Eyestorm Select Ben Lewis as Guest Curator in New Print Series
An ongoing series of prints from artists Ben thinks will “last the distance”.
Interview with Ben Lewis in ARTPULSE Magazine
An ArtPulse interview with Ben about the current art market.
Review Thomas Schütte / Serpentine Gallery
The Revolution is over by Ben Lewis Click here for the German version: Am Ende der Revolution, DIE WELT, 18.10.2012 In the first room of Schütte’s new exhibition at the Serpentine there is a small but riveting monochromatic self-portrait of the artist from 1975. He looks like a Baader-Meinhof terrorist with his long hair, dark glasses and ...
How not to make a fast buck in the art world
KNIVES ARE OUT IN THE NEW YORK ART WORLD BILLIONAIRES CLASH WITH GAGOSIAN IN ART WORLD LAWSUITS It’s hard to know what’s really going on in the art market because of the privacy of its transactions and the code of silence – art world omerta – that almost everyone in it seems to follow. You ...
“Contemporary Art Excludes the 99%”
Ben attended Intelligence Squared Asia’s annual cultural debate in Hong Kong on May 18th. For the full video, follow the link and click on ‘video highlights’: http://www.intelligencesquared.asia/hong-kong-debates/contemporary-art-excludes-the-99-percent.html The debate proposed the motion that ‘contemporary art excludes the 99 percent’. Arguing for this suggestion, Ben gave the following speech: A PLEA FOR REALISM Ladies and Gentlemen, I ...
Gesamtkunstwerk
REVIEW Gesamtkunstwerk: New Art from Germany Saatchi Gallery, 18th Nov 2011 – 30th Apr 2012 Click here for the article in German (20.12.2011, Die Welt) By Ben Lewis As I walked round Charles Saatchi’s new survey of German art, I was filled with the same sense of inverse cultural nationalism, that I first felt 25 ...
Contemporary Art’s Suicide Bombers
By Ben Lewis Click here for the article in German (11.12.2011, Welt am Sonntag) Last week the art world experienced the equivalent of a suicide bombing campaign. Charles Saatchi, who runs his own magnificent contemporary art museum in London, wrote contemptuously about the lack of taste of today’s billionaire art collectors, while Adam Lindemann, one of ...
Martin Gayford’s new book about David Hockney
Read Ben’s latest review: A Bigger Message: Conversations With David Hockney by Martin Gayford. Sunday 9 October 2011 – The Observer. Martin Gayford’s encounters with David Hockney shed light on his recent years in East Yorkshire but don’t give a sense of his true significance as an artist “Martin Gayford’s new book about David Hockney is ...
Charles Saatchi: the man who reinvented art
Read Ben’s article about the new book The History of the Saatchi Gallery, the past and future of Charlies Saatchi … and how he saved Ben’s life: “I am probably the only person who can truly say that Charles Saatchi saved my life. During the holidays in 1986 I worked as a gallery assistant in ...