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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Arts ahead: 24th January 2015
The Star’s critics look ahead to The Magic Flute, The Songs of Ewan MacColl, John Yeadon’s Englandia and A Study of Modern Japanese Sculpture
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
CARDIFF/TOURING OPERA: The Magic Flute
At the Wales Millennium Centre, Bute Place, February 13-28
Mozart’s most famous opera is a story of young people finding their place in the world, working out for themselves what is true and what is false, what is right and what is quite wrong — a journey through darkness into the light. This family-friendly production combines Mozart’s sublime music with surreal staging featuring an angry lobster, a newspaper-reading lion and a fish doubling as a bicycle. Its rich mix of comedy, pantomime, philosophy and religion makes it an ideal introduction to Mozart’s opera, especially for children.
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DAVID NICHOLSON is thrilled – and shocked – by an opera that seethes and sizzles with passion and the depraved use of power
OLIVER SNELLING, a south London stonecarver and yeoman stonemason, relates how he is helping bring about a new festival next month
BLANE SAVAGE recommends the display of nine previously unseen works by the Glaswegian artist, novelist and playwright