The Guardian today runs a piece on highlights of the Liverpool capital of culture year revealing plans for a major exhibition of work by Gustav Klimt.

This will be the first exhibition in the UK devoted to Klimt and comprises over 100 works including “paintings, erotic drawings, jewellery and architectural models”

The exhibition is called, Gustav Klimt: Painting, Design and Modern Life in Vienna 1900 - it will run for three months at Tate Liverpool.

Guardian piece here

Klimt images here

The Guardian runs a story this morning that the New York Times reports that a Jackson Pollock picture, Number 5, was sold at auction by Sotheby’s for $140m this week. This amount sets a new world record breaking the previous record of $135m paid for Klimt’s portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.

But the Guardian points out that “The prices all have to be heavily qualified because sales of fine art masters between private owners are among the most tightly controlled and secretive deals around.”

The painting of one of Pollock’s first drip paintings is a large 4′ x 8′ abstract piece in reds, yellows, blues and greys.

Guardian article here

Jackson Pollock pictures here

Two pieces struck m as I cruised the Telegraph online today, the first a lovely personal view of the new Carsten Holler artwork at Tate Modern by Richard Dorment, the second a feeble waffle by Tom Horan on the new Carsten Holler artwork at Tate Modern.

Essentially five tubular slides, the artwork is the latest attempt to make meaning of the Tate’s Turbine Hall, the vast space that has previously housed art by, amongst others, Anish Kapoor, Rachael Whiteread, Louise Bourgeois and Olafur Eliasson.

In his inimitable style, Dorment brings a sense of wonderment to this latest project by Holler, with all the detail and opinion required to inform and entertain the reader, his prose is a delight. Unlike Horan whose pretentious little blog entry seems to be more in keeping with an old fashioned society gossip page than artistic comment.

Dormant’s delight here

Horan’s horror here

Pictures here

I see from their website that the Stuckists’ show, Go West, has opened at Spectrum London - funny how all the major newspapers’ arts pages seem to have missed this… Famous for their media manipulation, have the Stuckists brought it on themselves? Are critics petty minded enough to ignore them on purpose? I think the latter - those often pretentious wankers are mostly a bunch of smug gits who just happen to move in the right circles.

Good news, also from the Stuckist’s website, is that artist Michael Dickinson who was jailed in Turkey for a collage, is now free.

Whilst I do not subscribe to some of their philosophies, I do like a lot of their work and I wish them well with the show.

Don’t forget the Triumph of Stuckism symposium and exhibition starting this week in Liverpool.

Go West show here

Stuckism website here

Triumph of Stuckism here

Good news for people in the Norwich area, an exhibition of 50 paintings by Francis Bacon is being held at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia, writes Lorna Marsh on the Eastern Daily Press site.

The exhibition, which include some pictures never seen before, is entitled Francis Bacon: Paintings from the 1950s and is guest curated by Michael Peppiatt, Bacon’s biographer and on site by Sara Cooper.

Apparently this is a first for Bacon’s paintings and eventually the exhibition will be going to America. I loved the quote from Cooper when she says, “It is very exciting to be unwrapping these major works of art, it is like Christmas with butterflies in your stomach as you open them.”

Runs from 26th September to 10th December 2006.

Article here

Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts website here

This week sees the opening of an outdoor exhibition of modern sculpture in Chatsworth Park in Derbyshire - Richard Dorment writes an excellent piece in the Telegraph.

Mounted by Sotheby’s, “Beyond Limits” is a selling exhibition that runs until October 17 and includes works by Hirst, Dali, Moore and Kapoor with all but one piece, Duane Hanson’s sunbather, displayed in the magnificent grounds of Chatsworth House.

Dorment is a delight to read, his enthusiasm is infectious and echos the feeling I get whenever I go to a good sculpture park. I do however, take exception to Dorment’s comment “The placement of Hanson’s suntanned babe in a gallery full of cold, white marbles is an excellent joke…” - to describe the “Veiled Lady” as cold makes me wonder whether he has actually seen it. It is a personal favourite of mine and cold it is not, it is serene, it is beautiful, it is stunning - if I had to choose which sculpture I could take home from Chatsworth, Hirst, Dali, Moore, Hanson, et al wouldn’t stand a chance.

Read Dorment’s report here

Pictures here

Chatsworth website here

Good news today on the artdaily.com website, the Hayward Gallery is to present “How to Improve the World: 60 years of British Art” a collection of 150 works of art from 100 British artists including, Francis Bacon, Patrick Caulfield, Jeremy Deller, Lucian Freud, Gilbert & George, Liam Gillick, Mona Hatoum, Barbara Hepworth, Susan Hiller, Damien Hirst, David Hockney, Anish Kapoor, Richard Long, Sarah Lucas, Henry Moore, Chris Ofili, Bridget Riley, Mark Titchner and Cerith Wyn Evans.

The art is taken from the Arts Council collection and features the highlights of 60 years of modern and contemporary art and is curated by Michael Archer and Roger Malbert. Definitely one I must see despite being rubbished by Martin Gayford on the Bloomberg site as “…one of the most dismal installations I have ever seen.”

The exhibition runs until 19th November.

Story here

Hayward Gallery website here

Bloomberg website here

I note that the Guardian mentions the Stuckists twice this week. Jane Morris does a piece announcing the Go West Stuckist show at Spectrum London in October with a little background on their running battle with Sir Nicholas Serota and the Chris Ofili scandal.

The other mention is a few broad paragraphs about the Stuckists and a little slideshow featuring some of their work - very nice.

Morris article here

Slideshow here

Stuckism website here

More Stuckist pictures here

With lots to read after my holiday absence from the scene, I was so disappointed in the Guardian’s Jonathan Jones’ mean-spirited, tawdry little blog dated July 19.

After months of sitting on the fence/hiding his head in the sand (delete where applicable), Jones finally says what he ought to have said eons ago about the Ofili scandal at Tate Modern. So why does he have to refer to the Stuckists as “know-nothings”? Jonathan, they aren’t know-nothings they are the ones who campaigned to get this scandal out in the open - they are the know-lots! And, after reporting that the “Tate broke the law”, why did you down-play this as an “anomaly”? Yeah, burglars et al are committing anomalies all over the place too!

Jones states, “it is absurd that the Tate management has played into the hands (of the Stuckists)’ - err, no, no playing into hands here - more like caught with their hands in the cookie jar…

I have followed Jones’ work for a long time now and wonder if he was having the bad-hair day of all time as he goes on to attack Damien Hirst for losing “his special something since he quit drinking” …

One line that stood out for me was “But the fact is that an inward-looking arrogance has come to light, and anyone who has had dealings with Tate knows it reflects something real.” - the know-nothings, and in my own little way, I too, have been saying this for nine months or more.

Come on Jones - keep up at the back there!

Normally I’m a 12 hour a day, seven days a week kind of working person - I love my job, but Mrs Artistica put her foot down when she announced we were going on a decent holiday - no argument!

So, with a couple of grand on the hip and the car freshly serviced we set off for sunny London town to see, amongst other things, the much discussed Tate rehang. I’d love to report that I was knocked sideways by the new layout or even that I was disappointed by it - truth is it had no descernable effect on me except that a few old friends were out of the vault and back on display. What I really like about the Tate Mod is the feeling of wonderment I get - like a child in Disneyland…

I’m pleased to say that my favourite piece of artwork was there, Duchamp’s “The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even” - gets me every time that one. And, since I came out of the closet and faced the fact that “I am a lover of surrealist art” - I was happy to see the Surrealists in Poetry and Dream.

The Kandinsky exhibition, “The Path to Abstraction”, was a wonderful experience, as was the UBS collection - but Howard Hodgkin was awful - but I’m not going to go there.

Next day we did the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition - funny to see some of the art “luvvies” reaction to the giant statue of a pregnant woman by Damien Hirst - you’d have thought that they would have got used to this sort of thing by now - hey ho…

Finally, our path inevitably wound round town to the National Portrait Gallery, Mrs Artistica’s spiritual home - thence to Waxy’s Little Sister pub in Wardour Street for a few lazy drinks people-watching at the window - what can I say - the quintessential English art day out - lovely!

The following Saturday it was off to St Ives - a seriously unpleasant six hour drive in the sweltering heat - what did we do before we had aircon? I always get a twinge of excitement when I cross the Tamar no matter how many times I go - and this time was no exception. After farting about with the no parking/tourist riddled narrow streets we finally made it to our little holiday flat on the harbour front. Felt like home!

Next morning we were off to the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden - my personal Garden of Eden. There is a feeling in that place, behind those high walls, that you have left St Ives and it’s summer visitors and have been transported to a pure place - not of the 21st century on battered old Mother Earth. Her work is, in my eyes, the finest sculpture ever produced. Sorry Michelangelo, Moore, Giacometti and all you giants in the world of sculpture, this is the girl for me.

Fortunately there was no major Alfred Wallis presence that ruined my first visit to Tate St Ives (thinks - I wonder if one day they’ll pair Alfred Wallis with Howard Hodgkin in a large grey shed somewhere). The John Hoyland exhibition, The Trajectory of a Fallen Angel was a triumph! I was bowled over by this fantastic display of abstract modern art - huge canvasses that screamed their prescence into the quiet rooms. GO AND SEE HIS WORK!

Apart from a few odds and sods and a bit of seagull dodging the rest of the holiday saw me sat by the open picture windows reading my books and just chillin’…

Back in harness tomorrow - just thought I’d share.