Jonathan Jones



Profile:
Full name: Jonathan Jones

Area of interest: Visual Arts, Painting

Journals/Organisation: The Guardian

Email: [mailto:jonathan22@btinternet.com jonathan22@btinternet.com]

Websites: Guardian.co / Jonathan Jones; Jones on art

Personal website:

Blogs: the blog Jonathan Jones; theatre & performing arts Jonathan Jones

Representation: http://authors.simonandschuster.co.uk/Jonathan-Jones/47640394 | Greene & Heaton

Networks:



Biography:
About:

Education:

Career: joined The Guardian in 1999 Current position/role: Visual arts writer


 * also writes for frieze and other art magazines

Other roles/Main role: will be on the jury for the 2009 Turner prize

Other activities:

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight: Lost in a labyrinth of theory The Guardian, 23rd March 2005; Do we really live in a non-visual age? The Guardian, 12th June 2007

Broadcast media:

Video: appeared in BBC2 Television documentary series The Private Life of a Masterpiece

Controversy/Criticism: Has been criticized as "Eurocentric" see: Decolonising Persian History by Touraj Daryaee

Awards/Honours:

Scoops:

Other:



Books & Debate:

 * The lost battles: Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo at the gates of hell OCLC 81453129, 2007

Latest work: writing a book on the seductive art of Thomas Gainsborough

Speaking/Appearances: regular talks at Tate Modern, including a series called 'Painting Bites Back'

Debate: 

The Guardian:
Column name:

Remit/Info: Visual Arts, Painting - writes Jones on art series and the blog Jonathan Jones and articles for the Arts section

Section:

Role: Visual Arts writer

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:jonathan22@btinternet.com jonathan22@btinternet.com]

Website: Guardian.co / Jonathan Jones; Jones on art

Commissioning editor:

Day published: varies

Regularity:

Column format:

Average length:



Articles:

 * Think Vladimir Putin looks like a Bond villain? It’s more serious than that - The west may laugh at the Russian president’s submarine stunt, but his actions echo those of nationalist leaders in the 20s – and are received just as well at home - 20th August 2015
 * We don’t need the union jack on Team GB’s kit – it’s ugly and divisive - Athlete Greg Rutherford is unhappy about the lack of a union standard on his team vest. He shouldn’t be – it’s high time we had a new flag - 15th August 2015
 * Why didn’t people smile in old photos? You asked Google – and here’s the answer - Every day, millions of internet users ask Google some of life’s most difficult questions, big and small. Our writers answer some of the commonest queries - 12th August 2015
 * Labour centrists like me aren’t cynics: we’re the truly ethical wing of the left - Corbynites are kidding themselves if they think that ‘pure’ socialism is the path to hope and change - 8th August 2015
 * Modern hunting images are morally repugnant. Better to look away - The pursuit of online outrage about killing big game is a new bloodsport that attracts self-consciously unpleasant rich people who take pleasure in the taboo - 5th August 2015
 * There is no such thing as too much Monet - Ignore the melancholic simpers of art snobs. Monet may be accessible but he is also a modernist who invented utterly new ways of seeing the world - 7th July
 * The case of the Frankenstein Nefertiti: it's time to revolt against ugly public art - As Egyptian protesters get a colossal – and colossally awful – sculpture of the ancient queen pulled down, we need to topple all the other art that’s an insult to our public spaces - 7th July
 * The cardinal, the prostitute and the painter: the strange story of Titian's most erotic masterpiece - It was considered a fake for a century, but now one of the UK’s greatest art treasures is back on show. So how did the Duke of Wellington get his hands on it? - 2nd July
 * Britain’s disdain for eastern European migrants is a betrayal of memory - Those who are outraged over the ‘desecration’ of London’s 7/7 memorial forget our shared history of altruism and suffering in the second world war - 1st July
 * Why Athena was more than just a naff purveyor of mild erotica - It wasn’t all Tennis Girl and titillation. The high street poster shop allowed us to daydream, educated the masses about the joys of art – and now it’s back online - 1st July
 * The pope's portrait in condoms? The Catholic church has seen worse - A Milwaukee gallery has been criticised for acquiring a portrait of Pope Benedict made out of condoms – but the church has accepted far more subversive work - 30th June
 * A Tate gallery in Glasgow could save the union - Tate Liverpool is a great modern British institution, far warmer and more imaginative than either of its London sisters. Tate should keep expanding north - 24th June
 * Partick Thistle’s grotesque new mascot is art at its best - Good artists do not do cuddly and, with its demonic features and gaping maw, David Shrigley’s Kingsley expresses the essence of sporting aggression. For fans to object is pure hypocrisy - 23rd June 2015
 * Sorry, Facebook, but the finest art is always about sex and death - The social media site’s ludicrous attempt to ban Gustave Courbet’s masterpiece reveals its ignorance about life itself - 22nd May 2015
 * As Prince Charles and Gerry Adams meet, history hangs there like smoke - As if their hands were bonded together by Superglue, the prince and the man who denies he was ever a terrorist simply cannot prise their hands apart - 20th May 2015
 * A picture of loneliness: you are looking at the last male northern white rhino - The image of Sudan the rhino, surrounded by the armed guards who protect him from poachers, shows how little humans have learned since the ice age - 13th May 2015
 * Something new is happening in British politics. This image captures it - This picture from last night’s TV election debate shows how Britain is headed, in its nuanced way, leftward. No wonder Farage looks lost - 17th April 2015
 * The Joey Essex and Nick Clegg ‘selfie’ portrays a political system in crisis - Our politicians have no idea how to talk to the people – that’s why they’re desperate to hitch a lift with anyone they think might have a clue - 31st March 2015
 * Pete Christ: if this isn’t blasphemous, then what is? - If the Church of England is fine about Pete Doherty being portrayed as Christ, perhaps so we should all be more relaxed about religious artistic depictions - 21st February
 * Perhaps this is what Anne Boleyn looked like – but why should we care? - Our fixation on the faces of the rich, powerful and royal is pathetic. History from below – such as the harrowing Lindow Man – simply gets forgotten - 17th February 2015
 * Named and shamed: the six worst works of British public art - These examples – from a dead tree in the middle of Kirkby to an eye-wounding erection off the coast of Tyneside – show how badly sculpture has lost its way - 14th February 2015
 * Christmas and contemporary art? Like chalk and blue cheese - The Yuletide spirit makes today’s art look brittle, cold and unseasonal – it’s time to set aside good taste and embrace the kitsch - 11th December 2014
 * The touching hug photo from Ferguson protests is a blatant lie - Framing the debate: It's absurd that a nation's new, yet, old, encounter with its most destructive division can be summed up by this soppy picture of a tearful hug - 2nd December 2014
 * The $44m for Georgia O’Keeffe’s work shows how little female artists are valued - The record bid for her Jimson Weed/White Flower painting is far lower than for male ‘greats’. And it’s because of people like me - 22nd November 2014
 * One World Trade Center's rescued window washers: a human triumph we needed - Framing the debate: In a strange and redemptive way, the image of the hanging basket – and the heroic story that followed – has done more than anything so far to free this new building from 9/11 - 13th November 2014
 * History and all its grisly facts are worth more than the illusion of memory - Cameron is wrong. Poppies muffle the truth about world war one - 1st November 2014
 * Tutankhamun does not deserve this 21st-century desecration - Framing the debate: Computer-scan images of the 'real' boy pharaoh are crass and morbid. Archaeological techniques should be used to enhance our understanding of the past, not destroy its mysteries - 21st October 2014
 * It would be churlish for Britain to turn down Churchill's paintings - The precious relics of the British wartime leader's hobby embody the way of life that he defended so tenaciously against fascism - 8th October 2014
 * Banksy wanted Clacton-on-Sea to confront racism – instead it confronted him - Tendring district council has destroyed a painting that eloquently challenged views on immigration – was it too close to home? - 3rd October 2014
 * This photo of the People's Climate March is a time machine. You won't believe what happens next - Framing the Debate: The architecture of corporate confidence has faded to green. Can the city that defined energy excess become a symbol of resistance to preserve the future? - 23rd September 2014
 * The naked Italians in Barcelona are a sad reflection on modern tourism - Framing the debate: You can't just have fun any more. You have to be seen to be having fun, whether touring central London dressed as an animal, or taking all of your clothes off - 23rd August 2014
 * A Russian soldier’s ‘Ukraine selfies’ are not evidence, they’re war art - We should not mistake Alexander Sotkin’s Instagram images for military intelligence. They simply portray the hapless life of today’s Russian soldier - 1st August 2014
 * So much architecture is monstrous – that's why we like to see it demolished - Framing the debate: Locals who cheered when three cooling towers were destroyed at Didcot reveal the truth – avant-garde structures are most popular when they fall - 29th July 2014
 * The MH17 crash images show us what war in Europe looks like in 2014 - Framing the debate: Rightly, picture editors chose not to show some photos taken at the site. The wreckage itself communicates all we need to know - 18th July 2014
 * The night a football match in Brazil reached the heights of tragic theatre - Framing the debate: Sophocles and Shakespeare would be thrilled if their tragedies harrowed a crowd as deeply as Brazil's World Cup mauling - 9th July 2014
 * The World Cup's Abu Ghraib moment? It's not even a World Cup image - Yes, the woman in the bin is an ugly truth – but football is still a beautiful game. To say this picture defines Brazil's World Cup is meaningless - 17th June
 * The Thai protesters' Hunger Games salute shows a lack of political thought - Most films are mass entertainment, not a manual for changing the world. At least the clenched fist of Marxist revolutionaries meant something - 2nd June
 * Contemporary art isn't original – even copying has been done - The row around Marina Abramović is redundant, as the story of art is one of homages and remakes. But that's not to say there isn't a problem - 31st May 2014
 * Ivory: the elephant in the art gallery - It is dead as an art material, but calls to destroy ancient ivory artworks are a barbaric, and foolish, trashing of our cultural past - 15th May 2014
 * The first world war in German art - Otto Dix joined the German army as a fierce patriot; two years later he was mowing down British soldiers at the Somme. Yet few artists did more to reveal the true horror of the first world war - 14th May 2014
 * Honouring Sasha the dog is a grand example of human generosity - We attribute nobility to animals such as the British army labrador killed in Afghanistan. But humans are the only species to memorialise what is lost - 30th April 2014
 * Cameron's holiday snaps: political gaffe or shrewd PR? -Framing the debate: Photographs of the PM 'chillaxing' with Samantha in Lanzarote may look fake – but they probably do his image no harm at all - 14th April 2014
 * Why are the nerves of empathy severed when it comes to immigration? - Framing the debate: That the Daily Mail can print this picture confident it will not make people want to help these men is a distortion of Britain - 2nd April 2014
 * Forget Bacon or Van Dyck – this tiny stamp will make collectors go wild - Framing the debate: A £12m stamp shows that modern collectors are driven by the same obsessive desire as Romans and Renaissance princes - 26th March 2014
 * The 9/11 attack seen from space – an image of impotence - Framing the debate: We witness world events as never before, but despite getting so much information so quickly, we remain ultimately helpless - 10th March 2014
 * Delight in the wonder of sinkholes, the Grand Canyons of suburbia - Framing the debate: These geological phenomena are a reminder that we build our lives on a thin crust floating over an immense cauldron of molten minerals - 20th February 2014
 * Why censor this Michelangelo spoof? It is a perfect advert for disbelief - Framing the debate: There is nothing offensive about this atheist student poster. In fact, Michelangelo was the first to parody his Sistine masterpiece - 11th February 2014
 * Prince Charles upstages Cameron, from his wooden throne in flooded Somerset - Framing the debate: Charles has given a glimpse of what he will be like as king – a mystical repudiation of the metropolitan elite - 6th February 2014
 * The Sellafield shutdown raises the spectre of science as horror - Framing the debate: Nuclear power is a myth as much as a reality, a shadow in the modern mind. Behold a place where dark deeds are done - 31st January 2014
 * Sulky chimps and skeletal Victorians: images from the margins of history - The Wellcome Collection has put more than 100,000 images online. Here are five with the power to haunt - 23rd January 2014
 * Parliamentary fighting is a global bloodsport - Framing the debate: The passions at work in this picture from Ukraine's parliament are all too real and all too dangerous - 17th January
 * The MP portraits 'scandal' shows how irrational Britain's hatred has become - £250,000 since 1995 to record a chapter in political history seems reasonable to me, but the public feels utterly alienated from the political class - 14th January 2014
 * The protesting barristers find it's hard to make their case on the streets - For centuries the bewigged lawyer has been a target for satire – no wonder the sight of them in a dissenting context is comical - 7th January 2014
 * Who says David Cameron's no oil painting? - Framing the debate: This portrait of Catherine the Great bears a striking resemblance to the prime minister – he should be proud - 18th December 2013
 * Obama shakes hands with Raúl Castro, in perfect homage to his hero Mandela - Framing the debate: The handshake is an apt gesture of rapprochement between old foes who may still not trust each other as far as a springbok can jump - 11th December 2013
 * Don't hate the woman behind the 'world's worst selfie' - Framing the debate: By taking a photo of herself in front of a suicidal figure on the Brooklyn bridge she has become a scapegoat for our worst fears about the modern age - 5th December 2013
 * Why we see Hitler's face on a puppy - Framing the debate: There is a psychological phenomenon behind our tendency to see images in arbitrary shapes - 26th November 2013
 * Pope Francis kisses a disfigured man – and shows politicians the lost virtue of humility - Is this a publicity stunt? No, because it expresses more than an empty gesture ever could - 9th November 2013
 * Is stealing sun in the Norwegian town of Rjuken playing with fire? - Framing the debate: Artist Martin Andersen's giant mirrors have brought light to a dark town in Norway, but our exact need for the sun is enigmatic - 25th October 2013
 * David Cameron caught 'chillaxing': the sub-Richard Curtis exploits continue - Framing the debate: At least no one can say he's posing in a snap of him snoozing, taken by his sister-in-law Alice Sheffield before her wedding - 20th September 2013
 * Note to the V&A: a 3D-printed gun still kills people - Why are we not allowed to be shocked that the museum has acquired Cody Wilson's 'Liberator' handgun, a working firearm, just as another US shooting occurs - 17th September 2013
 * The meaning of 9/11's most controversial photo - Framing the debate: Thomas Hoepker's photo of New Yorkers apparently relaxing as the twin towers smoulder says much about history and memo - 11th September 2013
 * This daft Gibraltar mock-up reveals sabre-rattling for what it is - Framing the debate: A surreal image of Spain invading the Rock shows that, despite the rhetoric, the idea of Spain and Britain at war is laughable - 28th August 2013
 * The royal baby pictures show privilege trying, and failing, to look normal - Framing the debate: William and Kate's middle-class make-believe with George is no more authentic than Marie Antoinette dressing as a shepherdess - 21st August 2013
 * The Sun's wraparound: a cunning mix of cliche, surprise and commerce - Framing the debate: As the Sun tries to lure its readers online, this collage sells the paper as a mover and shaker for the digital age, not a 70s relic - 1st August 2013
 * Why the British fall prey to tales of big cats on a country estate - Framing the debate: It's summer so it must be time for a monster animal snap. We crave the wild and are easily swayed by blurred photos of enigmatic predators - 27th July 2013
 * Dzhokhar Tsarnaev capture pictures don't deromanticise this 'monster' - Framing the debate: These latest pictures of the Boston suspect actually look more heroic than the Rolling Stone cover. But anger at an image obscures the more difficult reality - 20th July 2013
 * Shostakovich meets Michelangelo the lover - Michelangelo's self-searching love sonnets and the jagged music of Shostakovich are a perfect match. Both were created by artists who had been flayed - 29th June 2013
 * The 3D model of Mary, Queen of Scots is the face of a historical divide - Portraits from the past reveal that medicine plus the consumer society remade human beings in the 1960s - 28th June 2013
 * National Gallery buys 18th century painting that praises Islam - An Allegory of Asia by Franz Maulbertsch is a pearl of Rococo style and a subtly radical work portraying a lush daydream - 28th June 2013
 * Defacing the Queen's portrait is a backhanded compliment - Framing the debate: This proxy attack on the Queen by a Fathers4Justice campaigner demonstrates the strength of the monarchy - 14th June 2013
 * Love is pain. That's the message of the Richard Burton–Elizabeth Taylor story - Framing the debate: Two actors not in love play two who were – and draw attention to the complex relation between acting and truth in the art of love - 6th June 2013
 * China's Baby 59 sewer pipe rescue is a grotesque image of abandonment -Framing the debate: The harshness of human existence when love, compassion, communal solidarity and collective care fail is grimly exposed - 29th May 2013
 * Oklahoma tornado: the end of a world is in Ledonna Cobb's eyes - Framing the debate: This picture of ordinary people surviving catastrophe calls out as a warning of strange, terrible things happening to planet Earth - 22nd May 2013
 * The horror of the Syrian video is the horror of war - Framing the debate: Khaled al-Hamad's outrageous act is not a reason to change our minds about Syria's rebels. As Goya showed, war is vile - 15th May 2013
 * Time to revisit Rembrandt's The Night Watch, a glowing symbol of democracy - Framing the debate: The Netherlands' Rijksmuseum is reopening after a 10-year renovation, with a symbol of tolerance and diversity at its heart - 6th May 2013
 * Ed Miliband is definitely Not Tony Blair. But who's he trying to impress? - Framing the debate: Miliband has been keen to project a non-New Labour image. The old party faithful may be happy but it does little for anyone else - 29th April 2013
 * Rich Ricci and the pernicious symbolism of the greedy banker - Framing the debate: The reaction to this picture shows how hostility towards bankers too easily echoes Stalinist and Nazi depictions of 'fat cats in hats' - 20th April 2013
 * A gloriously crude topless 'jihad' from a Femen activist - Framing the debate: Femen deserve the support the Arab spring got. They're giving patriarchy – and mealy-mouthed relativists – a kick up the arse - 5th April 2013
 * Pope Francis and the sea of digital screens - Framing the debate: In this picture the intimacy of the tablet computer mingles with the generosity of Bernini's piazza. Both make people feel connected - 15th March 2013
 * Venezuela's tears for a Christ-like Chávez - Framing the debate: An image of mourners over an open casket is closer to the dignified emotion of a Giotto than the waxy coolness of Lenin - 8th March 2013
 * Libya's guns, gangs and the liberation of a masculine sickness - Framing the debate: In Benghazi or a US suburb, the gun is a devil whispering to masculine hearts. This picture is less about freedom than power - 20th February 2013
 * Iran's self-aggrandising 'fake' fighter plane and a history of doctored photos - Framing the debate: This picture of an allegedly unflyable plane shows Iran playing a dangerous game of trying to awe people with military might - 13th February 2013
 * Ice Age Art at the British Museum: 'Not even Da Vinci surpassed this' - The British Museum's show of ice-age art is full of wonders and mysteries. But does showing them alongside modern works really shed any light on these ancient masterpieces? - 5th February 2013
 * Destruction of Timbuktu manuscripts is an offence against the whole of Africa - This was an assault on world heritage comparable with the demolition of the Buddhas of Bamiyan by the Taliban in 2001 - 29th January 2013
 * Prince Harry: more Top Gun than Wilfred Owen - The horrors of war be gone – Captain Wales's heroic dash revives schoolboy fantasies of the glory of war - 23rd January 2013
 * Barack Obama's profound visual argument for gun control - Framing the debate: Staging children around Obama while he signs gun laws seems corny, but the point is that the US's future must win over its past - 17th January 2013
 * Wildfires: an astonishing photograph of survivors in an age of catastrophe - Framing the debate: It is such a flame-seared image, we might be seeing the end of civilisation – and an Australian family tough enough to outlive it - 10th january 2013
 * Malala Yousafzai has the look of a leader in the making - Framing the debate: This image shows a brave girl who has plenty of fight left in her, not a passive victim of the Taliban's ideological violence - 5th January 2013
 * Join Instagram, join a collective act of self-delusion - Framing the debate: Instagram claiming ownership of every image would be a logical next step – no individuality exists in the creation of digital images - 19th December 2012
 * A scathingly beautiful picture of the edge of starvation - Framing the debate: Artfulness only adds to the stark reality. Here is a sinister new chapter in the war between Assad and the Syrian people - 14th December 2012
 * The homeless man and the NYPD cop's boots: how a warm tale turns cold - Framing the debate: The image of the New York officer donating boots has done something terrible and cruel to the barefoot Jeffrey Hillman - 5th December 2012
 * A sea of red that evokes thoughts of more than just algae - Framing the debate: As nature becomes habitually freakish because of climate change, the future depends on how we interpret its marvels - 30th November 2012
 * China's new leaders paint a picture of totalitarian banality - Framing the debate: This photograph of a triumphant party elite is an overt display of democracy's opposite without any hint of self-reproach - 16th November 2012
 * Sienna Miller nude: pregnancy is now a figleaf for artists painting nakedness - Framing the debate: Titian created the warmth of a living body on canvas just to turn men on. These days, it would be hard to get away with that - 7th November 2012
 * The image that captures Sandy's deep unlikeliness - Framing the Debate: Even this image of a power station explosion is not the essence of Sandy. The worst happens when cameras aren't shooting - 2nd November 2012
 * Gemma Gibbons' royal toilet picture: getting medieval on your arse - Framing the debate: The Olympic medallist's photograph of the Buckingham Palace loos recalls a time when kings dumped on their subjects - 26th October 2012
 * Dutch art theft: paintings reduced to criminal collateral - A beguiling Freud, a dazzling Matisse, a modest De Haan – will these stolen paintings see the light again? - 17th October 2012
 * Felix Baumgartner's skydive pales in comparison with the moon landings - Framing the debate: The Austrian's jump drew on the heroic images of space exploration but this pseudo astronaut achieved only a daredevil publicity stunt - 16th October 2012
 * David Cameron, caterpillar cake and chums: a spread of privilege? - Framing the debate: No Harrods gateau for the Tory leader. A kids' birthday cake with added posh chaps – surely a party the plebs could join - 13th October 2012
 * Jimmy Savile was hiding in the light - Framing the debate: Was revulsion part of the fascination? The very appearance now held against him once won him a unique status in our culture - 5th October 2012
 * Spain's streets witness the confusion of history - Framing the debate: A picture taken outside a restaurant in Madrid during protests embodies the shouting down of reason - 27th September 2012
 * The naked truth about Kate - Framing the debate: This picture of the Duchess of Cambridge on the Solomon Islands gives an interesting insight into the paradoxes of royalty - 19th September 2012
 * If the lesula is a newly discovered monkey, why is it so oddly familiar? - Framing the debate: A monkey portrait taken in DR Congo has become global news this week, and it's impossible for us humans to not fall for it - 14th September 2012
 * Francis Bacon was a shock merchant, not a Nazi - Reports that the artist was influenced by Third Reich imagery have missed the point: Bacon loved nothing more than to challenge and disgust the world with his work - 4th September 2012
 * Paralympics: watching George Osborne squirm - Framing the debate: As the chancellor is booed at the Paralympics he squirms, smirks and slumps, clueless in the face of such disdain - 4th September 2012
 * No life on Mars: an eerie foretaste of Earth's future? - Framing the debate: The Curiosity rover pictures show a majestically dead place. It should make us think how to better protect our own planet - 1st September 2012
 * Great art needs a few restoration disasters - Framing the debate: Thanks to an inadvertent iconoclast, a second-rate fresco is now a 'masterpiece'. Turn her loose on artists that deserve attention - 23rd August 2012
 * In Tony Nicklinson's heroic suffering, I can't help but see the case for life - Framing the debate: It is harrowing to watch the anguish of a man who wants to end his life but cannot – yet his message somehow backfires - 18th August 2012
 * Curiosity rover: why does sci-fi always look more marvellous than reality? - Framing the debate: These ordinary looking views of Mars sent by Nasa's rover are beautiful and moving precisely because they are so ordinary - 9th August 2012
 * Bradley Wiggins on his Olympic throne – a reminder of Britain's true history - Framing the debate: This picture hints at something that was missing from Danny Boyle's Olympic opening ceremony: empire - 3rd August 2012
 * Greenland's ice sheet melt: a sensational picture of a blunt fact - Framing the debate: Once you look at the colour coding and absorb what it means it is a mapping of potential climate change catastrophe - 27th July 2012
 * Egypt's revolution, cropped to fit - Framing the debate: The Egyptian army now has the image it wants to present to the world. Forget the revolution: it's us or the Brotherhood - 22nd June 2012
 * Fear of cannibalism drives us to look at this 'monstrous' image. And that's OK - Framing the debate: The lure of the gruesome picture of dead Miami 'flesh eater' Rudy Eugene is the sight of Ronald Poppo, his living victim - 16th June 2012
 * Diamond jubilee: all you need is love, mummy - Framing the debate: The photo of the crowning moment of the jubilee concert shows a new side to the royal family, emoting alongside pop legends - 8th June 2012
 * Behold Mount Everest, reduced to adventure tourism - Everest is not tame, but this line of climbers has been seduced by a fantasy that everything must become easier and faster - 30th May 2012
 * Barack Obama bows to the significance of his ethnicity - Obama knows the power of a good image – this one fits perfectly with his personal vindication of the Declaration of Independence - 26th May 2012
 * Rain-soaked François Hollande is a comic, everyman leader for our times - Framing the debate: The French president is patient as his suit soaks up water. Such bumbling characters are the best fit for stormy times - 19th May 2012
 * Kurt Cobain, before the age of the digital zombies - Framing the debate: As Courtney Love cedes all rights to Cobain's image, where it will be used in an age of CGI and holograms is anyone's guess - 5th May 2012
 * These magazine covers are graphic examples that sex can sell feminism - Framing the debate: Does Newsweek and Foreign Policy's double act of covers objectify women or simply draw attention to good journalism? - 28th April 2012
 * Swedish cake, you say? Let's have a slice of the outrage'' - Framing the debate: As with the one of a gun-toting Pippa Middleton pal, taking an absurd picture at face value only trivialises the issues 'exposed' - 21st April 2012
 * The problem with Ken Livingstone's tears - Framing the debate: There are ways to weep that seem appropriate in public life – Hillary Clinton managed it in 2008. But this just looked strange - 13th April 2012
 * Blood and guts for Easter? That's not very British - Framing the debate: Passion plays in Trafalgar Square mark a departure from the milder version of Christianity that's served us post-Enlightenment - 7th April 2012
 * Syria's refugees remind us of the price of revolution - Framing the debate: A lamplit portrait of a refugee family underlines the suffering that recurs when real lives are invaded by big history - 24th March 2012
 * Rémi Ochlik's great photograph tells truth about the Arab spring - Framing the debate: In a moment of chaos in Libya, the late war photographer produced a rich, subtle portrait of a young revolutionary - 25th February 2012
 * The Greek riots: a picture of hate - Framing the debate: Athens, the birthplace of democracy, is showing its violent side, with a philosophical ideal at war with visible reality - 18th February 2012
 * Abu Qatada: portraits of hate - Framing the debate: This week's press pictures of the 'hate preacher' show that, just as in Botticelli's time, a man's face can be used against him - 10th February 2012
 * Vanity Fair's new cover puts America's secret weapon on show - Framing the debate: From Rooney Mara's hair to the art deco set, Mario Testino's shot of '1920s pure beauty' shows the dream - 3rd February 2012
 * The model, the yacht, the fat bloke … Kim Dotcom certainly understands the internet - Framing the debate: The founder of Megaupload controlled his image. So what does this picture tell us about him? - 28th January 2012
 * Costa Concordia: an all-purpose symbol for our times - Framing the debate: Across Europe, people have shown the urge to use the stricken ship as a metaphor. Such musings help us negotiate the world - 21st January 2012
 * What really links the 'urinating marines' video with Abu Ghraib - Framing the debate: In the digital age, people document and share everything – even insults to the fallen
 * Can you be too ugly for politics? -If John Humphrys was criticising Ed Miliband's looks, perhaps it's because the Labour leader's inner man is not coming across - 11th January 2012
 * Stephen Lawrence murder: capturing evil on camera? - Framing the debate: In this 1998 photograph of the suspects, the desire to scare and threaten overcomes any concerns with looking innocent - 7th January 2012
 * Kim Jong-il on the escalator: dictatorships are going down - Framing the debate: This photo of the North Korean leader in life is as surreal as those of mass mourning for his death, but democracy has won - 23rd December 2011
 * This Charlie Hebdo cover mocks Britain's true curse: class - Framing the debate: In depicting an unholy marriage of a bloodless aristocracy and a bloodthirsty working class, France has its satirical revenge - 17th December 2011
 * Tahrir Square aflame: the visual basis of an imaginary revolution - Framing the debate: Ten months ago, images from Egypt's streets such as these led many to succumb to a secular liberal fantasy - 10th December 2011
 * How the wild west won my affection - Comment advent calendar 2011: It is hard to reject the adventurous mythology of the west and we owe a vast part of that mythology to artists such as Remington - 5th December 2011
 * Whatever happened to Tories with a difference? - Framing the debate: This photograph reminds me not just of the 80s, but hopes of a new kind of Tory - 2nd December 2011
 * The Occupy movement now has its iconic image of martyrdom - The photograph of pepper-sprayed pensioner Dorli Rainey recreates the image of a humiliated Christ in a modern context - 19th November 2011
 * Prince Charles and Camilla: the timeless imperial grandees - Framing the debate: The photograph of the royals re-enacting colonial nostalgia in Africa evokes the archaic nature of British identity - 11th November 2011
 * Occupy's V for Vendetta protest mask is a symbol of festive citizenship - Framing the debate: The real meaning of the Guy Fawkes mask seen around the world is sophisticated, self-knowing and carnivalesque - 4th November 2011
 * The west wrings its hands over dead Gaddafi photos, but war is always hell - Framing the debate: The stench of doublethink is more noxious than any vapour emerging from the meat store in Misrata - 25th October 2011
 * The Occupy Wall Street image that marks the end of the global consensus - Framing the debate: Even the word 'capitalism' once seemed corny. Here, amid Times Square's corporate citadels, a monster is exposed - 18th October
 * Joe Orton's defaced library books and the death of rebellious art - Framing the debate: The 1960s collages that sent two young writers to prison remind us that in today's Britain, no real dissident art is possible - 15th October 2011
 * David Cameron plays the leader in front of Hugh Grant - Framing the debate: It is impossible to ignore the contrived appearance of the prime minister when you contrast him with the actor's earnestness - 7th October 2011
 * How Steve Jobs made the world more beautiful - The Apple aesthetic has transformed how we see our lives – and the future - 7th October 2011
 * Tony Blair, peacemaker and hate-figure - This image of Blair in Jerusalem captures a man whose globetrotting persona is very far from the party he once led - 1st October 2011
 * The excess is not in alcohol but in Britain's self-loathing - Maciej Dakowicz's pictures of Cardiff revellers are lapped up by a country that pictures itself as broken, boozing, morally sick - 24th September 2011
 * Photographing the Great Depression, then and now - Dorothea Lange's portraits of poverty-stricken Americans in the 1930s seem terrifyingly contemporary - 16th September 2011
 * A captured beast that reminds us of a remote past - The picture of the giant crocodile caught in the Philippines is a document of the marvellous, the fearsome and the fantastic - 9th September 2011
 * Shard is a broken society's towering achievement'' - London's new skyscraper is a monument to wealth and power run way out of control, a flashing warning sign of disease - 19th August 2011
 * portrait of isolation, featuring Rebekah Brooks'' - In modern scandals the car window is a fine alienating device. Here, behind the wet glass, is one who knows the game's up - 16th July 2011
 * wedding: The triumph of monarchy'' - Republicans may think the wedding flags clumsy but Britain's royals have a keen eye for powerful imagery - 21st April 2011


 * giant awakes'' - American art came of age during the cold war. How did the East respond? With paintings of tractors - 18th September 2008
 * mind on fire'' - Francis Bacon always said he worked entirely by chance. Images found in his studio - from plucked chickens to close-ups of skin diseases - show that this was far from the case - 6th September 2008
 * The British Museum deserves to be popular - But director Neil MacGregor should remember: the language of populism is crude, and the pleasures of museums subtle - Comment is free - 2nd July 2008
 * Off the wall - The history of art and power has been haunted by tyrants stretching from Nero to Hitler. But was the most artistic of all Roman rulers that impossible thing, a despot with a heart? - 14th June 2008
 * What would Boris's artist mum say about his train booze ban? - 15th May 2008
 * My kingdom for a horse - This week five proposals were unveiled for the giant 'Angel of the South' sculpture. But one contender stands head and shoulders above the rest - 10th May 2008
 * Dazzling demons - The stars of Britain's first major Klimt show will be his glittering portraits. But his darker, lost works - destroyed by the Nazis - started a revolution in 20th-century art - 7th May 2008
 * Agent provocateur - The National Gallery's new boss is outspoken, defiantly high-brow and oozes learning. He is also the least pompous, most down-to-earth curator Jonathan Jones has met - 27th March 2008
 * The final insult - It is our greatest monument, on a par with the pyramids. But soon it will be plagued by Tesco juggernauts. Why don't we care about Stonehenge? - 5th March 2008
 * The curse of the blockbuster - Everybody loves a big show. But do Britain's huge exhibitions live up to the hype? - 28th February 2008
 * The new embraceable Britain - What's behind our sudden craving for big, bold works of public art? - 18th February 2008
 * If you only steal one masterpiece this year ... - 15th February 2008
 * A painting fit for a president - This is George Bush's favourite work of art. He says it's heroic and inspirational. But what does it say about him? - 1st February 2008
 * The shapes of things to come - Jonathan Jones on the Soviet art explosion that inspired the film's iconic poster - 1st February 2008
 * Lest we forget: the war blemish - Oliver Cromwell insisted artists portray him 'warts and all'; Jonathan Yeo portrays Tony Blair war and all - 19th January 2008
 * Why this is the most beautiful modern painting in the world - After a last-minute diplomatic drama, Matisse's Dance is eventually coming to Britain - for the first time. Jonathan Jones celebrates a great masterpiece and its role in the rivalry between the two giants of 20th-century art - 18th January 2008
 * The eternal city - Why did Larry Gagosian choose Rome for his latest gallery? It's part of the city's long tradition of wealth championing great art - 8th January 2008
 * The art - In the first decade of the 21st century modern art became a popular phenomenon - 2nd January 2008
 * This week's blog: 'Where's the art that counts?' - 20th December 2007
 * Art of the manager: what that £10m collection reveals - New England football manager Fabio Capello's taste in art analysed - 14th December 2007
 * Hidden horror - The Isenheim Altarpiece is a masterpiece of religious art. But you'll never see it on a Christmas card- 12th December 2007
 * Could Britain be on the verge of discovering a painted cave on a par with Lascaux in France?  - 6th December 2007
 * Who's buying these Old Moosters? - The truth is very few people really like art. This is the dirty secret that makes a living for artists such as Caroline Shotton. She is a new addition to that august company of artists who have careers, it seems, solely on the back of the joy the public takes in upsetting art critics, especially at Turner prize time - 3rd December 2007
 * Tomb raiders - The treasures of Tutankhamun are the finest artistic achievement of ancient times. Why on earth have they been desecrated with papier-mache pillars and Muzak? - 15th November 2007
 * The Post Office: stamping on Christianity's heritage - 7th November 2007
 * Heaven on Earth - Antoni Gaudí was a fervent Catholic whose fantastical buildings burst with colour, freedom and hedonism - is he the greatest urban architect of modern times? - 20th October 2007
 * The brilliant new exhibition Art and Sex raises the question: has art ever been about anything else? - 16th October 2007
 * The Turner is not about beauty. And Hirst's art isn't good. But it is great - 2nd October 2007
 * Mawkish masterpieces - Millais' lurid colours and trite rhetoric have been despised by critics for years. But underneath all that lies a startling emotional truth - 25th September 2007
 * Paradise regained - Jardins Publics aims to put a fresh perspective on Edinburgh's leafy spaces. But is the grass really greener? - 13th August 2007
 * Best of British? - Banksy is the most exciting artist to come out of the UK for more than a decade - or so many people on both sides of the Atlantic will tell you. But is he really so much more than a prankster with a spray can? - 5th July 2007
 * The Helmut Newton of the 1500s - Cranach understood the dirtiness of desire. That's what made him great - 28th June 2007
 * Riddle of the bog - A murder mystery preserved in peat is at the heart of the British Museum's revamped prehistoric galleries - 21st June 2007
 * Is this the birth of 21st-century art? - With his shimmering skull, birth paintings and bisected shark, Damien Hirst has redeemed himself - 5th June 2007
 * Beach Boy Brian Wilson is the inspiration for Tate St Ives' excellent new show of Californian art. But it's not all fun, fun, fun - 29th May 2007
 * Smoke and mirrors - The cult of the artist is celebrated in a new collection of self-portraits borrowed from the Uffizi. Does it matter that half are fakes or copies? Definitely not - 22nd May 2007
 * Food can be artistic - but it can never be art - 17th May 2007
 * This week's blog: 'Museums are for kids, too' - 17th May 2007
 * It's about knowing you'll die - Artists worked out that smoking represented death centuries before doctors did. That's why they love it so much - 14th May 2007
 * Annie Leibovitz - not just a flattering celebrity snapper - 3rd May 2007
 * Star spangled banners - It may be the worst decade in US history, but America's greatness is still reflected in its art - 1st May 2007
 * A sea change - Antony Gormley's modern nudes, who have now found a home on Crosby Beach, are Renaissance men helping to restate human dignity - 9th March 2007
 * Goya's true grandfather - Hogarth's image as a jolly satirist hides a radical genius that prefigured European modernism - 7th February 2007
 * Fresh out of ideas - The problem is not Damian Hirst's borrowing from others, but his own loss of originality - 25th October 2006
 * The Cook, the Tate, his waste and art lovers - The gallery was right to choose tinned excrement over fat ladies - 29th September 2006
 * Column five - Rolf's secret: the Mona Lisa effect - 20th December 2005
 * Brush with a revolutionary - You no longer have to be a conference delegate to view the great works of the artist James Barry - 12th December 2005
 * The place to fall in love - No other gallery can compete with the Musée Picasso for putting passion into modern art - 8th November 2005
 * A picture of poor taste - Vettriano is not an artist. His textureless, brainless corpses of paintings just happen to be popular - 5th October 2005
 * Dearth in Venice - The Biennale has no place in the city of Titian's greatest works, where artists invite comparison with genius - 10th June 2005
 * What the Middle Ages did for us - As the world slips back into cycles of holy war and revenge, the film Kingdom of Heaven suggests a solution - 10th May 2005
 * Blake's heaven - Only one British artist would make it on to a list of the world's all-time greatest - 25th April 2005
 * Admire the stage instead - Michelangelo's personality dominates every Vatican scene but his theology attracts less attention - 6th April 2005
 * Lost in a labyrinth of theory - Art today likes to think of itself as very, very clever. I understand the insecurity, but it does little for the work - 23rd March 2005
 * A Georgian invention - One universally accepted fact in the blood sports debate is a lie - that foxhunting has history on its side - 22nd November 2004
 * I'd rather open a boutique - Who is the BBC's new Culture Show for? Certainly not those who are genuinely passionate about art - 13th November 2004
 * Death of a legend - Strip the tale of King Arthur of its chivalry and sorcery and what is left is nothing sort of a national insult - 23rd August 2004
 * Dim, cloned conservatives - Modern graffiti is not subversive - it is a formulaic, bankrupt cliche - 7th August 2004
 * All the lonely people - The paintings of Edward Hopper evoke an emptiness that is still pervasive in American everyday life - 19th May 2004
 * Aborigines are wrong about Harry - The prince's art is ridiculous, but it derives from the modernist sublime - 20th August 2003
 * Take the ego out of art - Simon Rattle is right - Britain has a lot to learn from the high seriousness of Germany's cultural life - 26th August 2002



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