The Turner Prize 2008

The Tate’s annual Turner Prize exhibition opened last week with a shortlist of artists that, for once, has stirred interest beyond its tributes in journalese. The list includes two key figures whose work is already recognised within contemporary art in Britain as a key influence to a younger generation.

Glasgow-based, Cathy Wilkes has evolved a language through building sculptural installations that combine objects and materials from spheres of public and private ritual. I Give You All My Money (2008; pictured above) is a checkout tableaux that gathers the inanimate clutter of the shop floor within a constellation of domestic...

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Art and the Democrats

In the news this week it has been reported that as the U.S. presidential campaign reaches its climax, the Obama Victory Fund is hoping to raise millions of dollars through the sale of a set of limited edition prints.

Given that the art market appears so far to have remained immune to the global economic crisis, the ‘Artists for Obama’ project seems a shrewd move. Organised by Gemini G.E.L., the Los Angeles artists’ workshop and print-publisher, 13 high-profile American artists (John Baldessari, Jonathan Borofsky, Frank Gehry, Ann Hamilton, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Brice Marsden, Julie Mehretu, Ken Price, Susan...

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The Weekly Art News Round-Up

Christie’s unwittingly sells stolen miniatures
Fourteen portrait miniatures stolen from Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, in 2006, inadvertently went under the hammer at Christie’s King Street saleroom on 10 June. The loss, including miniatures by Richard Cosway and John Smart, had been reported with Trace, a computerised database of stolen art, but images had not been supplied. This caused difficulties for the police and it was only after the sale that it was realised the works were stolen. The lender is expected to return insurance money in exchange for the recovered miniatures.

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Spiders and flowers

Nature-inspired works, by two very different female artists, go on display this month; the first exhibition features work by the late Joy Adamson (1910-80). A remarkable conservationist, Adamson is best known for her book Born Free, the story of raising Elsa, a lion cub, in Kenya, which was made into a highly acclaimed film of the same name. Adamson was an accomplished watercolourist and over 60 of her beautiful paintings of the flora and fauna of East Africa (above) will be on show at the Riverhouse Art Centre in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey (15-19 October).

It’s not quite lion-taming, but artist Eleanor...

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Will fakes forge ahead?

Last week Peter-Ashley Russell was sentenced to three years in prison at Snaresbrook Crown Court in London for faking and forging antique silver. It was, according to the Goldsmiths’ Company, which oversees Britain’s hallmarking system, the biggest case of its kind since the 1890s. Mr Ashley-Russell’s offences included converting spoons into (more valuable) forks and creating false hallmarks using imitation punches. The Goldsmiths’ Company observed that the fakes were of high quality: the punches were well made, producing hallmarks that would have easily fooled most people, and his fake flatware had remarkably convincing false patination and engraving.

Are forgers getting...

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