Tag: 21thcenturyart

On Gilbert and George, their Southbank Centre show, and conservative artists

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Following up after the Richter, I also got to head over to London and see Gilbert and George: 21st Century Pictures at the Southbank Centre. You can get a sense of the show by reading what the Centre says here, but you really have to see their work in person to appreciate both the scale of it and the detail of it. (No matter if I got close or far back from a work, I was always losing something in my photographs, as you can see above.) So see it before it leaves on January 11th.

One thing the exhibit had me look into was the prominence of conservative or right wing artists. These two definitely qualify for that label. But other than someone like Clint Eastwood, I couldn’t think of other right wing artists who were influential.

It seems I just wasn’t paying attention. Reactionary artists are everywhere, based on this list here and here. Of all of them, though, these two English sculpturers (as they refer to themselves) are my favorite.

For more on Gilbert and George, I’ve found a number of other good pieces here and here and here and here. They’re living legends. I’m glad I got to see a major portion of their work at this Southbank Centre exhibit.

The century is a 25% over. Here’s the best books and movies of those 25 years.

It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that the 21st century is 1/4 completed. When I was young, the 21st century was far off in the future. Now so much of it has already past.

Given this milestone, it seems a good time to look at what some of the best books and films have been of this era.

For films, I recommend this essay in the New York Times of the best films of each year from 2000 to 2024.

For books, I recommend this piece from Kircus Reviews.

From Bouguereau to Cattelan (what I find interesting in art, Jan 2024)

From Bouguereau to Cattelan, here’s a baker’s dozen pieces on artists new and old thought worthy of my attention and yours.

First up a good article on the young artist Lee Bul and their work, The Four Mysterious Guardians.  Also this Colossal piece on how  Dabin Ahn Balances Hope and Melancholy in His Sculptural Paintings  As for other newer (to me) artists, I think it’s good to remember that the  art market giveth and the art market taketh, as this piece shows: Young Artists Rode a $712 Million Boom. Then Came the Bust.

Some good exhibits that recently showed were:


As for older artists, this is a good introduction to Hans Haacke  Why Are Museums So Afraid of This Artist? The great artist Frank Auerbach died not too long ago. The Guardian has a piece on him here: Frank auerbach a life in pictures. Sadly John Little, whose paintings showed the raw side of Montreal, recently died at 96 (one of his painting is at the end).

Some artists are good at getting attention. Even people who don’t know or follow art know about the conceptual artwork by Maurizio Cattelan, “Comedian,” which consists of a fruit-stand banana taped on the wall. In the end the art market did the very thing Cattelan was mocking, with 7 bidders biting before it went to …you might have guessed before hand…a crypto entrepreneur.

Another artist who gets lots of attention is David Shrigley. I admire what he is doing here:  David Shrigley urges schools to prioritise arts with aid of giant mantis. Will it be successful? I don’t know.

Finally I went down a rabbit hole on 19th century painting after I came across someone ripping into Basquiat and Twombly and extolling the work of William Adolphe Bouguereau, and I dunno. I’d take the first two over the third any day.