biography Archives

Gust(on) Winds of Wisdom

05/02/2021

In this 120-page masterpiece, Philip Guston’s daughter, Musa Mayer, simply and effectively presents her father’s life and art as a kind of graphic novel triptych....

The Socialism of the Lonely

26/11/2020

Jonathan Jones’ biography shows that Tracey Emin remains one of the most important, engaging and unique voices in today’s contemporary art world. ...

Virginia Woolf Might Have Preferred an Audiobook

16/11/2020

What Was Virginia Woolf Afraid Of? shines brightest when it focuses not on Woolf’s life, but on her actual words and how she used them. ...

Savage Beauty: Frida Kahlo

06/10/2020

A new biographical account takes the artist out of the gift shop and re-establishes her in the gallery, reminding the reader that Kahlo was a force of nature....

Underdogs Will Rise, Biography as Music

05/10/2020

A Review of James Kennedy "Noise Damage: My Life As a Rock’N’ Roll Underdog" (Lightning Books, 2020)...

Yayoi Kusama: The Graphic Novel

14/09/2020

A sumptuous exploration of the artist's life, from humble roots in post-Hiroshima Japan, through 1960s pop art, to her status now as queen of Japan’s modern art scene...

When Gonzo Met Farce

05/06/2020

Conception unknown, The Buried Spitfires of Burma: A ‘Fake’ History is a tortured love child of Thompson’s Rum Diary and Poe’s "Gold Bug". ...

The Painting That Changed the History of Modern Art

26/02/2019

Exhibition On Screen returns with Young Picasso, an extraordinary detective story that looks in detail at the elements that drove one small boy from southern Spain to such heights. ...