Free exhibition will include some of creative’s architectural projects and draw from his west African roots
The bold colours and striking patterns of Yinka Ilori’s furniture, homeware, textiles and billboard graphics are to be celebrated for the first time in a free museum exhibition.
Ilori, who grew up in a Nigerian household in north London, has drawn inspiration from west African textiles in his artwork and designs.
Continue reading...Sol LeWitt never met Emily Kame Kngwarreye, who began painting in her 80s, but he was blown away by her work. A new AGNSW show celebrates their unlikely link
He was one of the 20th century’s pioneers of modern American art; she was the Anmatyerre artist who put Australian desert painting on the world stage.
Sol LeWitt and Emily Kame Kngwarreye never met, yet one had a profound effect on the work of the other, and led to one of the largest collections of Utopia art outside Australia. LeWitt became a huge fan of Kngwarreye, and of the distinct style produced by the Indigenous Australian artists working in Utopia, Northern Territory.
Continue reading...Atlantic City by Helen Saunders discovered under Praxitella by Wyndham Lewis, who may have painted over it on purpose
A lost masterpiece by a leading abstract artist of the early 20th century has been discovered beneath a portrait by a contemporary who may have painted over the original in a “fit of pique”.
Atlantic City by Helen Saunders, a member of the radical and short-lived vorticist movement, depicts a fragmented modern metropolis, almost certainly in the vibrant colours associated with the group. A black and white image of the painting appeared in Blast, the avant garde journal of the vorticists produced shortly before the outbreak of the first world war.
Continue reading...The removal of Slingshot Rat has sparked debate over the legality of taking cultural artefacts from occupied land
A lost Banksy piece originally spray painted to protest against Israel’s separation barrier in the West Bank has resurfaced in a Tel Aviv gallery, sparking debate over the role of public art and the legality of removing cultural artefacts from occupied land.
Slingshot Rat, a stencil painting, appeared on a concrete block at an abandoned Israeli army position in Bethlehem next to a section of the wall in 2007, one of several works in the Palestinian town created in secret. Some time later, the painting was obscured and graffitied with the words, “RIP Banksy Rat”, and eventually cut out and removed by unknown persons.
Continue reading...Crucifixion mosaic and fresco saved from destruction after two-year campaign
A stunning mural created in a Catholic church by a Jewish refugee from the Nazis has been saved from destruction, decay and vandalism after being granted Grade II-listed status by the UK government.
The Crucifixion, by the leading 20th-century artist George Mayer-Marton, is a rare combination of mosaic and fresco standing almost 8 metres (26ft) high, taking up an entire wall inside the Holy Rosary church in Oldham.
Continue reading...‘Deviant’ works by artists including Picasso and Warhol return to display at exhibition in Iranian capital
Some of the world’s most prized works of contemporary western art have been unveiled for the first time in decades in Tehran.
The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline cleric, rails against the influence of the west. Authorities have condemned “deviant” artists for “attacking Iran’s revolutionary culture”. And the Islamic Republic has plunged further into confrontation with the US and Europe as it rapidly accelerates its nuclear programme and diplomatic efforts stall.
Continue reading...Exhibition includes two specially commissioned works reframing story of former Trinidad governor
For more than a century, the portrait of Thomas Picton hung in a prominent position at the National Museum Cardiff, the image’s description hailing him as a military hero rather than a tyrant and a torturer, before it was removed from view in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests.
From Monday the two-metre-tall portrait of Lt Gen Picton is back on display in the Welsh capital – but in a very different context.
Continue reading...Consulate accepts a dozen small artworks amid worldwide movement to repatriate Indigenous items
Small, ancient sculptures that have been gathering dust in an Albuquerque storage box are returning home to Mexico, where they are intertwined with the identity of Indigenous communities.
The Albuquerque Museum Foundation celebrated the repatriation of a dozen sculptures in a ceremony on Wednesday. The local consulate of Mexico accepted Olmec greenstone sculptures, a figure from the city of Zacatecas, bowls that were buried with tombs and other clay figurines that date back thousands of years.
Continue reading...The Line – due to be just 200 metres wide – will make Neom world’s most liveable city ‘by far’, officials claim
The promotional material is striking: two mirror-encased skyscrapers stretching more than 100 miles across a swathe of desert and mountain terrain, providing a future home for 9 million people. Is it the ultimate in high-density living, or a grandiose science fiction fantasy?
In short, economists, architects and analysts are not quite sure. So extravagant is Saudi Arabia’s plan to create an urban utopia that even those working on the project, known as the Line, do not yet know if its scale and scope can ever be realised.
Continue reading...Painters, playwrights and photographers have defied the threat of arrest in southern Ukrainian city to share their experiences
Under the threat of imprisonment, interrogation and the constant pressure of searches by Russian soldiers, six artists secretly met in a basement studio in the occupied Ukrainian city of Kherson.
In the months after their homes were taken over by Putin’s forces, the artists formed a residency during which they created dozens of works, including drawings, paintings, video, photography, diary entries and stage plays.
Continue reading...Statue is recreation of pop art installation by Nicholas Munro displayed in city centre in 1970s
When the British pop artist Nicholas Monro was asked to make a public sculpture for Birmingham in the 1970s, he raised a few eyebrows when he produced an 18ft fibreglass statue of King Kong.
“It was really just a finger up to the system. They wanted something typical and boring, so he gave them a massive gorilla,” said Monro’s son Claude. “I think there was a certain amount of ‘Is this art? What is this?’” added Joe, Claude’s elder brother.
Continue reading...Antelope by Samson Kambalu depicts John Chilembwe wearing hat in defiance of colonial rule in Nyasaland, now Malawi
A sculpture of a preacher who was killed in an anticolonialist uprising in what is now Malawi will be unveiled in September on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.
Antelope by Samson Kambalu is the 14th contemporary artwork to be commissioned for public display in the historic central London square.
Continue reading...Carabinieri allege dealers fraudulently exported €2m work by 17th-century baroque artist for auction in Vienna
Italian police have prevented the potential illegal sale by a Viennese auction house of a 17th-century painting by the baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi.
The carabinieri art squad said dealers had allegedly described the work as being painted by a follower of Gentileschi, and not the artist herself, in order to fraudulently obtain export permission from Italian authorities.
Continue reading...The Swedish-born artist, who turned objects such as baseball bats, saws and clothespins into giant sculptures, died in Manhattan
Pop artist Claes Oldenburg, who turned the mundane into the monumental through his outsized sculptures of a baseball bat, a clothespin and other objects, has died at age 93.
Oldenburg died Monday morning in Manhattan, according to his daughter, Maartje Oldenburg. He had been in poor health since falling and breaking his hip a month ago.
Continue reading...In need of repair, futuristic yet surreal complex built by artist Xavier Corberó is to become public space
Like a three-dimensional De Chirico painting or an Escher staircase to nowhere, the labyrinthine Espai Corberó near Barcelona defies architectural logic, being designed “without plans, obeying only space and poetry”.
“It’s not my home, it’s a place I made with the help of patrons and buyers as a home for my sculptures,” the artist Xavier Corberó told the art magazine AD shortly before his death at 81 in 2017.
Continue reading...Bas Smets’ project, featuring trees and a cooling system, aims to create a more pedestrian-friendly space around Paris landmark
For most of the last year, the Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets could be found walking purposefully around the Île de la Cité in central Paris staring at and thinking about Notre Dame Cathedral.
On a blazing hot day in the French capital he is back there, pointing at the landmark, still shrouded in scaffolding after it was ravaged by a devastating fire in April 2019.
Continue reading...Galleries will showcase designers who are often overlooked, in an effort to acknowledge colonial histories within the museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum will open its first African fashion exhibition this week, more than 170 years after it was founded.
Featuring designers who have worked with names including Beyoncé and architect David Adjaye, Africa Fashion aims to look across the fashion of the continent, exhibiting designs, photographs and films from 25 of the 54 countries.
Continue reading...George Westren’s op-art drawings went viral on social media after a neighbour saved them from the tip – now they might get an exhibition of their own
For a short time last week, the entire works of artist George Westren were sat in a skip, heading for the rubbish dump. A few hours later, however, and they were going viral on social media, with people across the world marvelling at his technique and enquiring as to how they might buy some of the late artist’s work.
None of this would have been possible if it wasn’t for the actions of “nosy neighbour” Alan Warburton. Warburton had been left saddened during lockdown by the news that Westren, his shy upstairs neighbour of six years, had died alone in his flat. Last week, after hearing removal men emptying out the place, he was horrified to see hundreds of Westren’s drawings and paintings bagged up and headed for the tip.
Continue reading...Work paying homage to victims of 2015 attack – painted on door at Bataclan concert hall – was stolen in 2019
A French court has convicted eight men for the theft and handling of a Banksy painting paying homage to the victims of the 2015 attack on the Bataclan concert hall in Paris.
Three men in their 30s who admitted to the 2019 theft were given prison sentences, one of four years and two of three, although they will be able to serve them wearing electronic tracking bracelets rather than behind bars.
Continue reading...Basil Watson’s sculpture at Waterloo station celebrates pioneers who arrived in Britain after second world war
Members of the Windrush generation have been “moved to tears” by a new national monument that pays tribute to their ambition, courage and contribution to Britain, the artist behind the sculpture has said.
Basil Watson’s permanent monument to the Windrush pioneers who arrived in Britain after the second world war was unveiled at Waterloo station in London on Wednesday.
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