With summer just around the corner in the USA, you’re likely already dreaming of where to spend your vacation.
15.04.2024 - 09:05 / theguardian.com / Art
There aren’t many people who can claim to have seen a snowman fly over their house. It may sound fantastical, but every Christmas I settle down to watch The Snowman, Raymond Briggs’s best-loved work, and watch as the red-haired boy and the plump, tangerine-nosed snowman swoop over the downs that surround the village where I live before gliding above the Royal Pavilion and Brighton Pier and on out to sea.
The Snowman, like many of Briggs’s works, unfolds against a backdrop of the East Sussex landscapes he loved, and where he lived for more than 50 years. So it’s fitting that the first exhibition of his life and work since his death in 2022 is being held not in a London gallery but at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, just a couple of miles from his house in the village of Westmeston. Original drawings and illustrations, memorabilia, photographs and framed fan letters (including one from an American pastor enraged to discover that Father Christmas included images of Santa on the loo) give a unique insight into one of the greatest illustrators Britain has ever produced.
One of the most interesting exhibits is Briggs’s desk, still cluttered with all the ephemera he worked among while creating When the Wind Blows, Fungus the Bogeyman and Ethel and Ernest. Photographs of him at the desk show the view he called “a great privilege”, stretching north across the Sussex Weald to the faint haze of Ashdown Forest in the distance. Every morning he walked the quiet footpaths and shady bridleways that knit the farmers’ fields to the low green hills, and recreated this countryside in the pages of his books.
I understand his love of this quiet corner of Sussex, because his footpaths and fields are mine too. There’s something slightly miraculous about this broad swathe of countryside sandwiched between the built-up coastal strip and the belt of commuter towns – Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath and Crawley that lie to the north of Briggs’ corner of the national park. The towns may be growing, but the South Downs lies between the urban sprawl like a great green lung. Strike out on to one of the centuries-old bridleways, and only the newly planted vineyards advancing across the fields like silent armies are evidence of the world turning at all.
“It’s very Briggs – grounding his work in specific places to make it feel very real and authentic,” says Steph Fuller, director of Ditchling Museum. “His family talks about how much he loved the downland landscapes – it’s wonderful to see how tuned in he was, how much he understood the countryside and played it back into his drawings.”
The beauty of holding the exhibition so close to where Briggs lived is that it gives the opportunity to follow in his footsteps and walk through the
With summer just around the corner in the USA, you’re likely already dreaming of where to spend your vacation.
Norway’s capital city is famous for Vigeland Sculpture Park. Rightly so, for the park featuring 212 sculptures of celebrated visionary Gustav Vigeland has long been one of the country’s leading free tourist destinations.
The 60th edition of the art extravaganza that’s the Venice Biennale runs until 24 November at the two main venues Giardini and Arsenale. as well as countless offsite locations, official and unofficial. There are 88 National participations this year, with four countries participating for the first time: Republic of Benin, Ethiopia, United Republic of Tanzania, and Democratic Republic of Timor Leste. Here are eleven of the must see country pavilions.
The creations of Arizona-born Orlando Dugi, a member of the Diné Nation, are nothing if not dramatic: gowns glittering with delicate beadwork, silks embroidered with symbolic flora and fauna. Some have been exhibited at places like the Denver Art Museum and the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. While his imagination is fueled by his upbringing—days spent watching his grandmother sew and nights stargazing at his family's sheep ranch—Dugi also finds inspiration in Santa Fe, which he's called home since 2010. “All the tribal, colonial, and Spanish history—it's all here,” he says. “It's very small, but it's also pretty international.” New Mexico's capital city is set to draw a global audience as host of the inaugural Santa Fe Native Fashion Week, the first of its kind in the country, held from May 2 to 5, where Dugi will present highlights from his mens- and womenswear collections. When he's not designing, he enjoys connecting with Indigenous culture on the ancestral lands of the Tewa people—or kicking back with a margarita.
Organizing a group trip can be a daunting task. Deciding where to go, what to do and where you'll stay with a group of people — who all have their own opinions — can be challenging enough to nearly convince you not to go.
The world’s most prestigious contemporary art exhibition, the Venice Art Biennale opened last week and runs until 24 November in two main locations, the Giardini and the Arsenale, as well as throughout Venice, in museums, foundations, galleries, churches and palazzos. These “collateral events” are free and are mostly open through the fall. From stunning painting shows to sculptural installations, here are ten must-see exhibitions dotted throughout the city nicknamed "La Serenissima."
Southwest's famous boarding process may be up in the air. On Thursday, after reporting a net loss of $231 million, the Dallas-based airline announced a variety of changes, including the potential for new seating assignments and confirmed the closure of operations at several airports.
The Venice Biennale is renowned for tackling weighty and complex themes from nationalism to climate change. But that doesn't mean all the works on show are sombre or obscurely conceptualized. This year, dozens of contributions to what is known as the 'Art Olympics' are joyous, celebratory and spectacular to look at.
Austin's incredible live music and culture scene has resulted in skyrocketing popularity in recent years – it's quickly become one of the most visited cities in the US.
For the uninitiated, the Bicycle Day international holiday might suggest a celebration of bicycles and riding bikes. But that’s only part of the story.
After scoring tickets to see Madonna at American Airlines Center last month, my two friends and I decided to spend a long weekend in Dallas – a city none of us had visited since before the pandemic and one that we were eager to get back to after learning it has the largest contiguous arts district in the country and the most buildings designed by Pritzker Architecture Award winners.
A 47-year-old man had to endure six-and-a-half hours in the air with a broken leg after severe turbulence on a flight, the New Zealand Herald reported.