Gustave Fayet was a man of many parts. All the parts were remarkable. But until today no one has thought to put them together. Now the full Fayet — painter, designer, rebuilder of churches, restorer of stained glass, rug-maker, ceramicist, Buddhist, occultist and, above all, one of the greatest collectors of art to have walked […]
Recent articles
The surrealist genius who slit his father’s throat with a dinner knife
Death. It’s the most final of finalities, its presence so concrete no amount of good intent can blow it away. However diligently the Royal Academy tries to present Richard Dadd as an intriguing Victorian fairy painter, and that’s it, the fact that he murdered his father, believing him to be the Devil, cannot be wished off. […]
We can’t ignore Ana Mendieta’s mysterious death –– or her enthralling art
Ana Mendieta has two kinds of fame. One is as a pioneering feminist artist of the 1970s whose poetic body art predicted many paths. The other is as the wife of the minimalist sculptor Carl Andre, the creator of the infamous Tate “bricks”, who may or may not have pushed her from a 34th-floor balcony […]
Women hate this artist’s boob obsession — men aren’t so sure
Good or bad? That’s the question that buzzes round my head like a wasp at a barbecue whenever I encounter the work of John Currin. You swat it away, you bash it with a fork, but still it keeps returning. Is this good art or bad? To an obvious extent, the answer depends on your […]
No cherry blossom here — women show a different side of Japan
Japan is so photogenic it’s no surprise everyone wants to photograph it. I shudder to think how many snaps there are out there of Mount Fuji hovering on the horizon or that stripy Ginza crossing where everyone rushes over at once or the few remaining geishas in Kyoto. That Japan, the foreigner’s Japan, may even […]
Frida Kahlo is a genius — but she unleashed a monster
One of the stylistic rules we have here is that we are discouraged from using the word “icon”. It’s used too casually these days, goes the thinking, too grandly, too glibly, too often. All of which is true. But since Tate Modern has called its Frida Kahlo show The Making of an Icon it cannot, in this […]
Whistler — the cocky revolutionary you want to punch on the nose
There’s a sense with some artists that their careers fell between the cracks. They lived in times of momentous change, but where they fit into that change is unclear. Toulouse-Lautrec was such an artist. Edvard Munch another. And so, certainly, was James Abbott McNeill Whistler. On every front, Whistler (1834-1903) feels interstitial. His dates correspond […]
Ai Weiwei: ‘Exile makes you constantly feel you’re an outsider’
Ai Weiwei doesn’t recognise me. But I recognise him instantly. He’s fuller round the tummy and the snows have fallen on his head, but the big giveaway is the trademark calm he exudes. A volcano could erupt at his feet, Chairman Mao could walk into the room and announce “I’m back!”, and China’s most celebrated […]
Mum, Anish Kapoor is fiddling with my brain
Idon’t know as much about Freudian meanings as Anish Kapoor. He’s spent several decades being psychoanalysed, whereas I read Sigmund Freud’s Civilisation and Its Discontents many moons ago. But I have spent enough time in the art world to have picked up some basics. So I know that we have ids and we have egos, and that […]
David Hockney: behind the sunny Yorkshire charm was a fierce revolutionary
There have been many dewy-eyed tributes to David Hockney since his passing on Thursday. Many of us have been moistly remembering the sheer pleasure of spending time with Britain’s most popular artist. The cheeky comments, the naughty stories, the clever insights. I can hear him in my ears right now, his singalong Yorkshire brogue time-stamped […]