Alexander Adams

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Snobbery or hierarchy? On “minor” art forms
Researching for a review of a book and exhibition on botanical art, I had pause to consider what the “minor art forms” (in the visual arts) are and why…
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Alexander Adams
Basil Beattie: Seething with Invention
A current London exhibition shows a veteran master painter at the top of his game.
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Alexander Adams
1
Return to which tradition? Reflections on Niko Pirosmani
Considering Georgian painter Niko Pirosmani caused me to think about the appeal and pitfalls of primitivism for dissenters today.
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Alexander Adams
3
History as a battlefield
Two recent history books expose the limitations of modern historians.
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Alexander Adams
3
April 2023
Are most artists ready “to flip”?
A recent conversation got me thinking about elite theory, art production and state art...
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Alexander Adams
5
Baudelaire: Scandalous and Impoverished in Belgium
A new translation of Baudelaire's last writings gives us an insight into a desperate man.
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Alexander Adams
Philip Guston, Dissenting Painter
Reviewing reissued books (for The Jackdaw) in the run up to a large exhibition at Tate Modern, London (opens October), led me to consider Philip Guston…
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Alexander Adams
9
"Burroughs Unbound"
In 1974 Burroughs talked of viruses spliced to together by biologists, he then goes on to discuss the verbal collage as a virus. A new book publishes…
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Alexander Adams
Goya and the Enlightenment
A new study suggests ways in which Goya's art engages with the Enlightenment, both accepting it and undermining it.
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Alexander Adams
March 2023
A masterclass for dissident gallerists
My recent visit to the States of Violence exhibition at the a/political gallery-cum-project-space, South London (24 March-8 April 2023) gave me pause to…
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Alexander Adams
7
Has this artist solved the problem of modern History painting?
A current exhibition in Warsaw suggests a route to tackling the thorny question of making serious narrative art in an age of irony.
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Alexander Adams
Zdzislaw Beksiński and the Tyranny of Taste
A recent visit to Poland allowed me to see Beksiński's art. It prompted to wonder why I had never seen his art reviewed by an art critic before.
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Alexander Adams
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