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contemporary art Blog Posts - The Open College of the Arts

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contemporary art


Age of the image thumb

Age of the image

It’s important for all art students to explore and understand the potency of images. A good deal of that rests on understanding the way that image-making has changed and been changed, by whom, and to what purpose. It’s a complex subject with technology, psychology, politics, science, and artistic vision all playing their part.

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Book review: How to Write About Contemporary Art by Gilda Williams thumb

Book review: How to Write About Contemporary Art by Gilda Williams

This is an important book for anyone who writes about art and its related disciplines. From Textile Foundations to Sustaining Your Practice as a textile student you are asked to comment on the work of others and your own creative output. This is a skill that does not necessarily come naturally, and many students struggle with it. It is therefore important to get some help. This book is different from the many “how to” writing books because it makes a strong case for knowing your subject and writing creatively about it.

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Waiting for the Macaws thumb

Waiting for the Macaws

At the opening of the new extension to Tate Modern there was a small notice next to one of the exhibits. ‘Due to expected visitor numbers’, it read, ‘the macaws have temporarily been returned to their owners.’ Given the quality of the other works on show, it is unlikely that this caused much disappointment to visitors…

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David Shrigley or David Hockney? thumb

David Shrigley or David Hockney?

Having viewed David Shrigley at the Hayward Gallery, checked out Maurice de Vlaminck’s ‘Landscape with dead wood’ 1906 in the Courtauld collection, I joined the queue for David Hockney’s controversial latest exhibition at the Royal Academy. Reviews have been mixed. While serious art critics express reservations, the art loving public reportedly adore it. David Hockney, […]

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We know what we like …… thumb

We know what we like ……

The Daily Mail have recently carried out a study: ModernArtDailyMail on people’s viewing habits of contemporary art in order to draw conclusions about what constitutes ‘good’ art. The measure used was the amount of time people spend viewing works of art. This was used to gauge how interested/stimulated they were about the work of art. […]

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