‘Post-industrial sublime’ is a neat phrase coined to describe Burtinsky’s large format images of landscapes blighted by human activity. They often have an abstract beauty that, once the image is fully recognized, gives way to an “ominous documentary undertow.” Burtinsky admits “I’ve become hardened like a war photographer”. An interview with Burtinsky is here.
Militant Islam grabs much of the attention given to the Islamic world. A new display of the British Museum’s collection of Islamic art tries for a broader perspective. One of the three great collections of Islamic art in the West, it shows an artistic achievement that is more international, diverse, “colourful and boisterous” than usually thought. More images are here and video here..
So many reviews, and so many complaints! The exhibition wants to debunk the cliché of the genius male artist attended by his muse. However, it is variously too big (40 couples!), poorly hung, or too coy about power imbalances (think Rodin). Still, as one critic notes “when a creative partnership was made up of equals, it tended to implode under its own intensity.”
Ribera lived much of his life in violent Naples. This seems relevant to his art which is terrifyingly and repeatedly violent. Was Ribera himself violent? Probably not. There is a “gentleness” with which he painted his ghastly scenes, implying a witness, not a participant. Still, his imagination was, according to one critic, “one of art history’s darkest alleys”.