http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/?service=Rss http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/portfolio-rob-hann-1828842.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/portfolio-rob-hann-1828842.html ]]> <p> "I was just cruising along Interstate 80, in the middle of Nevada, when I drove by this business," explains Hann of the above image, part of his "Deserted States of America" series. </p> Features Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/on-the-agenda-tiger-tiger-burning-bright-ndash-and-its-coming-right-for-us-plus-lessons-in-carving-turkey-1828844.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/on-the-agenda-tiger-tiger-burning-bright-ndash-and-its-coming-right-for-us-plus-lessons-in-carving-turkey-1828844.html ]]> <p> <b><u>Film</u></b> </p> <p> Whether you like to see a master at work or watch an auteur in the making, Rolex's biennial Mentor and Protégé programme will catch the eye. Six virtuosos, from visual artist Rebecca Horn to author AS Byatt, each take an up-and-coming talent under their wing for a year, and will be discussing their experience at various venues around the capital. </p> Features Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/nothing-matters-white-cube-london-1830347.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/nothing-matters-white-cube-london-1830347.html <p> Lest you are newly back from Mars, something in the nature of a miracle has happened in British art: Damien Hirst has begun to paint. </p> Reviews Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/the-100m-warhol-1830661.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/the-100m-warhol-1830661.html ]]> <p>In his rough cowboy gear, gun drawn, Elvis Presley is captured in the picture at his physical peak. Andy Warhol could easily have been forgiven for wanting to duplicate it. </p> News Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/the-christmas-arts-roundup-its-behind-you-1828848.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/the-christmas-arts-roundup-its-behind-you-1828848.html ]]> <p> <b><u>Panto and family theatre</u></b> </p> <p> <b>Jack and the Beanstalk</b> Following the immigration comedy England People Very Nice, Richard Bean moves on to less controversial ground as one of four writers behind this modern-day take on the panto staple. Lyric Hammersmith (0871 22 117 29) to 9 Jan </p> Features Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/art-barter-artists-and-artisans-1830675.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/art-barter-artists-and-artisans-1830675.html ]]> <p>Tracey Emin needs a plumber, and her shoes need re-heeling. So, if you know your way around a U-bend or a cobbler's last, rush down to her former studio in East London today and she may give you one of her art works in exchange.</p> News Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/french-artist-sells-work-in-game-with-the-devil-1830287.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/french-artist-sells-work-in-game-with-the-devil-1830287.html ]]> <p>A French artist has struck an unusual deal to sell his latest work: instead of paying up front, the buyer will hand over a regular fee until the artist dies.</p> News Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/malcolm-mclaren-im-most-probably-a-missing-link-1828431.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/malcolm-mclaren-im-most-probably-a-missing-link-1828431.html ]]> <p> Is Malcolm McLaren in danger of joining the ranks of Stephen Fry, Alan Bennett and the late Queen Mother by becoming a national treasure? </p> Features Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:16 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/the-diary-the-enchanted-pig-delaroche-sarah-palin-ruth-padel-and-spencer-tunicks-naked-installations-1828430.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/the-diary-the-enchanted-pig-delaroche-sarah-palin-ruth-padel-and-spencer-tunicks-naked-installations-1828430.html <p> <b>When playing a pig is no fairy tale</b> </p> <p> Swine flu threatened to hamper the progress of the Royal Opera House's rehearsals of 'The Enchanted Pig', Jonathan Dove's opera for children, which opens in the Linbury Studio Theatre on 11 December. </p> Features Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-composition-in-white-black-and-red-1936-piet-mondrian-1828446.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-composition-in-white-black-and-red-1936-piet-mondrian-1828446.html ]]> <p>People have tried to get computers to compose music, and with some success, especially if the music's form is relatively formulaic. You can program music "in the style of Mozart". It won't be much good, but it can yield something plausible, something Mozart might just have done on an off-day. </p> Great Works Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/observations-annie-kevans--theres-more-to-these-faces-than-meets-the-eye-1828456.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/observations-annie-kevans--theres-more-to-these-faces-than-meets-the-eye-1828456.html <p>Annie Kevans has an eye for what makes an eye-catching portrait. Her oil-on-paper likenesses look simple, almost childlike, but they come with a sting in the tail. The 36-year-old artist began painting in her final year at St Martin's with Boys, a set of pictures of dictators as children – a blue-eyed Hitler in a simple brown jacket, a wan Franco, a petulant Pol Pot. "People think it's a bit naff, really cutesy and then, oof, it's Hitler."</p> Features Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/weekly-global-art-events-agenda--art-basel-miami-beach-art-miami-1829727.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/weekly-global-art-events-agenda--art-basel-miami-beach-art-miami-1829727.html ]]> <p>Miami will become the center for contemporary and modern art during the week of November 30. Art Basel Miami Beach will take place from December 3 to 6 and will run parallel to many other large satellite shows based in Miami including Art Miami and Photo Miami.</p> News Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/tracey-emin-lady-liberty-1827497.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/tracey-emin-lady-liberty-1827497.html ]]> <p>I don't want to be mean, but Tracey Emin, charter member of the once-young Britart movement and marchioness of masturbation-in-crayon, isn't that good at looking cross. She says she is really, really (she uses those two words a lot) cross. But to me she looks just cuddly and a little vulnerable. </p> Features Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:00:18 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/scarlett-johansson-catherine-zetajones-join-hollywood-lineup-on-broadway-1828387.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/scarlett-johansson-catherine-zetajones-join-hollywood-lineup-on-broadway-1828387.html ]]> <p>Lately it seems the New York theater world cannot stage a show without Hollywood stars attached, and the trend continues as this season's new plays and musicals launch. Certainly Jude Law's marquee value helps keep <em>Hamlet</em> alive and it signals a big name can fill the house.</p> News Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/julie-andrews-to-return-to-london-stage-1828811.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/julie-andrews-to-return-to-london-stage-1828811.html ]]> <p>Julie Andrews, the star of "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music", is returning to the London stage for the first time in 30 years with a one-off show in May, the organisers announced Wednesday.</p> News Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/prehistoric-masterpieces-the-swimmers-and-the-beast-1827172.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/prehistoric-masterpieces-the-swimmers-and-the-beast-1827172.html <p> The inhospitable plateau of Gilf Kebir in the far south-west Egyptian desert was once home to an early Egyptian civilization, who left behind spectacular cave art. We took a look, and brought our video camera. </p> Features Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:17:37 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/so-who-are-we-1826801.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/so-who-are-we-1826801.html ]]> <p>I went into the passport office to get a passport and there it was, pinned up on the wall: a poster advertising the coming identity card. I haven't seen it anywhere else. I think it may have been a try out. But what it said was: "The identity card. Celebrating individuality. Protecting community." Seriously, that's what it said, with those New Labour verbless present participles. The slogan was illustrated with a chequerboard of contemporary British faces, diversity itself, to show you what a community of individuals looks like. But I ask you: celebrating individuality? An identity card? What kind of mug-shots do they think we are? </p> Features Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/blitzed-paul-delaroche-artwork-restored-for-show-1826727.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/blitzed-paul-delaroche-artwork-restored-for-show-1826727.html ]]> <p> Wartime curators bemoaned the loss of a great work when they rolled up the remains of Delaroche’s monumental painting, ‘Charles I Insulted by Cromwell’s Soldiers’ that had been pounded by shrapnel after a lethal bombing raid during the Blitz in 1941 which left the Bridgwater House – where the work had hung – decimated. </p> News Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:16:39 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/weekly-art-websites-graffiti-1826894.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/weekly-art-websites-graffiti-1826894.html ]]> <p>This week's selection includes five art websites that feature graffiti.</p> News Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/house-and-home/interiors/annie-deakin/wanted-interior-design-students-with-x-factor-1826347.html http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/house-and-home/interiors/annie-deakin/wanted-interior-design-students-with-x-factor-1826347.html ]]> <p> Budge over Simon Cowell, it is Ben de Lisi's moment and instead of budding singers, the talent on trial are aspiring interior designers. Launched this week, the UK's first major talent competition to find the country's next top interior designer has begun. De Lisi, a former mentor on Sky One's Project Catwalk and a celebrity favourite, is leading the panel of judges including Alex Proby, in-house interiors expert at property giant Grosvenor and Kate Kingston, from interior design firm Kingston Shaw. </p> Annie Deakin Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:42:29 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/portfolio-rob-hann-1824072.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/portfolio-rob-hann-1824072.html ]]> <p> "I took this shot on the Extraterrestrial Highway, in Nevada, which goes straight through the military base at Area 51," explains Hann of this image, part of his "Deserted States of America" series. </p> Features Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/on-the-agenda-were-off-to-chelsea-to-see-elvis-unguarded-uh-thank-you-very-much-proud-gallery-1824093.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/on-the-agenda-were-off-to-chelsea-to-see-elvis-unguarded-uh-thank-you-very-much-proud-gallery-1824093.html ]]> <p> <u><b>Photography</b></u> </p> <p> Of the myriad shots taken of Elvis through his life, few captured the King quite as well as the photojournalist Alfred Wertheimer's from 1956, when Presley was on the cusp of stardom. </p> Features Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/postcard-art-having-a-cool-time-wish-you-were-here-1825556.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/postcard-art-having-a-cool-time-wish-you-were-here-1825556.html ]]> <p>They don't look much like contemporary art-lovers. There are no sharp suits, silly haircuts or bold spectacle frames. Instead, the queue snaking outside the Royal College of Art (RCA) is made up of a motley group – bleary-eyed and unshaven – dressed in woolly jumpers and waterproof jackets. </p> This Britain Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/the-hoerengracht-national-gallery-london-1825235.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/the-hoerengracht-national-gallery-london-1825235.html ]]> <p>Listing the likenesses between modern art and prostitution would take more space than we have here and be just too easy. Not so for Ed and Nancy Kienholz, though, which is why the National Gallery is currently home to a chunk of Amsterdam's red-light district, in the form of the Kienholzes' Hoerengracht. </p> Reviews Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/chicagorsquos-second-city-comedians-plan-50th-anniversary-1825988.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/chicagorsquos-second-city-comedians-plan-50th-anniversary-1825988.html ]]> <p>An extensive list of famous comedians who started their careers at Second City, Chicago's renowned comedy theater, will reunite over a weekend of performances that celebrate the troupe's 50th anniversary, December 11-12.</p> News Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/perfect-products-the-best-in-modern-industrial-design-1823688.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/perfect-products-the-best-in-modern-industrial-design-1823688.html ]]> <p> The Serpentine Gallery first opened its doors to the public in 1970. </p> Features Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:37 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/the-diary-banksy-ed-vaizey-spandex-van-goghs-and-gurinder-chadha-1823813.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/the-diary-banksy-ed-vaizey-spandex-van-goghs-and-gurinder-chadha-1823813.html <p> <b>Guerilla wallfare becomes a big draw</b> </p> <p> Banksy's latest "guerilla" graffiti has been graffitied over and the wall on which the offending vandals struck removed from public view in order to "restore" Banksy's original piece of art/vandalism. An ironic outcome, which will no doubt reignite the debate on whether Banksy has become part of the "establishment". </p> Features Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/artist-to-have-an-epileptic-fit-live-on-stage-1824122.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/artist-to-have-an-epileptic-fit-live-on-stage-1824122.html <p>A performance artist who suffers from epilepsy was facing growing criticism last night over her "dangerous" plans to induce a seizure in front of an audience live on stage. </p> News Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/observations-from-the-side--streets-and-the-alleys-london-rediscovered-1823827.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/observations-from-the-side--streets-and-the-alleys-london-rediscovered-1823827.html ]]> <p> Old photographs – their particular grain, their uncanny illumination of both a living moment and the death of time – can possess extraordinary traction. I'm studying a photograph in a new book, Lost London, by Philip Davies, and it's hard to look away. </p> Features Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-still-life-with-peaches-c-ad50-anon-1823826.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-still-life-with-peaches-c-ad50-anon-1823826.html ]]> <p>Classical art is often given a classic status. The works of the ancient Greeks and Romans have been taken up by many later artists as supreme examples. At least that's true of their statues and buildings. But when it comes to paintings, there's a problem. Very little remains, and what remains is puzzling. </p> Great Works Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/wife-of-wrapping-artist-christo-dies-1824649.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/wife-of-wrapping-artist-christo-dies-1824649.html ]]> <p>The artist Jeanne-Claude, who collaborated with her husband Christo in wrapping the Reichstag, erecting huge umbrellas in California and other monumental, often bizarre projects, has died.</p> News Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/weekly-global-art-events-agenda-andreas-hofer-start-1824847.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/weekly-global-art-events-agenda-andreas-hofer-start-1824847.html <p>The arts agenda for the week of November 23  includes ST-ART, the second largest contemporary art fair in France will take place in Strasbourg, and the Sammlung Goetz gallery in Munich showing works by German artist Andreas Hofer.</p> News Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/rare-footage-and-previously-unseen-tim-burton-artworks-to-be-shown-at-moma-1824918.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/rare-footage-and-previously-unseen-tim-burton-artworks-to-be-shown-at-moma-1824918.html <p>New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) will delve into a visual feast of film and artwork when its comprehensive retrospective of famed American film director Tim Burton opens November 22.</p> News Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/prehistoric-masterpieces-the-swimmers-and-the-beast-1823637.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/prehistoric-masterpieces-the-swimmers-and-the-beast-1823637.html <p> The inhospitable plateau of Gilf Kebir in the far south-west Egyptian desert was once home to an early Egyptian civilization, who left behind spectacular cave art. </p> News Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:40:18 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/what-is-art-a-debate-for-our-times-1823088.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/what-is-art-a-debate-for-our-times-1823088.html ]]> <p> Robert Macfarlane, in The Wild Places, writes, "I had been told that if you climb Ben Hope on the summer solstice and spent a clear night on the summit, you will never lose sight of the sun." </p> Features Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:50 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/portraits-of-peru-why-supermodel-helena-christensen-returned-to-her-roots-1823080.html http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/portraits-of-peru-why-supermodel-helena-christensen-returned-to-her-roots-1823080.html ]]> <p> When I imagine the horrible effects of climate change, I think of icebergs shrinking in Antarctica. But last month, I travelled to tropical Peru to see a hidden side of a global crisis. </p> Climate Change Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:13 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/david-hockney-1960ndash1968-a-marriage-of-styles-contemporary-nottingham-1823091.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/david-hockney-1960ndash1968-a-marriage-of-styles-contemporary-nottingham-1823091.html ]]> <p> How wise is it for a brand new art centre in a major provincial city to open its doors with a show by David Hockney? Isn't the Hockney story – and aren't Hockney's works in general – just too well-known to deserve yet another outing? </p> Reviews Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/gerry-judah-art-from-the-ruins-1822279.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/gerry-judah-art-from-the-ruins-1822279.html ]]> <p>Ruins hide things. Not just the memory of what they were, but the memories they still contain. For years after the Lebanese civil war ended, I would prowl the ruins of downtown Beirut – as a journalist, of course, but truth forces me to admit that I was searching for something more than a reporter's stories – to find that the poor had gravitated into the collapsed buildings, into the wreckage of dentists' shops and post offices and stores. </p> Features Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/the-secret-of-mona-lisas-smile-is-revealed-in-manchester-1822256.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/the-secret-of-mona-lisas-smile-is-revealed-in-manchester-1822256.html ]]> <p> An exhibition celebrating the inventions of Leonardo Da Vinci opened at Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry over the weekend. </p> News Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:14:58 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/house-and-home/interiors/annie-deakin/getting-lucky-at-auction-1822243.html http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/house-and-home/interiors/annie-deakin/getting-lucky-at-auction-1822243.html ]]> <p> Last week, we had "Friday the 13th", the alleged unluckiest day of the year and also the day that RCA Secret, the country’s biggest art lucky dip opened online and at RCA. The question of luck keeps following us around us this month; firstly the lottery jackpot winners, then the superstitious date and now the artistic gamble of sorts. </p> Annie Deakin Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:20:14 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/lynn-painterstainers-prize-exhibition-painters-hall-london-1821719.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/lynn-painterstainers-prize-exhibition-painters-hall-london-1821719.html ]]> <p>Representational painting is alive. Of course it is, you fool. But at what level of creativity can it be said to be alive? Is it a little moribund and wistfully backward-looking? One place to look for an answer would be The Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize, currently on display in one of the City's livery halls. This particular prize has been in existence for five years. It exists to encourage not only representational painting in general, but also to nurture skills of draughtsmanship. The rewards for winning it are not to be sniffed at: a first prize of £15,000, and lesser sums for the runners up. This year more than 80 works have been chosen from a little under 1,000 submissions. The means are relatively traditional – oil on board, oil on canvas, acrylic on canvas, etc. The range is, at first glance, familiar: landscape, ruminative portraiture, still life. </p> Reviews Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/weekly-art-websites-diy-designer-furniture-1822441.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/weekly-art-websites-diy-designer-furniture-1822441.html ]]> <p>This week's selection includes five art websites that will inspire you and show you how to create your own usable pieces of art and designer furniture.</p> News Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/national-gallery-put-on-the-red-light-1821231.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/national-gallery-put-on-the-red-light-1821231.html ]]> <p> How many of us have paid for sex? Have I, do I? These are personal questions. People don't much talk about them, except on the quiet. But in these circumstances they're hard to avoid. </p> Features Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:31 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/frank-auerbach-london-building-sites-195262-courtauld-gallery-london-1820738.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/frank-auerbach-london-building-sites-195262-courtauld-gallery-london-1820738.html ]]> <p> The most intriguing work in the Courtauld Gallery's show, Frank Auerbach: London Building Sites 1952-62, is not a painting but a drawing, Study for Oxford Street Building Site. This, prosaically, depicts the new John Lewis department store under construction, the old one having been bombed in the Second World War. Auerbach, like centuries of painters before him, has gridded up his sketch in red crayon the better to transfer it to canvas. A contemporary photograph of the scene shows the half-finished John Lewis as a similar composition of grids, its steel frame a sign of both its modernity and its Modernism. </p> Reviews Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:39 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/features/on-the-agenda-were-off-to-the-shops-at-st-martins-lane-hotel-then-on-to-a-wainwright-christmas-1818795.html http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/features/on-the-agenda-were-off-to-the-shops-at-st-martins-lane-hotel-then-on-to-a-wainwright-christmas-1818795.html ]]> Features Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/shy-spanish-beauty-joins-rubens-catalogue-1820966.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/shy-spanish-beauty-joins-rubens-catalogue-1820966.html ]]> <p>She is undoubtedly Spanish and could, perhaps, be described as shy: after all, she has only been seen by a handful of people in 400 years. </p> News Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/artistry-and-technology-combine-to-create-hyperphotos-1820192.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/artistry-and-technology-combine-to-create-hyperphotos-1820192.html ]]> <p> In "hyper-photo" artist Jean-Francoise Rauzier's work, "On Time", which is included in his exhibition at the Waterhouse and Dodd Gallery in London later this month, there is image of a beach more dreamlike than real. It encompasses the essence of Rauzier's work: detail. </p> Features Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:05:27 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-diary-shantaram-film--lumiere-festival-tom-atkinson-hans-holbein-harold-evans-1819450.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-diary-shantaram-film--lumiere-festival-tom-atkinson-hans-holbein-harold-evans-1819450.html ]]> Features Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/party-of-the-week-a-night-of-pop-art-for-rankin-and-friends-1819462.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/party-of-the-week-a-night-of-pop-art-for-rankin-and-friends-1819462.html ]]> <p>The singer Joss Stone, Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes, magazine editor Jefferson Hack and My Summer of Love actress Natalie Press were out in force on Monday night for the private view of Rankin's exhibition Destroy at London's Phillips de Pury Gallery. </p> Features Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/observations-awardwinning-young-artists-master-raphael-and-drer-1819466.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/observations-awardwinning-young-artists-master-raphael-and-drer-1819466.html ]]> <p>The inaugural winners of the Young Masters Art Prize have been announced – artists Hector de Gregorio and Ghost of a Dream, jointly. They are among 16 artists who were inspired by the Old Masters to create new work. For 35 year-old, Spanish, de Gregorio, this year was already going rather well, with a sell-out Royal Academy graduation show which saw Sir Terence Conran and Theo Fennell snap up his mixed-media work, which reinvents historical paintings by introducing his own new narratives. He digitally photographs his subjects and prints the images onto canvas before treating them heavily with varnishes, oils, and waxes to make them look like weathered, 500 year-old, works.</p> Features Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/the-flea-1665-robert-hooke-1819454.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/the-flea-1665-robert-hooke-1819454.html ]]> <p>The traditional monster is a composite. The unknown is put together from pieces of the known. It is a work of imagination as defined by Thomas Hobbes: "Imagination being only of those things which have been formerly perceived by sense, either all at once, or by parts at several times", as when "from the sight of a man at one time, and of a horse at another, we conceive in our mind a centaur".</p> Great Works Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/observations-gavin-turk-and-paula-rego-take-on-torture-1819473.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/observations-gavin-turk-and-paula-rego-take-on-torture-1819473.html <p>Some of Britain's most prominent contemporary artists have donated works to the Medical Foundation Art Auction, whose proceeds will support the victims of torture. </p> Features Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/art-of-the-matter-richard-eyre-on-the-meaning-of-culture-1819476.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/art-of-the-matter-richard-eyre-on-the-meaning-of-culture-1819476.html ]]> <p> I grew up in a rural backwater miles away from any cinema, even farther from any theatre, in a house where the paintings were of horses and the books were about war. To borrow a phrase from Neil Kinnock, I was the first member of my family in a thousand generations to attend a university but, in case I give the impression that, like the Monty Python sketch, I used to have to get up out of the shoe box in the middle of the night and lick the road clean with my tongue, I should make it clear that my upbringing was in almost every other sense a highly privileged one. </p> Features Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/weekly-global-art-events-agenda-paris-photo-chinas-terracotta-warriors-tim-burton-1820414.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/weekly-global-art-events-agenda-paris-photo-chinas-terracotta-warriors-tim-burton-1820414.html ]]> <p>Next week Paris warms up for an intensive display of photographic works with Paris Photo and the opening of a new branch of the Magnum Gallery. China's Terracotta Warriors will be on display in Washington, DC and MoMA will hold a special exhibition dedicated to film director Tim Burton.</p> News Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/shakespeares-macbeth-meets-africa-in-botswanas-first-opera-1818368.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/shakespeares-macbeth-meets-africa-in-botswanas-first-opera-1818368.html ]]> <p>Author Alexander McCall Smith has given Shakespeare's Macbeth an African twist blending wildlife and intrigue in Botswana's first ever opera, staged in a restored garage in the capital.</p> News Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/un-declares-mandela-day-1819008.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/un-declares-mandela-day-1819008.html ]]> <p>The United Nations General Assembly has declared July 18 "Nelson Mandela International Day" to honor the South African leader's contributions to global peace.</p> News Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/irans-kiarostami-tanavoli-exhibit-in-dubai-1818469.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/irans-kiarostami-tanavoli-exhibit-in-dubai-1818469.html ]]> <p>Art works of Iranian filmmaker and photographer Abbas Kiarostami as well as by sculptor Parviz Tanavoli have gone on display at a joint exhibition in Dubai.</p> News Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/lou-reed-photographer-1817676.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/lou-reed-photographer-1817676.html ]]> <p>Lou Reed may be a rock legend, the founding member of the Velvet Underground, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a man so cool that fans keel over in the reflection of his mirrored shades. Yet he has an alter ego, a solitary figure, a man who retreats quietly into nature to observe the light and make elegant, romantic photographs, far removed from his life at the heart of New York City. The process could not be more different but there are parallels between his music and his photographs. Putting together a book of photographs is, says Reed, like sequencing a CD. It is intuitive, an indefinable way of working where things happen not through planning and preordained ideas, but because they feel right. He approaches photography with the qualities of a musician. "The response is emotional. That's all I want; they are taken with emotion and put together with emotion, equal emotion," he says.</p> Features Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/berlin-wall-dominoes-in-hot-demand-1818196.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/berlin-wall-dominoes-in-hot-demand-1818196.html ]]> <p>German authorities reported on Tuesday strong demand for some of the more than 1,000 dominoes toppled along the route of the Berlin Wall in 20th anniversary celebrations the previous evening.</p> News Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/frank-auerbach--in-the-thick-of-it-1817175.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/frank-auerbach--in-the-thick-of-it-1817175.html ]]> <p> I could write like that if I had enough ink," Stravinsky said about Olivier Messiaen, (those densely scored compositions). Artists have had similar doubts about Frank Auerbach. </p> Features Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:48 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/european-fields-hans-van-der-meer-host-gallery-london-1816767.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/european-fields-hans-van-der-meer-host-gallery-london-1816767.html <p>Hans van der Meer wanted to get away from the modern hyperbole that surrounds football's global superstars enclosed in expensive stadiums, and the clichéd pictures they produce. He wanted to return to the basic formula of 22 people on a pitch. </p> Reviews Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/van-goghs-letters-the-artist-speaks-van-gogh-museum-amsterdambrthe-arts-of-islam-institut-du-monde-arabe-paris-1816770.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/van-goghs-letters-the-artist-speaks-van-gogh-museum-amsterdambrthe-arts-of-islam-institut-du-monde-arabe-paris-1816770.html <p>You'd imagine that an exhibition in Amsterdam of Van Gogh's letters and another in Paris of the Khalili Collection of Islamic art would have little in common, and you'd be right. The only tenuous connection I can think of is that Vincent's great-great-nephew, the film-maker Theo van Gogh, was murdered by a Muslim extremist in 2004, and that the Khalili exists in part to point out that barbarism and Islam do not go hand in hand. The other likeness between the shows is that both are diffuse, one in a bad way, the other good. </p> Reviews Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/unveiling-the-new-warhol-1817011.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/unveiling-the-new-warhol-1817011.html ]]> <p>There have been many pretenders to the Pop art crown worn by Andy Warhol. Forget Damien Hirst or Jeff Koons. An unlikely contender has stepped forward to claim the throne. It is Tim Burton, the film director and animator whose darkly surreal vision has created modern fairy tales such as Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Beetlejuice.</p> News Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 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/news/caesar-rises-20-years-of-water-digs-on-display-1816824.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/caesar-rises-20-years-of-water-digs-on-display-1816824.html ]]> <p>In a dark space in a new exhibition at Arles museum in southern France, underwater sounds play over looped video footage of scientists on underwater digs along the Rhone riverbed.</p> News Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/the-little-prince-drops-in-on-brazil-1816985.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/the-little-prince-drops-in-on-brazil-1816985.html ]]> <p>The Little Prince, the intergalactic boy traveler part of many childhoods around the world, is visiting Brazil in a show also honoring his adventuresome creator.</p> News Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +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/news/sin-city-show-celebrates-the-paris-brothel-that-was-loved-by-cary-grant-1815759.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/sin-city-show-celebrates-the-paris-brothel-that-was-loved-by-cary-grant-1815759.html ]]> <p>It was sleaze all right, but sleaze of a refined and exclusive kind. Throughout their long heyday, the brothels of Paris were as alluring and luxuriously chic as any gentlemen's club or aristocratic salon. </p> News Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-landscape-with-ascanius-shooting-the-stag-of-sylvia-1682-claude-lorrain-1815310.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-landscape-with-ascanius-shooting-the-stag-of-sylvia-1682-claude-lorrain-1815310.html ]]> <p>What's the role of the figure in landscape? Gainsborough had no doubt. It is to "fill a place (I won't say stop a gap) or create a little business, for the eye to be drawn from the trees, in order to return to them with more glee". It's strictly an extra, not a lead.</p> Great Works Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/picassos-japanese-erotic-inspiration-on-show-in-barcelona-1815988.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/picassos-japanese-erotic-inspiration-on-show-in-barcelona-1815988.html ]]> <p>The Japanese prints that inspired some of the erotic works of Pablo Picasso are the subject of a new exhibition that opened at Barcelona's Picasso Museum Thursday.</p> News Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/255-artists-to-meet-pope-to-revive-relations-1816028.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/255-artists-to-meet-pope-to-revive-relations-1816028.html ]]> <p>More than 250 artists including Ennio Morricone and Bill Viola will meet Pope Benedict XVI this month to revive the Church's relations with the art world, a Vatican official said Thursday.</p> News Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/weekly-global-art-events-agenda--kunst-zurich-lady-gaga-1816494.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/weekly-global-art-events-agenda--kunst-zurich-lady-gaga-1816494.html ]]> <p>Next week, Europeans can take advantage of the famous Salon d'Automne art fair in Paris, France, the KUNST Zurich contemporary art fair in Switzerland and a major exhibition of works by American painter David Hockney at the opening of the Nottingham Contemporary in the UK. Americans will be treated to a rare performance by Lady Gaga at the MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) in Los Angeles in celebration of the museum's 30th anniversary.</p> News Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/photos-by-wim-wenders-and-his-wife-on-show-in-madrid-1815187.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/photos-by-wim-wenders-and-his-wife-on-show-in-madrid-1815187.html ]]> <p>German director Wim Wenders and his wife Donata are showing more than 100 of their photographs taken over the past 14 years at an exhibition in Madrid that opened Wednesday.</p> News Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/louvres-mona-lisa-smiles-on-apple-1815636.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/louvres-mona-lisa-smiles-on-apple-1815636.html ]]> <p>Paris's Louvre museum on Thursday launched an application giving Apple iPhone and iPod touch users access to its collections.</p> News Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/weekly-art-websites-handmade-and-artinspired-christmas-gifts-1814179.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/weekly-art-websites-handmade-and-artinspired-christmas-gifts-1814179.html ]]> <p>This week's selection includes five art websites that offer hand-made art objects and unique art-inspired gift ideas for Christmas.</p> News Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/jann-haworth-art-gallery-wolverhampton-1813580.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/jann-haworth-art-gallery-wolverhampton-1813580.html ]]> <p>Does the Pop Art movement of the 1960s represent a battle between the Unserious and the Overserious? It can look that way. Nothing is more shockingly dissimilar to a silkscreen of a Campbell's soup can by Warhol from the 1960s than a giant work of monochromatic abstraction by Robert Motherwell from the 1950s. Abstract Expressionism seems to have almost no common ground with Pop. One seems to smile and dance around out in the world, while the other glooms and navel-gazes with an enormous sense of macho self-importance. </p> Reviews Tue, 03 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/reviews/wild-thing-epstein-gaudierbrzeska-gill-royal-academy-london-1812608.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/wild-thing-epstein-gaudierbrzeska-gill-royal-academy-london-1812608.html ]]> <p>From its title, you might think Wild Thing was going to be a Tom Stoppard play. Its leading players certainly read like the cast list of one: Jacob Epstein, a bolshie New York Jew; Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, young, French, and doomed; and Eric Gill, the omnisexual son of a nonconformist Sussex clergyman.</p> Reviews Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/taylorwood-42-casts-leading-man-19-as-her-husband-1812257.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/taylorwood-42-casts-leading-man-19-as-her-husband-1812257.html ]]> <p>It is a rock'n'roll move befitting the woman once known as the "wild child" of the Young British Artists movement.</p> News Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000