Category: ART WORLD NEWS

A Banksy painting that shows the House of Commons occupied by chimpanzees is expected to fetch up to £2 million at auction in October. Devoted Parliament depicts MPs as chimps in the middle of a Commons session, and at 13-feet is the artist’s largest-known work on canvas. It carries the inscription: “Laugh now, but one day we’ll be in charge.” The quote was a homage to his piece Laugh Now, which features a stencil image of a chimpanzee wearing a sandwich board reading: ”Laugh now, but one day we’ll be in charge.” We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 USD 0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras. Subscribe now Devoted Parliament originally painted and displayed in the 2009 exhibition Banksy vs Bristol…

Charlie Cole, one of the people who photographed the iconic Tank Man protestor at Tianamen Square, has died, aged 64. The solitary figure obstructing a set of tanks in a 1989 pro-democracy protest in China has long been one of the most famous images of all time, and one that represents peaceful resistance.  It happened after hundred of civilians were killed by the 200,000-strong People’s Liberation Army in a brutal crackdown on student pro-democracy protesters. We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 USD 0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras. Subscribe now In 1990, Cole – who lived in Bali, Indonesia – won the World Press Photo award for his image. Cole was a photographer for Newsweek and took the picture with a telephoto lens from a…

The artist Alison Lapper has said her late son was bullied by his schoolmates about her disability. Parys Lapper was 19 years old when he was found dead in a Worthing hotel in July. His mother cremated him on Thursday, and was told by police he may have died of an overdose. Ms Lapper and her son Parys’ relationship first entered the spotlight after she posed naked while eight months pregnant with him for a Marc Quinn statue. It stood in Trafalgar Square for two years. We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 USD 0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras. Subscribe now The artist, who has no arms and shortened legs after being born with the rare condition phocomelia, told the Sunday Times that her son had…

A sculpture that the BBC’s Fake or Fortune determined could have been a fake was later found to be real and sold for half a million pounds at auction. The 2017 episode saw presenter Fiona Bruce and art expert Philip Mould reluctantly declare the sculpture “worthless” after failing to come to a conclusion on its origins. But it later proved to be a genuine work by celebrated Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti.  We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 USD 0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras. Subscribe now Giacometti fakes are reportedly notorious in the art market, and the sculpture in question, called Gazing Head, did not have the sculptor’s signature inscribed upon it, leaving its authenticity in question. But shortly…

Citizens of New Zealand are being unsettled by a huge hand that’s been installed in the centre of Wellington. The artwork, which is named “Quasi” and has a face etched onto it, is based on scans of body parts belonging to artist Ronnie van Hout. City Gallery Wellington wrote on its website: ”It’s as if ‘the hand of the artist’ has developed a monstrous life of its own.” We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 USD 0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras. Subscribe now The artwork is currently overlooking the city’s Civic Square.  Its arrival caused quite a splash with civilians. “Does anyone know what the heck this is?” one person wrote on Twitter. Another wrote: “That is the ugliest and most disturbing…

Summer holidays can be tough if you're on a budget and looking for ways to entertain yourself, your friends or even the whole family.  Fortunately, there are thousands of free events taking place around the UK until September that are educational, entertaining, or both! From historical trails to galleries and festivals, here are 15 free culture events you can check out this summer. We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 USD 0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras. Subscribe now Visit a museum (PA) There are hundreds of world-renowned museums around the UK that offer a diverting and educational experience for all the family. Whether it’s meeting “Hope”, the blue whale skeleton on display in the Natural History Museum in London,…

An export ban has been placed on a Pre-Raphaelite painting valued at £9.5m in a bid to keep it in the UK. Ferdinand Lured By Ariel, an 1850 work by John Everett Millais, has been described as “a summation of everything English”. It depicts the character from William Shakespeare‘s The Tempest on Prospero’s enchanted island after being shipwrecked in a storm. Ariel, Prospero’s servant, is shown whispering in Ferdinand’s ear that his father has drowned. We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 USD 0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras. Subscribe now However, the oil painting which has been privately-owned by the Makins family since 1897, is now at risk of being taken out of the country. Arts minister Rebecca Pow said she hoped…

We all thought accidental breakages were bad enough, especially in the vain pursuit of selfie glory. Yet, the art wreckers of the world have taken things to a whole new level, with deliberate damage now being the new fear for curators and art lovers everywhere.  CCTV footage released from the Shangai Museum of Glass reveals the destruction caused by two young children, seen breaking a sculpture while their adult chaperones look on with their cameras.  We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 USD 0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras. Subscribe now The boys are seen to be playing past the rope barriers surrounding the mounted artwork, pulling at the fragile glass structure while both adults whip out their phones to film…

A temporary export ban has been placed on a Turner masterpiece in the hope that funds can be raised to buy it and keep it in the UK.  The £10 million watercolour painting, The Dark Rigi, the Lake of Lucerne, depicts a scene in the Swiss mountains at dawn and is the only remaining work from the Rigi series – Turner’s three paintings of the Rigi mountain.  There are currently fears that the artwork, created in 1842, could be exported for sale abroad, which arts minister Rebecca Pow said would be a “terrible loss to the whole country”, the BBC reports. We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 USD 0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras. Subscribe now Turner, who was…

A young woman and man are submerged in dry, cracked earth. Only their hands and faces are visible; they seem to be trying to pull themselves out. That 1990 painting by Norbert Wagenbrett, called Aufbruch (“Awakening”), is part of a sweeping new exhibition staged for the 30th anniversary of the peaceful uprising that culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall. The show, running unti 3 November at the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig, is just a few hundred yards from the church where activists began regularly gathering in 1989 to push for change in the stifling, authoritarian East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic, or GDR. The exhibition, Point of No Return, is billed as the biggest so far of East German art, featuring 300 works by…