Features
Making lunch for Lucian Freud
A regular haunt of artists, dealers and curators, Sally Clarke’s restaurant in Kensington has been a beacon of unfussy excellence for 40 years
Acquisitions of the month: September 2024
A 17th-century portrait of a bookseller from Lombardy and a breviary from the library of Charles V are among this month’s highlights
The slippery Surrealism of Pierre Roy
The French artist was largely ignored by his peers, but his uncanny painting of a snake is a masterpiece
How will Paris cope without the Pompidou Centre for five years?
The museum is set to close in 2025, leaving a hole in the city’s arts scene and adding to growing disquiet about its general direction
The warped aesthetics of Lynn Chadwick
The sculptor’s witty animal-like sculptures are dotted around the grounds of his house in the Cotswolds – and they feel right at home there
Frieze week highlights: two shamans and a sage of modern art
Plus: the subversive art of Kapwani Kiwanga, Georgie Hopton’s delightful prints and a brief history of drawing on blue paper
Frieze week highlights: a Japanese printmaking dynasty is feted in Dulwich
Plus: the Sikh Empire under Ranjit Singh, the trailblazing art of Lygia Clark and the serene ceramics of Magdalene Odundo
Frieze week highlights: Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum gets theatrical at the Barbican
Plus: the light sculptures of Anthony McCall, paintings by Frank Auerbach and his teacher David Bomberg, and Nordic nature scenes
Frieze week highlights: Tracey Emin puts on a visceral display of emotion
Plus: playful sculptures by Nairy Baghramian, revelatory paintings by Van Gogh, and the changing nature of beauty through the ages
Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Arte Povera masterpiece is a case of rags and endless riches
Curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev explains how the artist’s Venus of the Rags embodies the innovative spirit of the Italian movement
The Mughal emperors who forged a new artistic tradition
At its peak, the Mughal empire brought together scholars and artists of different languages and faiths to create art fit for kings
The Warburg Institute makes its mysteries more public
The learned institution has always been important to art historians, but a major new refurbishment will give it a higher profile
The dealer who launched Picasso
Berthe Weill was as devoted to young artists as she was to the cause of modern art – and her efforts are now receiving belated recognition
Raising a glass to Campari’s photographic archive
Scenes of rowdy bars and tipsy revellers in the 20th century show a world that is both alien and comfortingly familiar
The dangerous beauty of Waterhouse’s nymphs
Sarah Moss returns to a Pre-Raphaelite painting that made a lasting impression on her when she was a teenager
The Mothercare founder with the Midas touch
As the collection of Renaissance silver Selim Zilkha formed with his wife Mary comes to auction, his children Michael and Nadia recall their father’s dazzling hobby
The Andalusian winery that pairs sherry with Spanish paintings
The veteran sherry-makers at Bodegas Tradición in Cádiz may have perfected their craft, but the winery’s collection of paintings by great Spanish artists is no less impressive
The endlessly debatable virtues of Dosso Dossi
The mystery surrounding the meaning of an allegorical painting by Dosso Dossi may be precisely its point, explains the curator Pierre Curie
‘This bird’s a doofus’ – the unlikely charms of a featherbrained friend
When Jonathan Lethem picked up an innocuous old painting of a cormorant for $50, he didn’t know it would become a companion for life
Will the Glasgow School of Art ever be rebuilt?
Six years after the devastating fire, Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s masterpiece is no closer to being restored. What can possibly explain the delay?
Piecing together ancient Rome, one fragment at a time
At the new museum of the Forma Urbis, slabs of the famous map of the city now lie literally beneath visitors’ feet
Behind the mask – the meaning of masquerade in West Africa
Kevin Dumouchelle of the National Museum of African Art explains what a fearsome 19th-century ceremonial mask meant to its makers in Côte d’Ivoire
Acquisitions of the month: August 2024
A Madonna of the Cherries by Quentin Metsys and a very rare sketchbook by Caspar David Friedrich are among the most important works to have entered public collections in the last month
Bringing Pompeii back to life
Recent conservation efforts have led to new discoveries of stunning interiors and wall paintings that also tell us more about everyday life in the city
Pilgrims’ progress? The Vatican Jubilee has frustrated Romans and tourists alike