Search results for: first look

A view of Tate Modern, London, in March 2020.

Programme notes – Museums in Quarantine on BBC4, reviewed

Alistair Sooke and Simon Schama take on tour-guide duties in a series of new 30-minute films. But how satisfying can the Tate on the telly really be?

30 Apr 2020
£5 banknote, designed by Reynolds Stone in 1963

A cut above – the singular style of Reynolds Stone

The designer may not be a household name, but his work is still instantly recognisable – from passports and magazines to banknotes and bookplates

28 Apr 2020
Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (La Pittura) (detail; c. 1638–39), Artemisia Gentileschi.

The trials and triumphs of Artemisia Gentileschi

The artist knew exactly how to cultivate her own image, ensuring her great success – both then and now

25 Apr 2020
Lovejoy

How Apollo made its mark on Lovejoy

Your favourite art magazine has been spotted in the vintage BBC comedy-drama – though always in the hands of dodgy antiques dealers

24 Apr 2020
Cameo of Shapur and Valerian (detail; after 260), Iran. Photo: © Bibliothèque nationale de France

Knight riders – displays of chivalry at the Louvre Abu Dhabi

The museum makes the most of its French connections in this survey of conduct across medieval Europe and the Middle East

24 Apr 2020
Thomas Cromwell (detail), (1532–33), Hans Holbein. The Frick Collection, New York.

‘Hilary Mantel brings her characters to life with as much clarity as a Holbein portrait’

The novelist’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy suggestively fills in what art historians can only guess at

23 Apr 2020
Octagonal Drawing (1976), Ann Churchill.

When the medium is the messenger – the art of communicating with spirits

From Victorian spiritualists to contemporary practitioners, there is a long history of art – and drawing in particular – taking an interest in the unseen

20 Apr 2020
Femmes à leur toilette (1937–38), Pablo Picasso.

Material benefits – ‘Picasso and Paper’, reviewed

The pleasure Picasso took in paper as a medium was palpable in the Royal Academy’s recent show

18 Apr 2020
Shropshire Regiment ‘Whitewash Brigade’ emptying items from Chinese homes in Taipingshan, Hong Kong, and burning them on the street as an epidemic control measure during the 1894 plague outbreak.

How photography has shaped our experience of pandemics

From lockdowns to mass burials, the ways we visualise Covid-19 were established by photographers in the late 19th century

16 Apr 2020
A view of ‘15 untitled works in concrete’ by Donald Judd in Marfa, Texas, in 2012. Photo: Scott Halleran/Getty Images

Minimal effort – ‘The Longing for Less’ by Kyle Chayka, reviewed

This hard-to-classify book brings together Donald Judd, Japanese aesthetics, and the aspirations of contemporary lifestyle bloggers

15 Apr 2020
Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera (1717), Antoine Watteau. Musée du Louvre, Paris, Photo: © Musée du Louvre, dist. RMN-Grand Palais

Fashion forward – the dashing designs of Antoine Watteau

The artist’s fashion etchings hint at the delight in transient pleasures that is so evident in his paintings

11 Apr 2020
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

Curatorial cocktails at the Frick

The curators at the Frick are to brighten up cocktail hour in Manhattan – and Rakewell is already pouring himself a drink

9 Apr 2020
‘Ways of Seeing’ app in use before Jacopo del Sellaio’s painting in the Octagon Gallery at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Schoolchildren, science and smartphones shine new light on a Florentine masterpiece

An interdisciplinary project at the Fitzwilliam Museum has revealed tantalising possibilities about Jacopo del Sellaio’s Cupid and Psyche

Barbara Palmer (née Villiers), Duchess of Cleveland with her son, probably Charles Fitzroy, as the Virgin and Child (c. 1664), Peter Lely. National Portrait Gallery, London

Mischief-making mistresses at the court of Charles II

How the women at the heart of the Restoration court ‘weaponised’ portraits that flaunted their influence over the king

4 Apr 2020
Susanna and the Elders (1652), Artemisia Gentileschi.

Keeping up with Artemisia

The National Gallery’s Artemisia exhibition may be postponed, writes its curator, but there are plenty of ways to explore her work in the meantime

3 Apr 2020

What now for art businesses? Thoughts from an art lawyer in a time of crisis

What steps can art businesses take to temper the risks they face during the Covid-19 pandemic?

2 Apr 2020
André Malraux, in his role as culture minister, inaugurating an Impressionist exhibition in Paris in 1966.

Has André Malraux’s imaginary museum come into its own?

The French writer and politician is widely credited as the inventor of the ‘virtual’ or ‘imaginary’ museum – but what exactly did he have in mind?

2 Apr 2020
Wallpaper design, ‘Trellis’ (detail; designed 1862, first produced 1864), William Morris. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Priming up the walls – on colour and confinement

Some choose their wallpaper, some have paint schemes thrust upon them… a decorative dérive through the history of colour and interiors

1 Apr 2020
Michael Sorkin.

‘The most humane, most incisive and most readable writer on architecture of the modern age’ – a tribute to Michael Sorkin

The critic and architect fervently believed that architecture should promote social justice

31 Mar 2020
The dining room of the Villa Majorelle, designed by Henri Sauvage (1873–1932) and built in 1901–02, with a fireplace designed by Alexandre Bigot (1862–1927) and stained glass by Jacques Gruber (1870–1936). Photo: S. Levaillant; © musée d’École de Nancy

‘Living in it would be delectable but exhausting’ – at the Villa Majorelle

The art nouveau house Henri Sauvage designed for the manufacturer Louis Majorelle has been restored to its richly decorated former glory

30 Mar 2020
Untitled (Village Street Scene)(1948), Beauford Delaney. Terra Foundation for American Art. © Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator

‘Here is a man who could do whatever interested him in paint’ – on the paintings of Beauford Delaney

After a period of critical neglect the artist is at last in the ascendant, as his great friend James Baldwin always thought he would be

30 Mar 2020
Christo and Jeanne-Claude at The Pont Neuf Wrapped (1975–85) in 1985.

‘Freedom cannot be invented’ – an interview with Christo

The artist discusses his unorthodox methods, his long partnership with the late Jeanne-Claude, and finally being allowed to wrap the Arc de Triomphe

28 Mar 2020
The John Madejski Garden at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

‘The building is locked but toilets still need to be flushed’ – on closing the V&A

The museum has had to put its building to sleep – its galleries now populated by only security guards and ghosts

27 Mar 2020