The critics are missing the point: Manchester Art Gallery has attempted to contextualise, not to censor. A rare but potent controversy has awoken this blog from its sweet, toddler-induced slumber. Even rarer, a modern, political discussion is being had in the Victorian art world. (We Victorian art historians don’t often make the news!)  It appears […]

In the world of art, as in life, there are only two kinds of news… The Bad News The Delaware Art Museum is selling off anything that isn’t stuck to the wall. Well, it’s not quite that bad yet. But their director, Michael Miller (who was formerly employed by DuPont and has no arts background) […]

Welcome to a new segment entitled ‘We’ve seen that before’, because nothing makes us historians more smug than pointing out that some recent phenomenon has origins or parallels with something long established.  (Read Part 1 of this series) In the epic age since Art Attack last added its own humble contribution to the myriad, weird and cool-wierd […]

What’s been happening in the world of art and art-related nonsense, you ask?  Excellent question. Enjoy the smattering of links below, and be better informed.  Smackdown at the Tate The controversy over Tate director Penelope Curtis continues. Basically, she’s given only a few rooms at the Tate Britain to the historical collection (1550-1900) and LOTS […]

Welcome to a new segment entitled ‘We’ve seen that before’, because nothing makes us historians more smug than pointing out that some recent phenomenon has origins or parallels with something long established.  A few months ago, the Oxford English Dictionary announced that ‘selfie’ was the Word of the Year 2013. Since then, selfies and related (mostly […]

Having recently de-camped to Australia, I’ve noticed a strange similarity between the native gumtrees and certain hazy psychedelic images from my youth… Just sayin’.

So I was doing my usual bout of procrastination on Gawker, and came across a fantastic story about Banksy’s latest escapades. The famously incognito street artist was in New York City, doing a series of his traditional graffiti, and apparently some quite bonkers, Halloween-inspired installations. The video below shows a traditional emblem of death, the […]