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How Outsider Art became big business
How Outsider Art has become big business
Andrea Watson
May 3, 2020
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The mural maze – graffiti, art or advertising?
Across London, colourful murals in all manner of styles from bright graffiti to verdant jungles are appearing on walls and houses, many painted to order. And it’s not just in the East End. Dover Street Market in Mayfair just celebrated its 15th birthday with a work by the Russian artist Pokras Lampas. Other commemorative murals […]
Andrea Watson
January 2, 2020
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The $12million Mantegna sketch and other 2020 art events
A pen and ink sketch by the Renaissance master Andrea Mantegna, currently on tour, is to be offered for sale by Sotheby’s New York on January 29th. The preparatory drawing for a painting in the Triumphs of Caesar series belonging to the Royal Collection and now in Hampton Court Palace, is one of only 20 […]
Andrea Watson
November 28, 2019
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William Morris…Victorian wallpaper maker and anarchist
You’d be forgiven for thinking that the designs of William Morris – his trellises and willows and honeysuckles – are a little out-of-date and irrelevant. Popular designs like Strawberry Thief adorn cushions and mugs but do they really fit the modern interior? Surprisingly, not only have these botanical themes made a massive comeback but Morris […]
Andrea Watson
July 22, 2019
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Crossing continents with Vastu – how Indian beliefs are changing homes
Centred on a haunted house in the suburbs of Mumbai, the Indian horror film Vaastu Shastra takes its title from ancient Vedic principles of architecture. The plot involves a young family who move to their new home with an old banyan tree in the garden. As the film rapidly descends into gore and nonsense, we […]
Andrea Watson
June 24, 2019
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Billionaire who can’t give up work because he signed the Giving Pledge
The rich are famously time poor. But with P.N.C. Menon, the billionaire founder of Sobha Realty, it’s not like that. The Indian-born property mogul, who recently opened an office in Park Lane, Mayfair (ironically in premises vacated by Foxtons) lives up to the image of a “suited yogi” and seem genuinely time rich as we […]
Andrea Watson
June 5, 2019
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Extinction Rebellion’s home invasion
Is the botanical trend in interiors a response to climate change? From bees and butterflies to pandas and marine creatures botanically inspired interiors are the cult look. It is ironic given that some people say we’ve only about a decade left before the climate apocalypse kicks in. But what the hell, put a bee on […]
Andrea Watson
May 9, 2019
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Weimar marks Bauhaus centenary
Walter Gropius founded the famous German art movement known as Bauhaus not in Berlin, as many people think, but in Weimer, a city some three hours drive to the south west. The original Bauhaus school in Weimar closed in 1925 and a second school opened in Dessau which also closed after a few years. The […]
Andrea Watson
March 11, 2019
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Why is Sardinia a Blue Zone dream?
MENTION Sardinia and most people will automatically respond with: “have you been to Porto Cervo?” This is the superyacht marina on the Costa Smeralda developed by the Aga Khan back in the 1960s and a magnet ever since for celebrities of all descriptions from the Clooneys to Barack Obama. Embed from Getty Images But for […]
Andrea Watson
January 16, 2019
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Manhattan’s boardrooms changing into bedrooms
“Alexander Hamilton must be turning in his grave, ” commented a local shopkeeper, referring to the father of American banking as a series of landmark buildings in New York are converted into luxury apartments. But would he? It’s more likely that the visionary statesman – whose colourful life is celebrated in the rap musical Hamilton […]
Andrea Watson
November 16, 2018
