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Art

A Woman Bathing In A Stream/Rembrandt 1654

You might have thought radio is not the best medium to present an art programme but I always enjoy Moving Pictures on Radio 4 presented by Cathy Fitzgerald. The picture  subject matter is on the programme website but I prefer to consult my Works of Rembrandt by the publisher Taschen which had a [...]

February 6, 2025 // 0 Comments

The Atlas of Art Crime/Laura Evans

Laura Evans subdivides her engaging review of art crime into three categories: 1) Theft 2) Vandalism 3) Forgery In regard to theft you have to have quite a lot of chutzpah to steal a painting to enter a gallery, church or museum and appropriate a picture. The motivation is normally financial but [...]

December 26, 2024 // 0 Comments

Two art books: Rogues and Scholars/Don’t Tell Sybil

Rogues and Scholars, penned by the ex-chairman of Sothebys – James Stourton – is a fairly comprehensive and balanced assessment of the London art market from 1945 to 2000. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the author centres on the two main players – the auction houses Christie’s and [...]

December 11, 2024 // 0 Comments

Second day in Madrid: The Thyssen collection

Yesterday I went to visit the Thysenn collection which makes up a trio of fine museums with the Prado and Reina Sofia. The collection was amassed by the super rich industrialists the Thysssens – father and son. It was offered to London in the 1980s who suggested Canary Wharf whilst Madrid [...]

November 17, 2024 // 0 Comments

Auction houses v Art dealers

Yesterday I spent the whole of my afternoon following the Christie’s auction of Modern British and Irish Art. The famous auction house has adapted to the digital age by holding auctions online. It attracts a more global audience but I felt some of the bidding tension one experiences in the room [...]

October 18, 2024 // 0 Comments

3 art views

I’m sometimes asked whether I have visited any of the big art exhibitions in London right now – the Van Gogh at the National Gallery, the Francis Bacon at the National Portrait Gallery and the Claude Monet at the Courtauld. The answer is an emphatic “No” as these block buster [...]

October 16, 2024 // 0 Comments

Fake or Fortune/Helen MCColl

Unlike Stefano (Ursolini) I watched Fake or Fortune and thoroughly enjoyed it. Indeed I would say last Thursday’s episode was the best I have ever seen. Typically the programme – now in its fourth series – would feature a picture by (allegedly) a master and the presenters Fiona Bruce [...]

October 6, 2024 // 0 Comments

Fiorentina File: Fiorentina 2 New Saints 0/Conference League

I had never heard of the Welsh side New Saints. I had to google them to discover they have won the Cymru  Premiership League 16 times.  They are based in Oswestry, Shropshire, and must be the first Welsh team to visit the Artemio Franch. I was anticipating an easy victory but it was anything but. [...]

October 4, 2024 // 0 Comments

Fake or Fortune (new series BBC 1)

Fake or Fortune is back on our screens and last night I watched a rather disappointing episode in a series I both enjoy and admire. The subject painting was a depiction of a white chrysanthemum by the celebrated Dutch abstractionist Piet Mondrian. Most artists have painted flowers and – [...]

September 29, 2024 // 0 Comments

Sir Michael Craig Martin/Royal Academy

Sir Michael Craig Martin is an Irish artist who trained at Yale School of Art. His schtick is pictorial art – i.e. taking images of every day items like a pencil sharpener or fork, magnifying them and depicting them in vivid colours – normally red and purple. Whilst his art begs the [...]

September 21, 2024 // 0 Comments

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