I was in Florence for a couple of days last week to see the two big art shows they have on at the moment — the Bronzino exhibition at the Palazzo Strozzi and the Caravaggio and Carravaggeschi show, which covers three venues (Uffizi, Palazzo Pitti and the Villa Bardini) and closes next Sunday. I’ll write…
The picks of the week from around the web. BBC’s “A History of the World in a Hundred Objects”. For those residing outside Britain, you might be unaware of this brilliant radio programme, in which British Museum director Neil McGregor pieces together a history of human civilisation from individual pieces in the museum’s collection, presented…
We on the Danish Comics Council board are very proud to present a big roundtable debate on the number one hot button topic, and arguably the most significant one, when it comes to cartooning these days: issues of transgression and freedom of speech. As mentioned here recently, there’s currently a fairly heated debate on drawn…
Around ten-and-a-half years ago, in April of 2000, the first issue of Rackham was released to a mostly indifferent Danish audience. The comics market had been in a slump for a decade, very few comics of interest were being published, the underground was struggling to find its sea legs after years of neglect, the comics…
At HU I have a post up about the classics — specifically Popeye (with Buster Keaton thrown into the mix) — and notions of high and low culture, including ample quotation from pioneering pop culture critic Gilbert Seldes. Check it out.
“Modern American conservatism is, in large part, a movement shaped by billionaires and their bank accounts, and assured paychecks for the ideologically loyal are an important part of the system. Scientists willing to deny the existence of man-made climate change, economists willing to declare that tax cuts for the rich are essential to growth, strategic…
I have a review of Ulli Lust’s great Grand Tour diary up over at TCJ. Check it out.
The Cambridge Film Festival is on at the moment and last night I attended one of its main events — a live interview with director Stephen Frears, followed by a screening of his latest film Tamara Drewe, adapted from the graphic novel by Posey Simmonds. It was a good time — Frears mixed self-deprecation and…
Open publication – Free publishing – More aben maler Congrats to Steffen Rayburn Maarup for five great years of quality comics publishing in Denmark at Aben Maler, culminating with the finest foreign edition of Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan this year. Here’s to many more!
The picks of the week from around the web. Ray Davis: “High, Low and Lethem”. Great essay about the continuing confluence of high and low culture and the transformation of that modernist dichotomy, which touches upon auteur theory, copyright issues and much more. (Thanks Tim!) Comics! Ron Regé’s great “We Must Know, We Will Know”…
When I was in Denmark a few weeks ago, I got the chance to cross the sound to Malmö and see the Dearraindrop-curated Mutant Pop show at Gallery Loyal there. I took a number of photos, which you can see here. It was fun, but I’m somewhat sceptical of this contemporary iteration of post-pop art.…
If you’re in Copenhagen, I urge you to visit the grand retrospective on William Skotte Olsen opening today at Kastrupgårdsamlingen and running till 2 January. Skotte Olsen (1945-2005) is one of the great painters of his generation in Denmark, and anywhere really. While his oeuvre was plagued somewhat by overproduction, especially in the later years,…
The great Danish cartoonist and dramatist Nikoline Werdelin turned fifty today. Highly celebrated in her home country, her daily strip has chronicled the life and times of her countrymen since the mid-80s, with a distinctive voice blending quotidian realism with biting satire. Her plays supplement the ongoing narrative portrait of Denmark she has been building,…
To my considerable regret, I could not attend the Helsinki Comics Festival this past weekend. It looked awesome, and sounded even more so from what I heard from Bunker associate Thomas Thorhauge, who was there as part of the Danish delegation, which also comprised one-time Bunker contributor Cav Bøgelund, as well as our buddies Simon…