Category Archives: Laocoon

I have just returned from Lawrence, Kansas, where I delivered the keynote address at the Oliver Phillips Latin Colloquium at the University of Kansas. (I am grateful to all the faculty, teachers and students who attended and for making it a memorable visit). My talk was called ‘The Latin Lessons of Contemporary Artists’ and I […]

As his latest Balloon Dog (this time of the orange variety) goes under the hammer at Christie’s tonight, it is worth noting that, when given the chance, its creator, Jeff Koons, has consistently described this particular work of his as a ‘Trojan Horse’. From the current Christie’s sale:  “It’s a very optimistic piece, it’s a […]

 It is quite easy to show that abstract art like every other cultural phenomenon reflects the social and other circumstances of the age in which its creators live… …realistic space cracks and splinters into flat planes which come forward, parallel to the plane surface… Clement Greenberg ‘Towards a Newer Laocoon’ (1940) It is all well […]