Margate: a new Bilbao?

Margate is a seaside town on southeast England. For two centuries the town was considered to be a hotspot by English people looking for a beach side holiday place. However, with the increasingly number of cheap flights, the town lost its tourists for European destinations able to offer white sands and warmer waters.

Subsequently, after the 60s Margate changed from a fashionable place to a not so desirable location. Nevertheless, names like JMV Turner and Tracey Emin continued to grab headlines to the town over the years and might prove to be the rescue the place needs.

Thanks to both artists the town might see its chic side again. Margate has been through a massive cultural regeneration and last month opening of Turner Contemporary Gallery, a new shinny seafront space is already attracting attention. The gallery enjoys the views that once inspired Turner famous paintings.

John Kampfner, Chair, Turner Contemporary said: “The opening of Turner Contemporary marks the start of an extraordinary opportunity for Margate to become one of the UK’s most compelling culture and tourism destination.” Yet can the names Turner and Emin transform this shabby town in a new Bilbao? Lets wait and see.

Does art have a legitimate place in the digital world?

Frieze Art Fair created a partnership with Le Meridien Hotel to generate talks involving art and common matters which can somehow affect the Art world. The latest talked took place last March in London, to discuss the co-relation between social media and art. And how both sectors can combine.

My involved with the Frieze until then was totally online. I follow then on Twitter and so was selected to participate in this particular talk. The discussion panel was formed by two artists, John Gerrad and Marcus Kreiss, the art collector Sylvain Levy, the cultural editor from the Guardian, Georgina Henry and Marc Sands, Director of Audiences and Media at Tate, which lead the discussion as a chairman.

Initially it seems that most of the people involved in the art sector do not know what social media is or how important it can be to the business. The majority have never been on Twitter and use Facebook only as personal tool. However after the talk the audience seemed to be very interested about the subject and open to discuss the matter, and maybe experiment these new technological tools available.

But does art have a legitimate place in the digital world? To me, yes it does. As all the sectors, art should also move to the digital sphere. While continuing to use only the old media channels, the art market is in risk of lose interest from the population. In order to grab attention it is necessary to be online. And even being a traditional area, the art sector should enjoy what is available as a promotional and communication tools.

According to the talk, many establishments and artist have being using social media in order to communicate or promote themselves. However, there is still no real form of art online. And when this happen it will mean that the art world is totally integrated with the digital world.

Magritte Museum

Rene Magritte was the first painter I came cross as a child. When I was nine years old I had to read a book for school which was illustrated with his painting and completed changed my world. Since then my admiration and interest to his world only grew and today he is not only my favourite artist but also responsible for my career choice. Rene Magritte was born in 1898 in Lessines, Belgium. Throughout the years he developed his painting styles in impressionism, cubism, futurism until finding his space in surrealism. His work was considered to have influenced the pop, minimalist and conceptual art during the 60s when his pieces became important on the art scene.

Nevertheless, more than 40 years after his death, a Magritte Museum was opened in Brussels, Belgium. The museum houses more than 170 works and is considered to be the greatest Magritte collection in the world. The museum is situated at the famous Altenloh Hotel on Place Royale. The museum launch gathered attention from the international media when Altenloh Hotel was totally covered by a canvas imitation one of Magritte’s famous pieces.The government of Belgium took a while to explorer it most famous painter and son of the surrealism movement, nevertheless when it did, did in style.

The museum creation was possible due a partnership between the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, the Magritte Foundation, the Belgian Regie

des Batiments, the Belgian Federal Science Policy Administration and the GDF SUEZ Group. The Magritte Museum was designed to be multi-disciplinary, educational and interactive. It involved state-of-the-art technologies which are offered to the audience to explore Magritte’s work and life in accordance to environment-friendly practices. Like the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Magritte Museum intent to become a “leading international skill center for research, transmission and presentation of the life, thought and work of René Magritte.”

The use of Celebrity names in the Art Market

It is well know that celebrity endorsement sells. However does it sell art? For the past five years we have seen an increasingly use of celebrities from all areas, creating pieces of art or supporting new artists.

Last year Liberty, one of the most famous and oldest department stores, announced a partnership with Ronnie Wood from the Rolling Stones group. The partnership involved having the Wood’s painting as prints for dresses and scarves. The musician said that he "wanted to work with Liberty of London because of the great tradition that Liberty has of artistic collaborations going back to the very early days when Liberty first opened."

Another artist using celebrity name as an endorsement is Paul Freud, son of Lucian Freud. Lucian created a name for himself as a painter. His surname can have opened a few doors but still today he is considered one of the greatest painters still alive. Nevertheless, when it comes to Paul, the only thing people generally known about him is his surname. Yet that did not make any difference when tagging princes to his work, which for a newcomer it is a bit over priced.

The latest new is the singer Robbie Williams. Apparently Williams has been painting for a few years and declared in his blog that he really like painting and had turn his garage into an ‘art club’. Good or not, a small gallery in London is seeking to have his pieces and may be sell a few pieces with Robbie Williams’ tag attached.

And as says Jonathan Jones from the Guardian, "why not?".

Photojournalism

It is said that an image can tell more than a thousand words. The use of photographs as a way of spreading news started by the end of the 19th century and saw an immense growth at the beginning of the 20th century with the invention of a new type of lenses and the two great wars. Later, the use of photographs also extended to the marketing arena. However, when it comes to this type of communication photojournalist are not involved but artists instead.

Although some adverts use history and news the majority are not interested in what is happening in the world but to increase brand interest and sale number. Thus what is the difference of a photojournalist to a photographer? A photojournalist as the name says is also a journalist and has to carry its equipments under any kind of circumstances. Differently from a photographer, a photojournalist sells images (stories) not the art, or artist name. A photojournalist does not choose where to take pictures he/she is taken to the places that need to be shown to the public.

Nevertheless, photojournalism in the 21st century involves not only photos but also videos and broadcasting. One of the greatest areas of growth when it comes to news is the use of videos. This change is happening due to the development of the internet and the easy accessibility to computers. The inclusion of videos became extremely important. And in the same way news releases without pictures wasn’t considered interesting in the past it can be assume to videos today.

The interest and use of photojournalism has involved because it proved to have the qualities of narratives without bias as to be objective with an accurate representation of the event. Yet the question if news can be presented only by a visual work and no texts involved is still alive and generating different opinions.