Reviews
Art history creeps into the XL Catlin Art Prize
Figurative art is making a comeback, if this year’s shortlist of promising early-career artists is anything to go by
The Russian portraits at the NPG are a revelation
Russia’s 19th-century portraitists were more than a match for the exceptional writers and composers they painted. So why is their work so neglected?
Say it with flowers – and butterflies, ladybirds, cockroaches…
Two exhibitions in London celebrate the beautiful, subtle botanical paintings of 17th-century Holland
Selfies, sexuality and self-parody: when artists perform for the camera
Artists recognised the power of the staged image long before Instagram came along
Howard Hodgkin’s paintings get better and better
How strange that this great British painter claims to ‘hate painting’ when he is so good at it
Women printmakers make a good impression in New York
Was there a distinctly ‘female’ printmaking in this period? Not really – but that’s what’s so interesting
‘It is what it is.’ Dan Flavin’s iconic light fittings in the Ikon Gallery
Flavin’s fluorescent light pieces continue to transform the spaces in which they are installed. But time is changing how we see the pieces, too
Manuele Cerutti and the fine art of balancing
The everyday objects in Cerutti’s Turin studio are transformed in his paintings: poised, precarious, and forever in suspense
Visionary palaces in a gallery’s empty basement
Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s palace designs came to ‘nothing more than a beautiful dream’ – and, thankfully, a fascinating set of prints
Berlin’s wartime bunkers are becoming unlikely havens for art
Désiré Feuerle is the latest person to move his art collection underground
Crumbs! Here’s a gallery full of somebody else’s seedy secrets
‘I began wasting my god-given talent drawing pictures of sexy women the way I liked ‘em’. An exhibition of R. Crumb’s work invites us all to become voyeurs
Robert Ryman and the many shades of white
An exhibition of Ryman’s eerie paintings in New York rewards repeated viewings
Andy Warhol, Richard Avedon and five Marilyn Monroes
For a handy reminder of why Warhol was so radical, head to Gagosian Gallery’s ‘Avedon Warhol’ exhibition in London
A strange tale of cruelty and creativity in the Moroccan desert
Ben Rivers’ attempt to reveal the artifice of filmmaking is somehow dull and disconcerting at the same time
Should museums be ideology-free?
A new book which argues that museums should be above politics is hardly above politics itself
Never mind the buttocks
An exhibition in Florence finally gives Carlo Portelli the attention he deserves
Surveillance and secrecy in Gateshead and London
Hajra Waheed’s exhibitions at BALTIC and the Mosaic Rooms are full of strange, evocative details
Dorset, in a Mediterranean light
John Craxton is known today for his sparkling paintings of Greece. But he first found inspiration in the colder, darker landscapes of rural England
British artists at the seaside
Dorset had a profound impact on a group of Slade painters, as an exhibition at Bristol’s Royal West of England Academy makes very clear
This is reckless restoration of the very best kind
Elizabeth Price’s new video is an audacious act of extrapolation, that asks deep questions about our impulse to preserve, restore, and destroy
G.F. Watts used to be ridiculed – how did he make a comeback?
With the reopening of the Watts Studios, an amazing revival of the painter’s reputation, and of his wife Mary’s, is almost complete
An artistic pilgrimage that will make you see London in a spiritual light
You don’t have to be Christian to appreciate the ‘Stations of the Cross’ trail this Easter weekend
Ed Ruscha mixes it up in Turin
The artist turned collector – and a display that reveals his very diverse interests
The Met Breuer’s biggest strength is its ability to make you think
Two fresh and distinct inaugural exhibitions could set a new blueprint for the museum
Seeing London through Frank Auerbach’s eyes