In search of an Italian identity
Carla Scarano visits two exhibitions in Florence: The return to Italy of Salvatore Ferragamo in 1927 and the Dawn of a Nation after WW II
art
SP-Arte, Sao Paulo. Review by Barbara Lewis.
It’s testimony to the vibrant creativity and style of Sao Paulo that its international art festival – SP-Arte – can transform an object as potentially mundane and outdated as the tea trolley into a pinnacle of design.
T-Shirt: Cult-Culture-Subversion. Review by Barbara Lewis.
Of all the things we wear, the T-shirt has the ability to be both humble and exclusive. To underline the point, the Fashion and Textile Museum’s shop accompanies its exhibition on the T-shirt from the fifth-century, when it was a variant of the tunic, to now, with designer examples on sale for around 100 pounds.
MASP, Sao Paulo. Review by Barbara Lewis.
One of the joys of the MASP in the Paulista Avenue, Sao Paulo’s equivalent of the Champs Elysees, is that when you pay for entry (every day except Tuesday) nearly everyone else is too busy making or spending money to block your view of old and new masters.
Interesting? I’ll Say!
John Lucas reviews a genuinely interesting collection of essays by Jim Burns – and adds some equally interesting observations of his own
“Indomitable Spirit” – an Exhibition at One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, by Jane McChrystal.
Henry Moore enthusiasts could do worse on this rainy Easter Week than to head for Canary Wharf and see this exhibition, which tells the story of the creation of the Draped Seated Figure, now known as “Old Flo”, and her changing fortunes over the past fifty years.
Hireth: A Cornish Landscape, Royal Cornwall Museum. Barbara Lewis.
The Danes have given us “hygge” as a not directly translate-able concept particular to their culture. The Cornish offer “hireth” to refer to an intangible feeling, a longing for the familiarity and comfort of a place.
Celebration of the East London Federation of Suffragettes
The East End of London was a crucible for radical ideas and activism, including the women’s suffrage movement, fired in part by the deprivation and inequality experienced by so many of its inhabitants.
Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, by Barbara Lewis.
South Africa’s oldest working harbour in Cape Town has a new addition. Since September, 2017, its recently-developed Silo District has been home to the Zeitz Museum of Contemporay Art Africa, MOCAA for short, a giant silo of post 2000 art by the artists of Africa and its disapora, assembled by German entrepreneur Jochen Zeitz.
Journeys with ‘The Waste Land’. Turner Contemporary. Review by Fiona Sinclair.
I expected this to be an exhibition focusing on the links between art and T.S Eliot. Journeys with ‘The Waste Land’s is however something more unique. It is an exhibition that focuses purely on this extraordinary poem with all its contexts, voices and virtuosity.
Coincidences, Galleria Riccardo Costantini Contemporary. Review by Barbara Lewis.
Stroll through the streets of Turin or look out from the city’s rattling trams and you’re confronted with wall after wall of windows framed by whatever architectural embellishments were fashionable at the time of construction, from the standard shutters of residential apartment blocks to ornate neo-classical gods and gargoyles on civic buildings.
Humans and Nature
Carla Scarano looks at two V&A exhibitions exploring interactions between human beings and the natural world