Emily Ponsonby on seeing “Through Butter”
With Valentine’s Day around the corner, we’re encouraged to spend a little more time and put in a little more effort for the ones we love. It reminds me of the work by an artist I recently discovered this past October; on a little pre-Frieze gallery hop, I was drawn into the wonderful Gillian Jason…
Parajanov’s The Colour of Pomegranates: a convergence of language, thread, and history
Watching Sergei Parajanov’s 1969 film The Colour of Pomegranates will make you feel as if you’re wandering through endless rows of a colourful market fair. The patterned rugs alongside antique vases, the rich textiles and archaic manuscripts, the nacreous shells, the candleholders, the flowers — all compete for your gaze with their allure. The same…
The Missing Touch: Why AI Can Never Create True Art
Generative AI has advanced to the point where it can produce visual outputs from written prompts, creating images that often appear symmetrical, lifelike, and perfectly smooth. Such qualities have sparked debate over whether such works can be considered true art. Take Indian designer and artist Amith Venkataramaiah, who uses the generative AI programme Midjourney to…
The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa: The Intersection Between Religion and Eroticism
Like the sun catching the peak of a wave, glinting as it ebbs and flows, light falls down upon The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Baroque sculptural altarpiece is the centre of a 360 degree commission from the Cornaro family and a humanisation of the tales of the eponymous Teresa of Avila, a…
Why Do We Love Yoshimoto Nara?
If you’ve seen a pair of opalescent eyes staring at you from the back of a laptop, or a phone case, the chances are that it’s one of the bright-eyed girls painted by Yoshimoto Nara. Born in 1959 in post war Japan, Nara has nearly 40 solo exhibitions since 1984, and it seems like he’s…
Giorgio de Chirico’s Il Trovatore
I first saw Il Trovatore at Frieze London on a day when the fair felt especially loud. People drifted in and out of booths, discussing contemporary artists, as I watched the strange distortions of the tent. Dozens of viewers beelined across curated walls. I turned into a quieter corner of the Hauser & Wirth presentation to then face Il Trovatore. When describing…
In Conversation with Ketty La Rocca: Language and Feminism
In recent weeks, I was introduced to the work of Ketty La Rocca, currently exhibited in the light, snug rooms of the Estorick Collection in Canonbury, Islington. Ketty La Rocca – one of the leading Italian feminist artist of her time, whose life was tragically cut short at just thirty – explored gendered social realities…
Nabi of The Beautiful Icons: Celebrating Maurice Denis’s 155th Birthday
Maurice Denis, born on November 25 in 1870, was a French painter, writer, founder of the Nabi movement and its influential theoretician. His seminal work on art theory, aesthetics and spirituality contributed to the formation of key 20th century art movements including favism, cubism and abstract art. Today Paper Galleries celebrate Denis’s 155th birthday, his…
Jeanne Hébuterne: The Artist Behind the Muse
Jeanne Hébuterne: model, lover, muse. The subject of 26 portraits by Italian modernist painter and sculptor, Modigliani, she was also his partner and mother to his child. But Hébuterne had a life of her own. In fact, she was an artist in her own right, who demonstrated a gift for drawing at an early age.…
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