Art Research

A commentary on the Pierre Bonnard exhibition recorded at the press view on Monday January 21, 2018. Views figure studies and landscapes made between 1900 and 1940 and responds to the conception of the compositions with their radiant color fields.

A recorded visit on January 28 to John Ruskin: The Power of Seeing, at Two Temple Place WC2. The review includes descriptions of exhibits by Ruskin and his associates and his contact with JMW Turner.

Interview recorded with Rachel Howard at the artist's studio in July 2011. Explores her childhood and upbringing, awareness of "God", and experience of a Quaker schooling. Attendance at Goldsmiths and work for Damien Hirst on pharmacy cabinets and the Spot Paintings. Recent exhibition in Italy, the "Via Dolorosa"; discussion of her paintings and drawings; the desired effect of her work.

Interview with painter Anthea Holmes, recorded in April 1988 at her Whitechapel Studio. She describes her training at Kingston University and at The Pratt Institute New York; with the development of an intricate play between figure, ground and light in an intimate process of accumulation and elision of elements.

Interview conducted with Christiane Baumgartner in 2010, by emailed questions and replies, in which she describes the process of her graphic and video work; incorporating ideas of stop-motion time frames applied to subjects of landscape, travelling, traffic, highways, and military installations.

Painter Claudia Carr describes her surreal landscapes, composed from reflections of found objects that suggest imaginative scenarios of play and dreams.

Artist Louise Sheridan interviewed at her exhibition at The Cafe Gallery Southwark in 1993. She describes her travels in Nepal and Thailand, and the works produced from a fellowship in Barcelona, Spain. She focuses on "The Envelope Series", votive objects made with wax and encaustic, and works made with Nepalese bark paper.

Renowned artist Thérèse Oulton describes her series, Territory, detailed aerial views in small-scale paintings, exhibited at Marlborough Fine Art London. She considers their source and her excursions in London and elsewhere, and their bearing on her work.

An interview recorded with the leading ceramic designer and studio potter Janice Tchalenko explores her development, from training with Mick Casson at Harrow Schoolo of Art to growing her own practice, leading to a major commission of supply to the Next retail chain. Tchalenko describes her appointment to renew China's ceramic industry and her activity as the chief designer of the Dartington pottery.

Interview recorded with Brazilian artist Lara Viana at Domobaal Gallery in January 2010. She describes her interest in souvenirs and votive settings found in the Catholic Church, and acknowledges an influence from the art of Velazquez and Zurbaran in her refined and ethereal paintings. The conversation revolves around a recent set of still life studies; tableaux of nature morte, that carry implications of transient existence in their subtle conception.

There is an increasing tendency to set up body artists and performance artists - the two categories are often interchangeable - as the real heroes and heroines of the contemporary avant-garde. In fact, we need to look much further back for its beginnings. The first body art performer, as well as the first professional bodybuilder, was the showman, Eugene Sandow (1867-1925). Though Sandow’s heyday occurred before the birth of the Modern Movement, there are compelling reasons for giving the primacy to him.

Interview with leading British sculptor Alison Wilding, RA, recorded at Tannery Street Studio, Bermondsey, in 1995. She describes the making of Harbour, in alabaster and pvc moulding, and Echo, a stainless steel sculpture exhibited at Karsten Schubert. Sourcing materials, the levels of the work; assistant Adam Kershaw; and its relation to other contemporary works.

Morag Ballard describers her studio in Penzance, Cornwall, and the strategies of her work; paintings which create perspectives and settings referring to certain interiors.

Edward Lucie-Smith reviews Frieze Art Fair London 2013, in a critical take on the contemporary scene. It's pretty easy to get the point of the Frieze Masters art fair, now in its second edition, after a very successful start last year. Its purpose is to present the best of the best - or, at the very least, a good slice of the top quality art that is currently on the market. One of the great pleasures of Frieze Masters, this year more than ever, is the accidental confrontations the event manages to set up.

Scottish painter June Redfern interviewed by Livvy Anson for CV Journal in March 1990. The artist discusses her methods and approach, with sources of inspiration for her work.

Interviewed during the installation of "Ghost" at Chisenhale Gallery East London in 1990, sculptor Rachel Whiteread describes her initial experience as an assistant to Alison Wilding and employment as a theatrical props maker. She reveals the development of "Ghost", cast from a room at 286 Archway, and gives details discovered in her first major project of replication.

Sharon Kivland describes strands of influence in her work, which draws on French and Russian literature of the 18th and 19th centuries, in particular concerning the changing roles of women in domestic, social, and political life.

Anyone who Googles the phrase curatorial theory will immediately come upon quite a long list of suggested websites. Sometimes it is a little difficult to be sure if the texts offered are intended to be taken entirely seriously. However, if I hack my way through the dense thickets of language, I find myself in agreement with what they seem to be trying to say, which is that curating an exhibition - or for that matter, a website - is not an end in itself.

Very seldom in London can a major show of modern and contemporary art at a highly respected national institution have received such universally negative reviews. As I write this, not all the verdicts on the Royal Academy’s exhibition of Modern British Sculpture have been delivered. However, it is already clear that the majority will be hostile. Paradoxically, it is this, more than any other factor, which makes it seem like an important event - a turning point if you like.

Charles Thomas "Chuck" Close (born July 5, 1940) is an American painter and photographer who achieved fame as a photo-realist. He developed his own highly resolved heads (his preferred term to portraits), which were worked on a massive scale. Despite suffering a disabling spinal aneurysm in 1988, the artist has continued to forge a monumental body of work in a variety of media: paintings, drawings, prints, and photographs, of potent and original effect.