Search results for: First Look

Illustration: David Biskup

Could contemporary art be less wasteful?

What effect do contemporary artists have on the environment – and should this affect what we think about their work?

27 Jan 2020
The Gamble Room at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

The ace caff that now leaves a bad taste – at the V&A Café

Henry Cole had the art of the museum cafe down to a tee. Oh for his veal cutlets!

27 Jan 2020
The Egyptian Antiques Seller, (1884), Charles Wilda.

The Victorian collectors who loved art from ancient Egypt

The reunited fragments of a bowl in Bolton Museum can tell us a lot about the longstanding British enthusiasm for ancient Egypt

25 Jan 2020
Rose Wylie photographed in her cottage in Kent in November 2019.

‘When you’re an artist, you don’t have to do what you’re told to do’ – an interview with Rose Wylie

Inspired by everything from Tarantino films to chocolate biscuits, the artist’s exuberant, comic-strip canvases are utterly unmistakable

18 Jan 2020
(detail; 1969), Pat Douthwaite.Happiness is Green Shield Stamps

Highlights of London Art Fair – and beyond

Modern British art gets a strong showing this month, while Condo also returns to the capital

17 Jan 2020
Alasdair Gray (2004), Norman McBeath.

‘He invented modern Glasgow’ – a tribute to Alasdair Gray (1934–2019)

The painter-novelist was one of a kind – but his influence will continue to shape the imagination of Scotland

17 Jan 2020
Silver cup showing Priam supplicating Achilles, Roman, 1st century. National Museum of Denmark. Photo: Roberta Fortuna and Kira Ursem; © National Museet Denmark Photo: Roberta Fortuna and Kira Ursem; © National Museet Denmark

Priam suspect – myths about ancient Troy collide with reality at the British Museum

The myth of the ancient city has fascinated artists through the ages – and invited archaeologists to dig deeper into the legend

15 Jan 2020
Bateau ivre en détresse (detail; 1987) Jacqueline de Jong.

Freedom of movement – the lively paintings of Jacqueline de Jong

The artist’s canvases are full of colour and motion and an energetic sense of play

14 Jan 2020
Hochwasser (2006), Norbert Schwontkowski.

Feast of burden – the uneasy paintings of Norbert Schwontkowski

The artist’s murkily atmospheric works convey a deep sense of anxiety with a wry touch

14 Jan 2020
View of the garden of the Fondation Carter – Theatrum Botanicum by Lothar Baumgarten. Photo: Luc Boegly

The art galleries branching out – with shows about trees

At the Fondation Cartier and soon at the Hayward Gallery, art really does grow on trees

8 Jan 2020
A postcard showing the Kursaal Casino and Music Hall, which was on Alfi Bey Street in the Ezbekiyya district of Cairo.

Life was a cabaret – the Roaring Twenties in Cairo

Most traces of the city’s early 20th-century nightlife have now disappeared. Only the shells of former casinos and theatres hint at this bygone era

6 Jan 2020
The Abduction of Ganymede (detail; 1635), Rembrandt van Rijn.

Haul of shame – the ‘trophy art’ taken from Germany by the Red Army

Their existence is no longer a secret, but the status of many of the works seized after the Second World War remains unclear

6 Jan 2020
The Pazzi Conspiracy (Lorenzo de’ Medici) (1478), Bertoldo di Giovanni (obverse on left from Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Glorence; reverse on right, promised gift to the Frick Collection, New York)

The sculptor who found favour with Lorenzo de’ Medici – Bertoldo di Giovanni at the Frick, reviewed

He is best known as the pupil of Donatello and teacher of Michelangelo, but the Florentine sculptor has more than enough accomplishments of his own

4 Jan 2020
The young Susi Korihana Theri swimming, infrared film, Catrimani, Roraima (1972–74), Claudia Andujar.

Casting an eye over the year ahead in photography

A new festival in Melbourne and a survey of Claudia Andujar in Paris are among the events to watch out for in 2020

2 Jan 2020
Within Reach (detail; 2019), Jordan Casteel.

The politics of pregnancy and the future of painting – contemporary art highlights in 2020

Highlights in the year ahead include a spate of shows around the theme of maternity and a survey of recent figurative painting

1 Jan 2020

Giddy heights in the Gulf and Shanghai and rescue missions in the UK – the year ahead in architecture

What to watch in the world of architecture in 2020, from the race to become the world’s tallest building to increasingly urgent conservation battles

26 Dec 2019
Standing Figure with African Masks (2018), Claudette Johnson. Tate, London

Books, biennials and trailblazing women – artists select their highlights of 2019

Artists including Lubaina Himid, Hew Locke and Ibrahim Mahama pick out their favourite shows and events of the past year

24 Dec 2019

‘The most accomplished watercolourist of his day’

Fifty years after his death, William Russell Flint – once hugely popular, if critically spurned – deserves reevaluation

21 Dec 2019
The west side of Henbury Hall in Cheshire, designed by Julian Bicknell and built in 1986–87.

When Palladio came to Cheshire – in the 1980s

Henbury Hall is a fine example of neo-Palladian architecture. But what does it mean to recreate a historical style?

‘The Prophet Muhammad encounters the angel of half-fire and half-snow’, miniature from a copy of al-Sarai’s Nahj al-Faradis (c. 1465), Herat.

Eye of the beholder – how the Prophet Muhammad has been depicted through the centuries

Museums have avoided displaying images of the Prophet in recent years – but might this not do a disservice to the heritage of Islam?

18 Dec 2019
The ‘Getty fire’ in Brentwood, California on 28 October 2019 (with the Getty Center visible in the background).

What makes a museum ‘fire-proof’?

The Getty Center’s fire prevention system is a standard-bearer for museums and historic properties worldwide

17 Dec 2019
Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton (1573–1624) (detail; c. 1593–97), unknown artist.

Reign makers – Roy Strong’s guide to Elizabethan portraits, reviewed

This authoritative survey gives some of the most familiar works of English art a new lease of life

16 Dec 2019

The Royal Academy goes gonzo

This week the institution elected the first female president in its 251-year history. Its Twitter account seems to be taking an *even* more radical direction

13 Dec 2019
Beethoven with the manuscript for Missa Solemnis (detail; 1820), Joseph Karl Stieler.

Beethoven: World, Citizen, Music

Exploring the life and times of the great composer through artworks, archive materials and period instruments

Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn
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