art&lit Archives – The Oxford Student

Would Rembrandt have approved of Pollock?: Mockery in the contemporary art industry

21st November 2017 Lucinda Kirk

Contemporary, abstract art is either appreciated or mocked. Picture yourself in a reputable art gallery, surrounded by timeless, priceless High Renaissance paintings and Pre-Raphaelites; their composition, their techniques and the explicit narrative are utterly exquisite. Imagine your gaze transitioning upwards and landing upon the spectacular Rembrandt ‘The Night Watch”. Its immense, almost overwhelming size, occupies […]

Hannah Ryggen, Trump, and the role of media

20th November 2017 Nikita Aggarwal

If just one image epitomizes Trump’s recently concluded tour of Asia, it will be this one: a photo that captures a blockish Yank unceremoniously dumping food into a Japanese goldfish pond, the hosts hiding their horror behind gritted smiles. This was cheap fodder for the liberal media, who quickly lambasted Trump for everything from his […]

Post-Documenta 14, what happens now?

23rd September 201723rd September 2017 Jessie Palmer

Since Documenta 14 departed from Athens in mid-July, there has been little done to support the foundations laid by this contemporary art celebration and address the issues highlighted. As the summer months roll on, Athenians have begun to leave the mainland for their summer holidays, as one is incapacitated by the stagnant heat. “Nothing happens […]

Poetry review: ‘milk and honey’ by Rupi Kaur

21st August 201727th October 2018 OxStu Arts

‘milk and honey’, Kaur’s debut poetry collection, is one of few commercially popular works of poetry in recent years. This is not to say that no other significant or impressive collections of contemporary poetry have been published, but rather that no other has achieved such global popularity. Upon publication, ‘milk and honey’ sold over 1.5 […]

Here is why you shouldn’t read this book

28th April 2017 Madeleine Davies-Brown

Since 13 Reasons Why launched as a Netflix adaptation, the story of a teenage girl’s suicide and the subsequent blame-game has been a popular point of discussion. Jay Asher’s New York Times bestseller by the same name tells a very similar story: 17 year old Hannah Baker takes her life and leaves behind a set […]

Review: Selection Day

28th April 201722nd May 2017 Sree Ayyar

A derisive critique of one of India’s greatest pastimes – cricket – and a powerful satire that deconstructs the deep-rooted ironies of India’s post-modern society, Selection Day is a fictional novel by Aravind Adiga, an Indo-Australian writer and journalist, appearing in paperback for the first time in September 2016. Through the story of two young […]

Review: Juliet Heslewood’s ‘The Lover Captured’

15th January 2017 Minjie Su

Juliet Heslewood is an independent art historian who believes that pictures can be read; for her, a painting provides as much of a narrative as a novel, telling stories about the artist’s life, as well as about the painted characters. Her recent lecture at the Ashmolean Museum, ‘The Lover Captured’, offered but one example of […]

Review: ‘City on Fire’ by Garth Risk Hallberg

15th January 2017 Ella Holden

Relentless, unique and wildly engaging, City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg is an epic character study set in 1970s New York, a city becoming rapidly enveloped in mystery and descending into chaos. The narrative details the interlinking lives of an intimate group of New Yorkers over a six-month period beginning on New Year’s Eve […]

John Finnemore: Interview

7th June 2016 Hetty Mosforth

Did you always want to write comedy or did you have other childhood ambitions? I was quite serious about being a vet at one point. I wasn’t even put off by doing work experience at one, and having to put dead cats in the deep freeze. Having spoken to some vets since, though, I gather […]

Book Review: High Rise

7th June 2016 Sophie Taylor

J.G.Ballard’s High Rise tells the story of the residents of a luxurious forty-storey high-rise. They begin acting out petty grievances but these small acts soon culminate in vivid acts of violence. The start out dropping glass bottles onto each other’s cars and having lots of loud parties, but by the end they have descended into […]

Review: The Blade Artist

16th May 2016 Felix White-Thomson

I was lucky enough to see Irvine Welsh speak at the Cambridge Literary Festival a few weeks ago. Now based in Chicago, he was visiting the UK in promotion of his latest novel, The Blade Artist, and, as he told me afterwards, to attend a few key meetings about the production of Trainspotting 2. It […]

Poem: Runaway Prose

16th May 201619th May 2016 Beth Chaplow

All she left you was fragments Of broken prose, a fleeting note of Emotion, as she ran out of your light Because space can choke too And your hands were unsteady When you played with dolls You had her make your bed But she was quick to shake off The smell of your detergent He […]

Happy Birthday Shakespeare

28th April 2016 Sophie Taylor

On the 22nd April, up and down the country we celebrated the birth of our beloved bard, William Shakespeare. Shakespeare often gets a bad name with school students, because of his arcane vocabulary and the difficulties of trying to appreciate a medium meant to be performed whilst reading it on the page. The dilemmas of […]

The Best of Brontë

28th April 201630th April 2016 Hetty Mosforth

While the 400th anniversary of Shakepeare’s death has received a lot of attention recently, Charlotte Brontë’s 200th birthday has been overlooked by comparison. To compensate, here is a run-down of four of the best screen adaptations of her seminal novel Jane Eyre, so you know which DVD to reach for in order to celebrate in […]

Book Review: The Well by Catherine Chanter

24th April 201624th April 2016 Sophie Taylor

Ruth and her husband Mark leave London after he is accused of watching child porn, hoping to find peace in the country. Instead, they find a miracle: the only spot in rains a future, drought-stricken England. What’s more, this book is approved by Richard and Judy, and who could help but trust those friendly faces? […]

Short Story: Freshet

24th April 201624th April 2016 Alexandra Illingworth

It’s winter when he goes back to Oxford – perhaps it’s been winter since he left – and they meet at the gate of the Botanic Gardens, where Ted has his hands in his pockets and is looking twice his size. Ted says, “You took your time, Denny. I’ve been waiting seventy years.” He laughs […]

Tag: art&lit

Would Rembrandt have approved of Pollock?: Mockery in the contemporary art industry

Hannah Ryggen, Trump, and the role of media

Post-Documenta 14, what happens now?

Poetry review: ‘milk and honey’ by Rupi Kaur

Here is why you shouldn’t read this book

Review: Selection Day

Review: Juliet Heslewood’s ‘The Lover Captured’

Review: ‘City on Fire’ by Garth Risk Hallberg

John Finnemore: Interview

Book Review: High Rise

Review: The Blade Artist

Poem: Runaway Prose

Happy Birthday Shakespeare

The Best of Brontë

Book Review: The Well by Catherine Chanter

Short Story: Freshet

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But I like it sparkling: why we don’t want acidic oceans

Best of short fiction in literary journals published in 2018

What is going on?! Your guide to the future of Brexit

Union partnership cancelled over Steve Bannon

Can a sugar pill placebo cause more harm than good?

“Tofu never screams”: the mainstreaming of veganism