To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE
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The art of the miners
ROBERT McMANNERS and GILLIAN WALES tell the story of how they came to create the first dedicated Mining Art Museum in Britain
Robert Olley, Off the Way, 2000, oil on canvas; Gillian Wales and Robert McManners, founders of the Gemini Collection
[Murdo G Macleod]
If you can see past the relentless commodification you will be rewarded by enormously powerful work, suggests JENNY MITCHELL
CHRIS SEARLE revels in the one-off collaboration between an American polymath and a British Muslim, and detects the presence of their revolutionary forebear
GORDON PARSONS revels in an ebullient production of Shakespeare’s magical comedy
BRENT CUTLER welcomes a thoughtful analysis of the Erdogan regime, viewed through the evolving history of a neighbourhood in Istanbul
GORDON PARSONS regrets the price, but is dazzled by an outstandingly ambitious study of the way art restoration in particular, and culture in general was weaponised by the Nazis
WE were both raised in mining communities — Robert in Ferryhill and Gillian three miles away in Spennymoor — at a time when south-west Durham was the epicentre of activity in the Great Northern Coalfield.
It was difficult not to be in awe of the majesty of the headgear, the timely reminder of the buzzers and the camaraderie of the colliers returning from shift. This was not simply an occupation — it was a whole way of life. It enveloped us.
It was a chance meeting between ourselves in 1996 that began our own personal journey along the pit road, culminating in the Gemini Collection. A journey to our ultimate goal: a gallery in which to display our burgeoning collection of mining art.
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