https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxv2qthiSYg As a young boy Subodh Gupta lived in Bihar, one of the poorest states in India. Everyone in the small city of Khagaul where he grew up worked for the Indian railways. The young Indian boy with the very common...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjt94eyY0ag To my knowledge, there are only two words of certifiably Venetian origin bequeathed to the world by La Serenissima: one is ghetto, and the other is biennale. -Ghetto, which initially makes its appearance in the Middle...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaHUv_Ytr2g If there's one artist you have a hard time equating with sequins, bikinis, fake boobs and Miami beach parties it’s Mark Dion. This American artist (born 1961) is known all over the world for his cabinet of...
Everyone in Miami, from the taxi drivers to the sales associates in the fashion stores, know all about it. During the week they call ABMB for Art Basel Miami Beach, this modern and contemporary art fair imported from Switzerland, the entire city undergoes a...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRDCmQEFk6Y Nobody can emerge unscathed from this exhibition. Mounted with exceptional skill by the Pompidou Centre curator Jonas Storsve with the collaboration of Nicola del Roscio who worked with the artist during 48 years ( he...
I’ve told this story before. In the French charming provinces, in a place known for its Medieval kings, its snails and its wine, is a small town. There, in one of its working class neighbourhoods is a building designed by the Japanese starchitect Shigeru Ban that...
Art which is political to the exclusion of all else is pointless, regardless of how human its message. Art demands the foundation. It demands the form too. Otherwise you simply end up with illustrations. The greatest shock that I had the chance to experience recently...
‘It is essential for the sensual element to be included in some way or another in any work of art.’ These words were written by Mark Rothko, the most sensual of abstract artists (in his paintings, at any rate). The sensual dimension is vitally important to art...
It is commonplace to say that he is one of the greatest names in painting in the 20th century. Mark Rothko (1903-1970) committed suicide at the age of 66 and we invariably connect his darkest paintings to the period preceding his death. ‘It’s so easy to tell a...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRl1EuJNnFk In the small world of international contemporary art, he's a star. Yet he has no objects for sale, unless you include (good) intentions, freedom and a moderate desire to change the world. His name is Tino Sehgal, he...
Gagosian, Sotheby’s, Christie’s. Think of the art market at its most glamorous, its most breathtaking, with its record-breaking prices, and the names most often evoked are the two leading auction houses and a multinational gallery owned by the American, Larry...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-Mq5PtT9Yw This story gets off on the wrong foot. It involves an artist who is already the subject of a lot of talk – arguably a little too much – and who caused several scandals in the 2000s, through his art, and also with his...