http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/?service=Rss http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/observations-the-art-of-snails-919087.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/observations-the-art-of-snails-919087.html <p>From 26 to 28 September, the Wellcome Collection will expand your idea of what drawing can do and who can do it (everybody &ndash; that means you). Scientists, artists, and performers are collaborating on a range of weird and wonderful &ndash; and free &ndash; workshops, in which drawings will be transformed into choral music and meditation will guide you to find and draw "the seat of the soul". </p> Features Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/great-works/magritte-ren-attempt-at-the-impossible-1928-919105.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/great-works/magritte-ren-attempt-at-the-impossible-1928-919105.html <p> Paintings visualise the world for us. They observe or imagine what it looks like. They show us the sight of things. But not always. Some paintings do just the opposite. They show us something, while declaring that they've no idea how it really was. </p> Great Works Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/news-and-features/coe-joins-creed-for-cultural-olympiad-919529.html http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/news-and-features/coe-joins-creed-for-cultural-olympiad-919529.html <p>A four-year "Cultural Olympiad" in anticipation of London's 2012 Games has been unveiled by Olympic chiefs.</p> News and Features Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/men-wanted-163425m-for-return-of-da-vinci-work-919531.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/men-wanted-163425m-for-return-of-da-vinci-work-919531.html <p>Five men have appeared in court accused of demanding &pound;4.25m for the safe return of a Leonardo da Vinci painting.</p> Crime Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/revealed-how-turner-began-his-career-copying-the-old-masters-918048.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/revealed-how-turner-began-his-career-copying-the-old-masters-918048.html <p>JMW Turner has gone down in history as one of the most innovative landscape painters of the 19th century. But now a blockbuster exhibition is to shed new light on a lesser known side of Turner: his obsession to prove he was just as good, if not better, than the old masters whose virtuosity he so admired.</p> News Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/any-last-requests-yes-says-death-row-inmate-turn-me-into-fish-food-918063.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/any-last-requests-yes-says-death-row-inmate-turn-me-into-fish-food-918063.html <p>The final requests of death- row prisoners facing execution have often included large orders of pork chops, fried chicken and bucket loads of ice cream. </p> News Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/art-forgers-what-lies-beneath-917067.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/art-forgers-what-lies-beneath-917067.html <p>According to European police estimates, as much as half the art in circulation on the international markets may be forged. And a fair number of fakes go under the hammer in London auction rooms too, which is why Scotland Yard now has a specialist art and antiques unit. Art forgery has become so common that hardly a year goes by without a big story breaking of how the art experts have been duped.</p> Features Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/magnums-eve-arnold-its-all-about-eve-917070.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/magnums-eve-arnold-its-all-about-eve-917070.html <p>There is a photograph of Marilyn Monroe, taken in 1955, in which she is reading a copy of James Joyce's Ulysses, and she is seemingly quite absorbed in the book and unaware of the camera. She still looks like a sexpot and her only visible clothing is a black and white bikini top, but she isn't turning it on for the camera &ndash; and she doesn't even appear to be knowingly turning it off, either. She looks natural, relaxed and unselfconscious.</p> Features Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/domestic-appliance-flowers-east-london-917076.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/domestic-appliance-flowers-east-london-917076.html <p>Some time in the 1920s a group of artists centred in Zurich wanted to make a point about the uselessness of art. They wanted to make art and art-making seem provocatively, noisily useless. This group came to be known collectively as the Dadaists. One of their ploys was to make art that moved &ndash; because until then art had, generally speaking, been about inertia. You stood still when you contemplated it, and the art itself remained motionless, as one might expect of any dead thing. But what if art were to move? How would one's notions of reality &ndash; and of the reality of art &ndash; be disturbed?</p> Reviews Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/preview-spin-the-art-of-cover-design-arts-gallery-london-915696.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/preview-spin-the-art-of-cover-design-arts-gallery-london-915696.html <p>The designer Peter Saville, whose Factory Records artwork included Joy Division and New Order album covers, knows more about the art of record sleeve design than most. Along with Dylan Jones, the editor of British GQ, and Faris Rotter, the lead singer of The Horrors, who recently created album artwork for The Charlatans, Saville has chosen some of the best LP cover art of the past 40 years for this show of work by former students of University of the Arts London. </p> Reviews Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/stones-lips-logo-given-permanent-spot-at-va-915797.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/stones-lips-logo-given-permanent-spot-at-va-915797.html <p>Mick Jagger's lips have made the Victoria and Albert Museum's permanent collection. The Rolling Stones' famous tongue and lips logo has been bought by the London institution for just under &pound;51,000 at auction in the US.</p> News Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/fit-for-purpose-the-design-museum-celebrates-global-style-of-the-past-150-years-914318.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/fit-for-purpose-the-design-museum-celebrates-global-style-of-the-past-150-years-914318.html <p> A Le Corbusier villa, David Chipperfield coffee cups, 1931 Citroën 2CV... in writing, the best works of design are just names and numbers. But assemble the objects in a room, and allow people to walk around them, and their timeless resonance can be felt immediately. </p> Features Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/dday-for-damien-is-hirst-about-to-turn-the-art-market-on-its-head-or-finally-come-a-cropper-910459.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/dday-for-damien-is-hirst-about-to-turn-the-art-market-on-its-head-or-finally-come-a-cropper-910459.html <p> On 15 September Damien Hirst has a surprise in store for the art world and perhaps also for himself. At the New Bond Street Sotheby's he will mount an audacious two-day auction, entitled Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, of 223 artworks, made by himself and to be sold by himself. This is a money-spinning feat by a living artist on a scale never attempted by an auction house or an art gallery. For this reason alone there are mutters along Bond Street that Hirst's sale will be the moment that his bubble bursts. </p> Features Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/the-naked-and-the-nude-middlesbrough-institute-of-modern-art-middlesbrough-913650.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/the-naked-and-the-nude-middlesbrough-institute-of-modern-art-middlesbrough-913650.html <p>The title of Philip Wilson Steer's painting, Seated Nude: The Black Hat, raises an interesting question, namely whether you can really be unclothed if you have a stack of feathers on your head. Nudity is a slippery term, as Steer's picture suggests. A century after it was painted, his work has the power to embarrass. The truth is that Steer's nude isn't: she is naked. The difference between the two is the subject of the opening chapter of Sir Kenneth Clark's book The Nude, now the inspiration for a show of 20th-century British paintings at the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art.</p> Reviews Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/sometimes-one-can-have-just-too-many-titians-913933.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/sometimes-one-can-have-just-too-many-titians-913933.html <p>How many of us, when rooting through the family holdings, have not wondered if we have a couple too many Titians, a bit of a Van Dyck surplus, or, if we're honest, perhaps a few more Poussins than we really need? So it is with Francis Ronald Egerton, seventh Duke of Sutherland, whose "prudent review of assets" has prompted him to offer a pair of Titians to the nation at a knockdown price. </p> News Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/secret-deal-on-titian-painting-guarantees-16350m-to-wealthy-duke-913943.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/secret-deal-on-titian-painting-guarantees-16350m-to-wealthy-duke-913943.html <p>A secret deal guaranteeing the purchase of two works of art by the Renaissance master Titian from the Duke of Sutherland has already been agreed, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. </p> News Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/francis-bacon-a-brush-with-bacon-911835.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/francis-bacon-a-brush-with-bacon-911835.html <p>The first celebrated Francis Bacon was born in the Strand, during the reign of Elizabeth I. He was raised as an English gentleman, and wrote elegant essays upon morality, taste, public virtue and private manners. The second, a descendant of the first, was born in a nursing home in Dublin to English parents, and became a self-taught painter whose canvases, when they were first widely shown in the 1940s, provoked exclamations of disgust, horror and near-incredulity. Would the first have acknowledged the second socially? It seems rather unlikely.</p> Features Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/great-works/millais-everett-sir-john-the-vale-of-rest-18589-911859.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/great-works/millais-everett-sir-john-the-vale-of-rest-18589-911859.html <p> The debate about labels in art galleries is usually clear-cut. Pro-labellers believe that there are certain things viewers need to know before they can appreciate a work of art. Anti-labellers believe that fascination should come before information, even at the risk of puzzlement &ndash; and that to interrupt the encounter between viewer and art with a wordy little sticker is a kind of vandalism. </p> Great Works Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/flat-lake-literary--arts-festival-clones-co-monaghan-ireland-912103.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/flat-lake-literary--arts-festival-clones-co-monaghan-ireland-912103.html <p>If, as Bill Clinton suggested, the Hay literary festival is akin to Woodstock, then the Flat Lake literary and arts festival in Clones is like a fringe event at Glastonbury. Located on the sprawling Hilton Park estate, the festival is organised by the local novelist Patrick McCabe (author of The Butcher Boy) and the Welsh film director Kevin Allen, who is tied to the estate through marriage. The pair cooked up the festival, now in its second year, while collaborating on a potential screenplay. The whole thing is subsidised largely by the proceeds of an art auction held at last year's event, at which a Damien Hirst spin painting sold for &euro;95,000 (&pound;76,000).</p> Reviews Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/the-big-question-should-the-rich-be-paid-to-keep-their-paintings-in-the-country-912208.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/the-big-question-should-the-rich-be-paid-to-keep-their-paintings-in-the-country-912208.html Features Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/hes-anonymous-so-banksys-gift-is-impermissible-912323.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/hes-anonymous-so-banksys-gift-is-impermissible-912323.html <p>When Banksy offered one of his highly sought-after canvases to Labour to auction for Ken Livingstone's ill-fated re-election campaign, the party's high command was jubilant.</p> News Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/pope-angry-over-crucified-green-frog-sculpture-911404.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/pope-angry-over-crucified-green-frog-sculpture-911404.html <p> A sculpture of a crucified frog threatened with eviction from Bolzano&rsquo;s new modern art museum after being condemned by the pope, the minister of culture and local right-wing politicians is staying where it is. </p> News Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:00:41 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/a-model-whos-worth-her-weight-in-gold-50kg-to-be-precise-910754.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/a-model-whos-worth-her-weight-in-gold-50kg-to-be-precise-910754.html <p> She has been the golden girl of the catwalk for years, but now Kate Moss has been given a &pound;1.5m golden makeover. </p> News Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/the-163100m-heirloom-ancestors-eye-for-an-art-bargain-pays-off-for-duke-910763.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/the-163100m-heirloom-ancestors-eye-for-an-art-bargain-pays-off-for-duke-910763.html <p>Some 220 years ago, a shambolic English aristocrat with a fondness for smoking a labourer's clay pipe staged one of the great art-buying coups by acquiring 305 masterpieces, including two coveted works by Titian, from the collection of a close relative of the recently beheaded French king Louis XVI. The price? The trifling sum of &pound;43,000.</p> News Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/roger-hilton-swinging-out-into-the-void-kettles-yard-cambridge-909510.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/roger-hilton-swinging-out-into-the-void-kettles-yard-cambridge-909510.html <p>"Who is this Roger Hilton?" asked NY Arts magazine in 1953. Today you could be forgiven for asking the same question. If Roger Hilton (1911-1975) had been born on the other side of the Atlantic and been active there during the heyday of Abstract Expressionism, he would enjoy the same renown as Pollock, De Kooning, Rothko and co. But in post-war Britain, when US artists were influencing most of his peers, the non-conformist Hilton looked no further than the European tradition. </p> Reviews Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/the-way-in-which-it-landed-tate-britain-london-907033.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/the-way-in-which-it-landed-tate-britain-london-907033.html <p>Late in the day and by accident &ndash; I'd forgotten it was there &ndash; I have just seen Martin Creed's Work No 850. Walking through Tate Britain's Duveen Galleries, I heard the sound of running feet behind me and, being a south Londoner, waited for a blow to the head. Creed's sprinter &ndash; one of four on a 30-minute shift &ndash; shot past, compact, beautiful, intent. He pounded on, growing smaller, and disappeared through a door at the end of the gallery. Ninety seconds and three sprinters later, he was back again, as self-absorbed as before; and then again, and again.</p> News Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/surfs-up-as-emin-and-team-paint-against-pollution-907214.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/surfs-up-as-emin-and-team-paint-against-pollution-907214.html <p>With their vintage VW camper vans and fashionable beachwear, surfer dudes are as noted for their sense of style as their wave-riding exploits. </p> News Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/bargain-basement-art-from-ebay-goes-on-show-at-hayward-gallery-906535.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/bargain-basement-art-from-ebay-goes-on-show-at-hayward-gallery-906535.html <p>Sellers on eBay may be surprised to learn that their cast-offs are to feature as "works of art" at one of London's most prominent galleries.</p> News Sat, 23 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/great-works/de-zurbaran-francisco-saint-serapion-1628-904905.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/great-works/de-zurbaran-francisco-saint-serapion-1628-904905.html <p> The English Jesuit priest Edmund Campion was executed in London in December 1581. Standing on the scaffold with the noose round his neck, he began to speak: &quot;Spectaculum facti sumus Deo, angelis et hominibus&quot;. These are the words of St Paul, Englished thus: &quot;We are made a spectacle unto God, unto his angels and unto men, verified this day in me, who am here a spectacle unto my Lord God, a spectacle unto his angels and unto you men...&quot; At this point he was cut short. </p> Great Works Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-nazis-the-jewish-banker-and-the-battle-for-two-priceless-picassos-905454.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-nazis-the-jewish-banker-and-the-battle-for-two-priceless-picassos-905454.html <p>The paintings are not only priceless, but they have been among the star attractions at New York's Museum of Modern Art and the city's equally renowned Guggenheim Museum for more than four decades. Both are early Picassos painted at the beginning of the 20th century &ndash; before the two world wars that would engulf Europe and ultimately lead to the current blockbuster of a legal battle.</p> Europe Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/vanity-fair-portraits-photographs-19132008-scottish-national-portrait-gallery-901744.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/vanity-fair-portraits-photographs-19132008-scottish-national-portrait-gallery-901744.html <p>This exhibition almost becomes a homage to Annie Leibovitz. This is no bad thing, but it shows how the Vanity Fair photographers &ndash; including Cecil Beaton, Edward Steichen, Man Ray and Mario Testino &ndash; have played such an integral part in the magazine's history.</p> Reviews Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/art-agrave-la-carte-how-restaurants-are-becoming-the-new-art-galleries-900446.html http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/art-agrave-la-carte-how-restaurants-are-becoming-the-new-art-galleries-900446.html <p> Ever since Picasso and Miro painted for their supper at La Colombe d'Or, high in the hills of Provence, in the south of France, the close connection between art and food has flourished. Today, fabulous original works of their art hang on the walls and bear testimony to the unique deal the artists struck with the restaurateur. They were hungry and penniless, the restaurant had acres of bare walls, so what better than to knock up a picture or two in exchange for a free meal? While this might not still go on in today's rather more ruthlessly commercial eateries, many modern restaurants are still showcasing all forms of art. Artists range from the modern masters who ate at La Colombe d'Or to leading contemporary figures such as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin. </p> Features Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/holy-picasso-the-brit-at-the-centre-of-a-1636bn-art-row-894080.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/holy-picasso-the-brit-at-the-centre-of-a-1636bn-art-row-894080.html <p> Rocking in a swing chair on his porch, Walter Herman sips iced tea. Retired, he exudes the implacable calm of the cardiologist he once was; his wife, Nancy, is more clearly exasperated. "We're not giving up," she says, with a sharp smile. "We've done everything we can in the courts, so it's time for a little guerrilla warfare. Dr Barnes used to leave notices in phone boxes, and we're going to do the same thing &ndash; leaflet the ordinary people of Philadelphia, the people Barnes meant his collection to be for." Her husband nods, then looks over his shoulder, across North Latch's Lane. "When I was young, I used to work as a lifeguard," he says. "I always used to marvel at how peacefully people could drown. They would be in real trouble, but there'd be no noise. Unless you were right next to them, you'd have no idea of their anguish. That's what it's been like at the Barnes." The Barnes. Across from the Hermans' is another, larger building, set back from the road. Properties are big in Merion, the oldest and richest of Philadelphia's western suburbs. The one opposite the Hermans' is at the end of a curved drive, on 12 acres of wooded land. </p> Features Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/painting-family-the-de-brays-dulwich-picture-gallery-london-899494.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/painting-family-the-de-brays-dulwich-picture-gallery-london-899494.html <p>Jan de Bray's Banquet of Mark Antony and Cleopatra is an odd work, but then it was meant to be. The canvas is a portrait historié, a portrait whose subjects are shown as historical characters &ndash; in this case, a licentious Roman general and an Egyptian queen whose husbands included two of her brothers. Hardly a flattering depiction, especially given the identity of the sitters: Salomon and Anna de Bray, Jan's father and mother. </p> Reviews Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/serota-gets-a-job-for-life-at-the-tate---ndash-but-how-come-no-10-wasnt-told-898969.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/serota-gets-a-job-for-life-at-the-tate---ndash-but-how-come-no-10-wasnt-told-898969.html <p>Sir Nicholas Serota, the formidable and contentious director of the Tate galleries whose contract was about to expire, has been made a "permanent employee" to stand at the helm of the galleries indefinitely, The Independent has learnt.</p> News Sat, 16 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/tate-that-serota-defies-his-critics-899003.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/tate-that-serota-defies-his-critics-899003.html <p>Charles Thomson, leader of the art movement known as the Stuckists, and 244 others will be disappointed. They number the signatories of a petition on the Downing Street website urging the Prime Minister not to give his approval to any reappointment of Sir Nicholas Serota as director of the Tate Gallery. (Anyone can start a petition about anything there, it appears). Anyway, Gordon Brown has clearly not heeded their admonition. Serota, we hear, is to be reappointed as director of the Tate when his present contract expires in August 2009.</p> Features Sat, 16 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/observations-weaving-a-new-thread-896986.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/observations-weaving-a-new-thread-896986.html <p>Tapestry often seems banished to a no man's land between art, craft and design. But with the opening of a stunning new creative centre and a home for Dovecot &ndash; which houses Scotland's Dovecot Studios of tapestry weavers and rug tufters &ndash; this ancient art is coming out of the shadows. The premises, which opened last week, combine a centre for craft and design allied to a working studio making it the world's top place for tapestry. This gallery and workspace, created out of the shell of Edinburgh's Infirmary Street Baths, looks set to create quite a splash. </p> Features Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/great-works/bruegel-pieter-the-fall-of-the-rebel-angels-1562-897006.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/great-works/bruegel-pieter-the-fall-of-the-rebel-angels-1562-897006.html <p> &quot;The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels &amp; God, and at liberty when of Devils &amp; Hell, is because he was a true Poet, and of the Devil's party without knowing it.&quot; That was William Blake's view of Milton's Paradise Lost. Is the same true of Bruegel &ndash; a true artist, and on the Devil's side? </p> Great Works Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/edinburgh-photographic-society-146th-international-exhibition-photographic-exhibition-centre-edinburgh-897378.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/edinburgh-photographic-society-146th-international-exhibition-photographic-exhibition-centre-edinburgh-897378.html <p>The late Yousuf Karsh, one of the 20th century's greatest portrait photographers, was a regular contributor to the Edinburgh Photographic Society's shows, and at this year's exhibition, his favoured black-and-white medium is still being used to stunning effect.</p> Reviews Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/fbi-seeks-owners-of-stolen-art-893656.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/fbi-seeks-owners-of-stolen-art-893656.html <p> When New York art collector William Kingsland died in 2006, he left behind hundreds of works of art. But some, including works by Pablo Picasso, turned out to have been stolen. </p> News Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:21:59 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/china-a-photographic-portrait-city-art-centre-edinburgh-891294.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/china-a-photographic-portrait-city-art-centre-edinburgh-891294.html <p>Child beggars, clam diggers, "cadres sent to villages for re-education purposes", detox clinic members, prisoners practising qigong &ndash; all human life is here, vividly captured in this captivating exhibition about China. </p> Reviews Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/snapshots-of-fame-the-sunshine-bores-the-daylights-out-of-me-890079.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/snapshots-of-fame-the-sunshine-bores-the-daylights-out-of-me-890079.html <p>These black and white images of rock'n'roll greats are just a few selected from a treasure trove of photographs that were lying around for years in boxes in the Brixton flat of the photographer Justin Thomas. </p> Features Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/edinburgh-art-festival-2008-various-galleries-edinburgh-889548.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/reviews/edinburgh-art-festival-2008-various-galleries-edinburgh-889548.html <p>I'd guess the people who plan the Edinburgh Art Festival have to guard against perceived Scottishness &ndash; of being seen to buy into the whole skirl o' th' pipes thing peddled along the Royal Mile. This would explain the typical absence of Scottish artists from their programming, although, as with last year's festival, the best show in town is by a local boy. In 2007, it was the Dundonian David Batchelor's Unplugged; for the 2008 Art Festival, it is the Edinburgh-born Andrew Grassie's Painting as Document. Both are at Talbot Rice. If the gallery's clever programming suggests a little light nationalism, then Scots wha' hae'. </p> Reviews Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/denis-darzacq-shop-till-you-drop-888009.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/denis-darzacq-shop-till-you-drop-888009.html <p>A young man dressed in white floats limply in the wrapping paper department of a supermarket. A young woman in a brown hoodie shirt is flung, as if by a punch or by an explosion, from a supermarket flower stall. A young man in a green shirt and trainers walks on air past shelves loaded with light-shades and plastic dustbins. </p> Features Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/starfish-house-plans-are-left-dead-in-the-water-889273.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/starfish-house-plans-are-left-dead-in-the-water-889273.html <p>When the Royal Institute of British Architects announced a competition to build "the country estate of the future" it was enthusiastically welcomed by the architectural community as a chance to build a contemporary luxury mansion that would redefine country life for the privileged elite.</p> News Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/noblesse-oblige-with-lord-and-lady-derby-887837.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/noblesse-oblige-with-lord-and-lady-derby-887837.html <p> These days, with the credit crunch biting, the aristocracy have to come up with ever more ingenious ways to maintain the family pile. </p> News Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/great-works/gorey-edward-the-gashlycrumb-tinies-1963-887857.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/great-works/gorey-edward-the-gashlycrumb-tinies-1963-887857.html <p> &quot;One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing,&quot; was Oscar Wilde's joke, at the expense of Dickens and his too calculated tear-jerking. But in fact, deaths in fiction are often funny. </p> Great Works Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/ugly-christ-on-cross-is-too-much-to-bear-for-art-judge-888289.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/ugly-christ-on-cross-is-too-much-to-bear-for-art-judge-888289.html <p>For the second year running, Australia's most prestigious prize for religious art has been overshadowed by a row over one of the paintings in the competition.</p> News Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/from-beckham-to-lapper-the-everchanging-cast-887463.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/from-beckham-to-lapper-the-everchanging-cast-887463.html News Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:00:55 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/fourth-plinth-is-reserved-for-the-queen-887113.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/fourth-plinth-is-reserved-for-the-queen-887113.html <p>The fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square is being kept free for a statue of the Queen riding a horse which will be commissioned after she dies, say senior officials.</p> News Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0100