Kingelez desired a glorious future for Kinshasa. It inspired him to build imagined utopian cities out of cardboard, Styrofoam and scavenged materials. His “extreme maquettes” display “the rigor of an aesthetic as sophisticated as that of an Alexander Calder or a Joseph Cornell … [and possess] the invincibility of uncompromised, unflagging, sheer desire.”
New Brighton is a beach resort in England with faded prospects. Photography of its decline has been controversial. Parr, the first to show the seismic changes occurring in this part of Thatcher’s Britain, was accused of “defeating” the town. Others have trodden more carefully, perhaps at the cost of self-censorship. Ironically, some locals hope to regenerate the area through the arts.
A London show claims to examine Michael Jackson’s influence on contemporary art. Does it do that or is it just a summer crowd-pleaser? The writer’s assurance that the show “isn’t all wall-to-wall kitsch” doesn’t dispel the skepticism. Few works pay attention to the contradictions and darker corners of the pop star’s life. “Transparently a fan’s show”, is the conclusion.
As the AIDS crisis emerged, Wojnarowicz was highly critical of government inaction. His angry, self-taught art made him an unconventional star before he too succumbed to AIDS. Does his art transcend its 1980’s moment? Most of the numerous reviews think so. A more personal assessment of the artist, by his biographer, is here. More images are here.
Bawden doesn’t fit the usual categories. He ranged across commercial and fine art as a master printmaker, illustrator, watercolourist and designer. Describing his work as “charming”, says the writer, is an unwarranted put-down of someone so widely imitated. He had “formal brilliance [and] a tender, amused feeling for the value of all life” A background video is here.
Is the #metoo movement having an enduring impact on the art market? A veteran observer thinks so. Works by female are in high demand. Meanwhile, fewer people are bidding for works that cater to the “male gaze”. “The taste of the connoisseur is over. You have to ask what the image you are buying means to people”.
The status of muse is hard to transcend. Gabriele Münter expected to be remembered merely as “an unnecessary companion of Kandinsky”. In fact she helped form the influential “Blue Rider” group as well as developing her own bold, experimental style. Kandinsky’s interest in colour was learned from her, later admitting he no longer believed in ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ painting.
The focus of a London show – on Frida Kahlo’s belongings – is regrettable, says a reviewer. Let’s focus on her art. No, says Germaine Greer, the show has it right. Kahlo conducted her life as a performance. “To consider Kahlo as a painter only is to confuse one part of the performance for the whole. Her devotion to this process was extraordinary. The performance was her reality.”
Advertising is rarely considered art, unless you have in mind Campari. The company gave artists great freedom to create visual interpretations of the brand. Their bold advertising campaigns reflected current art trends and changed the way we look at advertising. No longer. “Commercial work now so often moves away from ‘inspiration’ towards ‘information’” More images are here.
Engaging essay by Magnum photographer Trent Parkes about his images of Australia’s celebrated beach life. “It was the ultimate candid photography. No one even knew we were there as they battled to swim, surf and survive the waves. We would … shoot a single frame, maybe two if we could stay down long enough, before being tossed head over heels by the power of the ocean.”
Teamlab are digital artists (“ultratechnologists”, they say) whose newest creation is a museum of digital art in Tokyo. They explain – “We try to find the relationship of the human and the world. We don’t know if our output is ‘art’ or not. Maybe that will be decided in 100 years. But we try to create something we believe in.” A video (3 min) is here.
“Even genius needs to start somewhere”. Leonardo got his start, it seems, as an apprentice in a prominent Florence workshop. Decades-long research suggests that he contributed to at least eight of its surviving paintings. “We have assumed that a thing by him has to look like his late works, and that he therefore had no beginnings. That, of course, is totally implausible,”
A revisiting of last year’s furor over a Balthus painting. Can we be sure the work is voyeuristic? Balthus dwelt on “private ambiguities … the unsettling space between reality and dream. The power of Balthus’s paintings of girls … [is] they show us childhood anew … the dreamy eroticism of adolescence in all its enigmatic and arresting contradictoriness.”
Baroque paintings don’t often make headlines. This one, by Artemesia Gentileschi, a contemporary of Caravaggio, is different. For London’s National Gallery it is just the 20th painting by a woman in their 2300 work European collection. Enthuses one writer, “This is one of the most important purchases the National Gallery has ever made.”