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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Twenty-first Century Poetry
Reviews of latest collections from Ian McMillan and Culture Matters
UNIQUE: Ian McMillan
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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
WHAT should poets write about this “golden age” of self-congratulation, authoritarianism, mendacity and xenophobia? What can they possibly say that will not be drowned out by the victory march of smirking fools and their cheerleaders in the national media?
Of course, some will rush for the prizes and awards still on offer and it will be interesting to see which poets can’t resist getting their hands on some of the £120 million that the British government is proposing to spend on the Festival of Great Britain and Northern Ireland next year.
No doubt, some poets will continue to play in the dressing-up box of narcissism and exhibitionism. Others will probably fall into sullen anger, despair and silence.
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