Poetry as witness and engine of change
In Birds of East London Stephen Watts invites us into “an opening onto an open field”. There is “no gate to be climbed through in my lyric” he says. And yet the brief lines that follow are truly challenging […]
Ruskin – a man of his time and of our time
Events around the country are celebrating the bi-centenary of John Ruskin’s birth on 8 February – #Ruskin200. Thinker, campaigner, artist, scientist, educator and social critic John Ruskin was one of the most contradictory of all the famous Victorians.
He was […]
Don McCullin’s photographic voice for the people
The photographs are stunning, of war and poverty and suffering mainly, all in black and white and accompanied in each of the ten display rooms by a revealing quote from the photographer who took them – Don McCullin.
McCullin who […]
Unblocking the pawn
As London grows and grows and grows, once familiar nooks and crannies in the centre where poetry could flourish have been ousted by property developers. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that talented and enterprising individuals like the […]
Videogaming – the good, the bad and the ugly
If you thought global corporations just sold stuff like trainers or phones, think again. China-based Tencent is the world’s biggest Internet-related products company with a market value of US$850 billion, making it the largest enterprise in Asia. The phenomenon […]
The Modernist future, interrupted
This summer, Malmö’s Moderna Museet, along with its partner, the Sztuki museum in Łódź, Poland is staging a must-see show about Modernism. It brings to life two little-known Polish artists whose ideas and life were shaped by revolution and […]
In the beginning was the mark
Frances Aviva Blane has been included in 60 out of 2,700 applicants as an exhibiting artist in this year’s John Moores Painting Prize, the UK’s best-known painting competition. The exhibition, a key strand of the Liverpool Biennial, will be […]
Not really Impressionism – how France’s loss became England’s gain
If only the curators had given Impressionists in London a different name: “How some artists crossed the channel to escape from war-torn Paris with some sculptures and stunning riverscapes by Monet and Derain thrown in at the end”.
If only […]
A lesson from Greece: in government but not in power : book review
Support for Syriza, the Greek Coalition of the Radical Left, has melted away. Despite its programme of support for the worst hit […]
Arturo Ui is everywhere – thanks to Trump
Review: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht, Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Friday 9th June 2017
On the night of this […]
German expressionism’s night at the embassy
For the countless artists who enter open submissions, Samuel Beckett’s Worstword Ho may spring to mind: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
But for Frances Aviva Blane there was a kind of serendipity when her painting […]
Realising a postponed future
Contemporary Ukrainian artists, film-makers and writers pay tribute to earlier generations who created a futuristic moment in 20th century art in the Postponed Futures show at London’s GRAD gallery.
What was their future is now our distant past – but the future […]
