Visual arts
Sarah Kent
“Do we really need another Anish Kapoor exhibition?” I asked myself on hearing of the Hayward Gallery’s plan to show the sculptor a second time. (He exhibited there in 1998 and has also had major shows at the Royal Academy and Tate Modern along with numerous Lisson Gallery exhibitions, while his Orbit Tower continues to overlook the Olympic Park in Stratford.)Having just visited the exhibition, though, the answer is a resounding “YES”! I’m still buzzing with delight at Kapoor’s majestic take-over – the show is more like an occupation than an exhibition. On entering, for instance, your way is Read more ...
Veronica Simpson
In the world of contemporary classical music, it takes confidence to launch your seasonal programme with an 18-year-old performer, and no hint of the repertoire. But Ryan Wang’s opening concert for the 2026 Bold Tendencies (BT) season filled every one of the 300 or so plastic bucket seats clustered around a gleaming Steinway grand. Inspired by this year’s Euphoria theme, Wang (pictured below) picked three pieces that most would have avoided for fear of overfamiliarity: Mozart’s Variations on “Ah vous dirais-je, Maman” (aka Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star); four Schubert Impromptus; and Read more ...
theartsdesk
We are bowled over! We knew that theartsdesk.com had plenty of supporters out there – we’ve always had a loyal readership of arts lovers and professionals alike – but the response to our appeal to help us relaunch and reboot has been something else.Our fundraiser is rolling towards hitting the halfway mark, and it’s already raised enough to repair our ageing site and ensure its survival. But just as important to all of us have been the messages of love and support from our readership. It’s not just the morale boost of being praised either – though let’s be honest, the warm glow is pretty Read more ...
Sarah Kent
Currently on show at the Barbican is a video that makes your hackles rise. Two “savages” are on display in a cage surrounded by punters who happily pay a dollar to pose for photographs with these exotic natives or else to watch them dance. These hideous interactions are being played out in museums in supposedly civilised countries including America, Spain and Australia.You don’t have to be Einstein to smell a rat, though; the signs are there for all to see. Along with her grass skirt, the woman wears shades and sneakers while the man’s Mayan-style breast plate and head gear are accompanied by Read more ...
Florence Hallett
Art should reflect its times, but after a preview week dominated by the controversial participation of Russia and Israel, the 61st Venice Biennale felt in pressing need of distraction and delight. Instead, across 99 national pavilions and 31 “collateral” events, the mood is end of days, from the Bulgarian pavilion’s dispatches from the near future, to Florentina Holzinger’s sewage and nudity extravaganza in the Austrian pavilion. A gloomy title, In Minor Keys, set the tone in advance, and the main exhibition, tasked with setting the Biennale agenda, follows suit: overstocked with the Read more ...
Rachel Halliburton
Four storeys above Oxford Circus, the noise and bustle recedes to be replaced by a parallel universe of gleaming glass-fronted workspaces and discreet installations of modern art. The room where I am sitting looks towards the upper reaches of the grand neo-classical façade of the London Palladium, framed by a blue early evening spring sky. On the table in front of me, a chess board displays pieces representing landmarks from London and New York that include tastefully sculpted models of the London Eye and the Chrysler Building. On the wall next to the reception, a quote from Leonardo da Vinci Read more ...
Sarah Kent
Francisco Zurbarán’s The Lamb of God (Agnus Dei), 1640 (main picture), must be the most compelling religious picture ever painted. Visually, it couldn’t be simpler; perhaps that’s why the image nails you to the spot. A lamb lies on a ledge with its feet tied together, awaiting slaughter. Instead of struggling, it remains absolutely still – as though resigned to its fate.A metaphor for the martyrdom of Christ, the lamb is far from being an abstraction, though. Zurbarán has painted its fleece with such exacting detail that you could almost plunge your fingers into its warm, woolly depths. Its Read more ...
Sarah Kent
Hidden among rampant foliage, a couple makes out with an urgency transmitted through Cecily Brown’s vigorous brush marks (pictured below right: Couple 2003-4). Their passion seems to have infected the whole woodland scene. The magenta flowers in the foreground are clearly defined, but as one’s eye travels back through the undergrowth, it’s as if feeling takes over from observation. Clarity is swept away by a gestural frenzy of greens and browns punctured by a patch of violet that breaks through the trees like an intense moment of orgasm.
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Sarah Kent
“Welcome” reads a sign hidden behind a metal screen whose spider-web of bars is designed to keep out unwelcome visitors (pictured below: Welcome: Carib, 2005). Through the grille one can see an exhibition of paintings to which, despite the apparently friendly invitation, access is emphatically denied. The Country Club is similarly protected by a high, chicken wire fence through which the tennis court and club house are tantalisingly visible (pictured below: Country Club: Chicken Wire, 2008). In these paintings, Hurvin Anderson treats both subjects with exquisite wit. The offending wire Read more ...
Sarah Kent
My walk through Hyde Park was an absolute joy. Spring is in the air, the weeping willow is in leaf (pictured below right: photo by S.K), the narcissi are in bloom and the sun was shining, yet the Serpentine Gallery is plunged into darkness.The lights are dimmed to enable you to see David Hockney’s frieze of iPad paintings which wrap around the gallery walls in a continuous strip. Of the 200 or so pictures he made in the course of a year following the changing seasons in Normandy, where he has a studio, roughly 100 are on show (main picture: detail). But even when your eyes have adjusted to Read more ...
Sarah Kent
American photographer Catherine Opie took her first self-portrait at the age of nine with a Kodak instamatic she’d been given for her birthday. There she stands in the garden, a little toughie flexing her biceps like a muscle man.And there she is again, twenty four years later. This time she presents herself as Bo (pictured below right), a persona developed among her queer friends in California. Her stance – chest square on, feet apart and thumbs in pockets – makes her look like an off-duty cop, an idea enhanced by what could be a baton dangling from her belt. She looks to camera with a Read more ...
Mark Sheerin
A brand new sign in a contemporary font (Centra No.2 I am told) signals my arrival at the wooded grounds of Goodwood Art Foundation. This contrast, between cool, clean design and the timeless but perhaps parochial charms of the English countryside makes for a fascinating morning at this recently renamed and revamped sculpture park in rural West Sussex. Beyond the art world, Goodwood has long been known for horse racing and motor racing. Now, thanks to a progressive landscape gardener, a modernist architect, an outreach programme and media support from Bloomberg Connects, it offers an art Read more ...