Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
What are the most influential art books? Is cow dung art? How political was Picasso? What's the correct etiquette for a gallery opening? All this answered and more
Two jaded painters seek creative purification and rejuvenation at The Met's Cloisters, a medieval monastery on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Rothko is small potatoes when compared to Campin's Annunciation, says Baker
Sardonic note on originality in modern art, provoked by Jeff Koons' attempt to copyright image of dog made from balloons. Warhol, then Koons, copied everyday things and declared them art. Can you be original in your plagiarism?
Travel around the best galleries in the world from the comfort of your armchair, with Google's new Art Project. Despite some technical hitches, it is "already a mesmerizing, world-expanding tool for self-education"
How to meet and greet. What to expect (free alcohol). How to converse. "If they ask you how you like the show, try to find something polite to say. If they insist on a real opinion, they’ve got whatever you have to say coming"
Skip the opening two or three paragraphs, cut to Richardson's compelling account of Picasso's shallow and shifting political views. More than anything else, artist wanted to be honoured in Spain, by any government
Long review of Umberto Eco's "History of Beauty". Perhaps too long, but full of insights into the history of art, and the evolution of beauty "from being a property of the Ideal to being an attribute of the Real"
Exhibition review, reflecting on the nature and virtues of trompe l'oeil art. At its best, does it perfectly reproduce nature? Or merely come close enough to confuse, underlining the gap between art and life?
Titian et al signed detailed contracts with patrons. Highly competitive market. Price determined partly by painter's reputation, but also by size of painting, number of figures, genre, complexity of story
"He fused commercial and fine art, printing and painting. How an artwork was made ceased to be a criterion of its quality"
It took artist Taryn Simon five days to photograph over 1,000 seized goods entering JFK airport — from counterfeit checks and drugs to deer penis, jars of fat and cow-dung toothpaste — all documented in her book Contraband
At third edition of Delhi's India Art Summit, the number of visitors and six figure-price works bought quadrupled since the previous edition, marking a sea-change taking place in the Indian contemporary art scene
Thoughtful essay on the tensions between street muralists and property owners. Details history of outdoor artists and the latest debate over whitewashing: "street artists are guerrilla activists, with no concern for property rights"
Five established child art prodigies who in the last decade “have commanded upwards of $25,000 at auction,” not to mention lots of media attention, including a child accused of being a fraud, from the film "My Kid Could Paint That"
Because he was in Hong Kong for his Gagosian opening, Alexandra Seno of SceneAsia asked Damien Hirst for his top five moments in contemporary art. At least one of his answers feels a wee bit contrived
Part gallery and part studio, once a year, Burning Man draws a whopping 50,000 participants every year, becoming a temporary city of tents, trailers and observers of self-expression
Mark Landis, painter and former gallery owner, turns up at museums around the country, sometimes dressed as a Jesuit priest, donates small works, expertly forged, presumably by his own hand, and disappears. Is it even a crime?
