Reviews

Installation view of ‘Sarah Lucas: Au Naturel’ at the New Museum, New York, 2018.

The shock value of Sarah Lucas still hasn’t worn off

Lucas made her name as one of the more provocative YBAs. Two decades later, her work continues to surprise

22 Nov 2018
Portrait of Gertrude Jekyll (detail; 1910–11), Mary Swanzy. Private collection

Mary Swanzy – a modern Irish master?

The work of this accomplished painter has long been hiding in plain sight

21 Nov 2018
The Chocolate Girl (c. 1744), Jean-Étienne Liotard

How Liotard’s Chocolate Girl charmed the city of Dresden

The Venetian pastellist Rosalba Carriera once described the work as ‘the most beautiful pastel ever seen’

20 Nov 2018
Laus Veneris (1873–78), Edward Burne-Jones.

Understanding the enigma of Edward Burne-Jones

The Victorian artist’s otherworldly visions have long been misunderstood

17 Nov 2018
Alzata, Mario Bellini

How Mario Bellini is breathing new life into Venetian glass

In his experimental collaborations with the historic Venini factory, the artist reveals the true versatility of glass

16 Nov 2018
Three Angles (2018), El Anatsui. Installation view at the Carnegie Museum of Art for the 57th Carnegie International in 2018.

Around the globe at the Carnegie International

The 57th edition of the exhibition in Pittsburgh is a truly international affair

15 Nov 2018

Gerhard Munthe – a madcap medievalist in 19th-century Norway

The artist and designer sought to craft a distinct national style, but he also had much in common with the British

14 Nov 2018
Scavengers (1994), Paula Rego

Paula Rego paints a world of nightmares and secrets

Drawing on sources from Balzac to Disney, Rego’s pictures hint at narratives filled with mystery

14 Nov 2018
Brüderstrasse (Free Room) (1930), Jeanne Mammen. The George Economou Collection

Visions of a dark world in the art of Weimar Germany

The works produced in Germany’s interwar period reflect the turbulence of a decade marked by trauma, hope and crisis

10 Nov 2018

A bewitching history of magic at the Ashmolean

An ancient cow’s heart and a witches’ ladder are among the intriguing objects in this exploration of magical thinking

Mario Merz in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.

The enigmatic igloos of Mario Merz

An unreal city of the the artist’s spherical structures has sprouted at the Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan

7 Nov 2018
General Moses (Harriet Tubman) (1965), Charles White.

Dignity and divinity in the portraits of Charles White

Throughout his career White devoted his talent to celebrating the lives of other black Americans

5 Nov 2018
Installation view of ‘The Tables Have Turned’ (2008) by Nalini Malini at Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Torino in 2018.

Nalini Malani turns to a Greek myth to retell Indian tragedies

The artist takes the story of Cassandra and turns the doomed Trojan seer into a figure for our times

2 Nov 2018
The Bathing Posts, Brittany (1893), James McNeill Whistler.

How Whistler tamed nature in his landscape scenes

With the man-made world a strong presence in his Nocturnes, beach scenes and gardens, Whistler was no pure nature boy

31 Oct 2018
Toward Damascus at the Foot of Mount Qassioun, Muhajreen Quarter, c. 1933, Mustafa Farroukh, Collection Hani Farroukh

The modern Arab artists who have turned to words

A century of writing by and about artists from the Arab world is full of debates that still resonate today

30 Oct 2018

The cosmic visions of Richard Pousette-Dart

After an early involvement with Abstract Expressionism the painter set out on a more spiritual path

30 Oct 2018
John Rothenstein book jacket

John Rothenstein’s turbulent time at the Tate

The museum’s fifth director presided over a difficult period of its history, but left it in a better state than he found it

26 Oct 2018
Isabella, Duchess of Manchester, 1738, Andrea Soldi, Whitfield Fine Art

The Foundling Museum puts women in their rightful place

Portraits of men have been replaced with those of the women who first petitioned George II to set up the Foundling Hospital

25 Oct 2018
Listening in the Dark (film still; 2018), Maeve Brennan.

Maeve Brennan puts out a bat-signal for the planet

The artists flags the unforeseen environmental effects of wind turbines in this award-winning film project

22 Oct 2018
Installation view of Claudia Fontes’ exhibition at the 33rd Bienal de São Paulo, ‘Affective Affinities’, 2018.

Artists are taking back control at the São Paulo biennial

The displays curated by artists at this year’s event are a welcome change from the traditional biennial format

18 Oct 2018
Small photograph with analysis of drawing by (1935), Reuben Mednikoff.

Psychorealism by the sea with Grace Pailthorpe and Reuben Mednikoff

André Breton once described the pair as the ‘best and most truly Surrealist’ of British artists

17 Oct 2018
The City (still; 2018), Rossella Biscotti.

Digging down into Turkey’s Neolithic city

Communities past and present are explored in Rossella Biscotti’s film of the excavations at Çatalhöyük

13 Oct 2018
Fan tile panel (detail; 1872–1904), William De Morgan.

The dizzying mathematical designs of William De Morgan

The kaleidoscopic effects in the designer’s ceramics are largely down to his love of geometry

11 Oct 2018
The Mango Trees, Martinique (detail; 1887), Paul Gauguin.

How four months in Martinique helped Gauguin make his name

The artist saw himself as an exotic outsider, and his voyage to the Caribbean in 1887 as a transformative experience

10 Oct 2018