General discussion

Portraiture is perhaps the most enduring of artistic genres. In this article, we examine why, and take a look at the striking painting that hangs at the National Portrait Gallery; Thomas Joseph Edmund Ades by Philip Oliver Hale.

Issue 3 is our most recently published Art Collective magazine and we would like to offer a number of free copies to our online followers. If you would like a copy, please sign up here, and we will send you a free copy in the post. The issue contains a number of interviews with artists, commentary on art and the art world, and showcases the latest portfolios of works. 

A new annual art fair that will change its name each edition to fit the year, the inaugural Art13 took place over the first weekend in March under the grand arc of London Olympia’s St Pancras-like glass roof, safely ensconced in the collector-friendly environs of west London. Here are our thoughts, what are yours?

This exhibition showcases a selection of landscape-related art from the museum’s collection. The curators have placed works together that bear obvious parallels, and demonstrate that artworks from different periods and of varying mediums can be successfully shown together. It also provides a reminder of artistic concerns that carry across time and medium, with a number of inclusions notable for being difficult to place chronologically. Here are some of our highlights, what was your experience? 

For better or worse, London is the focal point of the UK art scene, home to the biggest museums, the premier exhibitions, the most fevered market. But how does the city compare to other leading art destinations? What does it do well and what could it do better? And how does its present makeup compare to previous incarnations? What do you think? 

Ensnared by its own versatility, photography is a medium whose artistic merits seem destined to be eternally questioned. In an article in which Brian Sewell managed to swiftly slight Milton Keynes, Margate and  post-polytechnic universities, the critic acknowledged the brilliance of photography as record but concluded, “When the photographer pretends that he is an artist, he is a trespasser.” 

Down on the hard ground of the UK High Street, with many stores closing for good, it seems that the future of retail is increasingly online. At odds with wider economic trends, the art world has taken a non-tech route to going remote, branching out from the bricks and mortar of galleries via the ever-increasing network of global art fairs. Are, then, gallerists becoming little more than traveling sales people?

It maybe 56 years since the death of Jackson Pollock, one of the most famous abstract painters, and abstract art still strikes some people as being too far out to comprehend. We are immersed in figurative imagery, from the information given by our own eyes, to the dominant trends of advertising, film and television. Whether or not a particular piece of art grabs you will always be a personal reaction, but it can be worthwhile giving unconventional works a little more attention before dismissing.

Since opening in 2000, Tate Modern has had a huge impact on the exposure and appreciation of modern and contemporary art in the UK.  Despite its considerable achievements, though, the Tate doesn’t get everything right. The feel of the internal gallery spaces and the way the collection is hung within them has arguably never been satisfactorily resolved. With the opening of the oil tanks, is greater interaction with the building’s industrial design now being realised? 

Of all the great 19th century French painters, the work of Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas (1834-1917) is arguably the most exciting and enigmatic. From a modern perspective, his paintings continue to surprise, striking the viewer with a timelessly original vision that refuses simple definition. Raw, vital and challenging, Degas’ oeuvre remains at the peak of what an artist can achieve in depicting and reinterpreting the world.