Other artists that are under consideration include Londoner Brian Griffiths, Edinburgh Hew Locke, and Germans Mariele Neudecker and Katharina Fritsch. Mayor Boris Johnson will announce the winner at the beginning of 2011, with the work due for installation in 2012.

Currently Yinka Shonibare’s ‘Ship in a Bottle’ is the occupant of the space.  The work was unveiled last May and is a too scale replica of the HMS Victory that commemorates both the 50^th year of independence in Nigeria and the Battle of Trafalgar.

The ship took the place of a statue of WWII war hero Sir Keith Park and a project by Antony Gormley that allowed the public to talk to crowds from the plinth.

Scale models of each work to reach the shortlist will be on display at the church next to St. Martin in the Fields starting on August 19^th.

Ekow Eshun, the chair of the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group stated that his colleagues were excited by the shortlist which includes many top artists from many different nations.

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Hever Castle and The Quilters’ Guild will be hosting their 19^th Annual Patchwork & Quilting Exhibition in the castle grounds from 3^rd to 5^th September.

Members of The Quilters’ Guild from across Kent, Surrey and Sussex will be showcasing their talent with a display of over 200 patchwork quilts and wall hangings.  Visitors will be treated to a vibrant array of designs from the traditional to the contemporary, including British and American styles, sampler quilts and wall hangings using innovative techniques in hand and machine work and appliqué.  This year Dinah Travis, Pat Salt and the Horsham Quilters have been specially invited to exhibit their work.

Throughout the weekend, members of The Quilters’ Guild will be presenting a full programme of demonstrations on patchwork and quilting techniques, from basic construction to intricate needlework.  Visitors will also be able to browse a selection of trade stalls selling designs, equipment, fabrics and haberdashery.

This year, members of The Quilters’ Guild from across the British Isles have been invited to enter the Hever Challenge and take inspiration from the theme of ‘My Favourite Artist’.  Awards will be presented for the most outstanding entries and visitors are encouraged to vote for their favourite quilt from the entire exhibition to be awarded the accolade of ‘visitors’ favourite’.

Visitors can also take the opportunity to indulge themselves in the calm and elegant surroundings of the beautifully renovated Guthrie Pavilion Restaurant.  Situated in the Italian Gardens with delightful views across the lake, the resplendent Guthrie Pavilion now has a multi-vaulted ceiling letting in natural sunlight, stylish furnishings and an oak floor.  Outside, stone columns and an English oak pergola – using wood locally sourced from the castle’s estate – perfectly complement the sandstone-paved terrace.   Visitors can choose between light refreshments in the café area or enjoy a relaxed table service in the restaurant.

Event Details

Normal rates of admission apply.  No extra charge for this event.  Exhibition open 11am – 5pm

Gardens open at 10.30am; Castle opens at 12pm.  Last admission 5pm; final exit 6pm.

Admission:            Castle & Gardens – Adults £13.00; Seniors £11.00 Children £7.00; Family ticket £33.00

Gardens only – Adults £10.50; Seniors £9.00, Children £6.50; Family ticket £27.50

Telephone 01732 865224 or visit www.hevercastle.co.uk

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Called ‘Close Examination- Fakes, Mistakes, and Discoveries,’ the highlights techniques that are used to prevent and detect art fraud by conservators, scientists, and art historians.

One painting on display as a fraudulent purchase is ‘A Man with a Skull’ which when was purchased was thought to be painted by Hans Holbein.  The painting was purchased in mid 19^th century but tree ring dating showed that the painting was from after Holbein died.

The gallery also made a mistake when they purchased two Botticellis from the estate of Alexander Barker only to find that one of the paintings was in fact not a Botticelli.

Even though in the present day modern methods such as X-ray images and infrared imaging have helped identify paintings, fakery is still a large problem throughout the art world.

Marjorie Wieseman, exhibition co-curator, stated that it is now very hard to sell a fake because the art world is getting better at identifying forgers, but art is getting more expensive therefore the temptation and rewards for forgers is getting higher.

The art exhibition also shows how over time pieces of art are altered to fit the current standards of the time.

For example, ‘Woman at a Window,’ a painting from the 16^th century was first painted with blonde hair and a sultry appearance, but she was altered during the Victorian ages to meet the more restrained tastes.

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Co-curator of Martin Myrone, Cedar Lewis, sees the new exhibit as a source of enlightenment that defines the distinction between stand up comedies of fine art and tosses them aside.  Lewis stated that Tommy Cooper can be seen as a performance artist or Martin Kippinberger’s paintings seen as the work of a clown.

The curators at Tate Britain worked along with many of the best curators from around the world in order to create an exhibit that is a composite of comedy performers, satirists, and comic publishers creating a large body of comic art from around Britain dated from the 17^th century up until the modern day.

The exhibition is split into several thematic sections allowing each feature comic to have a distinct presence in the rooms such as the Scarfe room which shows political disgust down to Martin Rowson’s room which presents the policies of Tony Blair in regards to the Iraq war.

Also notable is Gillray’s room, which shows William Pitt as the top public enemy in the face of his nation and Hill’s room which is best described as a blend of provocations and puzzles.

Paul Sandby also has an image of an exploding bottom in order to present the Georgian obsession with ballooning as well as several objects pulled out of popular culture such as a flask that is made in the form of a potato.

Throughout the Tate Britain exhibit, the viewer is constantly reminded that British comic art is often grotesque but remains highly meaningful.

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More Margate More Past by Tracey Emin

An exhibition of prints, curated by students at the University of Kent, has received a resounding endorsement from leading artist Tracey Emin.  KRIKEY! Kentemporary Prints, is the result of work by History and Philosophy of Art students at the University of Kent.  The exhibition, which runs from Monday 10 May 2010 until 4 June 2010, is open from 9am – 5pm Monday – Friday, in the University’s new School of Arts building, Canterbury campus.

Commenting on the exhibition, Tracey Emin, said: “It’s amazing how many appreciated and well known printmakers come from Kent. It’s obviously a hotbed of printmaking activity.”

Emin, famously from Margate, features alongside similarly high profile artists, from Royal Academicians to YBAs (Young British Artists), associated with the Kent region. Others include Frank Auerbach, Peter Blake, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Ian Davenport, Angus Fairhurst, Gary Hume, Humphrey Ocean, Chris Orr and Ana Maria Pacheco.

The exhibition forms an eclectic mix from the controversial Chapman Brothers’ Unhappy Meal and Gary Hume’s Hermaphrodite Polar Bear to Pop icons such as The Beatles and Andy Warhol in Peter Blake’s shimmering Love me do and Diamond Dust.

Michael Healey and Martyn Hill form the student duo who had the initial idea for the show. Martyn has said: “We wanted to demonstrate the print as a serious contemporary art form that would appeal to the masses; something that was both accessible but at the same time enjoyable and thought-provoking.”

The exhibition will be the fourth organised under the auspices of The Kent Print Collection. Established in 2005, it aims to give undergraduate students the opportunity to collect art on behalf of the School of Arts, and to put on museum-standard exhibitions drawing on this resource.

Dr. Ben Thomas, convenor of the Print Collecting and Curating module said: “I am excited about Krikey! kentemporary prints and very proud of what History & Philosophy of Art students have achieved. This is the fourth Kent Print Collection exhibition and they just keep getting better and better. By any standards this will be a great show of contemporary British art. It would not have been possible without the generosity of artists and art dealers, and I am very grateful for the amazing support we have received from professionals in the art world.”

Further details here.

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He was the first Royal Navy officer to be captured just 11 days after the war began and used his cartoons to give information to the British.  He also forged documents to aid escapees.  The display features footage of him and paintings by the pilot.

The documents he forged allowed the escapees to appear to be Austrian or Hungarian citizens, which was the inspiration for the Steve  McQueen film The Great Escape, in 1963.

The archivist for the exhibit, Matthew Little, stated that Griffith was able to transmit a large amount of information back to his base using his cartoons.  One of his tricks was a pantomime that he published which had a hidden cast list in code that detailed the soldiers who were captured.

Little stated that he also would draw futuristic planes that had the Germans convinced were new inventions by the British leading them on wild goose chases.

Griffiths was captured in September of 1939 while attempting to dive bomb a German U-boat.  After the war ended he became a Navy test pilot until he retired in 1958.

At that point he worked both as a coffee shop owner and newspaper editor until he died from a heart attack in July of 1999.

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The exhibition will contain more than 400 paintings, drawings, sculptures and other memorable items collected during the couple’s 20-year marriage.

Over one third of the artworks on display are gifts that were exchanged between them, making the collection a remarkably personal and revealing diorama of their mutual affection and their abiding love of art.

Art & Love represents a range of artists beloved by two different but complementary personalities; the two delighted in presenting one another with specially commissioned paintings or other works by artists the other admired.

The result is a collection that ranges from the sentimental to the classic. A set of jewellery in the shape of orange blossoms, a painting of Victoria as the epitome of an innocent but sensual young woman, and the meticulously detailed realism of “Ramsgate Sands: ‘Life at the Seaside’” by William Powell Frith are just a few of the components in this delightful collage.

Two of Victoria’s favourite artists were Edwin Landseer, whose métier was his paintings of animals, and Franz Xaver Winterhalter, a splendid chronicler of life in the Victorian court. While the royal couple did not have the funds to purchase old masterpieces, they were quick to recognize and encourage artists in their own time and place.

The exhibition will open March 19th in the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace. It promises to be a superb and intimate glimpse of the lives of Victoria and Albert, one that has never been seen before.

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In all, 1,010,567 the visitors were spread out around 48 different exhibitions, out of which 20 were organized along with the aid of the government, and 519 separate events that were spread out across the five European countries of Luxembourg, France, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands.

The numbers were released by the Belgian organizer of the festival, Europalia International.

The high attendance is a 60% increase compared to the last Europalia festival held in 2007, which only received 621,991 visitors.  The figure is also five times more than the first time the festival was held in 1969 which received a total of 183,800 people.

The report found that 81% of visitors to the Chinese edition were from Belgium, 77% were above the age of 45, and 57% of the attendees were women.

Claire Kirshen, the general commissioner of the art festival, stated that the Chinese cultural authorities were extremely cooperative and even agreed to lend a few pieces of Chinese art out to festival locations outside of China that had not previously left the country.

Krishen also stated that it was hard for the Chinese Ministry for Culture to help organize the project alone, which is why the festival organizers also received a great deal of help on the regional level from locations such as Guangdong, Shanghai, and Beijing.

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In the past, African art was often thought to be primitive, but with the discovery of copper, bronze, and terracotta figures that show the Ife society was actually quite beautiful although albeit painful and savage.

The exhibit which is located at the British Museum is titled “Kingdom of Ife: Sculptures from West Africa.”

In a review of the exhibit Jonathan Jones wrote that the faces seem to coolly glaze right through you and will disturb those who have believed that European art is unique. Jones added that the sculptors of Ife are able to accurately portray the human face as well as any Greek artist and are as equally matched in balance, harmony, and proportion as any Greek piece.

The stunning pieces discovered from Ife were in fact so stunning when they first discovered that many people believed that the paintings were not actually from Africa.

In fact, originally Leo Frobenius, a German archaeologist, thought that the works were traces of the widely mythical lost city of Atlantis.

The works will be on display at the museum from March 4^th to June 6^th and are mostly from Africa and will hopefully help educate those who hold preconceptions about African art see the culture in a new point of view.

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