Art Research

A review of the retrospective exhibition of sculptor Sir Antony Gormley OBE held at the Royal Academy London. Encounters varied works from studies and notebooks to gigantic installations.

A review of Nam June Paik at Tate Modern, explores the exhibition room by room. "When asked about his practice Paik replied "I am aware of Zen, but I am an artist: I react to Zen in the same way I react to the music of Johan Sebastian Bach."

Review of the exhibition of visionary artist William Blake at Tate Britain, September 2019: The exhibition is arranged in eight rooms of the downstairs gallery spaces of Tate Britain, low-lit, maroon-painted walls, a very comprehensive collection of a highly original and complex visionary creator.

The 251st Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy London in a review recorded at the press view on 3rd June 2019. The Summer Exhibition is most popular event in the nation’s cultural calendar, and commercially the most successful. It allows works in all media, print/photography/painting/sculpture/architectural models - with rooms arranged by different Royal Academicians, some of whom, like Barbara Rae’s Arctic room, set a theme to their hang.

A recorded visit to van Gogh and Britain considers the work of Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) placed in the context of British art and literature of the 19th century and his effect on succeeding generations of artists.

Cv/VAR 66 interviews Dr. Michael Ryan of the National Museum Dublin recorded at the opening of the exhibition The Work of Angels at the British Museum in 1989. He describes pieces found at Derrynaflan dating from the eighth century including an ecclesiastical paten, jewelry, accessories, and domestic artifacts. It carries a detailed account of Celtic and Pictish craftsmanship and iconography.

Clare Lilley, head curator of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, gives an interview to Cv/VAR in which she describes her own career path to the YSP and gives a detailed description of the history, aims, and initiatives of Britain's largest environment for contemporary sculpture, with special projects involving artists such as David Nash, James Turrell, Jaume Plensa, and Anthony Caro.

This is an interview by Sarah Batiste with textile and ceramic artist Paramjit Takhar recorded in 1989. Here, Paramjit explains the spiritual aspects of colours, with essays on the history and influence of Mogul painting.

Cv/VAR 102 documents Leviathan, a commissioned sculpture by Anish Kapoor for the Monumenta series at the Grand Palais, Paris. It records a press presentation at his London studio. The artist describes the project, with reference to scale models, and discusses 120 metre high Orbit in construction for the 2012 London Olympics. It then visits Leviathan installed at the Grand Palais in May 2011.

A study of Aubrey Beardsley's work exhibited at Tate Britain until May 25, 2020. The author considers the darkly vigorous imagery of the short lived genius, his graphic work for the notorious Yellow Book, and sublimely erotic illustrations for Lysistrata by Aristophane and Salome by Oscar Wilde, which frank imagery even shocked the author.

Cv/VAR 154 publishes a study of photography and art in which authors Marina Vaizey and Anne Blood consider the historical impact of photography from pioneers Hill and Adamson, William Fox Talbot, and Louis Daguerre to contemporary practitioners such as Andreas Gursky and Boris Mikhailov. The documentary power and graphic clarity of the medium challenged and persuaded artists such as Degas, Sickert, Andy Warhol, and Richard Hamilton, and innumerable creative voices. The volume includes biographical details of leading figures and a guide to national collections and study centres.

Sonnets & Sunspots tells the story of one of the most beloved popular science series of all time and the charismatic educator who became an icon to several generations of students. The audiobook is also a fascinating history of popular science programming in television and film, from its primitive beginnings to the 21st century. Along the way there are entertaining behind-the-scenes stories of each production and the personalities that were involved with them.

A recorded visit to Elizabethan Treasures during the press view at the National Portrait Gallery London. Inspect miniature portraits by Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver of Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Frake, Henry Wriothesley and others, and the celebrated icon of Queen Elizabeth I.

In this study, Art, Poetry, and WW1 by Edward Lucie-Smith of writing, poetry, and painting in the centenary year of the outbreak of the First World War, the author considers the historical impact on the general psyche of the calamitous events, reflected in the expression of poets and visual artists. He establishes a continuity to the theme with reference to works by Velázquez, Watteau, Goya, and others, in their treatment of the spectacle of battle and the horrors of war and human conflict.

An interview recorded with the leading ceramic designer and studio potter Janice Tchalenko explores her development, from training with Mick Casson at Harrow Schoolo of Art to growing her own practice, leading to a major commission of supply to the Next retail chain. Tchalenko describes her appointment to renew China's ceramic industry and her activity as the chief designer of the Dartington pottery.

In content, this translation into English of Rudolf Steiner’s lecture on the art historian, author and researcher Herman Grimm, can be said to be a paean to Grimm's wholly original and unorthodox approach to art history. Herman Grimm's work differs substantially from standard, more intellectual approaches, as becomes evident from this statement of Herman Grimm quoted here: "Raphael is a citizen of world-history. He is like one of the four rivers that, according to the belief of the ancient world, flowed out of Paradise.

Art dealing today in the United States is a huge, well-organized, well-publicized industry. Probably, there has never previously been a market in art that has played such an important role in a national economy. The United States retains the preeminent position in the world market for art that it achieved immediately after World War II and seems unlikely to lose it any time soon. In addition to serving collectors and institutions based in America, the American dealing community supplies works of art to individuals and museums all over the world.

Feature by David Rose first published in Cv Journal of Art and Crafts 2/4 December 1989, in which he describes craft practices of individual makers in the county of West Cork, Ireland. The monograph also includes a survey of Dublin colleges of art and design by Margaret MacNamidhe, first published in Cv Journal 4/2 July 1991. From Cv/VAR Archive. Crafts Directory surveys practices in the applied and decorative arts in the UK and Ireland. The anthology of interviews and features was first published in the quarterly review Cv Journal of Art and Crafts 1988-91, and includes showcases of emerging practices, studies of crafts education, and a comprehensive index of specialist producers and suppliers in the flourishing arena of crafts design and distribution.

A review of Anselm Kiefer exhibition at White Cube Bermonday tours room by room, with analytic descriptions of the large scale works on view.

In September 1972, three graduates rented two floors above a cash and carry warehouse at 65A Lisson Street, West London. After a couple of months, one emptied his studio, the first floor front room, and opened the space for exhibitions. There followed a spate of invented artists which made humorous comments on the high-flown conceptual arena. In 1974, the gallery strengthened its identity with the Gallery London Displays, a series developed with sculptor Vaughan Grylls.