he one major art prize that always gets people talking features in this week's visual arts coverage on The Arts Desk. There are also several big names to conjure with including Vermeer, Burra and Warhol.
Often dividing opinion, the Turner Prize is an arbiter of the best contemporary visual art. 2011 is a sterling year and Martin Boyce's garden-like installation which cleverly riffs on the sculptural works of 1920s Modernists Joel and Jan Martel was hugely impressive. There were doubts however, over the work of George Shaw, which seemed to be too familiar to his earlier works.
Many Dutch masters of the visual arts were included in a rather special exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. 'Vermeer's Women: Secrets and Silence' was augmented with works by artists such as Pieter de Hooch and Nicholaes Maes. The role that middle-class women played in domestic contexts featured heavily as women of course, was the theme of the show.
Images taken of Andy Warhol and his entourage feature in the exhibition 'The Factory: Warhol and his Circle' and show a different side to the era-defining artist. The images were taken in and around the Factory throughout 1964-65 and reveal the extent to which Warhol was constantly cultivating his own image with the utmost care.
Audiences were delighted by the BBC Four documentary 'I Never Tell Anybody Anything; The Life and Art of Edward Burra'. The programme provided an in-depth and illuminating biography of the man and a shrewd exploration of his work and was certainly more about the painter than the presenter.
Slightly disappointing was Joseph Steele's site-specific work, BIBLE, timed to chime in with the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. A six-metre manuscript was produced by the artist who spent months rewriting the New Testament during his convalescence from an illness, inserting his own name whenever Jesus was mentioned. The effect however, was not radical enough and was quite underwhelming.
Often dividing opinion, the Turner Prize is an arbiter of the best contemporary visual art. 2011 is a sterling year and Martin Boyce's garden-like installation which cleverly riffs on the sculptural works of 1920s Modernists Joel and Jan Martel was hugely impressive. There were doubts however, over the work of George Shaw, which seemed to be too familiar to his earlier works.
Many Dutch masters of the visual arts were included in a rather special exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. 'Vermeer's Women: Secrets and Silence' was augmented with works by artists such as Pieter de Hooch and Nicholaes Maes. The role that middle-class women played in domestic contexts featured heavily as women of course, was the theme of the show.
Images taken of Andy Warhol and his entourage feature in the exhibition 'The Factory: Warhol and his Circle' and show a different side to the era-defining artist. The images were taken in and around the Factory throughout 1964-65 and reveal the extent to which Warhol was constantly cultivating his own image with the utmost care.
Audiences were delighted by the BBC Four documentary 'I Never Tell Anybody Anything; The Life and Art of Edward Burra'. The programme provided an in-depth and illuminating biography of the man and a shrewd exploration of his work and was certainly more about the painter than the presenter.
Slightly disappointing was Joseph Steele's site-specific work, BIBLE, timed to chime in with the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. A six-metre manuscript was produced by the artist who spent months rewriting the New Testament during his convalescence from an illness, inserting his own name whenever Jesus was mentioned. The effect however, was not radical enough and was quite underwhelming.
About the Author:
Steve Alexander writes about the visual arts world. For more information and the latest visual art reviews, visit theartsdesk.com.
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