Features
Do minimalist architects make the best murderers? – ‘The Girl Before’, reviewed
A dislike of frills can signal much more sinister tendencies – or that’s what a BBC adaptation of J.P. Delaney’s thriller ‘The Girl Before’ would have us believe
Arty books and films to look out for in 2022
From a caper about the pensioner who swiped a Goya to the memoir of a curator who came in from the cold – the must-see movies and a first reading list for art lovers
Showing their metal – the glorious gold of the ancient Saka people
Burials uncovered in East Kazakhstan have revealed the nomadic Saka to be as skilled in gold-working as they were in horsemanship and war
Geniuses of the place – the award-winning artists standing their ground in Chicago
Rachel Cohen spends some quality time with a series of installations and exhibitions by MacArthur Award-winners set throughout the city
The museum openings not to miss in 2022
The new-look Musée de Cluny and the Burrell Collection reopen, while there are also treats in store for fans of Bob Dylan and Serge Gainsbourg
Majestic heights – the art of kingship at the National Palace Museum of Korea
The museum in Seoul is dedicated to the Joseon dynasty who ruled for more than 500 years, but also contains reminders of Korea’s turbulent 20th-century history
The major art anniversaries to look out for in 2022
The year ahead brings significant anniversaries and, consequently, blockbuster exhibitions for Lucian Freud, Piet Mondrian and Rosa Bonheur
The fantastic beast that took Alice to meet the Mock Turtle
When John Tenniel drew the grumpy Gryphon in ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, he may have had a real heraldic monster in mind
Richard Rogers was as significant an architect as Lutyens
The architect who created some of the most memorable buildings of the last century and was a major influence on urban policy in Britain has died at the age of 88
The fabulous films of Lotte Reiniger
The German director brought fairy tales to gorgeous, animated life with her silhouette films – the earliest of which is as remarkable now as it was in 1926
‘The Rocchetta Mattei is Italy’s Hearst Castle’
Max Norman visits the very peculiar home of an eccentric count who tried to derive electricity from vegetables
Louis Wain, the man who drew cats
The artist’s commercial cat illustrations were hugely popular in his lifetime, but his series of psychedelic kitties have attracted rather more serious attention
Hogarth’s love for his pug was a bone of contention among critics
The artist’s pampered pooch was often seen as an alter ego for the ‘pugnacious’ man himself
Can machines do art history?
Art historians may be sceptical about artificial intelligence, but machine learning might enlarge our capacity for observation – and even revive connoisseurship
How to turn up the heat in a feature film? Make your actors cook in real time
Philip Barantini shot his 90-minute movie about the drama of a busy restaurant service in one take – and it’s nail-biting stuff
Performance anxiety – Paul McCarthy makes his audience incredibly uneasy
The artist’s first performance in a decade was a lot, even for the most ‘open-minded’ onlookers
In Oslo, the mammoth new Munch museum is a surprisingly joyful affair
The vast waterfront complex is a fitting emblem of the painter’s outsized importance to the city
The artists who wanted to rise above it all
The Transcendental Painting Group in New Mexico was sidelined for its esoteric beliefs, but its members are slowly entering the mainstream
The museum that introduced America to modern art
As the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. celebrates its centenary, the museum is also looking firmly to the future
Jewel identity – what can we glean from gems and minerals in museums?
In museums, minerals are both everyday matter and also objects of scientific interest – but they carry more intangible meanings too
The billboards that are turning Venice into an eyesore
Luxury brands are certainly contributing to the conservation of Venice – but massive advertisements on historic buildings are starting to spoil the views
Dostoevsky’s distrust of the West ran deep – but so did his love of the Old Masters
The novelist revered Raphael’s Sistine Madonna – and Holbein’s Dead Christ almost induced an epileptic fit
Looking for the lost women of modern Turkish art
In Istanbul, an exhibition of works created by women between 1850 and 1950 has made some impressive finds
Missionary position – David Livingstone’s birthplace gets a makeover
It’s not easy to repackage a museum devoted to a Victorian missionary, but the David Livingstone Birthplace Museum has pulled it off
What happens when an artist wants to be anonymous?