Tony Blair Controversial Portrait Exhibited To Coincide With Iraq Inquiry

Photo:Richard Hamilton
Shock and Awe  2007-08
Inkjet print on Hewlett-Packard Premium canvas
200 x 100 cm  © 2010 Richard Hamilton

A controversial portrait of former Prime Minister Tony Blair dressed as a cowboy by the well known British Artist Richard Hamilton was circulated by The Serpentine Gallery in London ahead of his appearance at the  Iraq Inquiry. The large scaled print on canvas is the first image released by the gallery ahead of Hamilton's fist London show since 1992. Hamilton is considered one of the Godfathers of Pop Art. His exhibition aptly titled "Modern Moral Matters"consists mainly of  installations, prints and paintings ,highlighting global politics, riots, terrorist acts and war as their subject matter, and examining how these conflicts are now largely mediated by the media, often via television or the internet. The exhibition opens on the 3 March and runs until the 25 April.
Article By Paul Carter Robinson

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London Art Fair Art Projects Photo50 2010 ArtLyst Review

The London Art Fair opened last night with the sort of celebrity studded private view that defies all reports of an economic downturn. It once and for all proves that there is still plenty of money in London collector circles. This year's London Art Fair may not have been the sort of feeding frenzy that was around before the recession but by offering a price range from £250 - £500,000 there really was something for everyone. Providing they were sill in a post Christmas spending mood. The fair has been well managed for over 20 years and director Jonathan Burton has melded a successful mix of Modern British, embellished with cutting edge contemporary works, curated exhibitions in the Art Projects section and the newish addition of a designated photography section titled Photo50. The downside of the fair has always been the quality of some of the smaller galleries. Decorative ‘furnishing’ paintings that from a critical standpoint could hardly be classified as fine art, are still available to purchase by some of the 25 000 expected visitors. I was very impressed with this year's Art Projects section and believe that this is the way forward for the fair. It will also encourage international galleries to show in London in the winter. I recommend Hannes Broecker’s installation on Galerie Baer (Dresden) reminiscent of a train station complete with coke can encrusted gates and graffiti. Golden Thread Gallery (Belfast) presenting works related to the conflicts in Northern Ireland, Antena Estudio (Mexico) showing a selection of works with a unique Latin perception sometimes dealing in the highly conceptual, sometimes with a pure visual indulgence. The Steps Gallery highlights oversized photographs in sharp focus by Vincent Fournier who explores the subject of international space programs from the USA, Russia and China and in a similar approach Ordinary Light uncovers the aftermath of years of atomic testing on the Nevada desert in crystal clear photo works. Photo50 also had a number of interesting pieces represented including ArtLyst favourite, Tereza Buskova. However, so much of the work leaves me cold and seems restricted to oversized images taken with very good cameras. All technology with very little content. I like it in the same way that photorealism attracted me in the 1970’s but there is a little too much Photoshop going on these days and perhaps some of the artists need to get back to basics with less emphasis on gimmickry. On the commercial front, sure all of the big names in Modern British were there and if you were looking for a Keith Vaughan, Patrick Caulfield or a William Scott it was there in abundance. Alan Cristea, Beaux Arts, Austin Desmond, and Richard Green all had work of the highest standards. Also of note were Art First which had some interesting work by artists as diverse as Eileen Cooper and Simon Lewty whose visual texts are stunning, Broadbent who currently is running an exhibition of Scottish painter John Mclean and Tag Fine Arts who had an accessible and patron friendly stand exhibiting the likes of Rob Ryan, Martin Spiller and Ed Pearman. The London Art Fair is still the only game in town in the cold winter months and hopefully the weather didn’t hinder buyers from attending on Wednesday when an unexpected blizzard hit salt free London, a city that still does not know how to grit its pavements. See More on: http:www.artlyst.com Photo: Tag Fine Art ArtBitch 2010

Kenneth Noland Pioneer Abstract Painter Dies Age 85

American Artist Kenneth Nolan 1924-2010

Kenneth Noland Born was born in 1924 in Asheville, North Carolina and is widely associated with the late 1950's movement know as Color Field painting or Post painterly abstraction the name coined by critic Clement Greenberg. The style utilized a flattening of texture and used pure pigment soaked into the canvas to create bold abstractions. In 1948 and 1949 Noland worked with Ossip Zadkine in Paris, and had his first exhibition of his paintings there. In the early 1950s he met Morris Louis in Washington DC. He became friends with Louis, and after being introduced by Clement Greenberg to Helen Frankenthaler and seeing her new paintings at her studio in New York City in 1953 he and Louis adopted her “soak-stain” technique of allowing thinned paint to soak into unprimed canvases.Most of Noland's paintings fall into one of four groups: circles, or targets (see Beginning illustrated), chevrons, (see infobox), stripes, and shaped canvases. His preoccupation with the relationship of the image to the containing edge of the picture led him to a series of studies of concentric rings, or bull’s-eyes, or as they were known - Targets - like the one reproduced here called Beginning from 1958, using unlikely color combinations. This also led him away from Morris Louis in 1958. Noland pioneered the shaped canvas, initially with a series of symmetrical and asymmetrical diamonds or chevrons. In these paintings, the edges of the canvas become as structurally important as the center. During the 1970s and 1980s his shaped canvases were highly irregular and asymmetrical. These resulted in increasingly complex structures of highly sophisticated and controlled color and surface integrity. Noland had been suffering from cancer and died on the 5 January 2010. ArtLyst

Top 10 London Art exhibitions 2009 ArtLyst Picks

ArtLyst's Top 10 Art exhibitions of 2009

1)Anish Kapoor

2) Roger Hiorns

3). John Baldessari

4) The Museum of Everything

5) Gerhard Richter Portraits

6) Pete and Repeat

7) Pop Life: Art in a Material World

8) Gustav Metzger

9) Gerry Judah : BABYLON

10) Ryan McGinley Moonmilk

Read Why: http://www.artlyst.com/articles/view/100

Photo: © Paul Carter Robinson 2009

Mark Woods "To Have To Hold" Exhibition: The Wapping Project

A new exhibition of work by sculptor and jewelery designer Mark Woods at the Wapping Project explores fetishism and many of the pieces have erotic and sensual overtones.They are lovingly fashioned in both precious and base materials. The small sculptures(some can be worn) at The Wapping Project exhibition, have been displayed in a rubber room which is crucial to the context of the objects. The public enters this room through a narrow rubber seal which caresses your body.The sculpture is viewed through peep holes cut into the latex walls. Other port holes appear under the windows encased in black rubber industrial gloves. You are invited to try and fondle the objects of your desire through the rubber as they glisten in their cases out of reach.This is a fitting close to 2009 at the Wapping Project. See more images on: ArtLyst Click Here

Eugenie Scrase Wins School Of Saatchi Hands Down

Eugenie Scrase Winner School Of Saatchi
ArtLyst Reports:





Eugenie Scrase was deservedly the winner of School of Saatchi with her “Log on a Fence” installation. The work, a found object, consisted of a blue iron fence with an impaled log, the remains of a fallen tree cut down by the council somewhere in North London.
Scrase a 20 year old from London is currently studying Fine Art / Sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art. Her tutors have been encouraging about her participation in the series but no one ever believed that her work would win the competition. She was born in France, moving to Buckingham with her family in the early 1990s. Scrase has had learning difficulties, caused by dyslexia. This led her to spend much of her spare time in the school art department. Her sculptures and installations are formed largely from found objects. They were often described as chaotic by the panel of industry insiders, Kate Bush, (Curator at the Barbican) Matthew Collings, (art critic and broadcaster) Tracey Emin (Artist) and Frank Cohen (collector). I think the bottom line was to choose the best piece in the final exhibition. This was held in The Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea last summer. Scarase’s piece was visually the best and most original presented. She is a natural young talent. Sometimes her explanations were vague and random but in the end the work did what it was supposed to do. It spoke for itself and to Charles Saatchi. This was an interesting but obnoxious exercise. It made good and compulsive TV viewing. I would think that this will be a one off series as ratings are everything to the BBC and you have to ask yourself the question,do we really want to allow visual art to have the X Factor treatment in the future?Read More: http:www.artlyst.com

Richard Wright Wins Turner Prize 2009

Wright Stuff Leaves Me Cold
Has contemporary Art Reached The Vanishing Point ? In 1975 Tom Wolfe wrote those very thoughts in an article called The Painted Word.

The 2009 Turner Prize has gone to Richard Wright an artist who was my third choice this year. In the Tate's words Wright created," subtle and exquisite wall paintings that respond directly to the architecture in which they are created. Often awkwardly placed in discreet locations, they combine graphic imagery and intricate patterning from sources as varied as medieval painting, graphics and typography".I don't hate his work but it is unlikely that It will remain memorable in years to come. He looks a nice chap though! Please let me know your feelings on the subject. I am gutted that Roger Hiorns didn't win for his amazing entry this year and can only hope that he is nominated again in the future.The Tate described his work as, " An arresting sculpture and installation combining unusual materials. His exploration of chemical processes took spectacular effect in Seizure, in which a derelict flat in South London was filled with liquid copper sulphate, which after a period of time encrusted every surface of the space with blue crystals"If this year was about pushing the boundaries which it surely wasn't then Hiorns should have won for creating something that was out of step. Seizure was a cut above and stunningly beautiful. Perhaps his age had something to do with the final judgment. I think the award is ageist anyway.I would have nominated Gerry Judah for his paintings of aerial bombardments inspired by Iraq. They speak to me politically and visually. Problem is he is over 50 but why should that matter,both Malcolm Morley and Howard Hodgkin got the prize before they changed the goalposts!.There is always next year to look forward to..... ArtBitch 2009 Read More On: http://www.artlyst.com