A new initiative aimed at supporting art professionals from working-class backgrounds is launching in London. The Working Arts Club, founded by Meg Molloy, Head of Communications at Stephen Friedman Gallery, is an independent organisation designed to bring together those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds who work in the UK’s visual arts sector. The club’s focus is… Continue reading The Working Arts Club: breaking down barriers for working-class creatives in the Art world
Tarot cards are everywhere in contemporary culture — but where do they come from, and what is at stake in the different forms they have taken? Few sets of symbols have travelled as widely or been put to such a diverse range of uses. The exhibition presents a series of key moments in tarot’s long… Continue reading Tarot — Origins & Afterlives at the Warburg Institute
One day, not long after Mark Edwards had completed his first collection of ‘white wood’ paintings, he got chatting to a tourist who was visiting Mark’s native Scotland. The visitor was a psychologist and he was very interested in the work. “The trees in your paintings…” said the psychologist. “They’re all dead aren’t they?” The… Continue reading Overcoats and snow, the mystery of Mark Edward’s exhibitions
Featuring Pam Hawkes and George Underwood, each belonging to a particular strain of European art – one that focuses on the senses and the mind over pure logic and realism, a tradition stretching back to the dark ages via Fuseli, Bruegel and Bosch. Pam Hawkes This new collection of work by Pam Hawkes is an… Continue reading Modern Gothic at the Catto gallery
The ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence (AI) image colourisation were recently brought to public attention when several historical images were altered using digital algorithms. Irish artist Matt Loughrey digitally colourised and added smiles to photos of tortured prisoners from Security Prison 21 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which was used by the Khmer Rouge from 1975–1979.… Continue reading The controversial history of colourising black-and-white photos
One of the great paradoxes of human endeavour is why so much time and effort is spent on creating things and indulging in behaviour with no obvious survival value — behaviour otherwise known as art. Attempting to shed light on this issue is problematic because first we must define precisely what art is. We can… Continue reading What’s the point of art?
In September 2024, Wellcome Collection will present Hard Graft, an exhibition exploring experiences of physical work and its impacts on health and the body. Making connections between undervalued labour, the people who do it and the spaces where it happens, this exhibition brings into focus the people whose health, work and rights remain hidden on… Continue reading Hard Graft — work, health and rights
Inspiration comes from the most unexpected places. In the case of Rachel Deacon, her artistic career was sent in a completely different direction by…a home extension. When the construction was complete and the builders had left, Rachel was left with a huge blank wall. It was crying out for a big canvas, a statement abstract… Continue reading Figurative and abstract artist – Rachel Deacon
Born in Florence in 1386, Donatello was, and remains, celebrated as one of the most skilled sculptors of the Renaissance. Studying under the likes of Ghiberti and Brunelleschi, he developed a style influenced heavily by the classical language of architecture but not restricted to this. He used materials ranging from wood to bronze and produced… Continue reading What makes Donatello’s sculptures so compelling?
People tend to rejoice in the disclosure of a secret. Or, at the very least, media outlets have come to realize that news of “mysteries solved” and “hidden treasures revealed” generate traffic and clicks. So I’m never surprised when I see AI-assisted revelations about famous masters’ works of art go viral. Over the past year… Continue reading How AI is hijacking art history
