All the latest news from the art world, as well as what's happening here at Gallereo. If you've built a gallery at Gallereo, let us know about your experience and you and your site could feature in our blog in the coming weeks.
With the UK culture industry looking at how to cope with 30% budget cuts, The Independent has listed the 50 best museums and galleries that can be found on the British Isles. Taking a look at the 10 galleries and museums that were selected to sit at the head of the list is enough to see some of the great institutions that represent the British art market and its heritage. While the top ten can be said to be mostly predictable (and London-based), there are a couple of great regional underdogs listed in there.
A true gem in the crown of the UK culture scene, the British Museum is a great venue that has a smart blend of important historical displays and interesting art exhibitions, all housed in a building that sees a mesh of classic and contemporary architecture.
The V&A is another brilliant museum that brings some great art and design exhibitions to the British public. Located in South Kensington in London, the V&A claims that its purpose is "to enable everyone to enjoy its collections, explore the cultures that created them and to inspire those who shape contemporary design."
Founded in 1901 in East London, the Whitechapel Gallery is one of the leading establishments in the UK offering top class international exhibitions in both contemporary and 20th century art. The gallery seamlessly pulls together some of the greats like Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko and Frida Kahlo, right up to contemporary stars like Jake and Dinos Chapman and Elizabeth Peyton. More than just a gallery, Whitechapel stands out as a centre of a vibrant art community offering artist commissions, a stunning collection, historical archives, art courses and a great resource for anyone interested in the arts.
Another typical superstar in the roster of top UK galleries, the White Cube was set up in 1993 by Jay Jopling as a project room for contemporary art. When it was founded it was said to be one of the smallest exhibition spaces in Europe, but that hasn't stopped it from becoming a genuine leader in the contemporary art world.
Of all of the Tates, Tate Modern was selected for the 5th position on the list. Granted that the whole franchise has a great deal to offer, Tate Modern has a brilliant mix of terrific gallery spaces, amongst which we can include the famous Turbine Hall, and a consistently great exhibition programme. On the South Banks of the Thames, Tate Modern is certainly one of best galleries in the UK, if not the world.
Stepping away from London for just a second, and heading up to Scotland. Often overlooked as a great arts destination, Scotland powers into the top 10 with the National Museum of Scotland. Offering an inspiring rota of cultural exhibitions that take visitors far beyond the reaches of the Scottish borders.
To complete the line up of top London galleries that deal in contemporary art, the Serpentine Gallery is yet another instance of a venue that has a top class programme of exhibitions. Located in Kensington Gardens and attracting up to 800,000 visitors a year, the gallery is a must-see on any art tour of London or the UK. Currently on view is an exhibition of work by Anish Kapoor.
Fun and educational for all of the family, the Science Museum was founded in 1857 as part of the South Kensington Museum before gaining its independence in 1909. Now the museum is world renowned for its historic collections, stunning building and terrific exhibitions.
The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts has a great collection of fine and decorative arts and is home to the UEA collection of Abstract and Constructivist art and design. The collection is built up from a donation of art the University of East Anglia in 1973 by Sir Robert and Lady Lisa Sainsbury. The Sainsbury Centre then opened to the public in 1978 and remains one of the hundred or so university museums around the UK that are open for public view.
Heading out of London again, BALTIC is a leading establishment for contemporary art in the North of England. Located in Gateshead on the banks of the River Tyne, BALTIC has spent the last 10 years building a name for itself as a leader on the contemporary art scene, providing an ever changing calendar of events and exhibitions to provoke discussion and add to the current discourse.
For a full list of the 50 museums and galleries selected by The Independent to represent the UKs offerings, visit the article on The Independent website.
The Grand Palais in Paris is current host to what has been described as an outstanding exhibition of the work of Claude Monet. The exhibition opened on the 22nd September and is set to run through until the 24th January 2011 in the National Galleries at the Palais.
The exhibition seeks to be a full survey of Monets development as an artist, and what makes the exhibition particularly interesting is that a full focused artist website has been built to cover all aspects of the works shown and the exhibition. What's more, the website is truly stunning in the way that it operates. Using examples of Monet's work as backdrops and using Flash to have them turn from subdued black and white scenes, to full colour masterpieces.
As well as being graphically stunning the website has got some great content that lets you get to know Monet a little bit better, which is a credit to RMN (Reunion des Musees Nationaux) who work on exhibiting, publishing, disseminating, promoting, developing and acquiring in the arts. The website is certainly a success for them and drawing attention to one of their arguably top projects.
Of all of the sections of the website, I would recommend following the Journey, which is one of the main links on the homepage. This lets you explore Monets work through a series of interactive scenes that follow through a sequence of moving imagery. In saying that, there isn't really a section of website that hasn't had the same level of care and attention. Even the practical information about visiting has a great example of a Monet self portrait.
My only personal criticisms of the website are that you really do have to be patient to get from one place to the next (something which the loading screen does ask of you), which is a consequence of everything being Flash based, and the link to turn the music off could perhaps have been more prominent
VOLTA NY is an art fair that was developed to follow in the footsteps of its parent fair (also called VOLTA) which was founded in Basel in 2005. VOLTA is the American version of the Swiss show which offers the opportunity to get a good, close up look at contemporary art and modern day practices. Unique in the sense that the only art fair to insist on each artist having an individual booth to themselves, VOLTA NY seeks to bring new ideas, new media and new ways of looking at contemporary art to the table.
The 2010 VOLTA NY show earlier this year, which was aptly titled "No Guts No Glory" is suitably representative of the attitude of the show as a whole and the types of artist and artwork that they show. The Art Newspaper visited the show this year and Jean Wainwright conducted an interview with an artist that perhaps best demonstrates the relevance of the shows title.
Todd Pavlisko is a contemporary artist who caused a stir at this years VOLTA NY event by displaying a video performance of himself hammering a nail through his own foot, nailing it to the wooden floor beneath. The video of the interview with Pavlisko can be viewed on The Art Newspaper website, along with the footage of the nail performance. I will take this opportunity to warn you that the performance is real, so don't watch the video if you are adverse to images of a graphic nature.
Pavlisko describes the performance as a challenge to his own body and a challenge of his endurance. A lot of research has gone into the approach to this so that he was able to avoid serious injury, however there is still a long process of recovery required for the artist after doing this.
However much of a stir Pavlisko caused, he has yet to reach the truly gruesome heights of past performance artists that have used their own bodies in torturous ways to create their art. Chris Burden is perhaps the most famed artist to have produced controversial artworks in which personal pain and danger were key elements.
Shoot (1971) and Trans-Fixed (1974) are amongst Burdens most quoted works. In Shoot Burden was shot in the left arm by an assistant, from a distance of about five meters and in Trans-Fixed, Burden was nailed by his hands, as if being crucified, to the back of a Volkswagen Beetle. The car was taken out of the garage and displayed for two minutes before being put back into the garage again.
Since the dawn of time humans have been pushing the boundaries of what the body can do. Interestingly, when it takes place in the setting of a gallery, museum or art fair, people really do sit up and take notice.
The next installment of VOLTA NY will take place in March 2011. Watch this space.
Whenever I go on Amazon I'm always amazed at just how much time I can lose by clicking through the never ending threads of recommendations and books that people also bought if they bought the book that you're looking at. Don't get me wrong, these are happy minutes (or hours), but it can still be difficult to pin point the best books to buy, no matter what subject you are searching for.
Some of the most interesting books that I own, or have seen or been told about, come from the genre of photography books. No matter what you're interested in, there's always a great photography booked that can be linked up to it. There are also some truly astounding art photographers out there that produce, or have produced, great work that I'm sure even a hardback monograph can't do justice too.
Below I have complied a list of photography books, both of the variety that provide practical advice about photography, but also books that display the work of some of the great photographers and photography organisations from around the world.
This book comes highly rated to anyone who is interested in journalistic photography. The book takes a look at how photographs can be used to tell stories through a series of 60 classes by some of the greatest photographers of all time, who also, coincidentally were involved with Magnum. Each class brings together tales of the individual approaches that photographers have applied to the field of journalism. Amongst the photographers that feature in the book are Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Martin Parr, Inge Morath, Eugene Richards and Leonard Freed.
Light lines is a book that presents a more experimental approach to photography and really takes a deep look at the art of producing black and white photographs. Metzker is a highly celebrated American photographer who is not afraid to challenge the boundaries of photography and take those challenges to the viewer. This book offers a full retrospective presentation of Metzkers work, using 200 high quality reproductions to cover the various aspects of what has been an extremely prolific career.
Robert Frank's The Americans is one of the most iconic photography books that you can buy. In 1955, Frank received a Guggenheim Fellowship to travel around the United States of America. He used that time to create a documentary record of American culture, producing what has become a universally credited book about the state of the US in the 1950's. A great book for anyone interested in American culture or documentary photographic practices.
Ansel Adams is often recognised as one of the great photographers, but this book is no catalogue of his works. This is an innovative book about the processes that Adams went through when developing his photographs. While not very useful for digital photographers, this is a solid book for the collection of any photographers who still hold true to the darkroom. The book takes a look at the factors of light, film type and exposures along with a detailed discussion on the Zone System. There is even an extensive chapter on the darkroom and its equipment for anyone who is just getting started.
The Moment it Clicks is a book for any budding digital photographers out there. Author Joe McNally is one of the worlds top digital photographers who has worked for some of the biggest magazines in the world. With everything from National Geographic to Sports Illustrated on his resume he is well positioned to write this book which has all of the elegance and presence of a coffee-table book, while also taking a teacher-like position over the more practical aspects of being a digital photographer.
The Family of Man was an exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1955; an exhibition that was put together by Edward Steichens. The exhibition can easily hailed as one of the most successful photography exhibitions of the latter part of the 20th century, The Family of Man charted images of humankind from all around the world. Aimed to show how similar we all are by covering universal themes such as love and marriage, child-birth and death. The book can be ranked amongst the classics of the photography genre.
Written by Gerry Badger, The Genius of Photography is a book that charts the key events and key images that bring home the magnificence of the development of photography. Primarily a narrative history of photography, the book delves into the social, economic, political, technical and artistic aspects of the development of photography, asking questions about what makes one photograph a work of art while another isn't and looking at what makes an image by Nan Goldin or Henri Cartier-Bresson special. The book charts the contributions of some of the most distinguished photographers to date making this an essential book for anyone with an interest in photography.
Written by one of Americas most respected writers, Susan Sontag, and first published in 1973, this book takes a solidly academic approach to discovering the true force of photographic imagery with a strong focus on discussions of experience and reality. Whether you deal in darkroom photography or digital photography, the six essays that make up this book are worth the read. We deal with images every day of our lives without really thinking about what we're looking at, or what we're really seeing. This book helps us to grab on and take a little more notice.
A personal favourite, Beneath the Roses is a book containing the complete series of Gregory Crewdsons photographs made between 2003 and 2007. Crewdson is an extremely successful international photographer who also teaches at the Yale University School of Art. His photographs are particularly unique in their set up and the fact that he photographs anything but the 'moment'. His scenes are elaborately choreographed and built like a film set. Lighting, composition and developing the frame within which he will capture a scene are all part of the lengthy process that Crewdson goes through. This particular book also includes lighting charts, production photographs, sketches and architectural plans to help the viewer understand what it took for these photographs to come into being. A coffee-table volume for sure.
Nan Goldin is one of those photographers who managed to stir up a great deal of controversy around her work but battling with taboo subjects, while making very personal documents about her life and the life of those around here. This book charts a particular series of image by Goldin that take a look at the struggle for intimacy, understanding and relationship pressures of friends and lovers of Goldin. A review of the book in the New York Times, by Andy Grundberg, said. "Goldin, at the age of 33, has created an artistic masterwork that tells us not only about the attitudes of her generation, but also about the times in which we live."
If that isn't enough to get you started on a truly amazing photography book collection, I don't know what is! If you do know, please drop us your recommendations in the comments below.
I recently came across some great illustrations by Stanley Chow while browsing on the From up North design inspiration and news blog. "From up North" appears to have started out as a personal endeavour, and no doubt a marketing tool, for Swedish designer Daniel Nelson. Moving from his personal blog space to its own website, "From up North" is a fantastic amalgamation of 3D design, advertising, painting, logos, photography, print, typography and web design, all under one roof.
The article that grabbed my attention was, as I say, abut Stanley Chow. Illustrator, designer and cartoon extraordinaire, Stanley Chow, was born, raised and now works in Manchester in the UK. Typically associated with fashion illustration and storyboarding, Chow has made quite a name for himself by working flexibly across a wide range of platforms from advertising right through to packaging and game animation.
The "From up North" article pointed out that Chows work has recently been focused on cartoons and caricatures, of which there are plenty of great examples to see. Anybody who is a fan of the series Mad Men and enjoys a bit of 1950's fashion and design will probably enjoy the series of prints that Chow has created, including caricatures of Donald Draper, Joan Holloway and Peggy Olson.
If you head on over to Chows own personal website you will see lots of other great examples of his work which include caricatures of super heros like Superman, Wolverine and Wonder Woman, along with movie characters like Morgot Tenenbaum in her tell-tale LaCoste t-shirt. All of the art prints are for sale on the website.
I think "From up North" were spot on to do a focused article on this creative illustrator and to highlight some of the great work that he has done over the past few years.
The time and effort that goes into the creation of book covers is often overlooked, but some of the original artwork for the cover of childrens book Charlotte's Web, created in 1952, has just sold in New York for $155,000 (£97,000). Sold at auction by Heritage Auctions, the artwork for EB White's books was drawn by Garth Williams and brought in more than five times what was expected at the auction, making this a record for the artists work.
Charlotte's Web is a book about a friendship between a spider and a pig, and the particular artwork was one of 42 original drawings for the book which were put up for auction by the late artist's family. All together the 42 illustrations brought in a total of $780,245 (£487,927).
The cover illustration is said to have been bought by a New York collector whose name has not been released, but shows that there is a firm collector base for these sorts of drawings and a fondness for the illustrations of classic tales in particular.
Every year the Turner Prize is able to kick up a storm of comment and controversy about something, whether that is in regards to the art and artists that have been chosen or events surrounding the competition and the Tate itself.
Before we have even gotten to the standard expected questions of 'is this really art?' or 'what qualifies this to be part of the Turner Prize?', this year we had a controversy over a potential boycott by angered photographers.
It was reported that the Tate, in an effort to discourage negative news around the event, had asked photographers to sign a form which prevented them from using photographs taken at the event alongside negative stories in the press. The form is also reported to have said that any pictures taken of the Turner Prize show could be used by the Tate for whatever they desire, free of charge.
Disgruntled photographers threatened to boycott the media view of the exhibition of shortlisted Turner Prize artists due to the request for this level of censorship.
It's said that any press is good press, but the Tate might not think so. The situation has transpired to produce the type of news that the Tate was hoping to avoid in order to give this years Prize a chance to shine on it's own without any peripheral controversy.
However, regardless of the circumstances, this incident has certainly got people reading about the Turner Prize, so it can't all be that bad.
Anybody that keeps up to date with what's happening on the big stage of the contemporary art world will definitely be familiar with few of the names that have made it on to the ArtReview Power 100 for 2010.
As stated by ArtReview, this is more than just a list of the most favoured people in the art world at the moment, or a who's who of the faces on the contemporary scene. What the list represents is the group of people who are actively shaping the art world, who are key to current trends and who form some of the most important networks in terms of market development and the proliferation of contemporary art across the world.
Whatever you think of the list and the people on it, you can't argue that it isn't interesting to see who made it onto the list, where they sit in the list and why they got there.
The top 10 are all reconisable art world giants, for a range of different reasons. Gallerist Larry Gagosian made it in at number 1, beating curator Hans Ulrich Obrist who held the top spot last year. It's no surprise that Gagosian is sitting pretty this year; he now has 9 gallery spaces around the world, beating the likes of David Zwirner who is also in the top 10, and seems to have unlimited powers when it comes to dictating how things the art world around him should be orchestrated.
Hans Ulrich Obrist takes the second spot on the chart for continuing to be a serious power curator in a year when curatorial budgets were not looking too hot.
On the museum side of things, MoMA Director Glenn D. Lowry comes in at number 5 and the leader at the Tate, Sir Nicholas Serota, comes in at number 7. Three million people descended on MoMA this year, in part to see some of the great contemporary exhibitions that the museum presented. It could be easy for MoMA to sit back and bask in the glory of their fantastic modern art collection, but they don't. They push forward and stick with the flow of the contemporary art scene, ensuring that MoMA stays relevant and at the centre of the art world. The Tate on the other hand has been critised a lot this year for things like their relationship with BP, but as ArtReview rightly points out, "if it weren't for Tate Modern, London wouldn't be the art centre it has become." Pat on the back for Sir Nick.
A certain power collector also made it into the top 10, and it's no surprise given his contemporary art empire. An art collection worth more than $1billion, an entire wing at LACMA, a hefty investment of $30 million in LA MOCA and even his own museum. Not bad going.
Visit the ArtReview 100 website to get the full listing and to take a closer look at some of the most powerful and interesting characters in the contemporary art world.
Fans of the Scissor Sisters will no doubt be familiar with the cover from their latest album, Night Work. Perhaps slightly less known is the fact that the artwork for the album cover is actually a photograph taken by artist and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
The work, entitled "Peter Reed", from 1980, was chosen by lead singer of the band, Jake Shears, and had caused rumours to circulate that it was actually a self-portrait of the band member. As further singles are released from the Night Work album it is said that they too will contain covers depicting the work of Mapplethorpe, showing some dedication from the band who are now set to also curate a show of Mapplethorpe's work.
The exhibition will be held next year at the Alison Jacque Gallery, where works by the artist can already be viewed and bought. The show will open in January and will be called "Filthy Gorgeous"; a call back to an earlier track by the Scissor Sisters which was released in 2004.
The exhibition is thought to explore the way in which Mapplethorpe has influenced younger generations of artist such as Matthew Barney and Gillian Wearing. With Jake Shears and guitarist Babbydaddy taking the reins on this one it should be interesting to see how it all turns out.
Last Sunday in the U.S., The Simpsons TV show aired an episode which had a particularly special opening-credit sequence featuring a "couch gag" story-boarded by Banksy. For those who didn't see it, here is what you missed:
The sequence depicts an evil sweatshop churning out Bart Simpson dolls using the fur from crushed up cute animals, rows and rows of regimented workers churning out the animation itself and the bones of dead workers lying about the caves where other workers still pack up boxes of Simpsons goods using a decapitated dolphin head with its tongue hanging out to seal the boxes. Then at the very end there's the tortured unicorn, whose horn is used to pierce the holes in The Simpsons DVDs.
As a giant mockery of the shows producers, Fox, it seemed particularly edgy and a little bit dangerous for the makers of the show to make such an opening for the long running show, so much so that members of The Simpsons team have stepped forward to talk about what was going on.
The New York Times spoke to Al Jean and published the conversation in the Art Beats blog yesterday, which gave an insight into how Banksy got involved with The Simpsons and how everyone has managed to keep their jobs despite the visual commentary Banksy provided.
The overall tone of the interview seems to be that Fox has been very gracioius about allowing The Simpsons creators to use their name and company in this way, and Jean is quick to point out that of course the comedy accusations made in the opening credits are not true. Everything was ok'd by Fox and given approval in terms of broadcast standards. Jean makes the poignant comment that "I think that we should always be able to say the holes in our DVDs are poked by unhappy unicorns." If that doesn't' set the tone of this whole event, I don't know what does.
Banksy is well known for his scathing critique of the system and the story boards that he designed for The Simpsons are a perfect extension to his usual working style; it's a little bit far fetched, and plays with amusing imagery, but ultimately conveys a point of view that's worth considering.
This book comes highly rated to anyone who is interested in journalistic photography. The book takes a look at how photographs can be used to tell stories through a series of 60 classes by some of the greatest photographers of all time, who also, coincidentally were involved with Magnum. Each class brings together tales of the individual approaches that photographers have applied to the field of journalism. Amongst the photographers that feature in the book are Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Martin Parr, Inge Morath, Eugene Richards and Leonard Freed. 
Light lines is a book that presents a more experimental approach to photography and really takes a deep look at the art of producing black and white photographs. Metzker is a highly celebrated American photographer who is not afraid to challenge the boundaries of photography and take those challenges to the viewer. This book offers a full retrospective presentation of Metzkers work, using 200 high quality reproductions to cover the various aspects of what has been an extremely prolific career. 
Robert Frank's The Americans is one of the most iconic photography books that you can buy. In 1955, Frank received a Guggenheim Fellowship to travel around the United States of America. He used that time to create a documentary record of American culture, producing what has become a universally credited book about the state of the US in the 1950's. A great book for anyone interested in American culture or documentary photographic practices.
Ansel Adams is often recognised as one of the great photographers, but this book is no catalogue of his works. This is an innovative book about the processes that Adams went through when developing his photographs. While not very useful for digital photographers, this is a solid book for the collection of any photographers who still hold true to the darkroom. The book takes a look at the factors of light, film type and exposures along with a detailed discussion on the Zone System. There is even an extensive chapter on the darkroom and its equipment for anyone who is just getting started.
The Moment it Clicks is a book for any budding digital photographers out there. Author Joe McNally is one of the worlds top digital photographers who has worked for some of the biggest magazines in the world. With everything from National Geographic to Sports Illustrated on his resume he is well positioned to write this book which has all of the elegance and presence of a coffee-table book, while also taking a teacher-like position over the more practical aspects of being a digital photographer.
The Family of Man was an exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1955; an exhibition that was put together by Edward Steichens. The exhibition can easily hailed as one of the most successful photography exhibitions of the latter part of the 20th century, The Family of Man charted images of humankind from all around the world. Aimed to show how similar we all are by covering universal themes such as love and marriage, child-birth and death. The book can be ranked amongst the classics of the photography genre.
Written by Gerry Badger, The Genius of Photography is a book that charts the key events and key images that bring home the magnificence of the development of photography. Primarily a narrative history of photography, the book delves into the social, economic, political, technical and artistic aspects of the development of photography, asking questions about what makes one photograph a work of art while another isn't and looking at what makes an image by Nan Goldin or Henri Cartier-Bresson special. The book charts the contributions of some of the most distinguished photographers to date making this an essential book for anyone with an interest in photography. 
Written by one of Americas most respected writers, Susan Sontag, and first published in 1973, this book takes a solidly academic approach to discovering the true force of photographic imagery with a strong focus on discussions of experience and reality. Whether you deal in darkroom photography or digital photography, the six essays that make up this book are worth the read. We deal with images every day of our lives without really thinking about what we're looking at, or what we're really seeing. This book helps us to grab on and take a little more notice.
A personal favourite, Beneath the Roses is a book containing the complete series of Gregory Crewdsons photographs made between 2003 and 2007. Crewdson is an extremely successful international photographer who also teaches at the Yale University School of Art. His photographs are particularly unique in their set up and the fact that he photographs anything but the 'moment'. His scenes are elaborately choreographed and built like a film set. Lighting, composition and developing the frame within which he will capture a scene are all part of the lengthy process that Crewdson goes through. This particular book also includes lighting charts, production photographs, sketches and architectural plans to help the viewer understand what it took for these photographs to come into being. A coffee-table volume for sure. 
Nan Goldin is one of those photographers who managed to stir up a great deal of controversy around her work but battling with taboo subjects, while making very personal documents about her life and the life of those around here. This book charts a particular series of image by Goldin that take a look at the struggle for intimacy, understanding and relationship pressures of friends and lovers of Goldin. A review of the book in the New York Times, by Andy Grundberg, said. "Goldin, at the age of 33, has created an artistic masterwork that tells us not only about the attitudes of her generation, but also about the times in which we live."
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