Clik here to view.
Will no one stand up for the selfie stick?
Picture: HyperallergicMuseums are banning 'selfie sticks', the extendable poles that attach to your phone to take Bigger Better Selfies. It's a no-brainer, really. Long metal poles and distracted...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cultural Capital by Robert Hewison
Picture: AmazonRobert Hewison Cultural Capital: The rise and fall of creative Britain Verso 2014 £14.99This narrative history of British cultural policy from 1997 to 2012 ruthlessly skewers the comic...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Plus ça change
James Millingen Some Remarks on the state of learning and the fine-arts in Great Britain J. Rodwell 1831London is still blessed with a handful of outstanding second hand bookshops where you can find...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Recent reading: history and politics
Sven Beckert Empire of Cotton: A new history of global capitalism Allen Lane 2014 £30The title of this outstanding book should be reversed. It is a detailed and closely researched study of the cotton...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Wtewael exhibition in Utrecht
Pleasure and Piety: The art of Joachim Wtewael Centraal Museum Utrecht to 25 May (then to Washington DC and Houston)These two small paintings on copper both show Vulcan catching his girl Venus in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
'Pose Day': a new angle on museum selfies
Picture: National GallerySunday was 'pose day'. It's part of museum week, a Twitter initiative that encourages people to pose for selfies in front of works of art, striking a pose that imitates or...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What ails Italy?
I love Italy, really I do. Great food, great art, great landscape. Transport is fantastic; well-maintained roads (well, better than UK or US), cheap, regular and reliable trains. But the experience of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Campaigning for Good Curatorship
I like curators, especially good ones. So I should be delighted to discover that there's a Campaign for Good Curatorship. The campaign wants to put knowledge of collections back at the heart of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bad Acquisition in Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago has acquired a collection of contemporary art that they describe as the 'largest' in their history (it's been misreported as 'greatest'). It includes artists I like (Jasper...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The logic of our age
The entire Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York was closed yesterday, so that rich people could have a party. In the UK museums were traditionally reticent about renting themselves out for private...
View ArticleClik here to view.
UK Arts Policy Election Special
The parties vying for votes in tomorrow's UK general election have quite rightly not focused their campaigns on cultural policy. They've also failed to address more important issues like...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The final sale of a great collection: I.Q. van Regteren Altena at Christie's
I'm just back from a few days in Paris and Amsterdam where I caught the viewing of the final part of the stupendous I.Q. van Regteren Altena collection of old master drawings that Christie's is selling...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rijksmuseum to public: "If you don't like it, buy your own Rembrandt"
Picture: MSIt's a cliché that blockbusters are overcrowded, but Late Rembrandt at the Rijksmuseum was the worst I can recall. It's more spaced out than the London leg of the show, but that extra space...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Recent Reading (non-art)
Douglas McWilliams The Flat White Economy: How the digital economy is transforming London and other cities of the future Duckworth 2015 £16.99I must warn about this book, as a public service, because...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The stupid fetish of free admission, and the end of the British Museum
Picture: WikipediaFree admission to museums is quite nice, but it's not so terrible in places like, er, the whole of the rest of Europe, where you have to pay. And decades of free admission plus forced...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Changes for the worse at the British Museum
Picture: British MuseumA couple of months ago I had a few days off work, so I popped along to the Print Room at the British Museum. I'd hoped to see their northern mannerist drawings, but as they...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What should we save?
Deliberate destruction of ancient remains by the Taliban and Islamic State force us to confront the tragic fragility of our cultural heritage. Fires have wrought terrible damage at Clandon Park and the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Old Master auction week
Picture: Sotheby'sThe old master auction viewings are a great opportunity to see privately owned masterpieces. But I especially relish the chance to see more 'minor' pictures, which can be incredibly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Listening to the pictures: Sound in museums
Picture: WikipediaThis picture has haunted me since I first saw it some years ago in Utrecht's Catherijneconvent. It's a tiny painting that hung in a darkened cloister, a sublime masterpiece that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Auction results: comparing old and new
The divergence between contemporary and old master pictures is often noted in abstract terms, and the highest priced contemporary works evince sneers from fuddy-duddys like me. But the contemporary...
View Article
