What a forward-looking lady. Barbara Kruger was, making huge scale graphics and photography when the YBAs were babies. She still is. You can’t ever dilute the spirit of people like Kruger. Having cut her teeth working with luminaries like Diane Arbus, inspired by the likes of Walter Benjamin, Kruger creates unflinching, anti- capitalism work inContinue reading “Barbara Kruger’s Legacy”
Tag Archives: Art
Actually, You Can Judge A Book…
…By looking at the cover, sometimes. Artwork on books is increasingly becoming more important, as it can illustrate the contents beautifully. Some are so gorgeous as to be collectible. One such case is with Angela Carter and her dazzling novel, Nights At The Circus. Her main character, Fevvers, is a stunning, buxom trapeze artist showgirlContinue reading “Actually, You Can Judge A Book…”
Frank Kozik Was Bad-Ass
The American artist, best known for Kidrobot, Labbit the smoking rabbit and his wild, colour- saturated poster designs and graphics has unexpectedly passed away on May 6th at 61. If you grew up in the 90s, you’ll likely be familiar with his band poster images and magazine covers, with a plethora of cheeky, devilish characters.Continue reading “Frank Kozik Was Bad-Ass”
Aubrey Beardsley and Oscar Wilde
When Oscar Wilde wrote his play Salome in 1894, there was only one artist suitable in his mind, worthy of depicting both the ghoulishness and dark eroticism of his script – Aubrey Beardsley. The pair shared a similar aesthetic sensibility and had no time for the moralising hypocrisy of the times. It seems cancel cultureContinue reading “Aubrey Beardsley and Oscar Wilde”
Some Graffiti in Glasgow
There’s always something inspiring about good graffiti. I like the anonymity and the transience, because it can be painted over at any time. This one was found in Cowcaddens subway in the autumn of last year, and I really like it. It’s somehow not unlike an Expressionist figure, like one of Munch’s willowy women. IContinue reading “Some Graffiti in Glasgow”
Overlooked Classics: Danielle Dax- Jesus Egg That Wept
Danielle Dax has had an interesting career- she trained in opera in her youth; became a multi- instrumentalist and formed the experimental Lemon Kittens in the post-punk era, appeared as the Wolf Girl in Neil Jordan’s Company Of Wolves, went solo, and now works in interior design and art. Her second album is very muchContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: Danielle Dax- Jesus Egg That Wept”
Make It Gorey
As Halloween doth approach e’er closer, I felt it fitting to doff a silken top hat to the great genius of art and literature, Edward Gorey. A true eccentric, Gorey, who wrote luxurious macabre prose augmented by pale, spindly creatures often meeting their untimely demise, wore fur coats and sneakers, oft with moustache and beard,Continue reading “Make It Gorey”
Overlooked Classics: Cutie and the Boxer
Why don’t more people know about Zachary Heinzerling’s remarkable, delicately moving documentary film from 2013? Cutie (Noriko ) met The Boxer (Ushio Shinohara) when he was forty one and she was just nineteen Shinohara was already an established presence in the New York avant-garde art scene of the sixties, with his action paintings, where heContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: Cutie and the Boxer”
Book Review: Genesis P-Orridge- NON BINARY
For anyone interested in transgressive art, the name Genesis P-Orridge needs no introduction. An artist interested in pushing societal boundaries of gender, sex, religion and politics, their art always provoked. In the seventies, as part of the noise/visual collective COUM Transmissions, and industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle, they were met with resistance from establishment figures, censored,Continue reading “Book Review: Genesis P-Orridge- NON BINARY”
Hit The North 