Charles Saatchi has announced his intention to give a part of his collection and the Saatchi Gallery to the nation. See Guardian news story and comment by Adrian Searle. Reactions have been mixed. The following comments by Andrew Graham-Dixon are transcribed from BBC Radio 4's Front Row, broadcast on 1st July:
[Kirsty Lang (presenter): It was announced today that Charles Saatchi is gifting over 200 works, and his Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea, to the nation, to create a Museum of Contemporary Art… I asked [Andrew Graham-Dixon] for his reaction]
Just too late… I would have had Charles Saatchi’s collection, I would have bitten his hand off in 1987 - this was probably the greatest collection of contemporary art built up by anyone in the second half of the twentieth century…all those Warhols, all those Anselm Kiefers, that extraordinary collection: Bruce Nauman, Sol Lewitt, Carl Andre… incredible. … He’s sold them all… all the pies have been eaten [Kirsty Lang: …but it’s still a pretty impressive list of artists in there...?] No, not really, not for me. No, this is the crumbs on the table after all the pies have been eaten. This is the loose change in the box….It is just a terrible, terrible… shame that the greatest collection of contemporary art that the world has ever seen art was allowed to turn into - talcum powder - just disappear.
Friday, 2 July 2010
Thursday, 1 July 2010
Photographer of the year, 2010 (Press Photographers' Year)
The Libyan leader Colonel Gadaffi stands behind protective glass during a military parade in Green Square, Tripoli on 01 September 2009 © David Bebber of The Times, 'Photograph of the Year' at The Press Photographers' Year (From British Journal of Photography)
Fiona Banner, 1966 -
Fiona Banner has installed a Sea Harrier and a Jaguar in Tate Britain's Duveen Gallery (until 3 February, 2011).
Fiona Banner, Sea Harrier, 2010
See Guardian article (28 June), comment by Adrian Searle, Guardian, 28 June, Guardian gallery of images, and interview with Laura Barnett, Guardian, 21 June. See also: How did Tate Britain hang a Harrier jet?, Guardian, 29 June.
Fiona Banner, Sea Harrier, 2010
See Guardian article (28 June), comment by Adrian Searle, Guardian, 28 June, Guardian gallery of images, and interview with Laura Barnett, Guardian, 21 June. See also: How did Tate Britain hang a Harrier jet?, Guardian, 29 June.
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Sigmar Polke, 1941 - 2010
Sigmar Polke died on 10th June, 2010: see his obituary in The Guardian and Adrian Searle's memory of almost interviewing him.
(Sigmar Polke, Jeux d'enfants, 1988, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris)
His work is a f0nt of ideas. Any one move can provide a career for a lesser artist. He is a font; a treasury.
The roller-coaster ride he takes one on with various stops for high and low culture is unpredictable, brash and irreverent.
Giotto and Matisse have long been in my pantheon. I'm thinking of adding a third - Polke. He makes me glad that I'm an artist.
Sigmar Polke: a selected bibliography
Bickers, Patricia (2003) “Angry White Man”, Art Monthly, No.271, November, pp1-5
Byatt, A.S. (2003) "Polke Dots", Tate Magazine, Issue 7
Curiger, Bice (1994) “The Flip Side of Things”, Parkett, No.40/41, pp118-35
Ferguson, Russell ed. (1995) Sigmar Polke: Photoworks: When Pictures Vanish, Los Angeles: MOCA, LA
Gintz, Claude (1985) “Polke’s Slow Dissolve”, Art in America, Vol.73, Dec., pp102-9
Graulich, Gerhard et al (1996) Sigmar Polke: Transit, Ostfilden-Ruit: Cantz
Hentschel, Martin et al (1997) Sigmar Polke: The Three Lies of Painting, Ostfilden-Ruit: Cantz
Lane, John R. and Wylie, Charles eds. (2003) Sigmar Polke: History of Everything: Paintings and Drawings, 1998-2003, London: Yale UP
(Sigmar Polke, Jeux d'enfants, 1988, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris)
John Baldessari contibuted the following to the catalogue for Polke's exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, in 1990:
Polke is an Artist's Artist
Compare a similar artist's work to Polke's and it looks stiff and labored. His work emanates the stuff of life - it's music.
His work is a f0nt of ideas. Any one move can provide a career for a lesser artist. He is a font; a treasury.
The roller-coaster ride he takes one on with various stops for high and low culture is unpredictable, brash and irreverent.
Giotto and Matisse have long been in my pantheon. I'm thinking of adding a third - Polke. He makes me glad that I'm an artist.
(John Baldessari in Simpson (1991), 20)
Sigmar Polke: a selected bibliography
Bickers, Patricia (2003) “Angry White Man”, Art Monthly, No.271, November, pp1-5
Byatt, A.S. (2003) "Polke Dots", Tate Magazine, Issue 7
Curiger, Bice (1994) “The Flip Side of Things”, Parkett, No.40/41, pp118-35
Ferguson, Russell ed. (1995) Sigmar Polke: Photoworks: When Pictures Vanish, Los Angeles: MOCA, LA
Gintz, Claude (1985) “Polke’s Slow Dissolve”, Art in America, Vol.73, Dec., pp102-9
Graulich, Gerhard et al (1996) Sigmar Polke: Transit, Ostfilden-Ruit: Cantz
Hentschel, Martin et al (1997) Sigmar Polke: The Three Lies of Painting, Ostfilden-Ruit: Cantz
Lane, John R. and Wylie, Charles eds. (2003) Sigmar Polke: History of Everything: Paintings and Drawings, 1998-2003, London: Yale UP
Moure, Gloria (2005) Sigmar Polke: Paintings, Photographs and Films, Barcelona: Edicciones Polígrafa
Nesbit, Judith ed. (1995) Sigmar Polke: Join the Dots, London: Tate Gallery Publications
Schjeldahl, Peter (2008) “Sigmar Polke” in Let’s See: Writings on Art for the ‘New Yorker’, London: Thames & Hudson, pp135-7
Schmidt, Eva et al (2008) Sigmar Polke: Miracle of Siegen: The Lens Paintings, Köln: DuMont
Searle, Adrian (2010) "Sigmar Polke – sorry I missed you”, The Guardian, 16 June
Simpson, Frania ed. (1991) Sigmar Polke, San Francisco: SFMoMA
Nesbit, Judith ed. (1995) Sigmar Polke: Join the Dots, London: Tate Gallery Publications
Schjeldahl, Peter (2008) “Sigmar Polke” in Let’s See: Writings on Art for the ‘New Yorker’, London: Thames & Hudson, pp135-7
Schmidt, Eva et al (2008) Sigmar Polke: Miracle of Siegen: The Lens Paintings, Köln: DuMont
Searle, Adrian (2010) "Sigmar Polke – sorry I missed you”, The Guardian, 16 June
Simpson, Frania ed. (1991) Sigmar Polke, San Francisco: SFMoMA
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