September 23, 2010
Filed under: Art News — Alan @ 1:24 am
The government has yet to announce planned spending cuts on the arts, but artists like Mark Wallinger are protesting what is to be expected as a 25 per cent cut. Wallinger, who is a Turner Prize winner, has taken one of Turner’s most prized paintings and depicted it with the heart cut out and a caption that reads 25 per cent cut.
Top British artists have banned together to release a new protest piece every week until the government announces the spending plans. In his adaptation of The Fighting Temeraire, Wallinger has removed 25 per cent of the painting to illustrate what a cut that size could mean to the arts.
The painting depicts the gun ship Temeraire, which played an important part in the Battle of Trafalgar, being towed off to be broken up after it was decommissioned from the Navy in 1838. The piece was a favourite of Turner’s and one that he never sold, but finally donated to the National Gallery.
Temeraire means reckless in French and Wallinger says that his depiction, with the decommissioned ship cut from the painting, in effect renders it “wreckless.” His point being that a 25 per cent cut in the painting would remove the subject entirely. This is symbolic of what many artists feel a 25 per cent cut to the arts programme would do.
Many people have joined in signing an arts petition that asks Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt to consider that it has taken 50 years to build the arts in Britain. It asks him to consider that Britain’s arts are the envy of the world and not to risk putting that in jeopardy with these proposed cuts.
September 17, 2010
Filed under: Exhibitions — Alan @ 6:32 am
The V&A announced yesterday that it is set to launch the first exhibition that will cover the 19th century aesthetic movement by taking a close look at artists that concentrated on beauty over every other artistic quality.
The upcoming show will feature about 300 objects, out of which 60 will be paintings in an effort to celebrate the artistic movement that took place in the UK between 1860 and 1900. Notable artists that are considered a part of the movement include Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, Oscar Wilde, and Frederic Leighton.
Museum co-curator Stephen Calloway stated that this is a great time to place a spotlight on aesthetic pieces because during times of austerity many seem love to indulge in fantasy.
He continued to say that contemporary design and art does not always have to be focused on beauty and art, but the idea of looking at an art movement where the central theme of the piece is beauty places a new timely twist on the way that art is viewed. He added that a lot of people would like to return to art that’s sole purpose is to be pleasing on the eyes.
Many of the aesthetic painters were serious minded and passionate about their works strongly reacting against the idea that art needed to be created with a purpose and against some type of ugliness.
The movement started out as people who wanted to amuse themselves from within their homes but quickly grew into a much larger movement that started to even aspire to a lifestyle with middles class homes seeking out the best in interior arts.
September 14, 2010
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 9:30 am
Christie’s has published the new catalogue for the upcoming sale of the artwork that framed the headquarters for Lehman Brothers that will be auctioned off on September 29th and the collection looks more like what you may find at a manor house or from the East India Company than what you would expect to find from a former investment bank.
Regardless, there will be 300 lots up for grabs on the exact date of the second year since the investment bank’s collapse was announced. Despite the randomness of the collection, a few pieces in particular may spark some interest from contemporary art collectors such as a piece by Matthew Ritchie that is predicted to go for about £100,000.
Also listed in the catalogue of interest is a drawing by Jim Hodges titled ‘All To One’ expected to grab around £50,000 and a painting from Gary Hume listed at about £100,000.
When you get into the contemporary works of art what you will find is that most are unique one-offs such as two Chinese garden seats that could fetch up to £2,000, a pair of binoculars fashioned out of faux croc skin listed for about £600, and an ornate mirror made of giltwood expected to fetch about £1,500.
Also included in the collection are a wide array of books and Victorian prints including notable collections such as volumes by John Glasworthy valued at £800 and a collection of books by Lord Byron which may fetch between £200 and £300.
Altogether the administrator of Lehman Brothers, PricewaterhouseCoopers, is hoping that the auction will take in at least £2m which is only a small portion of the billions that the firm owes creditors.
September 5, 2010
Filed under: Uncategorized — Alan @ 3:53 am
Many people disregard sculpture as an art in the UK even though historical monuments are spread out throughout the country in town squares and churches. Even some of the greatest names from the past embodied by sculptures such as Chantrey and Flaxman are unrecognizable to most people.
However, more contemporary pieces of sculpture in Britain are receiving a bit more attention as of late with Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, and Antony Gormley receiving quite a bit of praise given their works are featured in the yards of many prominent country houses throughout Britain.
The next generation of sculptures is hoping to make the same type of splash at the Wiltshire summer exhibition at the New Art Centre titled ‘Let There Be Sculpture!’ The exhibit features 12 new works along the Roche Court parkland and gardens which were built back in 1804.
Many of the artists behind the new sculptures come from the south London region of Peckham and have previously been on display there in a small gallery on Bond Street run by Hannah Barry.
This is the only thing the young sculptors have in common however as their works are quite a variety of sights.
For instance, Oddball by Bobby Dowler is a giant orb made of fibreglass that is painted brightly and placed near a croquet lawn not far from a pair of greyhound sculptures.
Look a little to side and you will see a rusted steel frame made by James Balmforth that is held together with a red sticky type matter that looks a bit like gum.
Just a little farther down is a black steel candelabrum that is atop a pole created by Marcus Klienfeld.
