30 years after creating a video entitled “I was Thinking of You” in which viewers saw her face as she masturbated, Dorothy Iannone brings the project into the 21st century at Tate Modern.

The new work will be featured in the Wrong Gallery, the new home for Maurizio Cattelan’s mini-exhibition space. I’d love to tell you more about this but unfortunately the Tate Modern’s website says nothing - in fact, the TM’s website is an utter disgrace. Only a link to the Tate press office page on tate.org.uk gives us any info on this.

Read Louise Jury’s excellent piece in the Independent here

More pictures from Dorothy Iannone here

A Reclining Figure - an eleven foot long sculpture by Henry Moore has been stolen from Perry Green, Moore’s country estate near Bishop’s Strortford in Hertfordshire.

The theft, which took place on Thursday evening, involved three men with two vehicles said local police.

A reward is being offered by the Henry Moore Foundation for information leading to the recovery of the piece.

Valued at £3m, the bronze statue may have been stolen for its scrap value said police.

Visit the Henry Moore Foundation website here.

Pictures of Moore’s work can be found here.

So I went home early from work to see the Turner Prize on tv. It wasn’t worth the effort - an hour of the dullest television, featuring the dullest people and some very dull art

I quite liked Jim Lambie’s floor, but it was won by Simon Starling with the rather dull Shedboatshed - I like my sheds by Cornelia Parker.

Three years ago, to me, Charles Saatchi could do no wrong - then he did wrong…

County Hall on London’s South Bank was probably a wonderful building, ideal for its purpose when opened in 1922 by King George V and Queen Mary. But in 2003, Saatchi decided to house there some of his collection of contemporary art. Never have I come across such a bad match - like jewels in the dirt.

A life-long lover of modern art, the turning point came for me with the “Sensation” exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1997 - the consolidation of the “Young British Art” movement. I reveled in its diversity, playfulness, originality and controversy.

Over the last few years I have been to many contemporary art exhibitions and these are generally held in large white spaces. That’s how I like to see art. I do not like to see it in dingy wood paneled corridors that were fine for council workers to ply their sad trade (Yes I hate councils as well) - I remember entering one such room with a wonderful Hirst picture dominating one wall, with visitors shuffling around to get a good view, an experience not unlike punters in a downmarket betting shop vying for a good view of the television.

I will concede that the rotunda area of the exhibition was wonderful - but that just made the rest of the exhibition space even less acceptable.

So I wait, for what may take a year or more to achieve, and pray that these works of art are given a home worthy of their importance. However, I’m holding my breath that we don’t see one dingy space traded for another.

Visit the Saatchi Gallery online here.

Nervous Tigers and Silly Flowers…

In the first UK exhibition for 80 years, Tate Modern brings us “Jungles in Paris” a major exhibition of Henri Rousseau’s jungle paintings.

Wild, wacky and wonderful, the product of genius, Rouseau never actually saw a real jungle - but from books and photographs, visits to zoos and botanical gardens, the artist created a body of truly memorable work.

Filled with exotic plants, animals and people, these primitive pictures show a fantasy jungle from the mind of a Parisian city dweller - a celebration of jungle colour and form with the funniest flora and fauna ever committed to canvas. His pictures are a delight, ranging from sombre, moody dream-like compositions to vivid in-your-face scenes that were admired by his contemporaries such as Picasso, Max Ernst and René Magritte.

The Tate has done the art world proud with this long-overdue exhibition of a major talent, with 50 pictures including some of Paris and a few portraits, this is a no-miss exhibition for any serious lover of modern art.

See more about the exhibition here

Rousseau’s Wikipedia entry here

More pictures here

Supermodel and uber celebrity Kate Moss is the subject of four new paintings by Stella Vine currently in an exhibition at Hiscox Art Projects. The exhibition, “The Beautiful and The Damned” is a collaboration with artist Henry Hudson.

One painting, entitled “Must Be the Season of the Witch”, is taken from newspaper photograph and shows the model laying out lines of cocaine - a photograph that led to Moss being dropped from several high profile advertising campaigns, notably that of fashion retailer H & M.

Two other paintings are also portraits - one is of Moss smoking a cigarette with the paint dripping from her face is entitled “Holy Water Cannot Help You Now”. The other, “I Only Sleep With Jesus” shows the model with a champagne glass.

The final picture shows the subject waving from a window in a rehab clinic with her on/off boyfriend Pete Doherty and other celebrities.

Vine is famous for her portrait of Princess Diana with blood dripping from her mouth - bought last year by Charles Saatchi, the dubious doyen of contemporary art.

Until January 21st 2006.

See more of the Hiscox exhibition here

Background articles on Stella Vine here and here

Visit Stella Vine’s website here

More pictures here