Reviews

The BBC’s ‘Civilisation’ reboot is fixed firmly in the present

The update of Kenneth Clark’s landmark series takes a more questioning approach to art history

5 Mar 2018
Charles I ('Le Roi à la chasse') (detail; c. 1635), Anthony Van Dyck. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Charles I, the connoisseur king

His political judgements may have been poor, but Charles I’s art collection was first rate

3 Mar 2018
Gigantomachy II (detail; 1966), Leon Golub. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The epic battles of Leon Golub

Leon Golub’s paintings harness classical myth to criticise atrocities and abuses of power

1 Mar 2018
Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae: Plan of Ancient Rome, 16th century, Pirro Ligorio, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Reconstructing ancient Rome

An extraordinarily ambitious attempt to map the city will set off as many arguments as it solves

27 Feb 2018
Fernanda Pivano and Jack Kerouac per Segnalibro, Milano (1966), Ettore Sottsass.

Jack Kerouac’s art reminds us that his real talent was for words

An exhibition of Kerouac’s art in Milan gives some sense of his restless creativity

27 Feb 2018
Installation view of Mark Dion's 'The Library for the Birds of London' (2018) at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2018, Photo: © Jeff Spicer/PA Wire

‘There are no spectators, only participants’

Mark Dion’s playful installations at the Whitechapel Gallery turn viewers into voyeurs

22 Feb 2018
Captain Lord George Graham in his Cabin, (c. 1745), William Hogarth. National Maritime Museums, Greenwich

Group dynamics in polite society

How ‘conversation piece’ paintings summed up the social aspirations of a new social class

22 Feb 2018
Pin-up (1973/74), Friedl Kubelka.

Looking at the female gaze

At Richard Saltoun Gallery, the body is both subject and material for women artists exploring gender and sexuality

21 Feb 2018
Freedom of Expression National Monument (1984), Laurie Hawkinson, Erika Rothenberg, and John Malpede. Battery Park City landfill.

The story of public art in New York City

From historic monuments to contemporary commissions, art is everywhere in the urban environment

20 Feb 2018
Family Fortunes (detail; 2018), Dale Lewis.

The joys of junk food

Appetite is a central theme in the exuberant paintings of Dale Lewis, at Edel Assanti in London

19 Feb 2018
My Shadow's Reflection

Bock and Clark share a sensitive approach to their subjects

At the Ikon Gallery, two very different artists approach their subjects with remarkable empathy

15 Feb 2018
Abaporu (detail; 1928), Tarsila do Amaral. Collection MALBA, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires.

Tarsila do Amaral: the mother of Brazilian modernism

The first solo show in the US dedicated to the trailblazing Brazilian artist explores what it means to be the painter of one’s country

13 Feb 2018
Expansion n°14 (1970), César. MNAM/Centre Pompidou, Paris.

The art of scrap metal and expanding foam

The Centre Pompidou’s career survey of the French sculptor César reveals a body of work governed by the logic of its materials

12 Feb 2018
I Came And Went As A Ghost Hand (Cycle 2) (2015), Rachel Rossin. Installation view, Zieher Smith & Horton, 2015.

A portrait of the artist’s studio – in virtual reality

The Zabludowicz Collection’s new virtual reality exhibition space opens with a work that tests the limits and possibilities of the technology

8 Feb 2018
Moonlit Landscape (detail; before 1808), Caspar David Friedrich. Thaw Collection, Morgan Library & Museum, New York

A singular collection traces five centuries of European drawings

From Rembrandts to Pollocks, the drawings collected by the late Eugene Thaw tell a remarkable tale

7 Feb 2018
Reclining Nude (1919), Amedeo Modigliani. Museum of Modern Art, New York

Modigliani’s powerfully modern portraits get the attention they deserve

The Tate’s blockbuster exhibition gives Modigliani’s reputation a welcome boost, prioritising his art over biography

6 Feb 2018
The Erechtheion caryatid, purchased from the British Museum and displayed in the 12th-century gallery of the Trocadéro, adjacent to the smiling angel from Reims Cathedral. From P. F. J. Marcou, Album du Musée de Sculpture Comparée, vol. 2 (Paris, 1897), courtesy Princeton University Press

Are copies coming in from the cold?

Plaster casts of monuments have long been an unfashionable feature in museums – but the art of copying may be coming into its own again

6 October 1942/ 6. Oktober 1942 (1943), Hannah Ryggen

The revolutionary craft of Hannah Ryggen

The artist’s tapestries, made on a remote farm in Norway, remained fiercely engaged with the political events of their time

5 Feb 2018
The Enchanted Room (detail; 1917), Carlo Carrà.

Milan’s modern masters enchant at the Estorick

The Pinacoteca di Brera’s overlooked collection of modern Italian art gets a welcome outing in London

1 Feb 2018
Correspondence O (still; 2017), Ilona Sagar

The archival experiments of Ilona Sagar

The artist’s film installation explores the history of a radical 1930s health centre and its south London home

30 Jan 2018
Measure for Measure 7 (2016), Bridget Riley

‘A visceral assault on the senses’

Bridget Riley’s monumental abstract paintings are as mysterious as they are mesmerising

26 Jan 2018
CONDO 2018

A warm welcome for out-of-town guests at Condo 2018

The gallery-sharing initiative’s third edition provides a hopeful model for collaboration and creativity

25 Jan 2018
Michelangelo's David at the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence. Still from Great Art (dir. David Bickerstaff)

ITV’s ‘Great Art’ brings art broadcasting back to basics

Episodes on Michelangelo, Canaletto and the Impressionists make the case for a simple approach to art on telly

23 Jan 2018
Two London Painters (Frank Auerbach and Sandra Fisher), (1979), R.B. Kitaj, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

R.B. Kitaj in his own words

The painter’s posthumously published memoir is a candid record of his obsessions

23 Jan 2018