Artwatch

Portraiture is perhaps the most enduring of artistic genres. In this article, we examine why, and take a look at the striking painting that hangs at the National Portrait Gallery; Thomas Joseph Edmund Ades by Philip Oliver Hale.

Issue 3 is our most recently published Art Collective magazine and we would like to offer a number of free copies to our online followers. If you would like a copy, please sign up here, and we will send you a free copy in the post. The issue contains a number of interviews with artists, commentary on art and the art world, and showcases the latest portfolios of works. 

A new annual art fair that will change its name each edition to fit the year, the inaugural Art13 took place over the first weekend in March under the grand arc of London Olympia’s St Pancras-like glass roof, safely ensconced in the collector-friendly environs of west London. Here are our thoughts, what are yours?

We have opened our new exhibition in Bristol at the Tobacco Factory. This thought provoking mixture of paintings, photography, illustrations and etchings is free to view throughout March at this great venue. Join us for our opening night on Thursday 7th March from 6pm. Ben, Pauline and Simon will be attending, please come and enjoy a glass of wine, meet the artists, and pick up a complimentary copy of our magazine. RSVP here. 

This exhibition showcases a selection of landscape-related art from the museum’s collection. The curators have placed works together that bear obvious parallels, and demonstrate that artworks from different periods and of varying mediums can be successfully shown together. It also provides a reminder of artistic concerns that carry across time and medium, with a number of inclusions notable for being difficult to place chronologically. Here are some of our highlights, what was your experience? 

Painting is my passion and my work is driven by my life's experiences, such as flying. As a pilot, the sky with its ever changing moods has fascinated me. The sense of vast open space and wonderful colours is in my paintings, also the sense of quiet calmness that can be felt in a large building or in a wide, flat, open area. Obviously this comes from too much time spent in hangers and airfields!  

For better or worse, London is the focal point of the UK art scene, home to the biggest museums, the premier exhibitions, the most fevered market. But how does the city compare to other leading art destinations? What does it do well and what could it do better? And how does its present makeup compare to previous incarnations? What do you think? 

Ensnared by its own versatility, photography is a medium whose artistic merits seem destined to be eternally questioned. In an article in which Brian Sewell managed to swiftly slight Milton Keynes, Margate and  post-polytechnic universities, the critic acknowledged the brilliance of photography as record but concluded, “When the photographer pretends that he is an artist, he is a trespasser.” 

Down on the hard ground of the UK High Street, with many stores closing for good, it seems that the future of retail is increasingly online. At odds with wider economic trends, the art world has taken a non-tech route to going remote, branching out from the bricks and mortar of galleries via the ever-increasing network of global art fairs. Are, then, gallerists becoming little more than traveling sales people?

If you could go anywhere in the world to see exciting art, where would you go? Not surprisingly, the options are diverse and seemingly limitless; the world is, after all, rich in treasures. For art-hungry globetrotters in 2013, here’s a shortlist of hot museums to get your world tour started...