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Jan 31, 2014

Past visions, future dreams

Contending for the Living Red Pepper, February-March 2014 Last spring, I made the steep climb to the mountainside entrance to the Cuevas de Covalanas, one of several caves in the Cantabrian region of northern Spain decorated with pre-historic paintings. I had seen reproductions of this type of art in books, but nothing prepared me for… Read more

May 2, 2013

Rescatar el pasado para construir el futuro

Spanish translation of Red Pepper column ’1200 BC: The world’s first industrial action … rescuing the past for the future’ Translated for Rebelión by Christine Lewis Carrol La ciudad de Luxor, en el sur de Egipto, fue noticia en Gran Bretaña a finales de febrero con ocasión de la muerte de 19 turistas en un… Read more

Apr 6, 2013

From the pyramids to Tahrir Square

The Hindu 6 April, 2013 Like travellers since Alexander, we started at the pyramids. After a spell in Cairo’s medieval quarter, followed by a visit to the New Kingdom tombs and temples in Luxor, we ended in Tahrir Square, where we joined thousands in a demonstration against President Morsi and his government. On the eve… Read more

Aug 1, 2010

The art of resistance

Red Pepper, August-September 2010 Mike Marqusee reviews Against the Wall: The Art of Resistance in Palestine by William Parry (published by Pluto Press) When the state of Israel began constructing its “separation barrier” through the West Bank, it never anticipated that the wall would become a living gallery of resistance, crowded with images and words… Read more

Jun 15, 2008

Munch’s Scream goes back on display

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 15 June 2008 Four years after it was stolen by masked gunmen in broad daylight, and two years after it was recovered in still undisclosed circumstances, The Scream has gone back on display at the Munch Museum in Oslo. The Scream is one of the world’s most well known and… Read more

Mar 23, 2008

Matchless feast

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 23 March Is there anywhere like Florence? Or any period of human creativity comparable to that which Florence hosted from the end of the 13th to the beginning of the 16th centuries? These 200 years left behind a material residue – paintings, sculpture, buildings, civic vistas – that never ceases… Read more

Feb 24, 2008

Anticipations of horror

Published in The Guardian and The Hindu What can the masterpieces of Christian art mean to the non-Christian? Can those of us without a Christian background or Christian convictions actually commune with the spirit of an artist whose faith and ideology we do not share? As an art-loving Jewish atheist I’ve often asked myself these… Read more