Where does Simon Garden live? The prosaic answer is Bristol, but the more accurate response might be that, most of the time, he lives in his creative imagination You don’t get many vast fan shaped trees or conical wooded hills around that city. But you do get them on the canvases in Simon Garden’s new… Continue reading Landscape painter – Simon Garden
In The Uprising, a woman with a baby at her hip and a working man fend off an attack by a uniformed soldier. Behind them, a riotous crowd clashes with more soldiers, who force demonstrators to the ground. The location is unclear, though the figures’ skin tone implies that the scene is set in Mexico or… Continue reading The Uprising (1931), Diego Rivera
French street artist captivates passers by optically with his trompe l’oeil masterpiece adorning the façade of the Palazzo Farnese, home to the French embassy in central Rome. Named Punto di Fuga (Vanishing Point), the installation offers passers-by a glimpse into the palace’s interior as it undergoes renovations, revealing elements such as the classic colonnade and… Continue reading A look at the ‘X-ray’ illusion on historic Palazzo Farnese in Rome
The museum has been slowly rebuilding since an electrical fire devastated its building and collection in 2018. According to its director, Alexander W.A. Kellner, the museum has received approximately 8,500 objects since the tragedy. Around 2,000 of these will be exhibited, while the rest will be used for research. More donations are expected ahead of… Continue reading Brazil’s national museum receives major fossil donation, including rare dinosaurs, in rebuilding efforts”
Born in Florence in 1386, Donatello was, and remains to be, 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… Continue reading What makes Donatello’s sculptures so compelling?
The historic painting of a woman leading French revolutionaries is this week to reveal its true colours after restorers cleansed it from decades of varnish and grime. The public will be able to admire Eugene Delacroix’s ‘Liberty Leading the People’ in its full glory at the Louvre museum from Thursday Delacroix painted the artwork to… Continue reading The painting “La Liberte guidant le peuple” is back at the Louvre after six months of restoration work
William Blake’s Universe, the new (free) exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, is a celebration of work by the Romantic artist, writer and visionary. Famous now but little known in his lifetime, Blake (1757-1827) has been given star billing by Tate Britain recently. But at the Fitzwilliam, he is made to share the spotlight… Continue reading William Blake exhibition: making a European out of the poet and artist who never left England
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 alone articles have… Continue reading How AI is hijacking art history
The ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence (AI) image colourization were recently brought to public attention when several historical images were altered using digital algorithms. Irish artist Matt Loughrey digitally colourized and added smiles to photos of tortured prisoners from Security Prison 21 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which was used by the Khmer Rouge from 1975-79.… Continue reading The controversial history of colourising black-and-white photos
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
