‘Making Worlds’ by losing your way…

That is a surprisingly romantic title for an enormous international art show – ‘Making Worlds – Fare Mondi’… Right from the day it was announced I knew I got to see it.
In a strange way that name referred to my own idea of art as a device for creating universes, for inventing new realities and [...]

New toys of a dirty boy – Eric Fischl

A gifted boy with dirty imagination is back.
Eric Fischl (b. 1948, NY) has apparently abandoned his flamboyant yuppies and bad boys lost in their hedonistic activities on daddies’ yachts and in flashy apartments. Or rather – he grew up with them, since the new characters of his painted stories are middle- aged couples, lost again, [...]

“First step…” – Western Contemporary Art in Poland

Phillip Taaffe, Artificial Paradise (Loculus), detail,  2008, oil on linen

Miquel Barcelo, Des Meduses, detail, 2000, mixed media on canvas

Eric Fischl, The Bed. The Chair. Touched, detail, 2001, oil on canvas

Andreas Slominski, Untitled, 1993-94, bike/plastic bags
Well, this exhibition may serve perfectly those who know, how the bipolar disposition works.
One moment – one is proud and full [...]

The story of Bacon’s studio

Well, the story is simple, yet it remains, as for my current knowledge without a precedent in the contemporary art history. It goes like this:
At 7 Reece Mews in South Kensington, London; at the last floor in a shabby, industrial-looking building Francis Bacon has lived and worked for the last thirty years of his life [...]

Modern Sculpture – what is this?

British Museum in London hosts an interesting sculpture project – Statuephilia – open just until 25 January 2009 (see here for details), so – hurry up, anyone interested… It features recent work of six distinguished, contemporary artists: Antony Gormley, Damien Hirst, Ron Mueck, Noble and Webster (they present one collaborative piece) and Marc Quinn. The [...]

Bacon or how to suffer in an outstanding manner…

Francis Bacon is back again in London – Tate Britain (11 Sept. 2008 – 4 Jan. 2009) – or, as I should write – he strikes again in this major retrospective show, displaying the formidable panorama of his paintings right from the first attempts (1940s) to the last experiments executed before his death in 1992. [...]

‘Byzantium’ in London

The Royal Academy – London presents its truly extraordinary exhibition of “Byzantium 330-1453” in co-operation with the Benaki Museum, Athens. That was an unusually mild winter day in London when we arrived there – a group of Fine Art students and tutors from Ireland. The subway wagons and the streets were as feverishly busy [...]

Rothko – The Late Series

Tate Modern in London hosts (from 26 September 2008 to 1 February 2009) an exquisite exhibition of the late work of Mark Rothko – Rothko – The Late Series. It focuses on his series beginning from 1950s famous ‘Seagram Murals’, then his formidable ‘Blacks’, ‘Brown and Greys’ and ‘Black and Greys’ – the last paintings [...]

Louise Bourgeois – Centre Pompidou 5March08-2June08

I am going to be a big advocate of this Bourgeois’s exhibition, and generally – her art. What I knew about this artist, before going to Paris, was shamefully little. I admired her insight when she made a reflection on the modern artist’s condition, and which thought expresses my own struggle – I’ ll repeat [...]