We appear to be living through a golden age of political protest in art. OK, perhaps “golden age” is pushing it. But it’s definitely a fine time for artistic moaning. Pretty much every day on what was Twitter and now is X, the energetic agitator Cold War Steve (the pen name of Christopher Spencer) is laying into […]
Recent articles
Tracey Emin leads a mutiny against the art schools
When Tracey Emin first appeared among us — mouthy, disruptive, selfish, often drunk, a terrible speller — no one could have imagined that one day she would open her own art school and that this art school would nurse ambitions that are traditional and nostalgic. But there you go. With time comes wisdom, and with […]
Louise Bourgeois: the mother of all artists and the grooviest seventysomething
Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) was one of the most important artists to have lived. I was only there for the tail end of her career but, absurdly, that was when all the action happened. She had been inventive, emotional, hair-raising and brilliant for many decades of her long creative life, but only in the final stretches […]
From painting murals of Saddam Hussein to shaking up Blenheim Palace
Against all the odds, the marriage of Mohammed Sami and Blenheim Palace turns out to be made in heaven. It’s against the odds because Sami is a 40-year-old from Baghdad who has ended up in London while Blenheim is a particularly posh and gigantic stately home, the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough, the birthplace […]
Henry VIII was a lunatic. We beheaded the wrong king
The cry goes out across the land. It whistles across the heather and rumbles through the tenements: “Who will rid us of these troublesome Tudors?” I mean, really. As a nation, have we not already lavished as much attention as can reasonably be lavished on Henry VIII and his unfortunate wives? And his malignant children? […]
In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine review — art meets politics
The tiny shred of good that has come out of the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been the raising of awareness it has prompted of this fascinating and crucial corner of Europe. Before Putin began his mad war, many among us would have had difficulty pointing to Ukraine on the map, let alone understanding its […]
Football as fine art — just look at these amazing shirts
With football fever raging in the land, Britain’s least likely contemporary art space, the Oof Gallery, has become a must-go destination. The Oof Gallery is unlikely because it is located inside Tottenham Hotspur’s football stadium in north London. Worse than that, it is only accessible through the club shop. Anyone visiting the Oof needs first […]
Naughty but nice: rococo art gets a modern twist at the Wallace Collection
To the Wallace Collection, a venue I try to visit at least once a month because I always emerge with joy in my heart and a song on my lips. The collection was assembled by assorted marquesses of Hertford, the most active of whom was the fourth and last. The earlier Hertfords collected sparsely and […]
Who gets my vote for the worst gallery space in Britain?
What is the worst exhibition space in the land? My vote would go to the Duveen Galleries, which run down the centre of Tate Britain. Nothing works here. Everything is problematic. Even the name. Joseph Duveen was a crooked art dealer who falsified attributions, ruined old masters with over-cleaning and was directly responsible for the […]
So what if Damien Hirst has fiddled a few dates on his art
I’ve been making a film about Marcel Duchamp. But it keeps making me think of Damien Hirst. It’s annoying. The film is for a series called The Art Mysteries in which I unravel the complex meanings of celebrated artworks. In this case I’m looking at Duchamp’s Fountain, the upturned urinal that’s been voted “the most influential artwork of […]