Category Archives: Art and design

‘Impossible task’: NGV to take largest international exhibition of Indigenous art to US

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The show, which will tour for three years across North America beginning in 2025, will feature the gallery’s ‘absolute masterpieces’ – including works by Emily Kam Kngwarray and Albert Namatjira

The largest international exhibition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art will open in 2025 at Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art and tour for three years across North America.

Titled The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art, the show will feature more than 200 works from the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) collection from the 19th century to the present day – including masterpieces by the late Emily Kam Kngwarray, Rover Thomas, Sally Gabori and Albert Namatjira.

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London’s fourth plinth artwork aims to ‘unite trans community around the world’

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Trafalgar Square piece by Mexican artist Teresa Margolles is made of masks depicting faces of transgender and non-binary people

A towering cuboid made of more than 300 masks depicting the faces of transgender and non-binary people, this year’s fourth plinth artwork, has been described as a piece designed to “unite the trans community around the world”.

The Mexican artist Teresa Margolles was flanked by members of her country’s trans community as Mil Veces un Instante (A Thousand Times in an Instant) was unwrapped in Trafalgar Square on Wednesday.

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River Stour sculpture commemorates 16th century drowning that inspired Shakespeare

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Figure of woman on her back underwater draws inspiration from Hamlet’s Ophelia and death of senior Tudor judge

Almost 500 years ago, a wealthy and well-connected judge named Sir James Hales walked into the River Stour near Canterbury in order to take his own life. Hales had risen to favour under King Henry VIII but had refused to convert to Catholicism under the repressive regime of his daughter Mary, and had been imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Struggling with his mental health after his release in 1554, he drowned himself. But as suicide was a crime at the time, his widow was denied the right to inherit his property and so took the matter to law, in a case that became so famous in the 16th century that it inspired Shakespeare’s portrayal of the suicide by drowning of Hamlet’s Ophelia.

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Icelandic fishing giant Samherji sues art student for spoofing corporate website

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High court told ‘culture-jammed’ apology for high-profile corruption scandal ‘did not qualify as parody’

Iceland’s biggest fishing company is suing an art student at London’s high court for spoofing its website and issuing a fake public apology over a high profile corruption scandal.

The costly lawsuit, which will be heard this month, is feared by the student’s supporters to have a potentially chilling effect on artists engaging critically with large corporations, while also raising questions about the UK’s status as the go-to litigation jurisdiction for powerful businesses.

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‘The UK is invited’: Bradford reveals 2025 City of Culture lineup

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West Yorkshire city to host magic, music, film and theatre performances celebrating local talent, plus Turner prize

A city centre magic show, the Brontës as you’ve never seen them before, and a bassline house symphony are all part of Bradford’s City of Culture lineup, which its organisers call a celebration of everything that makes the West Yorkshire city great.

Shanaz Gulzar, the creative director of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, said the whole of the country was invited to come next year to a place she billed as young, diverse, creative and “the heart of the UK”.

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V&A celebrates a century of national theatre archive with tribute to avid collector

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New exhibition, named after ‘theatrical encyclopedia’ Gabrielle Enthoven, showcases British stage history from the Restoration to Fleabag

She was an avid collector of playbills, programmes and props who kickstarted the largest theatrical archive of the nation, now housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Without Gabrielle Enthoven, we would not have theatre studies as a discipline today, according to Simon Sladen, the museum’s senior curator of modern and contemporary theatre and performance.

Yet many will never have heard of Enthoven. That is about to change as the V&A has named a new exhibition in her honour, celebrating a century of the national archive, which is now protected by law.

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Picasso the printmaker takes centre stage at British Museum

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Big exhibition will reflect life and loves of artist, from his first professional print in 1904 to 1960s masterpieces

The British Museum is putting on a big exhibition of the print works of Pablo Picasso, one of the finest graphic artists of the 20th century, it will announce on Monday.

About 100 prints will reflect the life and loves of the artist with an extraordinary vision, best known for masterpieces include Guernica, one of the most powerful anti-war paintings.

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British pop art pioneer Derek Boshier dies aged 87

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Portsmouth-born, working-class artist was known for collaborations with David Bowie and the Clash

Derek Boshier, the working-class artist who was a key part of the pop art movement and a collaborator with the Clash and David Bowie, has died aged 87.

The Portsmouth-born artist studied at the Royal College of Art in London from 1959 to 1962 alongside David Hockney and was profiled with Pauline Boty and Peter Blake in Ken Russell’s 1962 film about the pop art movement, Pop Goes the Easel.

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‘Amazing’ Viking-age treasure travelled half the world to Scotland, analysis finds

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Lidded vessel is star object in rich Galloway Hoard and came from silver mine in what is now Iran

It is a star object of the Galloway Hoard, the richest collection of Viking-age objects ever found in Britain or Ireland, buried in AD900 and unearthed in a field in Scotland. Now a lidded silver vessel has been identified as being of west Asian origin, transported halfway around the world more than 1,000 years ago.

When it emerged from the ground a decade ago, the vessel was still wrapped in its ancient textiles, whose survival is extremely rare. Its surface could be seen only through X-ray scans. Since then, the textiles have been partially removed and preserved and the vessel has had laser cleaning to remove green corrosion over much of its silver surface. It has also undergone scientific analysis.

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‘My work sells for millions but only a fraction of that came to me,’ says Scottish painter

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Peter Doig says ‘crazy prices’ on the secondary market must be reined in to protect young artists

Peter Doig became the most expensive living painter in Europe in 2007, when White Canoe, his atmospheric painting of a a moonlit lagoon, sold for £5.7m.

The Scot then saw his auction record broken in 2017 and in 2021 respectively, when Rosedale, his depiction of a house in a snow storm, and Swamped, another enigmatic painting of a canoe, sold for the eye-watering prices of £21m and nearly £30m respectively.

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The lady’s not for returning – but where has No 10’s Thatcher portrait gone?

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Painting that hung in former PM’s study since 2009 no longer there – but aides are tightlipped as to whereabouts

In a summer punctuated by an election and then riots there has not really been a “silly season”, the traditional news-light period when holidaying MPs become worked up about trivialities. That is until now – thanks to a row about a portrait of Margaret Thatcher.

What is known is that the slightly austere painting of the former prime minister by the artist Richard Stone has been moved from the Downing Street study where it had hung since 2009, when Gordon Brown commissioned it.

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Final artwork in Banksy animal series removed by London Zoo

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Staff replaced stencil art of gorilla helping animals to escape with reproduction to preserve ‘significant moment’ for zoo

Stencilled on a shutter at the entrance to London Zoo, the mural showed a powerful gorilla lifting up the metal barrier and creating a dark hole just big enough for other animals to use to make a speedy getaway.

Now, Banksy’s ninth and final artwork in his animal-themed London series has itself escaped, removed in an attempt by the 196-year-old zoo to “properly preserve” a “significant moment” in its history.

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‘It’s wanton vandalism’: the unwanted consequences of owning a Banksy

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The artist’s subversive work draws crowds and criminals alike, and owning an original is fraught with logistical problems

The picture of a pair of masked men in south London this month making off with a ladder and a satellite dish, newly decorated by Banksy, made one thing clear: people want Banksy’s art and believe it is extremely valuable. The culprits in Peckham Rye were photographed and filmed in action, so took a big risk, and two arrests were made later that day.

But if an original sprayed ­stencil appears overnight on the side of your home or business, it would pose problems. After all, Banksy’s team issue no manual of instructions on how to protect and maintain the artworks. In fact, the artist is understood to feel that whatever happens to his sub­versive images is all part of the initial ­creative intervention.

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‘Vulgar racism’: outrage after mural of Italian volleyball star is vandalised

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Defacing of Rome artwork celebrating Olympic champion Paola Egonu widely condemned across political spectrum

A mural celebrating the Italian Olympic volleyball champion Paola Egonu has become the target of “vulgar racism” after the athlete’s skin in the image was spray-painted pink.

The mural by the street artist Laika was defaced within a day of being unveiled on a wall close to the headquarters of the Italian Olympic committee (Coni) in Rome.

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French customs officers thwart €1.3m sale of fake Leonardo da Vinci painting

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Spanish police make arrest after being notified that export licence had expired and work was found to be a copy

Spanish police have arrested a man whose alleged plan to sell a fake Leonardo da Vinci painting in Italy for €1.3m was thwarted when the work caught the eye of French customs officers.

Although the man had an export licence for the work, which was purported to be a Leonardo portrait of the Italian aristocrat and military commander Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, the licence had expired, prompting customs officers at the Modane border post to contact Spanish police.

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Banksy’s billboard cat removed as meaning of his London animals revealed

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Exclusive: secretive artist trying to raise a smile with pelicans, elephants, monkeys, wolf, goat and cat

A big cat by Banksy appeared briefly, ­stretching in the morning sun, on a bare advertising hoarding on Edgware Road in Cricklewood, north-west London, on Saturday. A few hours later it had gone, removed by contractors who feared it would be ripped down.

The anonymous artist known as Banksy, who confirmed the image was his at lunchtime on Saturday, also promised a little more summer fun to come.

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Speculation rife about Banksy’s London murals after five appear in a week

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Whether comment on far-right rioters, Gaza or the climate crisis, one expert suspects a grand reveal is imminent

It began with the silhouette of a goat perched atop a narrow wall near Kew Bridge in London, with tumbling rocks signifying the animal’s perilous position.

Over the course of the week, more silhouettes began popping up around the capital: two elephants with their trunks reaching towards each other from blocked-out windows on the side of a house in Chelsea; three monkeys swinging across a bridge on Brick Lane; and a wolf howling towards the sky, painted onto the face of a satellite dish on Peckham’s Rye Lane.

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‘Unique opportunity’ to see Italian Renaissance drawings in London

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Exhibition from royal collection will include about 160 works from Titian, Michelangelo, Leonardo and others

About 160 works from more than 80 artists including Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian and Leonardo da Vinci are to go on display in what has been described as the widest-ranging exhibition of Italian Renaissance drawings ever to be staged in the UK.

Taken from the royal collection, the exhibition, which opens at the King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace in November, will feature more than 30 works on display for the first time, and a further 12 never previously shown in the UK.

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Botched Spanish church makeover leaves cherubim looking startled

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Professional restorers want explanation for changes in Soria, which have been likened to ‘Monkey Christ’ work

Professional restorers in Spain are demanding explanations after a historic church in the north-eastern city of Soria was given a bold makeover that has left the building’s cherubim looking startled and local heritage lovers up in arms.

The attentions lavished on the Ermita de Nuestra Señora del Mirón, which was built in 1725 on the ruins of a romanesque and gothic church, have drawn comparisons to the infamous “Ecce Homo/Monkey Christ” restoration that made headlines around the world 12 years ago.

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Olympic ‘drag queen scene’ DJ files legal complaint after torrent of online abuse

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A DJ and LGBTQ+ activist who performed during a controversial scene in the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony has said she is taking legal action after becoming the target of “an extremely violent campaign of cyber-harassment and defamation”.

Barbara Butch, who calls herself a “love activist”, had been “threatened with death, torture and rape, and has also been the target of numerous antisemitic, homophobic, sexist and body-shaming insults”, her lawyer said in a post on her Instagram page.

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