Visual Research

A study of Giacometti portraits at the National Portrait Gallery London and Frank Auerbach at Tate Britain.

The Titian Show at the National Gallery here in London has just opened to the public again. It was available for just three days before the big lockdown. Now, it is with us once more, though on rather different terms from what was the case previously. You have to book a time. You have to be wearing a mask. You have to maintain distance between yourself and other visitors booked in for the same slot. Is it worth the hassle? Yes, of course it is. Titian is one of the greatest figures in the history of Western art.

Cv/VAR series 52 features an interview with American artist James Turrell recorded at Michael Hue Williams London in June 1996.

An essay by Edward Lucie-Smith explores aspects of the mysterious and private character of the renowned American society artist John Singer Sargent.

A recorded visit to an exhibition by Anish Kapoor at the Lisson Gallery, London continued to 22nd June, 2019. Includes descriptions of works and bio-dara of the artist.

A collection of reviews and studies of photographers published since 2001. Includes David Bailey, Horst, Cecil Beaton, Don McCullin, Lee Miller, Francesca Woofman, E.O.Hoppe, and others.

Cv/VAR no.100 publishes an interview with the American artist Jim Dine, recorded by cell phone from Wales to the artists Paris studio on May 11th, 2010. In this, he discusses his beginnings as an artist, his work with Claes Oldenburg and the Happenings, the Pinocchio series, 52 Books at Pace Gallery, New York, and the relationship of drawing to his graphic work.

Cv/VAR no.103 publishes an interview recorded 2010 with American artist John Dugger (b.California 1948) in which he gives an account of his art and development. He recounts 1960s America and arriving in London 1967: pioneering The Exploding Galaxy with David Medalla; 1970-2, their travels in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, India, then the China Journey of 1972 into Mao's Republic. The monograph documents the artists work for Banner Arts and other projects to date.

Explores the structure and development of the Pre-Raphaelite movement in the mid-19th century and works that figure among the most enduring and generally popular in British art. Renowned writer and art critic Edward Lucie-Smith contributes a study of the brotherhood of seven artists and their interconnection and intricate links with the social establishment of the time. James Cahill has a special interest in the movement, having studied Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Holman Hunt. He reviews a major exhibition of 150 works at Tate Britain launched in September 2012.

Reviews events in the London Festival of the Cultural Olympiad. Writer Alexandra James visits a variety of exhibitions, music, and performances, staged through July 2012, witnessing a range of creative voices drawn from the international arena.

Cv/VAR series 146 reviews the work of Damien Hirst (b.Bristol 1965), presented in a retrospective exhibition spanning 20 years, held at Tate Modern, April to September 2012. It explores the development of his art - from the controversial animal vitrines and beautiful butterfly composites, to an extensive series of spot paintings, where the artist engaged in a complex invigilation of coded systems that govern daily existence.

A presentation by exhibition curator Catherine David in 1997 describes her plans for Documenta X Kassel; title 'Retroperspective', including works by Joseph Beuys and Walter de Maria. She proposes the ambitions of the projects, in linking strands of modern and progressive art, with aspirations of different nationalities and cultures.

This study explores the work of celebrated artist Tracey Emin, exhibited at Turner Contemporary in Margate Kent. It reviews the figurative studies and neon calligraphic scultpures.

The monograph publishes a study of Rembrandt van Rijn and JMW Turner at the National Gallery and Tate Britain in exhibitions of their later works.

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.

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.

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.

Art dealing today in the United States is a huge, well-organized, well-publicized industry. Probably, there has never previously been a market in art that has played such an important role in a national economy. The United States retains the preeminent position in the world market for art that it achieved immediately after World War II and seems unlikely to lose it any time soon. In addition to serving collectors and institutions based in America, the American dealing community supplies works of art to individuals and museums all over the world.