http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/?service=Rss http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/loris-graud-ica-london-828170.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/loris-graud-ica-london-828170.html?r=RSS <p>Loris Gréaud's work is full of Gallic chic, a sort of stylish marriage between Eurotrash and Roland Barthes. Depending on your taste and point of view, it is either a web of complex ideas that fuses different fields of activity and knowledge, oriented around processes rather than finished forms; or it is a load of French intellectual cobblers.</p> Reviews Thu, 15 May 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/mario-rossi-seascapes-village-underground-london-827553.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/mario-rossi-seascapes-village-underground-london-827553.html?r=RSS <p>To paint the sea is never just to paint the sea. How could it be? The sea is protean, ever shape-shifting, ever posing &ndash; and proposing &ndash; new threats, or new and unpredictable visual delights. To paint the sea is to paint it in relation to the land, the sky, the circumambient world; above all, it is to paint the sea in relation to man himself because, being the great brush-wielder, man calls the shots.</p> Reviews Wed, 14 May 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/preview-daphne-todd-messums-cork-street-london-826906.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/preview-daphne-todd-messums-cork-street-london-826906.html?r=RSS <p>Spike Milligan, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Tom Stoppard and the man who emptied her cesspit for 20 years are among those who have sat for the award-winning figurative artist and portraitist Daphne Todd. </p> Reviews Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/unpopular-culture-de-la-warr-pavilion-bexhillonsea-825739.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/unpopular-culture-de-la-warr-pavilion-bexhillonsea-825739.html?r=RSS <p>Don't be deceived by the idyllic location of Grayson Perry's mesmerising exhibition. As visitors stroll towards the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill, they can relish its streamlined Art Deco fa&ccedil;ade overlooking a seductive stretch of Sussex seafront. But once inside, Perry's haunted imagination offers a far more unsettling vision of Britain.</p> Reviews Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/faux-feminisim-is-comtemporary-art-paying-too-much-attention-to-work-that-should-be-ignored-822735.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/faux-feminisim-is-comtemporary-art-paying-too-much-attention-to-work-that-should-be-ignored-822735.html?r=RSS <p>"When I am an old woman," begins one of the nation's favourite poems, "I shall wear purple/ with a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me." And it goes on in that vein, listing an assortment of charming but harmless eccentricities, quite as if they were the last word in senior troublemaking. But how about this: when I am an old woman, I shall stand stark naked, legs akimbo, with a desperate look and a pistol in each hand, one pointed at the viewer, the other at my own head. </p> Reviews Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/preview-new-generation-revisited-new-art-centre-wiltshire-821988.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/preview-new-generation-revisited-new-art-centre-wiltshire-821988.html?r=RSS <p>A major exhibition will introduce one of the most important movements of British sculpture to a new audience. New Generation Revisited includes works by David Annesley, Michael Bolus, Isaac Witkin and Phillip King, who all trained under Sir Anthony Caro at St Martin's School of Art in London during the 1960s. </p> Reviews Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/edward-burra-crane-kalman-gallery-london-821052.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/edward-burra-crane-kalman-gallery-london-821052.html?r=RSS <p>Edward Burra was a true English upper-middle-class eccentric. He could be waspish, camp and difficult. In 1961, while painting at home, the Royal Academy rang to ask if he would consider becoming an associate. His acerbic response was to shout downstairs to his manservant, who was speaking to them: "Tell them I'm busy."</p> Reviews Mon, 05 May 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/you-write-the-reviews-life-before-death-wellcome-collection-london-821059.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/you-write-the-reviews-life-before-death-wellcome-collection-london-821059.html?r=RSS <p>Next to a photograph of Wolfgang Katzahn, a subject in this show at the Wellcome Collection in London, is the quotation: "Suddenly, everything matters. I have never paid any attention to clouds before." In the next picture, his days of sky-gazing are over: he's dead.</p> Reviews Mon, 05 May 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/blood-on-paper-the-art-of-the-book-va-london-820650.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/blood-on-paper-the-art-of-the-book-va-london-820650.html?r=RSS <p>In 1975, Tom Wolfe published an essay called The Painted Word in which he argued that art theorising had taken over from art-making as the visual pursuit of our day. Where theorists once applied themselves to artworks, the reverse was now true. In a time when art schools are departments of universities and award degrees like any other discipline, artists start with a Big Idea and work backwards. Their art is shaped &ndash; the material in which they shape it is immaterial &ndash; to fit their concept. </p> Reviews Sun, 04 May 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/preview-animal-magic-eleven-fine-art-london-817157.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/preview-animal-magic-eleven-fine-art-london-817157.html?r=RSS <p>The artist-taxidermist Polly Morgan &ndash; who has sold two artworks to Kate Moss, including a dead blue tit on a prayer book and dead quail chick in a matchbox &ndash; only uses animals that have been run over or have died from natural causes in her work. "I don't go out hunting for them; I wait to be given them," says Morgan. </p> Reviews Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/maria-lassnig-serpentine-gallery-london-816093.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/maria-lassnig-serpentine-gallery-london-816093.html?r=RSS <p>As welcomes go, Maria Lassnig's is uncommonly open. Facing the entrance to her Serpentine Gallery show is a self-portrait, painted in 2005, its legs outstretched in an attitude of embrace. </p> Reviews Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/china-at-the-court-of-the-emperorsbr-china-china-china-chinese-contemporary-art-palazzo-strozzi-florence-815274.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/china-at-the-court-of-the-emperorsbr-china-china-china-chinese-contemporary-art-palazzo-strozzi-florence-815274.html?r=RSS <p>What is Florence for? Anyone who stands in the Piazza della Signoria and stares at the self-vaunting bronze equestrian statue of Cosimo de Medici will know the answer to that question. Florence exists to proclaim the greatness of Florence, to be the near-perfect embodiment of its own tremendous civic pride. This is one of the reasons why Florence is not much of a centre for art from elsewhere. </p> Reviews Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/you-write-the-reviews-simon-armitage-art-gallery-huddersfield-814619.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/you-write-the-reviews-simon-armitage-art-gallery-huddersfield-814619.html?r=RSS <p>The poet, playwright and novelist Simon Armitage looked relaxed as he waited to be introduced to a full house in Huddersfield Art Gallery; born in the town, the 44-year-old was tonight a local boy made good. Clearly, the youthful-looking Armitage of 2008 is an experienced performer. Here, he was in the best sense artful, experimental and yet at ease in his own skin in front of an audience of mainly literary professionals, who were confident of their own tastes and standards. Light entertainment was provided by a series of anecdotes relating to the writing of a recent translation of the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. </p> Reviews Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/artes-mundi-national-museum-cardiff-813281.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/artes-mundi-national-museum-cardiff-813281.html?r=RSS <p>The biennial Artes Mundi, the Welsh international art exhibition and prize, has become a hub of serious contemporary art. This third competition is no exception.</p> Reviews Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/jerwood-contemporary-painters-jerwood-space-londonbr-tess-jaray-lyon--turnbull-london-812016.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/jerwood-contemporary-painters-jerwood-space-londonbr-tess-jaray-lyon--turnbull-london-812016.html?r=RSS <p>As you stand before any of the works in the Jerwood Contemporary Painters show, ask yourself this: does it really matter that it's a painting? Is it actually concerned with paint, or is its medium just a conceptual flag of convenience? These questions seem so very old-fashioned that I'm embarrassed suggesting you ask them. But these are interesting times for painting, and terms need to be defined.</p> Reviews Sun, 20 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100