Latest news with #LouiseBourgeois
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Wolf Moon by Arifa Akbar: On the night shift
Wolf Moon Author : Arifa Akbar ISBN-13 : 978-1399712859 Publisher : Sceptre Guideline Price : £16.99 Wolf Moon by Arifa Akbar is a book I wanted to like. Its central question—'What does it mean to be a woman in the night?'— serves as a loose thread binding together memoir, cultural criticism and feminist theory. Akbar's experiences of menopausal insomnia lead into analyses of Louise Bourgeois's night drawings and Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis. Visits to her father's care home are interwoven with eerie Pakistani folktales he once told her. She interviews night-shift workers, dancers in Lahore and security guards. She drifts through galleries, goes clubbing and attends late-night films. There's a perceptive reading of Henri Fuseli's The Nightmare, as well as some evocative descriptions of David Lynch scenes. The cultural references are obvious and a little self-consciously tasteful, but they are handled deftly. This is, unmistakably, a serious and intelligent book. Still, the cumulative effect is deadening. READ MORE The problem isn't the material, which is often fascinating, but Akbar's compulsive need to filter it through the dull strainer of introspective autotheory. Entire pages are padded with limp self-reflection—'I think back to' 'I felt' 'I wondered'—until the prose begins to sag under the weight of its own inwardness. The analytical intensity is often laughably disproportionate to the life being examined: 'I put a notebook beside my bed. I open it up the next morning. I write a few words down, but I am left straining for more.' There's also a wearying performance of liberal empathy. When she encounters sex workers dancing in Amsterdam's red-light district, she rushes to ally herself with them, as though fending off imagined accusations. 'I feel horrified,' she declares at a Jack the Ripper tour. 'I was in awe of her fortitude,' she writes of a security guard at her theatre, then asks, 'How did Maria remain invisible to me?' I am naturally distrustful of anyone so easily scandalised. Again and again, moments that might have thrummed with tension are robbed of all charge. We don't just hear that she went to Berghain; we're told what Berghain is, then led through one of the tamest nights in club history. Not her fault, but it's hard to be invested in such a safe and orderly life. A book about night, yes, but drained of its Dionysian wildness.
The Herald Scotland
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Embark upon and exhilarating journey through ancient Egypt
After hugely successful runs in Madrid, Hamburg, Cairo, Sao Paulo, Barcelona, Vienna, Malmo and London, the 2500 square metre exhibition invites visitors to step back in time and embark upon and exhilarating journey through ancient Egypt to discover the myths and mysteries surrounding Pharaoh Tutankhamun. The 90-minute journey through Ancient Egypt's rich history and mythology features a wealth of educational and informative displays, historical documents, original artefacts and replicas from ancient Egypt. Love Bites 19 July-31 August. Entry free. Cample Line, Cample Mill, Dumfries, DG3 5HD. For Love Bites, artist Bryony Rose brings together a new body of work that extends her exploration of glazed ceramic sculptural relief and builds upon two recent solo shows in the city. Rose has put together 10 new works and has expanded her range of subjects to include horseflies, insect bites, dandelion seed heads and fields of sheep viewed through car windows. Drawn in Japan 19 July-22 August. Entry free. Leith School of Art, 25 North Junction Street, Edinburgh, EH6 6HW. Harriet Hobday, Children's Book Illustration course leader at Leith School of Art, has put together an exhibition of observational drawings made during her time in Japan. Standing up with a clipboard in extreme weather conditions and at all times of day, and night, this body of work is part of how the artist connected with Japan and noticed the differences with the UK. ARTIST ROOMS 19 July-1 January 2026. Entry free. Modern One, 75 Belford Road, Edinburgh, EH4 3DR. Spider by Louise Bourgeois (Image: Louise Bourgeois) Discover three of the biggest names in modern and contemporary art with a series of free ARTIST ROOMS displays in Edinburgh. Experience impactful new displays from Louise Bourgeois, Helen Chadwick and Robert Mapplethorpe, each offering distinctive and diverse approaches to the ideas of self-expression, identity and the complexity of our inner life. Tove Hirth selected works 25 July-16 August. Entry free. Powderhall Bronze Editions, 4-5 Summer Place, Stockbridge, EH3 5NR. Powderhall Bronze Editions have curated a selection of works by renowned Norwegian artist Tove Hirth as part of their summer exhibition programme. Fascinated by the human body, the artist's figurative pieces are inspired by human emotions, relationships and the amazing feats human bodies can achieve. Creative Coven: Voices and Visions of the WITCH 19 July-11 August. Entry free. Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries, 1-7 Abbot Street, Dunfermline, KY12 7N. This innovative exhibition, featuring over 50 pieces, is a creative response to the Scottish Witchcraft Act that came into effect back in 1563. There's a collection of multimedia art, poetry and prose from artists whose works are interwoven with remembrance of the Scottish witch hunts. Images from the Arcadian Dream Garden 19 July-28 September. Entry free. Biggar & Upper Clydesdale Museum, 156 Biggar High Street, Biggar, ML2 6DH. This centenary exhibition at Biggar Museum honours the life and work of internationally acclaimed artist, poet and landscape designer Ian Hamilton Finlay. This display in particular offers a rare opportunity to engage with Finlay's works in the town he called home. There's a selection of printed and graphic works on display produced by Wild Hawthorn Press - the pioneering publishing house he co-founded back in 1961. She Carries the Land - Folklore of the Cailleach 19 July-24 August. Entry free. Made in Stirling, 44 King Street, Stirling, FK8 1AY. Known for her quiet detail, gentle lines and soft colours, artist Abbie Lois' work draws deeply from the landscapes of Scotland and the enduring power of myth. This exhibition brings to life stories of the Cailleach as healer, land-shaper and guardian of wild animals. The screen prints and illustrations on show carry the depth of ancient stories which the artist has reimagined with quiet intensity and care. Six Foot Gallery Annual Summer Show: Something in the Mirage 19 July-8 August. Entry free. Six Foot Gallery, Pentagon Business Centre, Washington Street, Glasgow, G3 8AZ. Discover the work of 29 artists, all inspired by the dreamlike shimmering of summer sunshine, heat hazes, lingering afterimages, maybe the momentary glint of something half-seen and half-imagined in the dappled golden light. Loss and Found 19 July-1 August. Entry free. The Wyllieum, Custom House Way, Greenock, PA15 1EG. Artist Scott Forest has put together a deeply personal series of works, created through the experience of caring for his mother through her illness and passing. The works are not retrospective reflections but a result of painting in real time - using creativity to navigate the shifting terrain of love, loss and the fracturing of familiar structures. The series unfolds across a stairwell and the upper gallery, echoing a physical and emotional journey with bold layered abstracts that speak to the intensity and complexity of the period in the artist's life.
CNN
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
The women artists who were way ahead of their time
Visitors to European galleries with an interest in pioneering women artists will have plenty of choice this summer, with a series of new exhibitions featuring some of the biggest names in 20th century art. Fantastical sculptures and dreamlike drawings by the late French artist Louise Bourgeois, famed for her towering spiders, are on display at the Courtauld Gallery in London. Elsewhere in Spain, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is hosting a solo exhibition of American collagist and conceptual artist Barbara Kruger. And fellow American artist Cindy Sherman, known for her chameleonic self-portraiture, is the focus of a solo show at Hauser & Wirth Menorca, on the picturesque Balearic Islands. Each of these artists — whether through sculpture, photography, video, painting or language — has challenged conventional portrayals of women's bodies, emotions and experiences. And they've managed to sustain a legacy of radical, often political art, over the course of decades. (Almost all of these current exhibitions include new or recent bodies of work.) That their art remains in focus is both a notable feat and a sign of the times. Asked what might be the reason behind such enduring interest, Gabriella Nugent, a London-based art historian and curator specializing in global modern and contemporary art, wrote over email: 'The 1970s witnessed the emergence of second-wave feminism and a critique of the structures of patriarchy that determined women's public and private lives.' During this transformative period, feminist art historians such as Linda Nochlin and Ann Sutherland Harris helped to, as Nugent said, 'rehabilitate the work of women artists and expose the terms of their exclusion' through groundbreaking texts and exhibitions. She explained that the likes of Kruger and Sherman 'came of age against this backdrop and engaged with the debates of the time in their artwork.' Bourgeois (who will also receive a major retrospective at PoMo in Trondheim, Norway, from February 2026) found a wider audience around the same time as this younger generation of artists, despite having practized art since the 1930s. 'In the 1970s the women's art movement in New York took her (Bourgeois) up as a key precursor to feminist art,' said Jo Applin, who helped curate both the drawing display and sculptural show both taking place at the Courtauld Gallery this summer. The 1970s were a generative decade for pioneering art in other ways. It was a 'watershed moment in terms of arts' relationship to mass media,' explained Tanya Barson, curatorial senior director at Hauser & Wirth, who added that this transformation laid the foundation for artists like Sherman. 'She became part of a group of artists called the 'Pictures Generation' who made work that examined this relationship. Her work is made for an audience who have grown up not just with film and advertising but with television as part of their reality. Looking back, it was the first generation for which this was the case,' Barson told CNN. In many ways, Sherman was an artist ahead of her time. 'Her use of photography to record these identities is something that prefigures the use of social media today,' Barson said of her performances and manipulation of personas. 'She was really in advance of a transformation in society and our relationship to images, to media more widely, and our use of them,' added Barson. 'I think Sherman's work expresses something fundamental about how we live today and how we relate to images. In many ways, we live through images now. We also are absolutely involved in constructing our identities for an ever present but invisible and anonymous audience,' Barson said. While Sherman constructed some of these personas 50 years ago, Barson believes they are perennially familiar. 'We know these subjects, we have met them or seen them on TV, or on Instagram or Tik Tok,' she said. Kruger, another key figure of the Pictures Generation, began borrowing advertising and graphic design techniques to explore power in the context of consumerist and patriarchal structures. The artist continues to interrogate the interplay between image and text in culture today –– illustrating the persistent dominance of advertising, as well as the peculiarities of newer phenomena, such as memes. The feminist movement that coincided with the emergence of these artists addressed issues around the emancipation of women, particularly reproductive rights and sexuality. Such issues have come back under the spotlight amid the rollback of legal rights regarding women's bodily autonomy in some Western nations. 'Many of the debates that charged their work in the 1970s are still ongoing today, from abortion in the United States to child care in the United Kingdom,' explained Nugent. The slogan 'Your body is a battleground', used by Kruger in her famous poster for the 1989 Women's March in Washington, D.C., resurfaced last year in another of her pieces displayed on the side of a truck in Miami, FL., as part of a travelling project calling for reproductive and healthcare access for all. Nugent said that, although 'women artists all over the world have long addressed the gender-defined differences that they had to navigate,' the symbolic impact of US President Donald Trump's reelection and rise of self-proclaimed misogynist influencer Andrew Tate may partly explain why the work of these artists resonates today. Newer audiences may find comfort in engaging with artists who have lived and worked through earlier eras of political struggle. At the same time, the potency of their art has enshrined many of these figures as perennially relevant, even beyond immediate political lines. For instance, Bourgeois' deeply personal works 'speak to universal themes of fear, anger, desire, anxiety that we can all identify with,' said Applin. It could be why her work, like that of Sherman, Kruger, and countless other female artists who made their names in the 20th century, continues to be relevant.
The Guardian
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Alien landscapes, Arctic artists and pioneers of pleasure – the week in art
Folkestone Triennial: How Lies the Land?Dorothy Cross, Katie Paterson, Cooking Sections and many more take part in a sprawling seaside summer art special. Various venues, Folkestone, Kent, from 19 July until 19 October Alien Shores A landscape-themed group show with Georgia O'Keeffe, David Hockney and Glenn Brown among the artists enjoying the fresh air. White Cube Bermondsey, London, until 7 September Panorama: New Views of a City A recreation of Robert Barker's 18th-century panorama of the Edinburgh skyline, with contemporary responses by Lucas Priest and Amanda Thomson. Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, until 21 December Arctic Expressions The art and material culture of Arctic peoples is celebrated by this British Museum touring show. Kirkleatham Museum, Redcar, until 28 September Louise Bourgeois: Drawings from the 1960s Works on paper by the revered artist record her inner life of dream and memory. Courtauld Gallery, London until 14 September John Knuth's striking paintings aren't made by the artist putting in hours with a pointillist brush. His works are created using flies regurgitating a mixture of coloured paint and sugar water on to canvasses. After he lost his home and entire archive in the California wildfires earlier this year, his work has taken on a new perspective. Read more here. The Bayeux tapestry is the most engaging depiction ever made of a mighty battle AI, social media and virtual identities are transforming our understanding of beauty A new 10,000 sq ft London arts centre aims to spotlight global majority voices A show of tactile art curated by blind people aims to challenge 'ocularcentrism' Plans for the corporate rebranding of a London tube line dismayed our critic Podcaster George the Poet joined an initiative to make masterpieces more accessible Jean-François Millet's masterpiece The Angelus electrified modern art Sign up to Art Weekly Your weekly art world round-up, sketching out all the biggest stories, scandals and exhibitions after newsletter promotion Photographer Paz Errázuriz's tender images outraged Chilean society A new art trail through the City of London is full of echoes of ancient ritual The Shore at Egmond-aan-Zee by Jacob van Ruisdael, circa 1675 Seaside views from the 17th century are rare. It shows how precocious Dutch art and life were in the 1600s that Van Ruisdael depicts people visiting the shore for fun – strolling on the sands, enjoying the strong sea breeze, flirting to the splash of the waves. Of course, they don't strip off and swim – the figures in the water are fishing folk. Sea bathing wouldn't become fashionable until about a century later, and the hedonism of modern beach life would gradually appear in art, from impressionist Normandy to Picasso and Matisse on the Riviera. All of that lies in the future here – and to be honest those looming clouds don't augur well for a day at the seaside. But these beachgoers are pioneers of pleasure. National Gallery, London If you don't already receive our regular roundup of art and design news via email, please sign up here. If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@
CNN
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
These female artists broke the mold in the ‘70s — and they're not done yet
Visitors to European galleries with an interest in pioneering women artists will have plenty of choice this summer, with a series of new exhibitions featuring some of the biggest names in 20th century art. Fantastical sculptures and dreamlike drawings by the late French artist Louise Bourgeois, famed for her towering spiders, are on display at the Courtauld Gallery in London. Elsewhere in Spain, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is hosting a solo exhibition of American collagist and conceptual artist Barbara Kruger. And fellow American artist Cindy Sherman, known for her chameleonic self-portraiture, is the focus of a solo show at Hauser & Wirth Menorca, on the picturesque Balearic Islands. Each of these artists — whether through sculpture, photography, video, painting or language — has challenged conventional portrayals of women's bodies, emotions and experiences. And they've managed to sustain a legacy of radical, often political art, over the course of decades. (Almost all of these current exhibitions include new or recent bodies of work.) That their art remains in focus is both a notable feat and a sign of the times. Asked what might be the reason behind such enduring interest, Gabriella Nugent, a London-based art historian and curator specializing in global modern and contemporary art, wrote over email: 'The 1970s witnessed the emergence of second-wave feminism and a critique of the structures of patriarchy that determined women's public and private lives.' During this transformative period, feminist art historians such as Linda Nochlin and Ann Sutherland Harris helped to, as Nugent said, 'rehabilitate the work of women artists and expose the terms of their exclusion' through groundbreaking texts and exhibitions. She explained that the likes of Kruger and Sherman 'came of age against this backdrop and engaged with the debates of the time in their artwork.' Bourgeois (who will also receive a major retrospective at PoMo in Trondheim, Norway, from February 2026) found a wider audience around the same time as this younger generation of artists, despite having practized art since the 1930s. 'In the 1970s the women's art movement in New York took her (Bourgeois) up as a key precursor to feminist art,' said Jo Applin, who helped curate both the drawing display and sculptural show both taking place at the Courtauld Gallery this summer. The 1970s were a generative decade for pioneering art in other ways. It was a 'watershed moment in terms of arts' relationship to mass media,' explained Tanya Barson, curatorial senior director at Hauser & Wirth, who added that this transformation laid the foundation for artists like Sherman. 'She became part of a group of artists called the 'Pictures Generation' who made work that examined this relationship. Her work is made for an audience who have grown up not just with film and advertising but with television as part of their reality. Looking back, it was the first generation for which this was the case,' Barson told CNN. In many ways, Sherman was an artist ahead of her time. 'Her use of photography to record these identities is something that prefigures the use of social media today,' Barson said of her performances and manipulation of personas. 'She was really in advance of a transformation in society and our relationship to images, to media more widely, and our use of them,' added Barson. 'I think Sherman's work expresses something fundamental about how we live today and how we relate to images. In many ways, we live through images now. We also are absolutely involved in constructing our identities for an ever present but invisible and anonymous audience,' Barson said. While Sherman constructed some of these personas 50 years ago, Barson believes they are perennially familiar. 'We know these subjects, we have met them or seen them on TV, or on Instagram or Tik Tok,' she said. Kruger, another key figure of the Pictures Generation, began borrowing advertising and graphic design techniques to explore power in the context of consumerist and patriarchal structures. The artist continues to interrogate the interplay between image and text in culture today –– illustrating the persistent dominance of advertising, as well as the peculiarities of newer phenomena, such as memes. The feminist movement that coincided with the emergence of these artists addressed issues around the emancipation of women, particularly reproductive rights and sexuality. Such issues have come back under the spotlight amid the rollback of legal rights regarding women's bodily autonomy in some Western nations. 'Many of the debates that charged their work in the 1970s are still ongoing today, from abortion in the United States to child care in the United Kingdom,' explained Nugent. The slogan 'Your body is a battleground', used by Kruger in her famous poster for the 1989 Women's March in Washington, D.C., resurfaced last year in another of her pieces displayed on the side of a truck in Miami, FL., as part of a travelling project calling for reproductive and healthcare access for all. Nugent said that, although 'women artists all over the world have long addressed the gender-defined differences that they had to navigate,' the symbolic impact of US President Donald Trump's reelection and rise of self-proclaimed misogynist influencer Andrew Tate may partly explain why the work of these artists resonates today. Newer audiences may find comfort in engaging with artists who have lived and worked through earlier eras of political struggle. At the same time, the potency of their art has enshrined many of these figures as perennially relevant, even beyond immediate political lines. For instance, Bourgeois' deeply personal works 'speak to universal themes of fear, anger, desire, anxiety that we can all identify with,' said Applin. It may be why her work, like that of Sherman, Kruger, and countless other female artists who made their names in the 20th century, continues to be relevant.
