Art of England (issue 68, 2010) has published a short piece of mine. It is about the ‘grants welfare state’ and proposes that artists should be funded more as investments, over a few years, leading to artistic and financial success, rather than supported through project grants. I see this as… Read More »The Artist as Entrepreneur
Art of England (issue 66, 2010) has published a short piece of mine. It is some commentary on a conference in London on arts and health. This is an interesting area. Research is beginning to show that arts can have therapeutic value, can trigger memories in people with Alzheimer’s, or… Read More »Medicine for Body and Soul
An earlier post (End of Kodachrome and a way of seeing the world) I lamented the loss of Kodachrome. Steve McCurry, the photojournalist, has shot the final, last, roll of Kodachrome. The story is being told in many places, but here is the first notice from the Wichita (Kansas) Eagle,… Read More »The last Kodachrome
I am delighted to see the further development of Sumi-e into strong abstraction. Chinese and Japanese brush painting has tended to bucolic, naturalist imagery, for obvious Pilgrim’s Journey reasons from its historical development. But some artists, particularly in China are exploring new ideas. An artist to consider is Lei Hong,… Read More »Abstraction in China
Do you ever read a critique of a painting that you don’t agree with? Of course we all do. A recent review of The Stolen Kiss by Jean Honore Fragonard in the UK’s Independent bothered me. So, The Stolen Kiss: I think not. The painter is trapped within the ways… Read More »Art in historical/social context: The Stolen Kiss
No doubt many in the arts community are concerned at rising levels of public sector austerity. For many their very existence depends on public funding of one sort or another. Few, though, will of necessity understand the underlying logic why there are public funding programmes for the arts in the… Read More »How to swing the arts funding axe
Some do indeed worship at the alter of the state. Most artists don’t make a living at their art, and most people who study art formally fail to develop their studies into a viable career. Writing in Art of England magazine recently, I observed that we should start viewing artists… Read More »Art and Money (creativity and poverty?)
The sun is shining and my paint brushes are far too dry for their own good. The heavy paper I like to use is pristine and awaiting the tentative first brush with acrylic fate.
Subtitled, What can we learn from art about our sense of identity, this short article explores some of the themes of the Wellcome Collection’s (London) show Identity: 8 Rooms, and appeared in Art of England (issue 67, 2010). In today’s world, people have multiple identities, particularly with the Internet —… Read More »Art and Identity