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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Selling Scotland
FRANCESCA SOBANDE watches the HBO drama series Succession and how it reflects the way external business interests have driven notions of Scottish identity
British Rail Poster, cca 1950 and Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY from the exhibition Tartan at V&A, Dundee; Brian Cox, the Dundonian star of HBO series Succession
[Louie Banks Courtesy of V&A Dundee; Dmitry Rozhkov/CC]
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
ONLY one episode of Succession is directly set in Scotland (Dundee, season two, episode eight), yet shadows and symbols of the country are threaded throughout the show. Whether that’s through the Roy siblings’ horror at stepmother Marcia’s (Hiam Abbass) plan to bury Logan “in a kilt like a fucking Bay City Roller,” or youngest son Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) hilariously buying his father “The Hearts” football team by mistake – Logan’s actual team is their arch rivals, Hibernian.
Succession follows the sparring Roy family and their eccentric partners. Siblings Connor (Alan Ruck), Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman and Shiv (Sarah Snook), vie for their father Logan’s (Brian Cox) approval and his leadership role in the family’s global media entertainment conglomerate, Waystar Royco. That is, until he dies unexpectedly in the third episode of the final season.
The power and talent of the cast is undeniable, but the show’s portrayal of places and their pasts is also part of its irresistible on-screen chemistry.
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