This intriguing art sale features postcards which have been painted or decorated by numerous artists, some well known (Grayson Perry, Tracy Emin,  Paula Rego and Anish Kapoor feature this year) and some less so. Musicians and fashion designers have also created some of the cards. There are 2,700 works available this year.Britart, photography, printing, there’s a huge selection of different styles and media.

You pay £40 and you take your choice. But you don’t actually know who painted which card, so it’s a bit of a lucky dip (though with some element of skill involved).  So you might end up with a masterpiece worth several thousand, or you might end up with a postcard sized picture that you really like… hey, that’s not a bad result!

Proceeds go to the RCA’s bursary fund to help support impecunious students.

But you must register as a buyer on the RCA site by 19th November, so hurry up if you want to bid!

Where: Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore (South Kensington tube)

When: exhibition, 14 – 21 November, 11-6 (till 8 on the 20th): sale, Saturday 22 November, from 8 am

Post from: The London Traveler

But now, the Chapman brothers have revived Hell – calling it F***ing Hell this time round – and even improved it, making it bigger.

It’s a really strange work, replaying atrocities and war crimes using little plastic soldiers. The sheer banality of evil is what strikes you – the idea that these little plastic toys with their expressionless faces could actually achieve anything you could call wicked. And yet the scale of the conception is immense – whole genocides are played out on this scene.

Goya  is obviously an inspiration – but even Goya only showed a single massacre by firing squad, not ruthless extermination on this scale.

The Chapmans’ work is now joined by a number of watercolours by well known artist, Mr Adolf Hitler. These pastel daubs have been overpainted by the Chapmans – which I think might be a mistake; in their raw form they make the point about the banality of evil far better.

Look closely at Hell, though. Once you’ve noticed the scale of work, start looking at the detail. There are weird figures that seem to have come straight out of Hieronymous Bosch – nightmares of the subconscious – as well as the more realistic genocide parties. This is not just a  photographic reportage about war and death – it’s a work  of real imaginative power.

The exhibition is at White Cube till 12th July.

Where: White Cube, Mason’s Yard, London Sw1

When: 10-6, Tues-Sat

Post from: The London Traveler