Art Monthly 367: June 2013

Contents

still from Oliver Stone's Wall Street 1987

Feature

Thatcher: The Legacy

Francis Frascina on Thatcherism, masquerade and cultural coercion

The machinations that produced the elaborate public funeral and Parliamentary eulogisation of Margaret Thatcher owed much to Thatcherism's marshalling of representation. How have artists such as Jo Spence and Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin tried to crack this neoliberal mirror?

'In the light of Glenda Jackson's historical contrast, Thatcher's "womanliness" was a masquerade and other to the diversity of practices and theories produced by women during the decades of her political activity.'

the first Enemies of Good Art meeting, Whitechapel Gallery, 2009

Feature

50:50

Women are still woefully under-represented in the art world argues Jennifer Thatcher

The recent resurgence of feminism has seen the art world again come under scrutiny over inequality. Forty years after the flourishing of the Women's Liberation Movement, why is there still so far to go?

'Positive discrimination is illegal in the UK, yet it astonishes me that trustees can look around a room and, where there are few or no women, not feel compelled to make changes.'

Marcel Broodthaers A Winter Garden II 1974/2012 and A Winter Garden (ABC) 1974

Feature

Context v Content

Mark Prince on the phenomenon of the unreliable curator

If one strand of post-minimalist art operates through the activation of its surroundings, today's curator-led exhibitions make for treacherous environments. How have artists such as Marcel Broodthaers, Mark Leckey and Elmgreen & Dragset subverted such loaded contexts?

'The hubris of the contemporary celebrity curator is played out as a fictional narrative of vainglory. Significantly, this involves a questioning of O'Doherty's claim that "context" becomes "content".'

Comment

Editorial

Never Mind the Quality

In her first keynote speech since becoming culture secretary, Maria Miller restated coalition government dogma: the value of the arts can only be measured through economics. But isn't this agenda based on a false premise that is fundamentally misleading?

'The logic of the minister's thinking has been perfectly parodied by the economist John Kay, who wrote in 2010: "Illness contributes about 10% of the UK's economy: the government does not do enough to promote disease."'

Artnotes

A report on private investment in the arts shows support from individuals continuing to grow and support from businesses continuing to decline; a new study guide critically examines corporate sponsorship of the arts; Tate faces continued anti-oil sponsorship protests as well as other ethical dilemmas; the Turner Prize stitch-up; the creative industries undergo reclassification; ACE hands out funds to develop further fundraising models; Central Saint Martins asks 'what's the point of art school?'; galleries open and close; the latest news on events, appointments, prizes and more.

Submissions: Send news items to artnotes@artmonthly.co.uk

Reviews

Exhibitions

Anguish and Enthusiasm: What Do You Do With Your Revolution Once You've Got It

Cornerhouse, Manchester

Bob Dickinson

Ruins in Reverse

Tate Modern: Project Space, London

Giulia Smith

Uncommon Ground: Land Art in Britain 1966-1979

Southampton City Art Gallery

Nancy Holt & Robert Smithson: England and Wales 1969

John Hansard Gallery, Southampton

Paul Carey-Kent

Monuments

Lismore Castle Arts, Waterford

Chris Clarke

Simon Liddiment and Lawrence Weiner: COVERED BY CLOUDS

Project/Number, London

Sophie J Williamson

I knOw yoU

Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin

Chris Clarke

Bernadette Corporation: 2000 Wasted Years

ICA, London

Larne Abse Gogarty

Linder: The Ultimate Form

The Hepworth Wakefield

Bob Dickinson

Ellen Gallagher: AxME

Tate Modern, London

Mark Prince

Lucy McKenzie: Something They Have to Live With

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

Cherry Smyth

London Round-up

Raven Row • PEER • Showroom • Corvi Mora

George Vasey

Reviews

Books

Performing Contagious Bodies

Martin Patrick on Christopher Braddock's study of ritual in art

'By keeping questions of "presence" and "absence" open-ended and worthy of diligent, curious scrutiny throughout the book, Braddock pursues threads that are entirely relevant to a contemporary art world almost saturated with durational practices that are frequently taken solely at face value.'

Reports

Performance

Party for Freedom

Colin Perry experiences Oreet Ashery's Artangel commission

'Visually, some of the film's orgiastic excess recalls works by Jack Smith, Stephen Dwoskin or the Viennese Actionists. The event as a whole, however, is more reflexive than carnivalesque.'

Reports

Film

Oberhausen: Flatness – Cinema After the Internet

Adam Pugh on the short film festival's 59th edition

'Ambitious and provocative, the theme set out in eight programmes to interrogate the proposition that the shift from the mass spectacle of cinema to the networked but solipsistic mode of engagement engendered by the internet has served to compress and abrade human experience.'

Reports

Letter from Paris

Springtime

Laura McLean-Ferris feels the chill wind of a corporatised art scene

'Today, many young collectives are less "Never Work" and more "Always Work". Still, the idea of the artist as strategist has some currency at this moment and younger generations appear to be interested in Guy Debord.'

Artlaw

Contracts

Consignment: Trust

Henry Lydiate on what happens to artworks when galleries go bust

'If the gallery business fails and becomes insolvent, its assets are required by law to be liquidated to generate cash to pay business creditors. Do such "fire sales" include selling artists' works that have been received on consignment?'

Listings

Exhibitions

Exhibition Listings

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