Visual Research

Cv/VAR series 52 features an interview with American artist James Turrell recorded at Michael Hue Williams London in June 1996.

An essay by Edward Lucie-Smith explores aspects of the mysterious and private character of the renowned American society artist John Singer Sargent.

Explores the structure and development of the Pre-Raphaelite movement in the mid-19th century and works that figure among the most enduring and generally popular in British art. Renowned writer and art critic Edward Lucie-Smith contributes a study of the brotherhood of seven artists and their interconnection and intricate links with the social establishment of the time. James Cahill has a special interest in the movement, having studied Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Holman Hunt. He reviews a major exhibition of 150 works at Tate Britain launched in September 2012.

Listen as descriptions of human physiology are illustrated in the eBook edition with 80 panel paintings by Philip James ROI. A viscous surface of pulped and washed colour interprets the intricate framework of muscles, arteries, bone and soft tissue, all infused with an internal dynamic of potent nervous energy. First published in 2001, the volume carried 80 colour plates of art works with descriptions of the location and function of portrayed parts.

Marina Vaizey and Anne Blood consider the historical impact of photography on the fine and interpretive arts, from pioneers such as Hill and Adamson, Fox Talbot and Louis Daguerre to Edward Steichen and Man Ray. The documentary power and graphic clarity of the medium challenged and persuaded artists such as Degas, Sickert, Warhol, and innumerable creative voices. In their essays Marina and Anne explore the conjunctions and variations where document and dream intermingle.

In this study, Art, Poetry, and WW1 by Edward Lucie-Smith of writing, poetry, and painting in the centenary year of the outbreak of the First World War, the author considers the historical impact on the general psyche of the calamitous events, reflected in the expression of poets and visual artists. He establishes a continuity to the theme with reference to works by Velázquez, Watteau, Goya, and others, in their treatment of the spectacle of battle and the horrors of war and human conflict.

A collection of reviews and studies of photographers published since 2001. Includes David Bailey, Horst, Cecil Beaton, Don McCullin, Lee Miller, Francesca Woofman, E.O.Hoppe, and others.

An interview with the author J. P. Donleavy, recorded in 1989 on the occasion of his exhibition at Anna-Mei Chadwick Gallery, Chelsea. He describes his formative experience of Dublin, with exhibitions there in 1948, '50, and '51, the catalogue manifestos, for these were his first published writings, leading to work on his first renowned novel, The Ginger Man.

A commentary on the Pierre Bonnard exhibition recorded at the press view on Monday January 21, 2018. Views figure studies and landscapes made between 1900 and 1940 and responds to the conception of the compositions with their radiant color fields.

A study of Giacometti portraits at the National Portrait Gallery London and Frank Auerbach at Tate Britain.

A recorded visit on January 28 to John Ruskin: The Power of Seeing, at Two Temple Place WC2. The review includes descriptions of exhibits by Ruskin and his associates and his contact with JMW Turner.

A recorded visit to an exhibition by Anish Kapoor at the Lisson Gallery, London continued to 22nd June, 2019. Includes descriptions of works and bio-dara of the artist.

Cv/VAR series 146 reviews the work of Damien Hirst (b.Bristol 1965), presented in a retrospective exhibition spanning 20 years, held at Tate Modern, April to September 2012. It explores the development of his art - from the controversial animal vitrines and beautiful butterfly composites, to an extensive series of spot paintings, where the artist engaged in a complex invigilation of coded systems that govern daily existence.

Cv/VAR no.100 publishes an interview with the American artist Jim Dine, recorded by cell phone from Wales to the artists Paris studio on May 11th, 2010. In this, he discusses his beginnings as an artist, his work with Claes Oldenburg and the Happenings, the Pinocchio series, 52 Books at Pace Gallery, New York, and the relationship of drawing to his graphic work.

Cv/VAR 154 publishes a study of photography and art in which authors Marina Vaizey and Anne Blood consider the historical impact of photography from pioneers Hill and Adamson, William Fox Talbot, and Louis Daguerre to contemporary practitioners such as Andreas Gursky and Boris Mikhailov. The documentary power and graphic clarity of the medium challenged and persuaded artists such as Degas, Sickert, Andy Warhol, and Richard Hamilton, and innumerable creative voices. The volume includes biographical details of leading figures and a guide to national collections and study centres.

Cv/VAR no.103 publishes an interview recorded 2010 with American artist John Dugger (b.California 1948) in which he gives an account of his art and development. He recounts 1960s America and arriving in London 1967: pioneering The Exploding Galaxy with David Medalla; 1970-2, their travels in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, India, then the China Journey of 1972 into Mao's Republic. The monograph documents the artists work for Banner Arts and other projects to date.

In a set of essays entitled "Doubles" author, critic, curator, and traveller, Marina Vaizey explores pairings of artists drawn from the canonical cycle of Western art. She considers themes of engagement such as the portrait or figure, treated as stories of wider implication for society, that draw on the artist’s perception of the seen, combined with personal visions of dreams and imagination.

Feature by David Rose first published in Cv Journal of Art and Crafts 2/4 December 1989, in which he describes craft practices of individual makers in the county of West Cork, Ireland. The monograph also includes a survey of Dublin colleges of art and design by Margaret MacNamidhe, first published in Cv Journal 4/2 July 1991. From Cv/VAR Archive. Crafts Directory surveys practices in the applied and decorative arts in the UK and Ireland. The anthology of interviews and features was first published in the quarterly review Cv Journal of Art and Crafts 1988-91, and includes showcases of emerging practices, studies of crafts education, and a comprehensive index of specialist producers and suppliers in the flourishing arena of crafts design and distribution.

The 251st Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy London in a review recorded at the press view on 3rd June 2019. The Summer Exhibition is most popular event in the nation’s cultural calendar, and commercially the most successful. It allows works in all media, print/photography/painting/sculpture/architectural models - with rooms arranged by different Royal Academicians, some of whom, like Barbara Rae’s Arctic room, set a theme to their hang.

Clare Lilley, head curator of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, gives an interview to Cv/VAR in which she describes her own career path to the YSP and gives a detailed description of the history, aims, and initiatives of Britain's largest environment for contemporary sculpture, with special projects involving artists such as David Nash, James Turrell, Jaume Plensa, and Anthony Caro.