Back from a mini tour of Yorkshire and Stockport and cheering for supporting act Indignation Meeting
The challenge of proletarian simplicity
GORDON PARSONS finds that it is the ambiguity with which Caravaggio’s art now challenges the beholder that establishes his ‘modernity’
Caravaggio
ALISTAR FINDLAY is mesmerised by this multiple ‘Visions of Scotland’ assault on the audience’s eyes and senses
The Star's critics ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MICHAL BONCZA reviews I Am Love, The Penguin Lessons, Freaky Tales, The Thicket
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
New releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
Peter Mitchell's photography reveals a poetic relationship with Leeds
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
Caravaggio and the Creation of Modernity
Troy Thomas, Reaktion Books, £14.95
NOT another book on the life and work of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio!
Troy Thomas’s admittedly attractive and easily transportable book on a Renaissance painter whose theatrical paintings insist upon attention, so different from the static biblical masterpieces that for the non-expert gallery visitor demand no more than a passing glance, may seem superfluous.
Even adding “the Creation of Modernity” would appear to promise a journey over well-trodden ground, given the ready recognition of Caravaggio’s influence on many modern artists, film-makers and art critics.
More from this author
While the group known as the Colourists certainly reinvigorated Scottish painting, a new show is a welcome chance to reassess them, writes ANGUS REID
ANGUS REID recommends an exquisite drama about the disturbing impact of the one child policy in contemporary China
The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.
ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership
