Between 1560 and 1630, Europe experienced the worst of a Little Ice Age characterised by long, cold winters. The cruel weather coincided with the most intensive period of witch hunts in history. Bruegel the elder, is credited with leading the way as Flemish and Dutch artists developed what is now the popular image of a witch, flying on a broomstick with her ragged hair streaming in the wind.
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From stylised art nouveau temptresses to giant Tintin cartoons, Brussels has an established tradition of putting art on the outside of its buildings as well as inside. The capital’s newest gallery in a former brewery in Molenbeek – the neighbourhood notorious as a breeding ground of the Paris and Brussels terror attacks – captures that spirit.
As if an extraordinary imagination for fantastic, unsettling monsters and a genius ahead of his time for sensitive, naturalistic depictions of ordinary people weren’t enough, Hieronymous Bosch also had a modern knack for successful branding.
Howard Fritz – Paintings & Drawings At the Torriano Meeting House, 99 Torriano Avenue, London, NW5 2RX from January 12th 2016
The illustrator Tom Adams shares some insights into how he produces his memorable book jackets
William Marshall & Wendy French are enthusiastic about the Eric Ravilious exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery (running until August 31st)
The exhibition Drawing the Line features David Harker’s drawings & paintings, with accompanying poems by Tamar Yoseloff
With their green goats, giant roosters and bridal couples flying through the air, Marc Chagall’s works appear fantastic, but he insisted he only painted direct reminiscences of his own life.
Faces Then focuses on the 16th-century, regarded as the golden age of the portrait, when it was the rich, the powerful and the burgeoning bourgeoisie who could afford to have their portraits taken. Faces Now confines itself to the period since 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and, with it, the collapse of ideologies and artistic parameters.
Norbert Hirschhorn finds mythic significance behind a word & image collaboration between an artist and a poet
In Brussels, art nouveau found its most complete expression in the architecture of Victor Horta. Now the Brussels’ Musees Royaux des Beaux Arts has devoted a huge new “Fin-de-Siecle” section, a museum in itself, to the artistic context in which he thrived.
Displayed are elaborate composites, built up from paintings and photographs that eventually result in portraits at once convincingly human, alien and heartless.
By Barbara Lewis • art, drawing, exhibitions, painting, photography • Tags: art, Barbara Lewis, contemporary art, drawing, exhibitions, painting, photography