Visual Arts

"What do you think an artist is? He’s a political being, constantly alive to heartrending, fiery, or happy events, to which he responds in every way. No, painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war, for attack and defense against the enemy."

Pablo Picasso

Sunday, 31 March 2019 14:40

Can we buy the marbles sir? A school trip to the British Museum

Written by Phil Brett

in Visual Arts

Phil Brett takes his primary school class for a dialectical trip round the British Museum I visit the British Museum fairly regularly. Of course, I'm not unique in that. Recent figures show that whilst it has lost its position as the UK's most popular attraction (to the Tate Modern, which…

Elgin Marbles decolonisation sackler trust

Monday, 18 March 2019 15:03

The UK at sea

Written by Friedrich Farshaad Razmjouie

in Visual Arts

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Friday, 08 March 2019 09:58

IWD 2019: One equal world for all of us

in Visual Arts

Written by Friedrich Farshaad Razmjouie

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Saturday, 23 February 2019 21:20

Building for a society of equals: 100 years of Bauhaus

in Visual Arts

Written by Jenny Farrell

Jenny Farrell celebrates 100 years of Bauhaus, the German art school started in 1919 Inspired by Germany’s November 1918 Revolution, which was ultimately crushed by the Social Democratic Party leadership and the military, artists and intellectuals, anti-militarists and pacifists hoped for a new society for the common good. Many however…

Walter Gropius william morris Marianne Brandt

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Friday, 01 February 2019 16:10

The Giant's Mirror

in Visual Arts

Written by Jowonder

Gaia She stayed silentas they cut her fringe.They took her liver too. They then cut her ovaries out,the bleeding didn't stop. They built bridges and damsas they planned to cut herwhite hands. Image and poem by Jowonder.

Tyne Pride at the end of the street, Wallsend

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Saturday, 12 January 2019 23:37

The Last Ships

in Visual Arts

Written by Mike Quille

Mike Quille reviews an exhibition of photographs of the shipbuilding industry on Tyneside. In honour of the shipyard workers of Tyneside, Chris Killip recently gave a set of over 30 stunning, monochrome images to the Laing Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne. The Last Ships exhibition of photographs, taken by Killip…

Deindustrialisation Tyneside Chris Killip

Thursday, 06 December 2018 16:29

America at Work: the photography of Lewis Hine

Written by John Green

in Visual Arts

John Green reviews a new book about the life and work of Lewis W. Hine, one of the founders of of U.S. social photography. Lewis Hine's iconic images captured the harsh realities of a country undergoing deep transformation during the early part of the 20th century. Hine was born in…

Wednesday, 05 December 2018 18:05

Hockney's Portrait of an Artist: A perfect expression of gross inequality

Written by Martin Gollan

in Visual Arts

Martin Gollan argues that what we see when we look at this Hockney painting is a perfect expression of the gross inequalities created by neoliberal capitalism. What do we see when looking at a painting which some has paid $90,312,500? This was the price paid a few weeks ago, for…