Here is the sort of body painting I really admire. Imagine the work that went into the Body Mosaics painted on these two models. The artist or artists aren’t named. My guess is a commission for a glossy magazine. Click the title link to see more of this collection. CLICK for a video of bikinis being painted on naked models who then disport themselves on a beach for a photo shoot. It’s the best antidote to the chill misery of British Summer Time I can find.
Is it my imagination or are artists becoming prettier? Alexa Meade (on the right) is clearly a strong candidate for Arty Crumpet of The Week. She’s a 23-year-old from Washington DC who has created her own style of body painting. She paints her models to look as though they are images in bad artwork. It’s a technique that works best in a gallery, giving the visitors a start when they realise the subject in the painting is alive. Click the title link to see a collection of photos of Alexa’s body art. CLICK for her website.
My internal clock is screwed up to hell. I’m waking up an hour early since British Summer Time started, in the dark and to a cold house because the central heating hasn’t come on. It’s even too early for the dawn chorus. All I could hear this morning was the swishing of car tyres on a wet road. My stomach keeps rumbling long before meal times. I still haven’t got round to adjusting all my clocks. And I’ve lost the manual for my video recorder. For God’s sake, what moron decided we should suffer like this and when will somebody put a stop to it? Think of the person-hours involved in this nonsense. How much does it cost us every six months?
Iconic is one of those fashionable words which irritates me because people use it without thinking. The @ symbol shown is truly iconic. Millions of people use it daily when writing emails. It has become the icon for electronic communication. It dates from the 6th Century and has other meanings in different countries: a dog for Russians, a cat for Finns. What makes it newsworthy is that last Monday the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New york added the @ symbol to its architecture and design collection. (I’ve been saving this item for a rainy day.)
Crumpet of the Week is Andrea Büttner. It must be very difficult not to look smug when you’ve just won the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, and here we see Andrea Büttner failing prettily. She was awarded top prize at the Whitechapel Gallery in London last Tuesday. This will allow her to take a six months residency in Italy to cobble together her award-winning plan. The Max Mara Fashion Group awards this prize to female artists resident in the UK. Andrea has studios in East London and in Frankfurt.
Why not put off buying that Lamborghini and lash out on this Turner instead? Modern Rome – Campo Vaccino (1839) will cost you an estimated £18m when it comes up for auction at Sotheby’s evening sale of Old Master and early British paintings in London on 7 July. The Turner will appreciate; the Lamborghini won’t, and it burns fossil fuel. Yuk! Can’t afford either of them? Never mind. Pop along to Sotheby’s nearer the auction date and gaze upon this masterpiece, which hasn’t been seen in public since the 5th Earl of Rosebery and his wife Hannah Rothschild bought it in 1878.
Have you all put your clocks forward by one hour to coincide with what some joker calls British Summer Time? What a palaver! And what for? So World War II blackout curtains can be drawn earlier? So that farmers can milk their cows in the sunshine? So that more children can be killed on our roads? The reason for this twice-yearly lunacy of changing the clocks is lost in the mists of time, but we still do it, like some obsolete religious ritual. Which of our political parties will pledge to stop this colossal waste of time? Or don’t we get to vote on anything that impinges on our lives?
Sad news: yesterday it was revealed that British artist John Hicklenton died at the Swiss suicide centre Dignitas on 19 March. He was only 42, but had been suffering from multiple sclerosis for 10 years. His work includes illustrating the cult British comic 2000AD, which stars the indomitable Judge Dredd. The television documentary of his battle with MS, Here’s Johnny, won Grierson awards for Best Newcomer and Best Arts Documentary in 2008. A true professional, he completed his last book 100 Months the day before he travelled to Zurich to die. (Note: I can’t guarantee that the dramatic image of Judge Dredd I selected was by John Hicklenton.)
This bronze sculpture by Henry Moore – Three Piece Reclining Figure: Maquette No. 4 (1975) – was stolen from the James Goodman Gallery in New York City in 2001. Last Wednesday it turned up in Toronto, Canada. A man brought it into Miriam Shiell Fine Art, presumably hoping to sell it. A search of the Art Loss Register revealed it had been stolen! A Christmas pressie from my mother-in-law, officer.”
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) has contacted the Chewing Gum Artist Ben Wilson and has offered him a commission to paint miniature depictions of each of the 118 known elements on discarded gum. Note: another element seems to have been discovered since my previous post on this subject (CLICK). Why Ben decided to call this miniature dinosaur William Norfolk (2006) is beyond me. And who is Zoe? Send me a comment if you know the answer.
