Reviews

Hanging scroll depicting the goddess Dakini (detail; 14th century), Japan. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

How artists in Kyoto made contemplative work in turbulent times

The Met’s display of 14 centuries of work from the longtime artistic centre of Japan gives plenty of pause for thought

10 Apr 2020
Fling, Dribble, and Drip (detail; 1970), Lynda Benglis, frontispiece of Jerry Saltz’s How to be an Artist (2020).

Freedom of expression – Jerry Saltz’s ‘How to be an Artist’, reviewed

The critic’s guide to creative living is full of joy – but how far can you get by following someone else’s rules?

8 Apr 2020
Cape Ann Granite (1928), Edward Hopper

The forgotten landscapes of Edward Hopper

The great painter of urban solitude was also a dab hand at empty expanses – from dunes and forests to the open road

6 Apr 2020
Tomb of the Unknown Whore (No. 2) (1965), William N. Copley.

Sex and the city – William N. Copley in New York

The American artist fused Surrealism and Pop to create an eccentric – and highly erotic – style that was all his own

31 Mar 2020
The Yusupov Palace theatre, designed by Andrey Mikhailov in the 1830s,

Russian spark – the palace builders of St Petersburg 

A ritzy new book brings to life the eclectic tastes and unbridled opulence of aristocratic families in late imperial Russia

27 Mar 2020
Thomas McKeller (detail) (1917–21), John Singer Sargent. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

‘Thomas McKeller was singular among Sargent’s pantheon of models’

What did it mean for a wildly successful artist to paint a black elevator operator in stuffy Boston society?

26 Mar 2020
The Silhouette of the Artist (1907), Léon Spilliaert. Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent. Photo: Hugo Maertens

Solitary refinement – the uncanny art of Léon Spilliaert

The Belgian Symbolist is at his spookiest and most original when he depicts reality

25 Mar 2020
Terraza Alta III (2018), Abel Rodríguez.

A visual journey through the Amazon rainforest

Displaced from his home in the Colombian Amazon, Abel Rodríguez draws on his memories to document its flora and fauna

24 Mar 2020
Photo of F.E. McWilliam’s studio in 1939

Show business – the artists who realised a house could be more than just a home

Artists who had studios and homes specially built for them often wanted to create spaces that would boost their careers

23 Mar 2020
Portrait of Baudouin de Lannoye (detail; c. 1435), Jan van Eyck.

Close encounters – Van Eyck in Ghent, reviewed

How Van Eyck achieved his effects is still very hard to explain, but there’s no denying their power

18 Mar 2020
Flinders Petrie Admiring a Find, the Ramesseum, Western Thebes (1895), Henry Wallis. Courtesy University College London Art Museum

Henry Wallis – the Pre-Raphaelite painter who fell out of fashion

The artist’s ‘The Death of Chatterton’ was one of the most popular paintings of the 19th century, but what else did he do?

18 Mar 2020
The Plant that Heals May Also Poison (1974), Ree Morton.

Plastic, pastries and pastel tones – Ree Morton at the ICA LA, reviewed

In a career that lasted barely a decade, the American artist forged a distinctive – and highly personal – voice

17 Mar 2020
City II (1968) Huguette Caland

‘A real hit parade of work from almost every country in the Arab world’

An important survey of abstract Arab art throws up questions about the influences swirling around in the post-war period

3 Mar 2020
7th Nov. (still; 2001), Steve McQueen.

In sharp focus – Steve McQueen at Tate Modern, reviewed

A series of understated yet powerful works make clear that McQueen is as effective in the gallery as in the cinema

2 Mar 2020
(1638–40), Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Musei Capitolini, Rome.

Baroque stars – the birth of a style in 17th-century Rome

Caravaggio and Bernini are the headliners – but the Rijksmuseum’s show reveals the range of artists who adopted the baroque style

2 Mar 2020
Adèle Haenel and Noémie Merlant in Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

Burning desires – Céline Sciamma’s ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’, reviewed

The French director’s film about an 18th-century painter and her muse is a visual feast

26 Feb 2020
Documentation of the yard and porch of the artist Emmer Sewell.

African-American artists from the South put on a show of defiance

A survey of black artists from the American South reveals how oppression and inequality couldn’t crush their creativity

25 Feb 2020
Illustration from César-antechrist (detail; 1895), Alfred Jarry.

Personality cult – Alfred Jarry makes an impression at the Morgan Library

The creator of King Ubu and inventor of pataphysics was deeply attached to the art of the book

25 Feb 2020
Notgeld from the Harz Mountains, 1921.

Money matters – the art of German hyperinflation

The emergency money issued by many German towns during the First World War featured a range of designs – including witches, devils and donkeys

20 Feb 2020

Nature boy – how John Nash brought new life to British landscape painting

A new biography reasserts the significance of the self-described ‘artist plantsman’ among his modern British peers

19 Feb 2020
Untitled (1977), Linder.

A cut above – Linder takes over Kettle’s Yard

The artist’s feminist photomontages fill the galleries, while the house is now punctuated with her interventions – and the scent of potpourri

18 Feb 2020
Installation view of 'Vivian Suter: Tintin's Sofa' at Camden Arts Centre, 2019.

Force of nature – the weathered canvases of Vivian Suter

Vivian Suter’s paintings, on show at Camden Arts Centre, are marked by the elements of the rainforest where she works – as well as by her dogs’ paws

17 Feb 2020
Two of a deck of 78 tarot cards designed by Salvador Dalí and originally published in 1983–84.

Surreal deal – on Salvador Dalí’s tarot deck

Long out of print, the cards have been reissued by Taschen. But what of the artistic merits of their designs?

Potato Head (detail; c. 1963–65), Sigmar Polke.

Floating around on Planet Polke

Potatoes orbit around barstools and beer spurts out of coasters in the whimsical worlds explored by Sigmar Polke

13 Feb 2020