https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tpuBstGmFs In art, even contemporary art, chronology matters. In other words, who did what before whom. To give you an example, in 1915 the entire world from Russia to Germany, passing through Montevideo, was doing...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0NLVDadpcQ The most powerful pieces of art are the ones that offer the potential for multiple readings. In the work of the French artist Annette Messager (born 1943) ambiguity itself becomes an art form. The winner of the Golden...
New York is the international epicentre of the art market. And it’s here, from 2 until 5 March, that The Armory Show, a fair that is emblematic of the city, takes place, assembling 210 contemporary and modern art galleries along the banks of the Hudson. It is also the...
There was once a time, until the late '90s, when if you wanted to be considered a prominent artist, you were best off being North American. Back then, money and institutional support was primarily found on the other side of the Atlantic. But thanks to globalisation,...
On 16 April of last year I posted an article about a fabulous exhibition by the Greek artist Jannis Kounellis at La Monnaie in Paris. He has just died at the age of 80. Here is a homage to an artist who created harmonious works from the most thankless raw materials....
The press conference for the Venice Biennale, arguably the world’s most important contemporary art event, takes place three months earlier and is usually quite a confusing affair. Not this time. Here's a foretaste of what the 57th Venice Biennale, curated...
Switzerland is a unique blend of alpine culture, cows, rustic tradition, cheese, and world-class expertise in such diverse domains as watchmaking, banking and contemporary art. Every two years, in Gstaad, a show called Elevation 1049 perfectly incarnates these two...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-53EMSOgRQ Anyone who has visited Naoshima and Teshima, the art islands in the Seto Inland Sea in Japan which have been transformed by the visionary businessman Soichiro Fukutake into spaces that marry beauty and nature,...
It is not unheard of for museums, through their programming schedules, to inadvertently reprise entire chapters of art history. As I write, on one side of the Channel, in Paris, at Pompidou Center, is the fabulous Cy Twombly retrospective, showing until 24 April. (...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM-M22rhuLA Have you ever noticed how all the creative activities are these days described as artistic? Can hairdressers be artists? Are fashion designers artists? The question becomes even more pressing, and omnipresent, when...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vInG1XY5GjE Philippe Parreno (born 1963) the French artist who lives in Paris (for an artist to remain in Paris after becoming known is a rarity) has filled the entire Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern. The length of the...
Let’s be frank. Among the art lovers of this world – that vast group of individuals that loves flaunting its coffee table books and haunts Moma, the Centre Pompidou and the Tate Modern – how many can tell you why Carl Andre is an important artist? Why exactly should...