Tag Archives: The Arts

Fine Art: The Burlington Magazine – January 2024

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The Burlington Magazine – January 3, 2024: The new issue features ‘The Golden Age of Avignon’ – Avignon as ‘New Rome’; Rubens and women; Tiepolo in New York; Gertrude Stein and Picasso, and more….

China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta

A vivid photograph of a lotus pond ushers visitors into this ambitious exhibition on the arts and culture of Jiangnan. Lying to the south of the Yangtze – its name literally means ‘south of the river’ – this part of China includes such major cities as Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou. Curated by Clarissa von Spee, Chair of Asian Art and the James and Donna Reid Curator of Chinese Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), this is the first exhibition outside China to present an encyclopaedic view of the cultural history of this historically affluent region. 

The Walpole Society

Ever since the Walpole Society was founded in London in 1911 ‘with the object of promoting the study of the history of British art’, The Burlington Magazine has taken a close interest in an organisation with aims and principles so close to our own: this is the sixth Editorial we have devoted to the subject. The first, written by the art historian August F. Jaccaci, who edited the Magazine’s ‘Art in America’ section, appeared in 1913 on the occasion of the publication of the first of the annual volumes that are the society’s raison d’être.

Travel & Culture In Spain: Salvador Dali’s Figueres

The Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres
The Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres

The Times and The Sunday Times (December 10, 2023) Inside Salvador Dalí’s childhood home — and his old haunts. Our writer visits an immersive new museum at the artist’s striking childhood home in Figueres and takes a tour of his favourite spots in northeastern Spain

This northeasterly nook of Catalonia’s Costa Brava, between the Pyrenees to the north and the Mediterranean to the south, was the landscape that Dalí called his “ongoing inspiration” and is a recurring motif throughout his work.

While the Casa Natal Dalí took me on a tour of Dalí’s life, its near neighbour, the gigantic Dalí Theatre-Museum (£15; salvador-dali.org), just five minutes’ walk away, was designed by the maestro himself. It opened in 1974 and showcases his style at its most eccentric, not to say egocentric.

With its pink façade and giant white eggs on its roof, like decorations on a cake, this is where you’ll find not only the Mae West “lips” sofa, but also numerous grandiose paintings and drawings, trompe l’oeils and painted ceilings — as well as Dalí’s tomb in the crypt.

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Book Of The Year: “James Gillray – A Revolution in Satire” By Tim Clayton

Apollo Magazine (November 23, 2023) Political satire is by its nature ephemeral: it reacts to events and personalities and moves quickly on. Yet James Gillray’s (1756–1815) excoriating attacks on William Pitt, Charles James Fox, George III, the Prince Regent and a whole cavalcade of Georgian public figures retain their sting more than two centuries after he dreamed them up. In his sumptuously illustrated study of Gillray, Tim Clayton explains why.

Gillray was, shows Clayton, as much an artist as a caricaturist – his fertile wit and invention were equalled by his facility with an etching needle. His images reveal a man of learning, liberal with allusions in his prints to Shakespeare, Milton and the classics, who developed a style that combined the literary and the visual. His seven years at the Royal Academy, meanwhile, helped shape him into one of the most accomplished draughtsmen of the early 19th century.

Although Clayton takes Gillray from his early training as a letter engraver through his time as a travelling player and into his pomp and then the madness that blighted his later years, this is not a biography in the traditional sense. There are few documentary sources relating directly to Gillray, so Clayton skilfully reveals his man through examining the ‘business of satire’. He looks at Gillray’s often overlapping professional and personal relationships, at the intricacies of Georgian print culture, and the ebbs and flows of politics.

Essays, Poetry & Fiction: Deep Wild Journal 2023

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Deep Wild Journal 2023 – Writing from the Backcountry: On skis and snowshoes, by boot and boat, in open water or at the ends of ropes, by night or day, in all four seasons, in searing sun or drenching rain…the adventurer-writers whose work is featured in Deep Wild 2023 take us to all extremes.

Others come to us from a quiet place in the backcountry with their insights, observations, discoveries. Also featured in Deep Wild 2023 is full-color artwork by Tucson watercolorist Kat Manton-Jones and a portfolio of pen-and-ink drawings from the Colorado Plateau by Margaret Pettis.

Deep Wild 2023: Foreword and Contents

Culture: In The Footsteps Of Poets In Ronda, Spain

A horse-drawn carriage in Ronda
A horse-drawn carriage in Ronda

“I have searched everywhere for the city of dreams,” he wrote after wandering far from Paris to overcome writers’ block, “and found it here, in Ronda.”

German poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1913)

The Times and The Sunday Times (October 15, 2023) – Walking in the footsteps of poets on a new cultural trip, James Stewart takes a wander from Ronda and gets spectacular scenery and ancient traditions all to himself.

Rupit
Rupit

Teetering at the edge of the Tajo river gorge, Ronda, 90 minutes’ drive west from Malaga, remains the most spectacular urban setting in Europe. Its cat’s cradle of white streets is haunted by the ghosts of Moorish princes, soundtracked by the strum of guitars and the tinkle of fountains.

The Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park
The Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park

If you’re in the mood for romance, nowhere in Spain comes close, Ernest Hemingway reckoned. He’s still right, so long as you’re happy to share your precious moment with massed day-trippers from the Costa del Sol. Expect visitor numbers to grow again when a £1.1 million suspended gorge walk, the Camino del Desfiladero del Tajo designed by the architect behind Malaga’s Caminito del Rey, opens later this year.

Even so, what everyone is really coming to Ronda for – to inland Andalusia – is Old Spain. You won’t find it written on signposts but, like the crackle of duende during a flamenco concert, you’ll know it when you experience it. It’s the country of pueblos blancos and half-remembered battles and scenery of savage beauty; the one that attracted Grand Tour visitors such as Disraeli and Irving long before anyone had thought of the Costa del Sol.

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Culture: Iceland Review Magazine – Oct/Nov 2023

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ICELAND REVIEW MAGAZINE (OCT/NOV 2023): The latest issue features ‘Island In The Making’ – A Scientific Expedition of Surtsey Island; Mycological Magic – Foraging with Iceland’s Mushroom Queen, and more…

Reviews: The Best Charles Bronson Movies (MGM)

MGM STUDIOS (August 19, 2023) – Check out some of Charles Bronson’s best scenes in this crafted compilation.

  • The White Buffalo (1977) – Directed By: J. Lee Thompson
  • The Magnificent Seven (1960) – Produced & Directed By: John Sturges
  • Breakheart Pass (1975) – Directed By: Tom Gries
  • The Great Escape (1963) – Produced and Directed by: John Sturges
  • Murphy’s Law (1986) – Directed By: J. Lee Thompson
  • Chato’s Land (1972) – Produced and Directed By: Michael Winner
  • Jules Verne’s Master of the World (1961) – Directed By: William Witney

Preview: Art In America Magazine – Fall 2023

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Art in America Magazine (August 8, 2023) – The issue features Fall 2023: Icons – Artists who have made an impact, plus The Ruscha Effect, Cave_bureau, Pippa Garner, Marfa vs. Naoshima, Françoise Gilot, and more.

Meet Suzanne Jackson, Art in America’s Fall 2023 Cover Artist

A wide abstract painting with impressions of bodies and faces.
Suzanne Jackson: a history drawing-cracked wall, 2016–19.PHOTO TIMOTHY DOYON/COURTESY ORTUZAR PROJECTS, NEW YORK

Suzanne Jackson, whose work a history drawing-cracked wall (2016–19) features on the cover of the Fall 2023 issue of Art in America in a detail of the larger work shown here in full, told A.i.A. the backstory of her creation from her home in Savannah, Georgia. (Jackson is also the subject of a feature profile in the same issue.)

As told to A.i.A. The “history” in history drawing is the history of making the drawing. Over the three years I was working on it—it’s a big drawing—the whole process just happens from day to day: you’re adding something new, building it, working through composition and how elements come into the spaces in different ways. Each time you come back to work on it, something new has happened in your life. 

Profiles: Native American Pottery Artist Thomas Tenorio Of Santa Fe, NM

Travel + Leisure (June 21, 2023): Unearth the history and beauty of Santa Fe, New Mexico’s art scene with local artist Thomas Tenorio.

Video timeline: 0:00 Intro 0:23 Andrea Fisher Fine Pottery 1:16 Santa Fe’s Artists 1:33 Thomas Tenorio’s Traditional Pottery 4:22 Outro

In this video, learn about Thomas’s journey as a traditional Native American potter and how art has become a way of life for him. Also, see Andrea Fisher’s traditional pottery shop and learn more about Santa Fe’s vibrant art scene. Watch the video to learn more about the artists and how the art of the area is closely tied to the local indigenous communities.

#TravelandLeisure #Travel #SantaFe #Art #Pottery #TraditionalArt