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Visual Art

‘Intimate and eye-opening’: Bruegel to Rubens at the Ashmolean- Review

"It was a pleasure to return to Oxford during the vacation to visit the Ashmolean’s new exhibition, which showcases some of the best drawings of the great Flemish artists of the 16th and 17th centuries."

A Press Morning at Yoko Ono’s ‘MUSIC OF THE MIND’ Exhibition

"The gallery space itself did not provide an atmosphere of silence, but rather upon observation, isolated moments of contemplation and quietness were evident amongst the bustling scene in the room."

Nuclear Bombs and Feminism: Monica Sjöö’s Exhibition at Modern Art Oxford

"Based on the Modern Art Oxford posters, Monica Sjöö’s activism appeared to be a driving force for social change."

Crafting Kingship: Hellenistic Royal Portraiture

"A standardised visual vocabulary of royal ideology represented by statues and coinage"

Portrait Spotlight: Sir Claus Adolf Moser (1984-5)

"Moser, like all other newly appointed Wardens, had full choice and control of patronage over his college portrait"

A Letter To Those Whom my Light Will Guide, In Honour Of Those Whose Light Has Guided Me

"What you are, is complicated. And I love you for that, Because you are complicated, Because you are raw, and soft, and broken."

Review: Troy: Myth and Reality

It would be hard to think of another set of myths that are so present in contemporary culture as those surrounding the fall of Troy and its aftermath, immortalised most notably by Homer and Virgil. Stories such as the judgment of Paris, which sets the war in motion, the deception of the ‘Trojan Horse’ and Odysseus’ encounter with the Cyclops during his decade-long journey home are many people’s first introduction to the classical past as children, and the past few years have seen a resurgence of the Trojan cycle in popular culture. Novels such as Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles and Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls have reconsidered the war and its characters from different angles, and the BBC’s Troy: Fall of a City adaptation brought the saga to a generation raised on Game of Thrones. Therefore, the British Museum chose an opportune time for this year’s BP exhibition, Troy: myth and reality, which aims ambitiously to exhibit artistic depictions of the well-known myths and their various post-classical reinterpretations alongside the archaeological evidence that Troy and the war actually existed.

The Raft of Medusa: 200 Years of a Masterpiece

Things on the raft turned horrific pretty quickly. Thirst, suicide, drowning, murders, cannibalism. By the time the raft was found on the 17th of July, just fifteen men were still alive.

The fractured mind, literature, and society.

“I felt the narrowing of my life to a very fine point. A hard triangle of a life over and me sprawled at its peak, hopeless and lost.” - Russell Brand, describing a mental breakdown.

Art in the Age of Technology

Imagine the future. You walk into a room expecting an art gallery. Instead, you come face to face with a baron white cubicle. A woman stands in the corner, holding a pair of VR glasses. She hands them to you. Puzzled, you put them on.

Flagrant Exhibitionism: The Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition

Running since 1769, the Summer Exhibition is the world’s largest open-submission art show. From film to photography and prints to paintings (and everything in between) the show brings together the world’s leading artists of all mediums, both household names and total unknowns.

Love, Lust and Angst

With ruthless contempt for form, clarity, elegance, wholeness, and realism, he paints with intuitive strength of talent the most subtle visions of the soul.” So Arne...

The Art of Money

How extravagance makes a statement

More than Pixels

The internet has changed the way we experience art

Dream Worlds

Marc Chagall's ethereal landscapes

“Vagina.” There, I said it.

Vulvar art and gendered fantasy

An Artist Censored and Shamed

In April 1912, aged 21, Egon Schiele found himself imprisoned for 24 days, having been accused of seducing and abducting underage girls and exhibiting...

Incorrect Impressions

Questioning the Impressionist movement and its origin

The Art of Our Times

Social movements and visual culture

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