Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
There is something exhilarating about a truly hostile review, whether deserved or not. This one begins: "The last time I saw paintings as deluded as Damien Hirst's latest works, the artist's name was Saif al-Islam Gaddafi"
Interview with Eric Kandel, giant of modern neuroscience. Discussion centres on the science of aesthetics (how the brain responds to art), and the rise of Modernists in 19th century Vienna
He knew Picasso, Braque, Lucian Freud, Anthony Blunt, Cyril Connolly, WH Auden, Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears, Francis Bacon, Nancy Mitford. And he is still "working furiously", on volume four of his Picasso biography
Just what the headline says. Interview with Wolfgang Beltracchi. German painter of fake expressionists. "I recognised what was special about a particular artist, in order to do it just a little better than he had managed himself"
"In old age Hockney has acquired a clumsy bravura. He is surrounded by sycophants. What fire he once had has become a thing of ash and ember." Review of show at Royal Academy, "the grand old whore of Piccadilly"
Sympathetic, very readable profile of Lucian Freud. Great painter who did some of his finest work in his old age. "His charisma was crucial to his method. It was what made his models bear happily the long ordeal of sitting for him"
Unstructured conversation with artist, interesting throughout. How we behave at airports. Why we should be Buddhists. Mourning a pet dog. Wrestling with Andy Kaufman. "Art is stuff that teaches you to use your senses"
Reviewing the life, work of artist David Hockney. A man who divides critics. Whilst generally admired as one of the finest draughtsmen of his generation, his finished works draw mixed reactions. How will he be seen in years to come?
While local businesses struggle and economies teeter on brink of collapse, the art market powers ever onwards. One leading dealer admits: “I think very often the price paid for a work is the trophy itself.” But is there more to it?
An appreciation of Leonardo da Vinci via a review of major exhibition of his work in London. "He could abstract, he could dissect, he could splice, and at the end he could deliver life – life such as no painter had delivered before"
Smart review of Picasso's early work. "Imitation breeds creativity, which in turn breeds imitation: this is the cycle that Picasso’s drawings suggest, a kind of visual theft that lies at the heart of so much creativity"
George Braque was the equal of Picasso in pioneering cubism. His reputation has languished unfairly. The two "represent divergent attitudes toward modernity. Picasso is the athlete in the stadium. Braque is the poet in the tower"
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"You confuse two things: solving a problem, and stating a problem correctly. It is only the second that is obligatory for the artist"
