be confronted with a work by Jean-Michel Basquiat now that he’s included in the pantheon of artists with multi-million dollar price tags.
2 July 2017
Qatar Boycott: Will It Marginalise The Region’s Cultural Renaissance?
Last October I was in Doha the capital of Qatar which seemed like a well-oiled machine when it came to Art, Education, and Culture.
15 June 2017
Tate Britain Comes Out – Queer British Art 1861–1967 By Simon Tarrant
Imagine in 1988 the public furore if the Tate had hosted an exhibition of queer British art – marking the 21st anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act, which decriminalised private homosexual acts between men over 21 in England and Wales.
17 April 2017
Michelangelo Plaster Casts More Convincing Than Sebastiano – National Gallery – Edward Lucie-Smith
The current Michelangelo & Sebastiano show at the National Gallery here in London is very much the kind of exhibition that one feels a great institution ought to be doing: spaciously presented, tirelessly scholarly, you couldn’t wish for a better introduction to these major names in Italian Renaissance art.
16 April 2017
Fourth Plinth Commission “Good For A Disposable Laugh” – Edward Lucie-Smith
The next two occupants of the so-called Fourth Plinth Commission in Trafalgar Square have just been announced and, true to form, the British visual arts establishment has laboured and given birth to a mouse. Or, to be fair, to two mice, one of them just slightly larger than the other. I speak not in terms of size, but in those of probable effect.
24 March 2017
George Boorujy An Artist Highlighting And Protecting Our Precious Natural World
Artist George Boorujy feels particularly pumped to take on the environmental cause, especially since ‘Day One’ the Environmental Protection Agency has been quieted with regard to global warming. Boorujy, an artist devoted to highlighting and protecting our precious natural world says, “This shouldn’t be a partisan issue! Democrats, as well as Republicans, need to breathe.
4 February 2017
Knoedler Fraud Sentencing Sends Out Mixed Messages To Our Unregulated Industry
The Knoedler & Co. gallery fraud case which involved selling $80m/£63m in fake Abstract Expressionist artworks to unknowing collectors seems to be edging to a lenient closure for the corrupt dealer Glafira Rosales.
1 February 2017
The Christian Science Connection Within The British Modern Art Movement
Christian Science does not explain the work of Nash and Nicolson just as surely as their work does not illustrate Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.
15 January 2017
Maria Balshaw: What’s A Great Contemporary Art Museum Without A Living Shaman
When Maria Balshaw takes over from Sir Nicolas Serota at Tate (not yet officially confirmed as I write this, but a racing certainty), she takes over an empire that seems to be in excellent health.
13 January 2017
The Art World NOW – Deconstructing The Avant-Garde By Edward Lucie-Smith
During the last few years, the world of contemporary art has undergone a number of drastic changes, which many leading participants seem extremely reluctant to acknowledge.
23 December 2016
Art Impacted – A Radical Response To Radicalisation By Revd Jonathan Evens
We face the world in which it appears ever more likely that a Clash of Civilisations will be played out on the world stage, potentially with weapons of mass destruction, as the axis of the world appears to have shifted significantly in this year of political shocks.
19 December 2016
The Art Of The Firing Squad: Execution Expressed In Painting
In art, the firing squad is composed as much in time as it is in space; in these first words of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, we encounter a plethora of narrative potential for past future heroism.
21 November 2016
Was Caravaggio A Good Christian? By Revd Jonathan Evens St Stephen Walbrook
Caravaggio – “What a man! What a painter, but what a man and what a believer.” Those are the words of… Read More
6 November 2016
OPINION: Shepard Fairey’s Eiffel Tower Installation Reflects The Freedom Of Paris
The famed street artist Shepard Fairey has recently revealed his contribution to the climate and sustainability debate in Paris, ahead… Read More
27 November 2015
OPINION: Paris Terror Attacks – Art Must Express Egalité
In light of the recent events in Paris, Artlyst reflects on the artists engagement with society in times of socio-political… Read More
17 November 2015
OPINION: Southwark Council’s Shameful Rejection Of 800 Artists’ Studios
After Boris Johnson recently called for new artists’ studios and cultural spaces it seems that little is changing for the… Read More
11 November 2015
OPINION: Boris Johnson Calls For New Artists’ Studios And Cultural Spaces
Boris Johnson has called for new artists’ studios and cultural spaces. This important cultural plea comes as the London Mayor… Read More
28 October 2015
OPINION: Anish Kapoor’s Orbit Tower Dismaland-Style Disappointment
In light of Anish Kapoor’s Olympic Park ArcelorMittal Orbit tower losing £520,000 in 2014-15, burning through £10,000 every week, Artlyst… Read More
21 October 2015
OPINION: Ai Weiwei And Anish Kapoor Inseparable At Frieze London 2015
Artlyst is again attending Frieze week, the 13th edition of Frieze London taking place in The Regent’s Park, from 14… Read More
15 October 2015
Jeff Koons: Anti-Consumerist Art Or Its Own Subject Matter?
In an interview with Austrian daily Der Standard, the most expensive living American artist spoke about his relationship to the… Read More
6 October 2015