Category Archives: Art

Australian ‘contemporary’ portrait prize allows entries wholly generated by AI

Posted on by

Organisers of Brisbane Portrait Prize back artificial intelligence stating art is not stagnant and ‘traditionalists’ once opposed photographs

A prestigious portrait competition has defended allowing entrants to submit artwork generated by artificial intelligence, arguing art is not stagnant and should reflect societal change.

The Brisbane Portrait Prize – with a top prize worth $50,0000 – has been described as Queensland’s answer to the Archibalds with selected entries displayed at the Brisbane Powerhouse later in the year.

Continue reading...

‘Pile of bricks’ artist Carl Andre dies at 88

Posted on by

Famed and derided for his minimalist aesthetic, the artist’s career was overshadowed by suspicions about his role in the death of his wife Ana Mendieta

Carl Andre, the minimalist sculptor whose life’s work was overshadowed by accusations that he had murdered his third wife, has died aged 88.

The artist was a pioneer of minimalism, and famed for austere works such as 1966’s Equivalent VIII, an arrangement of 120 fire bricks on the gallery floor. But he was also notorious for being a suspect in the murder of Ana Mendieta, who fell from the couple’s apartment window after an argument in 1985. Despite being acquitted of second-degree murder in 1988, the accusations continued to follow Andre for the rest of his life, with supporters of Mendieta turning up to protest at his exhibitions.

Continue reading...

‘He had a sensitive soul’: inside Silvio Berlusconi’s bizarre art collection

Posted on by

During the final years of his life, the former Italian premier amassed thousands of ‘mostly worthless’ works from late-night shopping channels. Lucas Vianini became their curator

Lucas Vianini was presenting what he described as “a very suggestive” painting of a grieving Virgin Mary on a late-night shopping channel when the art expert received a call from a keen buyer.

It was not uncommon to receive prank calls when presenting paintings during the live TV auctions. So when the channel’s telephone operator told him that the buyer was called Silvio Berlusconi, he thought it was a joke.

Continue reading...

Tracey Emin recovering in Thailand after her ‘intestine nearly exploded’

Posted on by

British artist, who has undergone multiple surgeries for cancer, says ‘horrible complications’ in her intestine were ‘made a million times worse by flying’

Renowned British artist Tracey Emin is recovering in Thailand after her small intestine “nearly exploded” due to complications after an operation.

Emin, one of Britain’s best-known living artists, has battled cancer and undergone major surgery in recent years. On Sunday she shared on Instagram that she has been “very unwell” and felt she had used “another one of my nine lives”.

Continue reading...

Richard Hunt, sculptor whose public works explored civil rights, dies aged 88

Posted on by

The prolific Chicago artist created more than 160 commissioned public art pieces across the US that drew praise from presidents

Richard Hunt, a prolific Chicago artist who was the first Black sculptor to receive a solo retrospective at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (Moma) and whose public works drew praise from presidents, has died at age 88.

Hunt “passed away peacefully” Saturday at his home, according to a statement posted on his website. No cause of death was given.

Continue reading...

Groundbreaking graphic novel on Gaza rushed back into print 20 years on

Posted on by

When Joe Sacco created Palestine no one knew what ‘comics journalism’ was. Now his pioneering book has eager new readers

An acclaimed nonfiction graphic novel about Gaza, which pioneered the medium of “comics journalism”, has been rushed back into print after surging demand since the fresh outbreak of the conflict two months ago.

Palestine, by Joe Sacco, was originally released in comic book form by the American publisher Fantagraphics 30 years ago, then published as a single volume by the company, and by Jonathan Cape in the UK in 2003.

Continue reading...

Sunak says retaining Parthenon marbles is matter of law as he denies ‘hissy fit’

Posted on by

PM reaffirms stance after George Osborne suggests snub to Greek counterpart was result of ‘petulance’

Rishi Sunak has denied having a “hissy fit” over the Parthenon marbles row and has said they cannot be returned to Greece “as a matter of law”.

The prime minister this week accused his Greek counterpart of using a trip to London to “grandstand” over the issue of the ancient Greek sculptures.

Continue reading...

Nan Goldin named art world’s most influential figure

Posted on by

Photographer and campaigner against Sackler family tops ArtReview Power 100 list

Nan Goldin, the pioneering photographer and campaigner against the billionaires who fuelled the US opioid epidemic, has topped an annual ranking of the contemporary art world’s most influential people and organisations.

Goldin, 70, took the number one spot on the ArtReview Power 100 list. This year, for the first time, the top 10 is made up entirely of artists who use their work and platforms to intervene in the pressing social and political issues of the current moment.

Continue reading...

€100m Botticelli painting forgotten for 50 years recovered from Naples home

Posted on by

Restoration planned for renaissance master’s work that was last checked on half a century ago

A painting by Sandro Botticelli said to have been forgotten for more than 50 years after disappearing from the Italian state’s art records has been recovered from a family home near Naples.

The artwork, which dates to the 15th century and is believed to be worth about €100m, was initially housed in a church in the town of Santa Maria la Carità, before being entrusted to a local family who kept it at a private residence for generations.

Continue reading...

V&A director says museum trustees ‘infantilised’ amid row over Parthenon marbles

Posted on by

Tristram Hunt says trustees should be able to ‘make case’ for items to be retained or returned to countries of origin

Museum trustees should be able to “make the case” whether items in their collections should be retained or returned to their countries of origin, but instead were being “infantilised” and “hidebound” by legislation, Tristram Hunt, the director of the V&A, has said.

He was speaking as a diplomatic row between the UK and Greece over the future of the Parthenon marbles, held at the British Museum, blew up this week after Rishi Sunak abruptly cancelled a meeting with the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Continue reading...

Venice Biennale’s new, rightwing director has art world guessing

Posted on by

Meloni’s party is pleased by the appointment but Pietrangelo Buttafuoco has surprised before – not least by adopting Islam

When Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, the incoming new president of the Venice Biennale, was once asked in an interview whether he was a fascist, the Italian rightwing journalist and public intellectual replied: “I am not a fascist. I am something else.”

After Buttafuoco was this week officially nominated to lead the oldest and largest cultural exhibition in the world, it is not just the artists, actors, architects, film-makers, dancers and musicians whose work will be shown at the coming biennales’ six events who are asking themselves what exactly that “something else” may be.

Continue reading...

‘Funk is the reality we live’: Rio show celebrates sound of the favela

Posted on by

Exhibition puts music previously shunned by elites as ‘stuff of outlaws’ in long tradition of black culture and resistance

Hebert Amorim was eight when he got his first taste of funk carioca (Rio funk): a pirate CD by Mr Catra, a favela MC famed for his ferociously explicit verses about gangs, guns and sex.

“My mum caught me listening to it and went mental,” said the 30-year-old visual artist from Senador Camará, a hardscrabble corner of west Rio de Janeiro where police fear to tread.

Continue reading...

Michelangelo’s secret sketches under church in Florence open to public

Posted on by

Artist spent months in a chamber below the Medici Chapels to evade Pope Clement VII’s death sentence

Michelangelo Buonarroti left behind a trail of artistic marvels, including his statue of David and the sublime frescoes that adorn the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Now a “secret” room in Florence whose walls are sketched with doodles that the Italian Renaissance master is believed to have created while evading a death sentence ordered by Pope Clement VII amid his falling out with the powerful Medici family is to officially open to the public for the first time.

Continue reading...

French couple take dealer to court for share of African mask’s €4.2m sale price

Posted on by

Pensioners sold rare object found in attic for €150 – but campaigners say it must be returned to Gabon

A retired French couple who sold an African mask to a secondhand goods dealer for €150 (£130) have gone to court for a share of the proceeds after the mask fetched €4.2m (£3.7m) at auction.

But campaigners insist that the rare artefact instead should be returned to Gabon, in a case that has raised questions over Africa’s cultural heritage looted by colonial France.

Continue reading...

Silvio Berlusconi heirs weigh up fate of his mostly worthless art collection

Posted on by

Italian former PM estimated to have spent €20m on artworks, often buying through TV auctions

The heirs of Silvio Berlusconi inherited billions from his empire but now they are faced with a dilemma: what to do with his vast collection of mostly worthless artwork, including paintings of nude women and the Madonna, stored in a warehouse opposite his home near Milan.

The former prime minister, who died in June at the age of 86, reportedly amassed the 25,000 works during the final years of his life, buying the majority from late-night shopping channels in his quest to become a top collector.

Continue reading...

A radical piece of cake: feminist sculptural installation restaged at Tate Britain

Posted on by

Bobby Baker’s An Edible Family in a Mobile Home (1976) will be recreated – this time with a vegan option

When Bobby Baker’s sculptural work An Edible Family in a Mobile Home was installed nearly 50 years ago, art lovers were invited to not only touch her work but eat it. Now, the seminal work by the intersectional feminist is coming back – except this time, there’s going to be a vegan option.

From 8 November, Tate Britain will present a restaging of Baker’s radical installation.

Continue reading...

Chewing gum artist makes plea to save Millennium Bridge works

Posted on by

Ben Wilson told most of his art on discarded gum to be removed during engineering and cleaning work

An artist who paints tiny pictures on discarded chewing gum has pleaded for his works to be saved after being told most of them will be removed from the Millennium Bridge in London as part of engineering work.

Ben Wilson, nicknamed “the chewing gum man”, has been painting on pieces of chewing gum trodden into the bridge since 2013.

Continue reading...

Dolled up: Design Museum to host Barbie exhibition next year

Posted on by

The London museum has been granted special access to the world-famous toy’s archives in California and will explore her history ‘through a design lens’

If this summer’s blockbuster movie has left you longing for more Barbie in your life, help is at hand. An exhibition on the history of the world-famous long-legged doll is to open at the Design Museum in London next year.

The museum says it has been granted special access to the Barbie archives in California, and dozens of rare and unique items will be displayed to tell the story of the brand over the course of 65 years.

Continue reading...

AI Vincent van Gogh talks of ‘mental health struggles’ in Paris exhibition

Posted on by

Musée d’Orsay adds AI and VR to display of artist’s last works, never previously seen together

For a man who died in 1890, Vincent van Gogh seemed remarkably au fait with 21st-century parlance.

Asked why he had cut off his left ear, the artist replied that this was a misconception and he had in fact only cut off “part of my earlobe”. So why did he shoot himself in the chest with a revolver, causing injuries from which he died two days later?

Continue reading...

Guernsey museum brings Renoir’s art to island that inspired him

Posted on by

Exhibition honours French impressionist whose landscapes have helped island create jobs and forge global ties

The island of Guernsey may be best known as a tax haven for the super-wealthy, a pleasant holiday destination, and for the rich milk its docile cows produce.

But thanks to a brief sojourn by Pierre-Auguste Renoir 140 years ago, and the bold thinking of culture lovers on the island, it is becoming a draw for art fans.

Continue reading...