Reviews
Why are artists obsessed with death?
To devote an entire show and a book exclusively to artists’ images of death – and nothing else – seems profoundly odd
A moving picture of Vincent van Gogh
The new film ‘Loving Vincent’ has its mawkish moments, but its oil-painted imagery sets it apart
Taking notes with Alec Soth
Soth’s photographs in ‘Sleeping by the Mississippi’ are beautiful and intriguing, but the stories behind them bring them to life
The art market in the Forum
A new exhibition at the Bucerius Art Forum in Hamburg looks at how the market for art changed in 17th-century Holland
How the French Rothschilds turned their private passions into public gifts
A monumental new study argues that ‘the patronage of the French Rothschild family is a European history of taste’
The international mission of Tate’s Cornish outpost
Tate St Ives reopens to the public this autumn following the completion of a major expansion
Norway’s top art prize brings the focus back home
The four artists shortlisted for this year’s Lorck Schive Kunstpris all find ways of challenging local artistic traditions
The Foundling Museum brings Joseph Highmore out of the shadows
Joseph Highmore’s morality tales are just as engaging as those of his contemporary William Hogarth
Debates in America had a powerful impact on black British artists
‘Soul of a Nation’ is the most significant contribution to debates around black art to date
Thomas Gainsborough, the good-time guy
James Hamilton’s biography of Thomas Gainsborough presents the painter as a lad about town
Ever seen an eyeball card? How about a UFO?
A new book series explores the strange subcultures of post-war Britain, from CB radio enthusiasts to alien investigators
Oswald Birley’s society portraits should have a wider public
The portraitist was highly sought after in his heyday, but his reputation has languished in recent years
The stuff of art: objects from Matisse’s studio
The objects in Matisse’s collection shaped his revolutionary aesthetic, and inspired him to push beyond the boundaries of the European tradition
Space exploration with Lucio Fontana
Eleven of Lucio Fontana’s ‘Spatial Environments’ have been meticulously recreated in Milan – and the effects are extraordinary
The new Chapman brothers show is delightful and disturbing – and you need to see it
Featuring Goya, teddy bears and suicide vests, ‘The Disasters of Everyday Life’ is puerile, provocative, and superb
A quiet but powerful Turner Prize
The four artists shortlisted this year tackle ideas about rootlessness and belonging in a series of understated works
Cataloguing the Ashmolean’s baroque paintings is no mean feat
The Oxford museum’s lavish new publication is a triumph of scholarship
Urs Fischer’s bonfire of the vanities in Florence
Two wax sculptures of art impresarios were ceremonially lit today in Florence’s Piazza della Signoria
How the Pre-Raphaelites reflected on the past
What did the Pre-Raphaelite painters see when they looked at the Old Masters – and how did they use what they saw?
Rachel Whiteread’s conspicuous absences
The artist’s ongoing record of what was not there becomes more thought-provoking as time passes
The collector who tried to reassemble the ancient world
Cassiano dal Pozzo’s paper museum, consisting of thousands of drawings, attempted to encapsulate the knowledge of his time
Getting to grips with China’s bewildering bapo paintings
The paintings might be puzzles but they deserve to be better known
The men who pretended to be kings – and the art they inspired
Paintings, jewellery, clothes, and weapons could all be used to show support for the Jacobite pretenders’ claims to the throne
How India inspired Howard Hodgkin
‘Painting India’ at the Hepworth Wakefield includes many of the artist’s most engaging and joyful paintings
Seeing London through Frank Auerbach’s eyes