History is littered with tragic artists. Sensitive souls pouring their heart out onto the canvas with little if any reward, other than the satisfaction of creating beauty where there was none. Names like Van Gough, who never sold one of his own paintings, despite working for his art dealer brother Theo for a time, ringing…
There is a notion, particularly among reactionary conservatives, that LGBTQ folk, though that is not the term the likes of Gavin McInnes use, have only existed since the 1960s. A blinkered opinion based on ignorance and queer as a three-dollar bill that utterly ignores landmark works of queer culture like The Boys In The Band,…
Artists can occupy an odd place in culture, both venerated and dismissed, often in equal measure, as both those chronicling and commenting on a moment in time, as well as dreamers away with the fairies. In terms of the likes of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec it was both at the same time. An artist with no…
The first stories, at least in the Western tradition, were sung. Going back to ancient Greece, long before the written tradition, foundational narrative works such as The Iliad and The Odyssey recited in poem form, often with the accompaniment of a lyre. A bardic tradition carried on well into the 14th century by the troubadour…
One of the less common forms, at least in recent years, for the most part peaking in the late-1980s with H.R. Giger’s work on the original Alien franchise and the Magic Eye book craze. Op Art gained attention through the work of and M.C. Esher. Not a typo on Pop Art, Op Art, short for…
Few have the courage for warts and all honesty, most of humanity containing aspects in our complexity that we aren’t always proud of. A particular problem for those whose public image is part of their job. Some cultivate a ‘rebel’ image, but this is rarely organic or the whole picture, any more than those who…
When most think of great literary nations, Ireland is likely not the first place that comes to mind, literal statues of writers in Dublin notwithstanding. Despite some high profile, and somewhat overrated works of impenetrable literary fiction by James Joyce, and what is thought to be the first instance of vampire fiction – but isn’t…
The nineties were an interesting time in terms of culture. Most people had yet to hear about music or video-streaming, and if you wanted to see art you had to go to a gallery. This was also a point, near the middle of the decade, that what is now known as ‘contemporary’ art became all the…
