Tag Archives: Mary Fletcher

Mary Fletcher The regrettable title of this book, which I deplore, is taken from a remark by Georg Baselitz. At the start of the first chapter Gorrill refers to “masculinities and femininities in contemporary art” that I see as perpetuating unhelpful stereotypes. There is a continued muddle about these terms in the book, which would have been better if it …

Mary Fletcher This is as close as I can get to holding Kahlo’s actual diary. Most of it is written in Spanish in a very legible rounded script, helpfully translated at the back of the book with black and white reproductions of the pages so that you don’t get confused, despite the lack of page numbers. The diary has drawings …

Mary Fletcher I had not thought there was a connection between the work of Doig and Munch, but it seems Peter Doig consciously gave his picture Echo Lake similarities to the background in Edvard Munch’s Ashes. There is a similar use of swishy shapes of paint and horizontal bands of composition. There’s a similar sort of intensity and memorable imagery. …

Mary Fletcher I am watching Question Time, which during the Covid crisis presents us with a wall of zoomed members of the public. I am trying to draw the speakers. What strikes me is how very different men and women look. The men all wear a uniform of suit, shirt and tie if on the panel; those in the audience …

Mary Fletcher These six large tapestries show the Hogarthian progress of a male character on a ‘Class Journey’, using research the artist carried out when he developed his 2012 TV series All in the Best Possible Taste. There were more people in the gallery than I have ever seen there apart from pre-covid-19 opening parties. All were masked and spaced …

Mary Fletcher   Why does Mark Jenkin use black and white film which he develops himself? Is it because it looks old or suggests a shoestring budget or for aesthetic reasons? This is a film set in Newlyn, Cornwall – a fishing town where tourism has grown. The Cornish characters have authentic accents and are local people, not professional actors. …

Mary Fletcher Mierle Laderman Ukeles mentions names familiar from the avant garde of the 1960s – Pollock, Duchamp and Rothko – pointing out that that they didn’t change diapers and that when she had a baby daughter she was suddenly in a world of maintenance, involving both mind-bending boredom and the rediscovery of the world as her baby did. In …

Mary Fletcher This film is about Barbara, a young secondary school attender, constructing an elaborate fantasy that helps her deal with an unbearable situation. We see people trying to help her and some girls being nasty to her in the general odious ways of school bullies. I would have liked to have seen the narrative without having absorbed the inevitable …

Features: 6 An American Child and the Victorian Radicals – James Cassell 9 Intimate Art – Daniel Nanavati 11 Utah can be the Art Scene of the West – Alexander Stanfield 13 In response to Darren Jones on the Whitney Biennial – Al Jirikowic 15 Chairs, Tables and Sex – Frances Oliver 16 Defund the Police, Refund the Arts – …

Years ago I started to keep a note on the details in artists’ biographies recording who their parents were, their wealth, etc. Most were well off and many had a parent or spouse who was already an artist. Others married their success. Anna Boghiguian, who had a big solo show at Tate St Ives, was described by The Telegraph (a …

by Mary Fletcher Three artists go round the potential client’s house, as they put it, ‘snooping’. They meet the buyers and pitch for a commission. One is thrown out. The remaining two make some art. The buyers choose between the results. Most of the art is absolutely dreadful and so is the rest of the encounter. The presenter says things …

by Mary Fletcher in Cornwall This video work was first shown as a two-screen installation in PM Gallery London, funded by Film London. The version on Vimeo is a compelling short narrative by the artist with a complex series of images. There is the paper model of the design he is making of an archetypal city. There are shots of …

ARTICLES: THE ART OF THE NAKED APE Miklos Legrady, Toronto Editor LEONARDO DA VINCI MUSEUM, MILAN Anna Maria Benedetti EVERY JOKE HIDES A TRUTH Al Jirikowic on the movie Joker ISAAC LEVITAN, RUSSIAN MASTER Colin Fell, our new writer in Penzance DEPARTMENTS: 2 LETTERS 4 EDITORIAL BY Pendery Weekes 5 SPEAKEASY BY Jack Balas   REVIEWS: 15 TRAGÉDIE FRANÇAISE Frances …

by Mary Fletcher   Evelyn Williams Evelyn Williams died in 2012, having completed a body of work said to be hard to categorise and having left a Trust to help women artists. I was told at Anima Mundi that the director, Joseph Clark, found a painting by her in a charity shop in Wadebridge and purchased it. It turned out …

by Mary Fletcher On the way in through Gallery One there is a beautiful golden coloured Gabo made of bronze, looking a bit too large for its corner, and apparently at one stage it was in the main show. It is simple – geometric metal formed into a curvilinear form, constructed using machinery to achieve a perfectly satisfying composition. Its …