DOUGLAS FIELD relishes the hard-boiled language, satire and humour of the third and last of the Harlem trilogy
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Exhibition round-up
Picasso, Bruce Nauman, Barnett Freedman and more
Picasso and Paper, at the Royal Academy
STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error
MIK SABIERS revels in a band that ploughs an idiosyncratic furrow of expletive laden, guitar-driven alt rock
ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Synthetic Sincerity, Our Hero, Balthazar, Heartstopper Forever, and A Year In London
The bard invites readers to a gig, raps for Clacton, and lays out the Burnham-Hurzeler conundrum
RON JACOBS recommends an important book that enhances the oppositional theories put forth by Fanon and, in doing so, remakes psychology itself
This strange year began and ended with survey exhibitions of two influential giants of 20th-century art.
Picasso and Paper filled the Royal Academy’s large exhibition rooms from January to August, while Bruce Nauman’s ongoing exhibition at Tate Modern opened in October. Their subjects and materials may differ but by cracking open the sacred aesthetic canons of their respective eras, both artists dramatically widened the forms of expression for future generations.
Curated in a refreshingly straightforward way, the Picasso exhibition provided a chronological survey of his work. His decisiveness and powers of concentration and observation shone out from his childhood drawing of a dog through to the confident sweep of brush and ink of his large, late drawings.
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Paul MacGee of Manifesto Press invites you to a special launch on Saturday August 2.