Self-portraits; now, we've seen quite a lot of exhibitions of those over the years. You know how Rembrandt or Vincent van Gogh saw themselves. But how do artists depict other artists? What happens when Peter Blake meets David Hockney, when Eric Ravilious takes on Edward Bawden? Answers can be found at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester in a very interesting and illuminating exhibition entitled Seeing Each Other: Portraits of Artists . And sometimes the artist you see is a different artist from the one you might be expecting. When Mary McCartney photographed Tracey Emin in 2000, what came out was Frida Kahlo. McCartney felt a close affinity with the Mexican artist, and so did Emin, whose controversial My Bed had just been shortlisted for the Turner Prize. McCartney said she'd had a daydream of Emin as Kahlo, who spent a lot of time in bed herself as a result of her disabling injuries. Emin was made up and dressed for the shoot, and then, according to McCartney , "...
Hogarth and Europe : It's an intriguing-sounding exhibition at Tate Britain; the chance to see that great chronicler of 18th-century London life, William Hogarth, compared with his contemporaries in Paris, Venice and Amsterdam. Hogarth "was not alone," the Tate tells us on its website. "Across Europe, artists were creating vivid images of contemporary life and social commentary." So we went along in the expectation that we were going to see Hogarth's story-telling and insight reflected in similar scenes from across the continent. Alas no. Somewhere between the conception and the execution, another idea seems to have taken hold. For one thing, few of the pictures on show here from French, Italian or Dutch artists are a patch on Hogarth, and they don't really live up to the billing of vivid social commentary. And there also appears to be a determined attempt to present Hogarth as an ingrained misogynist and racist, failing to live up to 21st-century value...