http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/?service=Rss http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/modern-comic-genius-the-graphic-art-thats-not-just-for-geeks-1816598.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/modern-comic-genius-the-graphic-art-thats-not-just-for-geeks-1816598.html ]]> <p>Walk into the ICA this weekend and you won't find the usual contemporary art installations. For the next three weeks it's all about art with a cool comic-book twist. At the sixth Comica festival, the annual London gathering of some of the biggest international comic and graphic novel writers and artists around, hip twentysomethings will be watching their heroes drawing a collaborative comic strip live on to the wall and being projected into the bar next door. There will be the latest comic anthologies for sale, DJs, film screenings and talks by some of the biggest names in the comic-book business, including the co-founder of the Forbidden Planet shops, Mike Lake, and Bryan Talbot, author of the first British graphic novel, giving an illustrated lecture on his new steampunk detective thriller Grandville.</p> Features Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/maharaja-the-splendour-of-indias-royal-courts-1815535.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/maharaja-the-splendour-of-indias-royal-courts-1815535.html ]]> Features Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:29:21 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/observations-basquiat-in-photographic-notes-from-the-underground-1815300.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/observations-basquiat-in-photographic-notes-from-the-underground-1815300.html ]]> <p>In a modestly sized apartment on the Lower East of New York, the writing remains on the wall. Despite a childlike charm, they're no ordinary scribblings and the resident, Nicholas Taylor, has no intention of whitewashing over them. Originating from the hand of Jean-Michel Basquiat, they're a reminder of a close friendship that was curtailed by the untimely passing of the artist, aged 27 in 1988. Taylor was part of a very small tight-knit circle of friends that Basquiat trusted as his career spiralled. "All Jean wanted was someone to sit and watch him paint. To be quiet with him," reminisces Taylor. "I really believe he is the most important painter of the late 20th century."</p> Features Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/out-of-this-world-the-museum-of-everything-1813065.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/out-of-this-world-the-museum-of-everything-1813065.html ]]> <p>You don't have to be mad, but it helps. When it comes to Outsider Art, that's a good general motto, but nobody has a definition. For example, was William Blake an Outsider? You could make a case: the symmetrical images packed with detail, the visions, the home-made mythology. Yet Blake studied at the RA, knew the European tradition, consorted with major artists of his time, sought an audience. In those ways, his was the very opposite of Outsider Art. </p> Features Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:48 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/on-the-agenda-were-going-back-in-time-for-a-dalliance-with-dialup-and-an-aled-jonesthemed-christmas-1811024.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/on-the-agenda-were-going-back-in-time-for-a-dalliance-with-dialup-and-an-aled-jonesthemed-christmas-1811024.html ]]> Features Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/little-miss-big-shot-fifties-america-exposed-ndash-by-a-french-nanny-1811040.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/little-miss-big-shot-fifties-america-exposed-ndash-by-a-french-nanny-1811040.html ]]> <p>The timing, composition and realisation grab you. But it's the anonymous drama of the subjects that keeps you looking: who are the two men talking in earnest on the pier? What is running through the mind of the young black man caught in the mirror on a street corner? Yet in the case of the photos presented here, that mystery extends to the photographer herself. We know she was called Vivian Maier, that she took at least 30,000 shots in Chicago and New York in the 1950s and 1960s. For these few facts, we can thank a young Chicago estate agent called John Maloof, whose chance discovery of the Maier archive has brought publishing offers, invitations to exhibit Maier's work all over the world, and the hope, from some, that a new star of mid-century American photography may have been unearthed. </p> Features Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/observations-new-renaissance-at-the-vampa-1811347.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/observations-new-renaissance-at-the-vampa-1811347.html <p>The V&A's new Medieval and Renaissance Galleries, which take up a whole wing of the museum, will finally open on 2 December. Featuring the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, the Becket Casket, thought to have contained his relics, and dramatic Italian sculptures by Donatello, as well as Gothic altarpieces and 13th-century French stained glass windows this is the V&A's most extravagant project since the British Galleries opened in 2001. It has cost 30m.</p> Features Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/future-classic-the-worlds-first-public-museum-gets-a-16361m-makeover-1811072.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/future-classic-the-worlds-first-public-museum-gets-a-16361m-makeover-1811072.html ]]> <p>Oxford's Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology re-opens on 7 November, after a £61m transformation, Britain's biggest cultural project since the creation of the £100m Great Court at the British Museum. The Ashmolean's extension doubles its display space with a pale, luminous architectural clarity that puts the flaccid classical pastiche of the adjoining Sackler Library very firmly in its place.</p> Features Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/rhyme-scene-investigation-1810367.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/rhyme-scene-investigation-1810367.html <p>Many of the great 20th-century avant-garde movements had one thing in common: close ties between art and poetry. Yet in the 21st century, correspondences between art and music, or between architecture and fashion, are much more commonplace. The Serpentine Gallery Poetry Marathon, which we have recently staged, sought to address this, encouraging a new exchange of ideas between visual artists and poets. </p> Features Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/up-close-and-too-personal-a-sophie-calle-retrospective-1809346.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/up-close-and-too-personal-a-sophie-calle-retrospective-1809346.html ]]> <p>Looking at the work that the French artist Sophie Calle has made over the years, it is tempting to assume that she is mad. She stalked a man in Venice and invited strangers to her bed. In New York, she recorded the number of times she smiled at passers by and how often they smiled back. When a lover ended a relationship by email she turned it into a large artwork, inviting 107 women to comment on this intimate correspondence. </p> Features Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/the-diary-mark-wallinger-pink-floyd-royal-opera-house-john-ofarrell-1807169.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/the-diary-mark-wallinger-pink-floyd-royal-opera-house-john-ofarrell-1807169.html ]]> Features Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/i-thought-of-drawing-a-square-british-arts-biggest-names-reveal-the-work-that-set-them-on-the-road-to-fame-1807171.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/i-thought-of-drawing-a-square-british-arts-biggest-names-reveal-the-work-that-set-them-on-the-road-to-fame-1807171.html ]]> <p>The beginning. The middle. The end. It is always fascinating and instructive to observe the trajectory of an artist, any artist. Beginnings can be particularly instructive. Is he or she to the manor born? Or is this foray into art a sudden flight into unknown and uncharted territory, at which the family now raises its collective eyebrows in a mingling of horror and consternation? </p> Features Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/observations-comedy-in-the-frame-at-frieze-1807172.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/observations-comedy-in-the-frame-at-frieze-1807172.html <p>Lurking in the far corner of the Frieze Art Fair in Regent's Park last weekend was quite the curiosity – Club Nutz, the self-proclaimed "smallest comedy club in the world", complete with DJ booth, a stage one-foot deep, bar, disco ball and dry ice. If you managed to ride the wave of browsers, beautiful artists and poseurs to booth G22 (in the middle of the younger Frame section of the fair), the 20-person sweatbox provided an entertaining breather – albeit a claustrophobic one – from the rest of the contemporary art fair.</p> Features Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/the-unholy-trinity-the-three-rebel-sculptors-that-shocked-the-art-world-with-their-pagan-forms-1806799.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/the-unholy-trinity-the-three-rebel-sculptors-that-shocked-the-art-world-with-their-pagan-forms-1806799.html ]]> <p>If you find yourself being troubled on the doorstep by a god-botherer, try playing the pagan card. You may find it's effective in its off-putting-ness. The modern missionary is used to dealing with monotheism and atheism and versions of these things. But polytheism is trickier. Someone who seems to believe in a variety of divinities is rather hard to pin down for a conversion. </p> Features Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/the-priceless-peggy-guggenheim-1806124.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/the-priceless-peggy-guggenheim-1806124.html ]]> <p> It was said that she had a thousand lovers in her life, and that she received her most thorough grounding in modern art when she spent a night and a day in bed with Samuel Beckett, interrupted only by her demands that he go out and find some champagne. People murmured that Peggy Guggenheim went to bed with so many men (and occasionally women) because it boosted her self-esteem and made her less conscious of her huge, potato-shaped nose. She loved art and sex in about equal measure, but she was also turned on by fame. Asked why she loved Max Ernst, the great Surrealist painter whom she married in 1941, she replied: “Because he’s so beautiful and because he’s so famous.” </p> Features Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/sacred-visions-of-godly-gore-1805583.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/sacred-visions-of-godly-gore-1805583.html ]]> <p> Oof! Actual size, accurately detailed, a severed head is displayed, lying on its side. The skin is wan. The dead eyes are half-open. The cleanly sliced windpipe and gullet are in plain view. This is a work in wood, The Head of St John the Baptist, by the Spanish master carver, Juan de Mesa. It's in the first room. It invites you in, as if into a chamber of horrors. </p> Features Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:04 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/features/michael-church-classical-music-has-no-anish-kapoor-thank-god-1805577.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/features/michael-church-classical-music-has-no-anish-kapoor-thank-god-1805577.html <p> Anyone wanting to take the pulse of the fine-art world in its present state should use the BBC’s watch-again facility to catch Stephen Sackur’s interview with Anish Kapoor in BBC World’s Hard Talk slot. </p> Features Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:59:12 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/worth-a-closer-look-the-art-of-science-1805064.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/worth-a-closer-look-the-art-of-science-1805064.html ]]> <p>Science and art once held hands. Robert Hooke, 17th century pioneer of microscopy, did a beautiful picture of a flea, enormously magnified, that is a classic of English draughtsmanship. </p> Features Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/on-the-agenda-tanks-are-set-to-storm-our-stages-and-camper-gets-a-japanese-makeover-1803220.html http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/on-the-agenda-tanks-are-set-to-storm-our-stages-and-camper-gets-a-japanese-makeover-1803220.html ]]> Features Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/a-day-in-the-life-of-arts-hottest-city-1804360.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/a-day-in-the-life-of-arts-hottest-city-1804360.html <p>"Even in a city whose energy for contemporary art has been boundless, the number of artists in town for openings this week is dizzying."</p> Features Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/the-diary-andrew-lloyd-webber-john-walker-alice-channer-ian-mcewan-hilary-mantel-1803267.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/the-diary-andrew-lloyd-webber-john-walker-alice-channer-ian-mcewan-hilary-mantel-1803267.html ]]> Features Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/party-of-the-week-no-sign-of-the-crunch-at-frieze-art-fair-week-1803271.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/party-of-the-week-no-sign-of-the-crunch-at-frieze-art-fair-week-1803271.html <p>There may be less art snapped up as the recession bites – but there is certainly no shortage of parties during London's Frieze Art Fair week. </p> Features Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/a-brand-new-creed-the-turner-prizewinner-turns-choreographer-1802717.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/a-brand-new-creed-the-turner-prizewinner-turns-choreographer-1802717.html ]]> <p>Posing Martin Creed beside his dancers, the photographer suggests that he might put his arms out, as if directing their steps? "But I don't do that," explains Creed, holding his arms resolutely by his sides. Then he crosses them: "Actually, I'm usually in a straitjacket... " </p> Features Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/are-hirsts-paintings-any-good-no-theyre-not-worth-looking-at-1802080.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/are-hirsts-paintings-any-good-no-theyre-not-worth-looking-at-1802080.html ]]> <p>A few quick questions. 1. Are these new paintings, painted by Damien Hirst himself, any good? No, not at all, they are not worth looking at. 2. So why are you writing about them at such length? Because he is very famous. 3. And why has the Wallace Collection decided to exhibit them? Because he is very famous. 4. And why did Damien Hirst even paint them in the first place? Because he is very famous.</p> Features Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/ed-ruscha-a-man-of-his-words-1801704.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/ed-ruscha-a-man-of-his-words-1801704.html ]]> <p>There's a picture by the Renaissance Venetian artist Giorgione called The Tempest. It's famous for being baffling. It shows a landscape and a town, a flash of lightning in the sky, two isolated pillars, a soldier, a naked woman and a baby – an all too meaningful ensemble. But what on earth does it mean? A story? An allegory? Art historians have wondered, and no answer has been found. </p> Features Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/dark-arts-in-turbine-hall-1801782.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/dark-arts-in-turbine-hall-1801782.html ]]> <p>Once there was light, in the form of a fake sun beaming down at thousands of basking visitors at Tate Modern. Now, the gallery's vast Turbine Hall has been filled with darkness.</p> Features Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/on-the-agenda-ballet-books-and-musthave-handbags-and-thats-not-to-mention-free-posh-chocolates-1799834.html http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/on-the-agenda-ballet-books-and-musthave-handbags-and-thats-not-to-mention-free-posh-chocolates-1799834.html ]]> Features Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/anselm-kiefer-the-independent-wants-to-know-if-i-am-a-nazi-1799843.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/anselm-kiefer-the-independent-wants-to-know-if-i-am-a-nazi-1799843.html ]]> <p> Like just about every school in the Marais district of Paris, the école élémentaire around the corner from rue Michel-le-Comte bears a plaque to the memory of its most famous pupils – not scholars or statesmen, but those who were among the "11,000 enfants furent déportés de France par les Nazis et assassinés dans les camps de la mort parce que nés juifs": the 11,000 children deported from France by the Nazis and killed in death camps because they were born Jews. Things that happened nearly seven decades ago are alive on the streets of this still-Jewish quarter of Paris, and nowhere more so than in the vast hôtel particulier that is the home and studio of Anselm Kiefer.</p> Features Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100