Allen Jones: Feminist and Fetishist
Few artists have exploded onto the scene with quite the scandalous gusto of Allen Jones. When he first unveiled the now-infamous Hatstand, Table and Chair in 1970, he sparked an […]
Category Archives: Art
Anselm Kiefer’s Art of Destruction
On the 8th March 1945, the Black Forest town of Donaueschingen witnessed two events. The first, Anselm Kiefer was born; the second, his neighbour’s house was targeted by allied bombers, […]
The Gender-Plays of Theatre
At first, it almost sounds like a pantomime: the tyrannical rule of Julius Caesar embodied by a sadistic Frances Barber; the regal authority of Henry IV assumed by a masculine […]
On Stage, On Screen
First photography, then books – and now not even theatre can resist the influence of the digital age. When National Theatre Live broadcast its first performance of Phèdre in 2009, […]
Behind the Pseudonym
That J. K. Rowling would embark on the next phase of her writing career under a pseudonym was almost a foregone conclusion. In July last year, the best-selling living novelist […]
Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs
Wheelchair-bound and afflicted with illness, it is extraordinary that the last decade of Henri Matisse’s life was one of such creative vitality. The artist, widely regarded as the leading colourist […]
The Lure and Blur of Photorealism
The 2013 portrait of Kate Middleton by Paul Emsley has an eerie effect on the eye. Hanging in the National Portrait Gallery, the image has a composition that is quite […]
The Concept of Conceptual Art
Almost a century ago, the artist Marcel Duchamp turned a urinal 90 degrees on its side, signed it ‘R. MUTT 1917’ and submitted it to New York’s Society for Independent […]
Donna Tartt: Reviving the Old-Fashioned Artist
Whoever said ‘Only an idiot would try to get rich by writing a book’ touched on a kind of reality. We’ve all seen how the greatest of artists can lurk […]
Doris Lessing and the Artist’s Enduring Legacy
My first venture into Doris Lessing came only in April this year. The Grass is Singing, which had lingered in a bedroom floor pile since Christmas, seemed like an ideal […]
The Culturist 