Via David Packwood, I was made aware of the sale, last Friday at Moore, Allen & Innocent, for £2 million, of a Dutch 16th-Century portrait that the buyer and whoever he was bidding against evidently thought was a Rembrandt. Now, it certainly is a good-looking painting and evidently related to Rembrandt, but — at least…
The late work of Titian continues to fascinate. Inner effulgence emerging through broken, smouldering facture. A expressively spiritual presence. These are some of the qualities of the best, late works in paint by the master. Unprecedented in its embrace of colour as clay, of the gesture as art, and utterly devoid of ancillary concerns, yet…
Lo, the pendulum swings. Things have happened so quickly in comics these last years that we are already seeing a backlash against the type of comics that broke the century-old mould and expanded the field of comics as expression and art, until recently almost universally embraced amongst ‘progressive’ comics cognoscenti. There is a new establishment…
This is the second and last installment of the Metabunker review of this year’s Venice Biennial. Read the first part, which deals with the national pavilions, here. Also, be sure to check out our extensive photo reportage from the show. While the national pavilions provide the core of the Biennial, affirming the continued belief in…
The great Titian show in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, which will move on to the Accademia in Venice next year, is close to being the best of both worlds. It is based on substantial new research, particularly of technical nature, and it unites a large number of the great masterpieces of the last 25…
Managed to catch the Venice Biennal on its last legs, when I was in the Serenissima last week. It proved to be an exhilarating surprise. Usually, it is a slog mitigated by perhaps a handful of interesting work and, if you are lucky, a standout or two. Circumnavigating the national pavilions especially tends to be…
Yesterday I was in Pieve di Cadore, Titian’s birthplace and the hometown of his family. It was something of a revelation to see. His pictures make more sense when one considers the landscape he grew up in. His house, which is preserved as a museum, is situated on a hillside, with tall trees towering over…
Det er svært at karakterisere Under Byen som et rockband i ordets traditionelle forstand. Deres musik, tekster, instrumentering, ja hele deres opstilling på scenen, er vel nærmere at betragte som en helhed der, når det fungerer, vitterlig slår gulvet væk under publikum.
Mig bekendt var Jakob Martin Strid den første tegneserietegner, der sidste år kunne modtage Statens Kunstfonds eftertragtede 3-årige arbejdslegat. Ganske vist lagde Kunstfondets litteraturudvalg i sin motivation mest vægt på Strids børnebøger, og vist var legatets første afkast til offentligheden da også færdiggørelsen af sidste års hit-børnebog Min mormors gebis. Men forleden dumpede så et…
Predictably, the Swedish cartoon affair incited by Lars Vilks’ drawings of the Prophet Muhammed as a ’roundabout dog’ and other things, has gotten to the ridiculous point where a bounty has been placed on his and his editor’s heads by purported Al-Qaeda affiliates, he has received numerous death threats and others warnings (most of them…
Bobby Byrd, potent soul singer, patron of the young James Brown, co-founder of the Flames, and hard-working plug 2 to the Godfather of Soul, passed away yesterday in his Loganville, Georgia home. He was 73. His passing, and that of his long-time musical collaborator last year, are landmarks towards the end of an era of…
The latest chapter in the event-rap sideshow currently running full bore to dropping sales is Kanye West’s meltdown backstage at the MTV Video Awards, after he, despite having been nominated in five categories, won nothing, and was denied the opening spot in favour of Britney Spears. Non-event as that may be, it is nevertheless fascinating…
Taking his cue from the recent postings on Douglas Wolk’s fine chapters, from his new book Reading Comics, on Grant Morrison (parts I, II, III, IV) Noah Berlatsky comments on what he sees as Morrison’s ‘signature weakness’, namely his failure to think visually and to truly collaborate with the artists he works with. While I…
Aintitcool has reports from the screening of Blade Runner – the Final Cut at the Venice Film Festival (for those who have no clue what I’m talking about – check out my earlier piece on the film). I ain’t trusting these people to quite know what they’re talking about; I can’t believe that almost every…
In what is a rather depressing turn of events, news came earlier today that cartoonist Guillermo Torres and writer Manuel Fontdevila have been fined €2.500 each for their cartoon, on the cover of satirical weekly El Jueves, back in July, of the Spanish Crown Prince and his wife in doggy-style position. “Insulting the Crown” is…