“[Ricky Swallow] is essentially self-taught – “I had to start at ground zero” – but he received valuable assistance in the early stages from a couple of experienced woodworkers and a book called How to Carve Realistic Birds“.
– Sebastian Smee, Carving a niche in time, The Australian, June 6.
“Starling once drove from Italy to Poland to exchange the doors and hood of a red Italian-made Fiat for white ones produced by the company’s Polish plant. His moped ride across a Spanish desert, which included using the hydrogen-powered motor to gather water with which to paint a rather beautiful watercolour of a desert cactus, was even more quixotic”.
– Adrian Searle Memories, mopeds and a brush with oils, The Guardian, June 3.
“When Sydney art dealer Martin Browne agreed to take on young figurative painter McLean Edwards in 2002, it was on the condition that Edwards stop giving away his paintings.
“Somebody would be around and they’d say, ‘Oh I like that’, and he’d just hand it to them,” laments Browne.
Handing his paintings out wasn’t such a big deal in the 1990s when his work wasn’t worth so much, says Browne. These days, Edwards’ disturbing, sometimes comical and always surreal portraits go for close to $50,000 at auction.
“So,” explains Browne, “there’s waitresses out there that he once fancied at a noodle bar turning up at auction with paintings worth tens of thousand of dollars.”
– Clay Lucas, Studio Chaos Suits Edward’s Style, The Age, May 30.
“But why are women so acquisitive? What makes teenage girls drool over £1,000 handbags? Rosler shrugs languidly. “I’d actually say men are much more acquisitive than women, but they focus on big stuff. They do real estate and cars. Women do their bodies. The female role depends on being responsible for the body, and that translates into shopping. We’re told it’s in our genes, so we might as well lie back and enjoy it.”
– Caroline Sullivan, Jumble fever, The Guardian, June 3.
“Why spend three years at art school unpicking knitted teddy bears or making a forest out of plastic bags or creating a short film about singing vaginas?”
– Ted Snell, Shape Shifters , The Australian, June 4.
“Turner judges have broken with recent tradition to shortlist Carnegie, an artist working in conventional genres such as landscapes and still life.
Darren Almond, whose work includes photography and video, has also made the shortlist, alongside installation artists Simon Starling and Jim Lambie. The overall winner of the Turner Prize will be announced on 5 December.
Bookmaker William Hill made Carnegie even-money favourite to win the award, followed by Starling with odds of 3/1. Almond and Lambie were both classed as 4/1 outsiders.
Still Life Painter Up For Turner, BBC Arts.
“It was called the biggest art heist in history – and Italian workman Vincenzo Peruggia‘s theft made Leonardo da Vinci‘s portrait the most famous painting in the world. Annoyed by how many Italian works were in the French collection, Peruggia took the Mona Lisa from the wall of the Louvre while he was alone in the room and walked out with it under his smock. It was missing for two years – but the French public queued in their thousands to see the blank space on the wall and the Mona Lisa’s fame was guaranteed.
Greatest Art Heists In History, BBC Arts.
“Martin Gayford: The contrast in these paintings is between seeing them close up – where they seem quite loose and brushy – and at a distance, where the look quite photographic…
Damien Hirst: Yeah, they look great from outer space!”
Paint It Like It Is: What Damien Did Next, Martin Gayford, Modern Painters, March 2005
