Art & Photographic Exhibitions
Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism 1910–1950—a significant exhibition
By Gary Alvernia, 28 April 2017
The radicalization of Mexican artists led to the creation of powerful and engaging works that expressed the faith of the artistic community in the revolution of the masses.
Russian revolutionary art exhibition in London excises Trotsky—and, more generally, historical truth
Revolution: Russian Art 1917–1932
By Paul Mitchell, 25 February 2017
Curator Natalia Murray’s aim in the Royal Academy exhibition is to pour scorn on and discredit the 1917 October Revolution and to combat the contemporary impact of the works it inspired.
American painter Kerry James Marshall’s retrospective, Mastry
By Clare Hurley, 2 February 2017
This retrospective of 35 years of Marshall’s work, jointly organized by several museums, is welcome and somewhat overdue.
Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City
A Revolutionary Impulse: The Rise of the Russian Avant-Garde
By Josh Varlin, 30 January 2017
The current exhibition in New York is an opportunity to see some of the most influential works from the early Soviet Union.
The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw—Part 2
From the Holocaust to present-day Poland
By Clara Weiss, 11 January 2017
The core exhibition at the recently opened POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw has now marked its second anniversary.
Exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago
The photomontages of Soviet political artist Aleksandr Zhitomirsky (1907-1993)
By George Marlowe, 5 January 2017
An exhibition in Chicago features the work of a leading Soviet photomontage artist and designer, whose works attacked war, imperialism and fascism.
Nick Hedges’s photographs reveal what Britain’s slums were like in the 1960s and 1970s
By Margot Miller, 25 October 2016
In Hedges’s words: “Adequate housing is the basis of a civilised urban society. … The photographs should allow us to celebrate progress, yet all they can do is haunt us with a sense of failure.”
The false friends of Peter Weiss, German dramatist, filmmaker and novelist
By Stefan Steinberg, 20 October 2016
Central to Peter Weiss’s work were the seminal experiences of the twentieth century––the crimes of fascism, the October Revolution and its subsequent betrayal by the Stalinist bureaucracy.
“Political art” in New York City this summer
By Clare Hurley, 29 August 2016
While much of the artwork is as yet unsatisfying, it is welcome that many of these visual artists are registering awareness of the social and political crisis.
A portrait of photographer Robert Frank
By C.W. Rogers, 20 August 2016
Don’t Blink––Robert Frank, is a very personal and generally engaging documentary of the life and career of the acclaimed photographer and filmmaker.
Issues raised by the “Labor Relations” exhibition at the Wrocław Contemporary Museum
By Dorota Niemitz, 21 June 2016
Labor Relations at the Wrocław Contemporary Museum in Poland is drawn from the museum’s international art collection.
The paintings of Eugène Delacroix at London’s National Gallery
By Ross Mitchell and Paul Mitchell, 26 April 2016
The stated intention of the organisers is to give visitors “the opportunity to (re)discover” the “revolutionary artist” Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863).
An exhibition at the Field Museum in Chicago
The Greeks: Agamemnon to Alexander the Great
By Leah Jeresova, 2 April 2016
A stunning exhibition of ancient Greek culture, some 500 artifacts in all, is now at Chicago’s Field Museum and will soon be in Washington, DC.
At the Jewish Museum in New York City
“The Power of Pictures: Early Soviet Photography, Early Soviet Film”—an exhibition
By C.W. Rogers, 6 February 2016
The exhibition examines some of the remarkable photography, magazines, film posters and innovative films produced in the years that followed the October Revolution of 1917.
J.M.W. Turner and modern art: Comments on an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario
By Lee Parsons, 26 January 2016
Given the current upsurge of interest in representational imagery, the exhibition of the late work of J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto is of particular interest.
Picasso’s sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York
By Clare Hurley, 18 January 2016
MoMA has given Picasso’s sculpture blockbuster treatment, including more than 140 pieces. The handful of sculptures that are a discovery tend to get lost in the crowd.
Hegel: “In their paintings we can study and get to know men and human nature”
Seventeenth-century Dutch paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston
By David Walsh, 29 October 2015
The exhibition is not huge, but its 75 paintings from 40 institutions in the US, Canada and Europe, a third of which have not been seen in the US before, were thoughtfully chosen.
Diego Rivera murals in San Francisco—Mostly hidden and obscured
Change the World or Go Home by Alejandro Almanza Pereda
By Jeff Lusanne, 14 September 2015
The American public’s access to Mexican artist Diego Rivera’s murals has never been easy, as their social and political content has provoked opposition in powerful circles. Now, an artist joins the effort, with little to offer in return.
Exhibition in London
Shirley Baker: A compassionate photographer of 1960s working class life
By Paul Mitchell, 12 September 2015
The show is an opportunity to see the compassionate and humorous photographs of working class life by someone whose work rarely reached a wider audience during her own lifetime.
David G. Spielman’s The Katrina Decade—An unsentimental look at how things are now
By Christine Schofelt, 29 August 2015
Spielman is not given to the current fetish for “Ruins Photography.” There is no romanticism in these pages.
Dismaland, Banksy’s parody theme park: A despairing response to a complex world
By Kelly Taylor, 26 August 2015
Coming through the main gates into Dismaland, the spectator is confronted with a vision of a world that is terribly sick.
Painter Kehinde Wiley at the Brooklyn Museum: Trappings of empire and power
By Clare Hurley, 6 June 2015
Wiley copies European Old Masters paintings, substituting African Americans in contemporary garb in the poses of aristocrats and other wealthy figures of power and privilege.
“Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit,” at the Detroit Institute of Arts
In defense of Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry frescoes
By Tim Rivers and David Walsh, 21 April 2015
Along with much fascinating material, the current exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts on the 11 months the famed Mexican artists spent in the city has some very troubling and wrongheaded aspects.
Exhibition at New York’s Morgan Library
Lincoln Speaks: Words That Transformed a Nation
By Fred Mazelis, 13 March 2015
An exhibition of letters and speeches makes the US Civil War and the role of Abraham Lincoln come alive.
The horrors of war depicted
Images of War—Sensory War 1914-2014: An exhibition at Manchester City Art Gallery
By Margot Miller, 6 March 2015
The gallery assembled both contemporary and historical art, adding to its already substantial collection of WWI art exhibits.
A guest reviewer: Quiet, now—three photographers (Salgado, Struth, Atget) in New York
By Virginia Smith, 3 February 2015
Three recent or current exhibitions in New York City present the work of photographers who stop time and allow us to contemplate what they see before their lens.
Goya: Order and Disorder: A comprehensive view of the work of the Spanish genius
By Clare Hurley, 12 January 2015
The painter’s range was so diverse that at times it hardly seems the work of a single person.
The veiled art of Alex Colville
Art Gallery of Ontario exhibition
By Lee Parsons, 8 December 2014
The Art Gallery of Ontario has brought together nearly 100 of Colville’s paintings, drawings and prints, the largest number ever in a single exhibit.
Ernest Cole Photographer—A searing look at apartheid South Africa
By Fred Mazelis, 5 December 2014
A moving and powerful exhibit at New York University’s Grey Art Gallery showcases the remarkable work of a little known black South African, Ernest Cole.
“Seeking for Utopia”—or were they? The Russian avant-garde and Soviet modernism in posters
Exhibition at the Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo
By John Watanabe, 3 December 2014
The recent exhibition in Tokyo included some 180 early Soviet posters, which have remarkable artistic and historic significance.
“The real question is: does your art speak to the times and ask serious questions?”
Veteran photographer Errol Sawyer talks with the World Socialist Web Site
By Richard Phillips, 1 December 2014
Errol Sawyer discusses his early career and influences and the responsibilities facing photographic artists today.
New York Public Library exhibition on US entry into World War I
By Fred Mazelis, 25 September 2014
“Over Here: WWI and the Fight for the American Mind” describes the way in which propaganda and mass media “were used to shape and control public opinion about the war” a century ago.
World War I remembered through British art
Truth and Memory at the Imperial War Museum, London, until March 2015
By Tom Pearse, 6 September 2014
A major retrospective at the Imperial War Museum London features the work of British artists sent to capture the reality of the First World War.
Bruce Weber’s Detroit: “Projection” as truth?
“I was really thinking just of my picture, instead of what life is really like”
By Seraphine Collins, 8 August 2014
The exhibition of the well-known fashion photographer’s work opened June 20 at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) and will run through September 7.
“Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography and Video” at New York’s Guggenheim Museum
By Clare Hurley, 28 June 2014
The work of the African American artist (born 1953) has been widely praised for its examination of race, gender and class. “Class” now comes in a distant third.
“Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe” at the Guggenheim Museum in New York
By Clare Hurley, 25 June 2014
As an artistic movement, Futurism was not much more than an Italian variant of other European modernist trends.
At the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto
Making sense of human suffering: Francis Bacon and Henry Moore — Terror and Beauty
By Lee Parsons, 21 June 2014
Two of the most prominent British artists of the modern period—a rare and unlikely pairing—are brought together in this exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Artistic resistance to the US-backed juntas
Losing the Human Form: A seismic image of the 1980s in Latin America
By Armando Cruz, 10 April 2014
The exhibition, presented in Madrid in 2012 and recently in Lima, Peru, is a fascinating compilation of works from the 1980s that voiced opposition to the militarized regimes in Latin America.
Beautification: An exhibition by Sri Lankan artist Chandraguptha Thenuwara
By Darshana Medis and Panini Wijesiriwardane, 4 April 2014
Thenuwara’s show partially revealed a post-war Sri Lanka reality that the government wants to hide.
Spanish artist sued for insulting fascist dictator Franco
By Paul Mitchell, 17 February 2014
The World Socialist Web Site spoke to Spanish artist Eugenio Merino, who is being sued by the National Francisco Franco Foundation for offending the honour of the fascist dictator.
Art Turning Left at the Tate Liverpool: An ambitious but problematic collection of “left-wing” art
By Paul Mitchell, 13 December 2013
Art Turning Left exhibits many interesting works, but the last 200 years of “left” art are presented as an undifferentiated and unbroken continuum of “left-wing values.”
On the 80th anniversary of the DIA’s Rivera Court
Museum show misrepresents Detroit’s crisis and history
By Tim Rivers, 30 September 2013
An exhibition of 14 mural panels commemorating the completion eighty years ago, in March 1933, of Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry frescoes opened September 4 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.
Sandow Birk’s American Qur’an: Scenes of contemporary American life
By Clare Hurley, 28 September 2013
The latest installment of the Los Angeles-based artist’s ongoing project adds twelve chapters to what will be a complete English transcription of the Muslim sacred text illustrated with scenes of contemporary American life.
Eighty years of the Diego Rivera murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts
By Tim Rivers and David Walsh, 5 September 2013
The murals at the DIA, which Diego Rivera later asserted were his favorite works, represent an artistic coming to terms with modern life and its implications that is almost without parallel.
“The Big Change: Revolutions in Russian painting, 1895-1917”
An exhibition at the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht, Netherlands
By Sybille Fuchs, 17 August 2013
A recently concluded exhibition of paintings in Maastricht offered a dazzling insight into a fascinating period of artistic turmoil in tsarist Russia.
The Cluster Project: Artists against cluster bombing of civilians
By Paul Bond, 20 July 2013
The Cluster Project, under the general directorship of Bob Paris, is an online gallery and blog hosting multimedia artworks exploring “weapons, war, civilian casualties and pop culture.”
Oceanside, California exhibition of painter Arun Prem
By Vince Ostroweicz, 2 May 2013
The Oceanside, California public library recently presented an exhibition of the works of Indian-born painter Arun Prem.
The feverish pulse of the early 20th century: George Bellows, American modernist
By Tim Tower, 22 March 2013
The exhibition of Bellows’ work offers a vivid picture of the burgeoning American powerhouse during the first decades of the twentieth century.
The impact of drawing: Two exhibitions of master drawings in New York
By Clare Hurley, 12 January 2013
The two extraordinary shows are reminders that drawings offer a pleasure quite distinct from that represented by the grander mediums of painting and sculpture.
Exhibition of photographer Agustí Centelles in Barcelona: Many unanswered questions about the Spanish Civil War
By Paul Mitchell, 22 October 2012
A comment on an exhibition of photographs of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) at the Fundació Vila Casas in Barcelona.
Expo Chicago: Money and art mingle, with little benefit to art
By Jeff Lusanne, 27 September 2012
After a six-year hiatus, Chicago was once again host in 2012 to an international art fair, Expo Chicago. The event was held September 20-23 in the massive Festival Hall at Navy Pier.
London’s Tate Modern shows photomontages of John Heartfield
By Paul Bond, 7 August 2012
London’s Tate Modern art gallery is hosting a temporary exhibition of John Heartfield’s political photomontages from the 1930s, drawn mainly from the collection of British photojournalist David King.
“The 1968 Exhibit” in Oakland: What was that year really about?
By Marge Holland, 20 July 2012
A visitor hoping to get a new perspective on the political and social significance of the year 1968 from the current exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California will find that hope unfulfilled.
Exhibition of Russian-Soviet artist Vladimir Tatlin in Basel—Part 6
An interview with Anna Szech, art historian at the Museum Tinguely
By Sybille Fuchs and Marianne Arens, 30 June 2012
This is the sixth and final article in a series devoted to an exhibition at the Museum Tinguely in Basel, Switzerland of works by Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953), one of the most important artists of the Russian and Soviet avant-garde.
Exhibition of Russian-Soviet artist Vladimir Tatlin in Basel—Part 5
An interview with Gian Casper Bott, curator of the Tatlin exhibition
By Sybille Fuchs and Marianne Arens, 28 June 2012
This is the fifth of six articles devoted to an exhibition at the Museum Tinguely in Basel, Switzerland of works by Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953), one of the most important artists of the Russian and Soviet avant-garde.
Exhibition of Russian-Soviet artist Vladimir Tatlin in Basel—Part 4
Interview with Dmitrii Dimakov, expert on Tatlin’s work
By Sybille Fuchs and Marianne Arens, 25 June 2012
This is the fourth of six articles devoted to an exhibition at the Museum Tinguely in Basel, Switzerland of works by Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953), one of the most important artists of the Russian and Soviet avant-garde.
Exhibition of Russian-Soviet artist Vladimir Tatlin in Basel—Part 3
WSWS arts editor David Walsh on Vladimir Tatlin and the October Revolution
By Sybille Fuchs and Marianne Arens, 21 June 2012
This is the third of six articles devoted to an exhibition at the Museum Tinguely in Basel, Switzerland of works by Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953), one of the most important artists of the Russian and Soviet avant-garde.
Exhibition of Russian-Soviet artist Vladimir Tatlin in Basel—Part 2
An interview with Roland Wetzel, director of the Museum Tinguely
By Sybille Fuchs and Marianne Arens, 20 June 2012
This is the second of six articles devoted to an exhibition at the Museum Tinguely in Basel, Switzerland, of works by Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953), one of the most important artists of the Russian and Soviet avant-garde. .
Exhibition of Russian-Soviet artist Vladimir Tatlin in Basel—Part 1
Tatlin’s “new art for a new world”
By Sybille Fuchs and Marianne Arens, 19 June 2012
The Museum Tinguely in Basel, Switzerland is currently holding an exhibition dedicated to the works of Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953), one of the most important artists of the Russian and Soviet avant-garde. This is the first of six articles.
Pablo Picasso at the Art Gallery of Ontario: An artist apart
By Lee Parsons, 6 June 2012
The current exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario is the largest of painter Pablo Picasso’s work to be held in Canada in almost 50 years.
Stormbelt exhibition in Toronto—a dark journey through America’s Sun Belt
An interview with photographer Robert Leslie
By Lee Parsons, 29 May 2012
Raised in Canada, now living and working in Europe, Robert Leslie is an artist of genuinely humane sensibilities, as his recent photographic work illustrates.
Survey of contemporary art
The 2012 Whitney Biennial in New York City
By Clare Hurley, 24 May 2012
The Whitney Biennial in New York City continues to be one of the most prestigious survey exhibits of contemporary art.
Opening of the “Building the Revolution” exhibition in Berlin
By Wolfgang Weber, 12 April 2012
The exhibition “Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture from 1915 to 1935” opened at the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin on April 5 with a well-attended opening ceremony.
An exhibition of photographer Zoe Strauss in Philadelphia
By Clare Hurley, 10 April 2012
American photographer Zoe Strauss is an unusual figure in today’s art world. Her “I-95” project has been a 10-year endeavor to tell an “epic narrative about the beauty and struggle of everyday life.”
Joan Miró: An artist “in the service of mankind”
By Paul Mitchell, 27 March 2012
The works of painter Joan Miró were recently the subject of a major retrospective exhibition, “The Ladder of Escape”, at the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona. The show opens in Washington, D.C. in May.
Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture 1915-1935
By Paul Mitchell, 12 January 2012
Royal Academy of Arts, London, until January 22, and Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin—April 5 to July 9, 2012.
Diego Rivera at the Museum of Modern Art: Then and now—revolutionary art for revolutionary times
By Clare Hurley, 21 December 2011
In 1931 the Museum of Modern Art in New York organized a one-man show of Mexican painter Diego Rivera, for which he painted a number of “freestanding murals.” A current exhibition brings together a number of these murals.
“Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde” at the Art Gallery of Ontario
By Joe Silvaggio, 8 November 2011
The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto is currently hosting a fascinating exhibition entitled “Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde,” 118 works from the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
“Ostalgia”: Art from the Stalinist and post-Stalinist bloc, 1960s to the present
By Clare Hurley, 3 November 2011
An exhibition entitled “Ostalgia” at the New Museum in New York City this past summer brought together the work of over 50 artists from the former Soviet Union and Eastern bloc countries.
An exhibition of Russian and Soviet modernism makes its way across Europe
By Tim Tower, 17 September 2011
Photographs, paintings, models and drawings, reflecting the work of artists, architects, engineers and photographers who were inspired by the Russian revolution of 1917, are on view at La Caixa Forum in Madrid, Spain until September 18.
Britain: Bristol’s street art project sidelines social comment
By Mel Simpson, 9 September 2011
Over seventy leading graffiti and street artists have been brought together in a project to paint ten of Bristol’s central multi-storey buildings in Nelson Street.
Exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Ontario
Robert Motherwell and the Abstract Expressionists
By Lee Parsons, 8 August 2011
Two exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto once again raise complex questions about the evolution of postwar art.
Lucian Freud: “A life of uncertainty and loneliness” … and enduring insights
By Paul Mitchell, 2 August 2011
British figurative painter Lucian Freud, a significant figure in modern art, died July 20 at his home in London at the age of 88.
“In Search of a Job—Any Job”
Powerful depiction of the fate of Burmese migrant workers
By Paul Mitchell, 21 February 2011
“In Search of a Job—Any Job: The Life of Burmese Migrant Workers” is an exhibition of photos by John Hulme at Oxford University’s International Migration Institute showing from February 17.
Munich exhibition documents German army atrocity in Afghanistan
By Wolfgang Weber, 8 February 2011
Germany’s greatest post-World War II war crime has been comprehensively documented and exhibited by the two journalists who won the trust of the victims’ bereaved relatives.
Detroit Disassembled by Andrew Moore: The devastation of a major American city
By Tim Tower, 5 January 2011
Detroit was once synonymous with automobile manufacturing and the dominance of American industry. Today’s cityscape is rife with images of decay. Andrew Moore’s photographs in his Detroit Disassembled give expression to the city’s historical tragedy.
Julian Schnabel retrospective in Toronto: Art, celebrity, and the market
By Lee Parsons, 20 December 2010
The current exhibition of the controversial artist Julian Schnabel at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto attempts to look at the relationship between his paintings and his films.
Germany: Missing “degenerate art” works rediscovered
By Bernd Reinhardt and Sybille Fuchs, 25 November 2010
Recent archaeological excavations in Berlin have unearthed masterpieces of early Modernist art, which were denounced and confiscated by the Nazi regime.
An interview with Richard Pare, photographer and expert on Soviet Modernist architecture
By Tim Tower, 13 November 2010
A version of the following interview with Richard Pare, conducted by Tim Tower of the WSWS, was originally posted in March 2008, Tower and Pare spoke again recently to update the piece to accompany a new exhibition, “Building the Revolution.”
The “Modern” experience of art:
Abramovic and Kentridge at MoMA
By Clare Hurley, 15 September 2010
The Museum of Modern Art in New York City is one of the most powerful institutions in the international art establishment, mounting “blockbuster” exhibits each year that draw some of the largest crowds of museum-goers in the world, including recent retrospectives of multi-media artists Marina Abramovic and William Kentridge.
Frida Kahlo retrospective in Berlin
By Jesse Olsen and Bernd Reinhard, 14 September 2010
The largest Frida Kahlo retrospective ever presented in Germany was recently on display in Berlin.
Frida Kahlo retrospective in Berlin—Part 2: Frida Kahlo and communism
By Jesse Olsen and Bernd Reinhardt, 11 September 2010
The largest Frida Kahlo retrospective ever presented in Germany was recently on display in Berlin.
Frida Kahlo retrospective in Berlin—Part 1: The “Kahlo myth” and the reality
By Jesse Olsen and Bernd Reinhardt, 10 September 2010
The largest Frida Kahlo retrospective ever presented in Germany was recently on display in Berlin. This is the first of a two-part article.
Donald McCullin: An artist “shaped by war”
By Danny Richardson, 14 June 2010
The renowned British photographer Donald McCullin’s exhibition Shaped by War, in collaboration with Imperial War Museum (IWM), was recently on display at the IWM North in Manchester.
“8 Mile”: images from a Papua New Guinea shanty town
By Susan Allan, 5 April 2010
The 8 Mile settlement is just outside Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea’s capital, and home to about 15,000 of the city’s 250,000 residents.
Bolshevism and the avant-garde artists (1993)
By David Walsh, 17 February 2010
The Great Utopia: The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915–1932 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, in 1992-1993, was a major event. David Walsh wrote a series of articles in the Bulletin, a predecessor of the WSWS, which we began republishing February 13 in three parts. Here is the entire piece.
Bolshevism and the avant-garde artists (1993)—Part 3
By David Walsh, 16 February 2010
The Great Utopia: The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915–1932 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, in 1992-1993, was a major event. David Walsh wrote a series of articles in the Bulletin, a predecessor of the WSWS, which we began republishing February 13.
Bolshevism and the avant-garde artists (1993)—Part 2
By David Walsh, 15 February 2010
The Great Utopia: The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915–1932 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, in 1992-1993, was a major event. David Walsh wrote a series of articles in the Bulletin, a predecessor of the WSWS, which we began republishing February 13.
Bolshevism and the avant-garde artists (1993)—Part 1
By David Walsh, 13 February 2010
The Great Utopia: The Russian and Soviet Avant-Garde, 1915–1932 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, in 1992-1993, was a major event. David Walsh wrote a series of articles in the Bulletin, a predecessor of the WSWS, which we begin republishing today.
Letter to the editor: Photography notes
By Virginia Smith, 12 February 2010
Exhibitions of American documentary photography are proliferating, a reader notes, suggesting this is one portion of the visual arts where a genuine engagement with society is taking place.
An interesting collection, but a distorted view of Stalinism
Mexican prints: revolution on paper
By Paul Mitchell, 29 January 2010
Mexican prints 1910-1960 will be shown at the British Museum in London through April 5, 2010.
Les Automatistes: Revolt and modern art in post-war Montreal
By Lee Parsons, 9 January 2010
The Varley Art Gallery in Unionville, Ontario, is hosting what has been called “the show of the year” in Canada, bringing together the work of 15 artists known as the “Automatistes,” which deserves attention for a variety of reasons.
Photographer Roy DeCarava, chronicler of African-American life (1919-2009)
By C. W. Rogers, 7 January 2010
Roy DeCarava, one of the world’s most renowned photographers, died in October six weeks shy of his 90th birthday. DeCarava is perhaps best known for his portraits of jazz musicians and everyday life in Harlem.
Grayson Perry’s “The Walthamstow Tapestry”: A sensitive depiction of the journey through life
By Paul Mitchell, 29 December 2009
The huge 3-by-15-metre “The Walthamstow Tapestry,” created by ceramic artist Grayson Perry, was the highlight of a brief exhibition at the Victoria Miro Gallery in London last month, which also saw the display of Perry’s hallmark ceramics.
Britain: The strengths and limitations of Banksy’s “guerrilla” art
By Paul Mitchell, 10 September 2009
Over 300,000 people saw the exhibition of works by “guerilla” graffiti artist Banksy at Bristol museum and art gallery this summer.
Darwin’s “endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful”
By Paul Mitchell, 22 July 2009
The current Fitzwilliam Museum exhibition is a fascinating exploration of the impact of Charles Darwin’s revolutionary theories on art in the late 19th century.
Game Over, or, Where shall we look?
By Virginia Smith, 5 June 2009
A question provoking observers of contemporary visual art is this: What will come after Post Modernism?
“The Aftermath of the December Greek Riots”
By John Vassilipoulis and Paul Mitchell, 20 April 2009
Photographers George Kasolas and Spiros Christofi spoke to the World Socialist Web Site about the cancellation of their London exhibition “The aftermath of the December riots in Greece.”
Sculptor Louise Bourgeois: A year of events celebrating her life and work
By Paul Stuart, 14 January 2009
On 25 December the artist Louise Bourgeois celebrated her 97th birthday. Bourgeois has produced a significant body of work in a personal visual language, which, nonetheless, has been shaped by the tumultuous events of the 20th century.
American painter Robert Rauschenberg 1925-2008: Avant-garde to Pop
By Lee Parsons, 29 December 2008
Noted American artist Robert Rauschenberg died May 12 this year of heart failure at his home in Captiva, Florida at the age of 82. The passing of this influential artist obliges us to consider his work and the era during which he came to prominence.
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