Over at the Guardian psychologist Geoffrey Beattie interviews Tracey Emin and opens up a whole can of worms as she whinges and whines through his game-playing questions. Same old, same old – maybe it’s two big egos in the same room – I don’t know. But I know this – after Friday’s bit of fluff on the Kumars at No 42 I was ready to hear something worth listening to – I was disappointed. Nothing to touch her excellent book Strangeland.

Read the article if you must here

Altogether different is the Gilbert and George piece by Sean O’Hagen “They were the terrible-twin outsiders in the Sixties, but now Gilbert & George are a national treasure.” A joy to read…

So read it here

Sculptor Richard Deacon gets a new show, “Range”, at the Lisson Gallery in London – Adrian Searle waxes lyrical at the Guardian this morning.

Turner Prize winning Deacon has created seven sculptures, each with its own distinctive brick-red plinth, that seem to glitter and glisten in the light.

It all sounds very wonderful but, as I have no time today, I’ll just say get over there and read about it – Searl does an excellent piece!

The article here

Examples of Deacon’s work here

Next month Christie’s International will be auctioning a study of Pope Innocent X by Francis Bacon – and is expected to fetch £5 million. Christie’s specialist, Pilar Ordovas said “Bacon is totally international, his work appeals to both museums and to wealthy individuals.

Indeed, another of Bacon’s Pope studies was sold by Christie’s New York last November for $10.1 million – a record for Bacon’s work.

Also in the sale is Lucian Freud’s “Man in a String Chair” with an expected price tag of up to £4 million – his “Red-Haired Man on a Chair” went for a record £4.2 million last year.

Story by Linda Sandler of the International Herald Tribune here

Bacon pictures here

Small but powerful piece in the Scotsman this morning about a series of paintings by Gerald Laing, one of Scotland’s best known artists since the Pop Art heyday of the 60s, depicting the torture and cruelty by the Americans in the Abu Graib jail, was apparently rejected out of hand by Sir Nicolas Serota, director at the Tate.

Two reasons make this story important, the first is that after 30 years Laing returns to oil on canvas as his medium to convey this controversial message – and the second reason is the actual message contained in the art – that America has badly let down the civilised world with their evil, sadistic behaviour.

With terrorists blowing up innocent men, women and children on a daily basis, Bush and his cronies have given up the moral high ground and set the march of progress back a good 50 years. With such vile behaviour on both sides, when will the carnage end? Without a platform for artists to have their say, where is the focus for these important people to oppose the brutality?

I, for one, naively thought that after the German and Japanese atrocities in the second world war were exposed – and their perpetrators brought to justice, that the spectre of torture by a major democratic world power had come to an end. How wrong can a person be…

By ignoring the opportunity to view the pictures, Serota shows once again that he is not open to art outside the elitist circle of galleries, artists and their agents in which he holds sway, with its seedy rumours of corruption, rule bending and insider dealings.

These pictures should be seen – and the very person who has the power to achieve this appears to have his head in the sand. I quote – A spokeswoman for The Tate said: “An invitation was received to a private view of Laing’s work and Nicholas Serota did respond but unfortunately was not able to attend.”

One day the Serota bubble will burst.

Story here

The pictures here

USAToday reports that a 76 year old peformance artist tried to vandalise Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain” with a hammer. The piece, a white urinal, was on display at the Pompidou Centre in Paris as part of a Dada retrospective.

Police did not name the suspect, and the exhibit, regarded as one of the most influential pieces of 20th century modern art, was taken away for repair.

This is not the first time that “Fountain” has been abused, so-called performance artists Yuan Cai and Jian Jun Xi urinated in the piece whilst being it was being exhibited at the Tate Modern – the same two clowns who wrecked Tracey Emin’s “My Bed”, also at the Tate.

The full story is here

Liverpool’s John Lennon airport chief Neil Pakey has revealed plans to make a top exhibition space for public art in the run-up to 2008.

Ideas being considered as the city prepares for Capital of Culture include exhibitions of paintings, sculpture, music, and multi-media installations. There are also plans to feature artists who live close to the airport – hmmm

Full story here

Sculptor, photographer, painter and big time walker, Richard Long, gets a revue today from Jonathan Jones at the Guardian.

Turner prize winning Long has an exhibition at the Haunch of Venison in London, showing photographs and drawings.

Not really my cup of orange pekoe but I enjoyed the walk with Jones.

Read the article here

Richard Long pictures here

Over at the Telegraph this morning Rupert Christiansen does a piece on urban regeneration via the arts in Gateshead and Newcastle.

Seperated by the River Tyne, the two towns have had four major projects in the last few years – Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North, the Baltic arts centre, the Sage musical education and performance centre and the wonderful Millenium Bridge.

The 1,500 word article, “Birthplace of a cultural revolution” discusses the impact of this new lease of life on the newly branded NewcastleGateshead.

Read all about it here