Carla Passino

2 weeks ago | countrylife.co.uk | Carla Passino

At 125, one begins to feel one’s age, so the most elegant grand-dame of London’s museums, The Wallace Collection, is celebrating its anniversary with a ‘facelift’. The forthcoming renovation will make it more accessible, sustainable and enjoyable, but will do so subtly, keeping intact the character of its home, Hertford House.

3 weeks ago | countrylife.co.uk | Carla Passino

Andy Warhol lied. He liked to describe himself as ‘a deeply superficial person’, but the exhibition opening later this week at Newlands House Gallery in Petworth, West Sussex, shows the many layers behind this public persona.

3 weeks ago | countrylife.co.uk | Carla Passino

Where does a storehouse end and a museum begin? The opening, on May 31, of the new V&A’s East Storehouse in Stratford, London, triggers the question, for this is much more than a repository for the museum’s bulging collections. Covering more than 172,000sq ft across four levels — an area nearly 18 times Wimbledon’s Centre Court — it is packed with frescos and stage costumes, samurai swords and 350,000 books — all available to the public.

1 month ago | countrylife.co.uk | Carla Passino

A preserved shark, two fried eggs and an unmade bed changed the course of art. A little more than 30 years ago, a new generation of Young British Artists (YBAs) came onto the scene and caught the world’s eye. Soon, Cool Britannia ruled not so much the waves as global culture, with its music, theatre, films — and the works of Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Tracey Emin and many others.

1 month ago | countrylife.co.uk | Carla Passino

Kermit the frog claps his hands with glee, eyes dancing, a big smile plastered on his face. He, Fozzie Bear, Rowlf the Dog and a bunch of other muppets are clustered around an old-fashioned television, watching Charles III being crowned. They are not, however, appearing on a screen themselves. They are figures in a painting by Leslie Thompson, one of eight artists commissioned by the Government Art Collection to capture the spirit of the King and Queen’s Coronation on May 6, 2023.