Will the Glasgow School of Art ever be rebuilt?
Six years after the devastating fire, Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s masterpiece is no closer to being restored. What can possibly explain the delay?
Behind the mask – the meaning of masquerade in West Africa
Kevin Dumouchelle of the National Museum of African Art explains what a fearsome 19th-century ceremonial mask meant to its makers in Côte d’Ivoire
Piecing together ancient Rome, one fragment at a time
At the new museum of the Forma Urbis, slabs of the famous map of the city now lie literally beneath visitors’ feet
Lina Iris Viktor strikes gold at the Soane Museum
The artist has made a series of works that stand up to the space – and are attention-grabbing in their own right
Parcours des Mondes offers a world of opportunity
The Paris event celebrating art from around the world returns this autumn with a new focus on modern and contemporary work
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Acquisitions of the month: August 2024
A Madonna of the Cherries by Quentin Metsys and a very rare sketchbook by Caspar David Friedrich are among the most important works to have entered public collections in the last month
Anna Sorokin puts her best foot forward
Undeterred by a security tag on her ankle, the convicted con artist is taking to the small screen for Dancing with the Stars
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In the studio with… Eduardo Terrazas
The Mexican artist, known for his woven works that borrow from folk-art traditions, listens to Bach and Rosalía while working in his studio in Colonia Roma, Mexico City
In the studio with… Joy Labinjo
The artist observes a long working day in her studio in Harringay, but enjoys listening to bashment, riding her Peloton and thumbing through books by Kerry James Marshall
September 2024
• Bringing Pompeii back to life
• The surreal films of Jan Švankmajer
• The cat ladies of contemporary art
Plus:
Apollo celebrates 40 artists, patrons, thinkers and business-people blurring the line between art and craft; the Italian museum memorialising an unsolved plane crash; reviews of Paula Modersohn-Becker in New York, Elisabeth Frink’s menagerie, and Eileen Agar’s memoir of an unconventional life – and Jonathan Lethem remembers meeting a feather-brained friend in Maine
Tamsin Wimhurst: the woman who saves the extraordinary homes of ordinary people
The social historian who bought the David Parr House in Cambridge finds herself drawn to fantastical interiors in unexpected settings
The surreal films of Jan Švankmajer
When it comes to conjuring the uncanny atmosphere and impossible logic of dreams, the Czech film-maker has few equals
Bringing Pompeii back to life
Recent conservation efforts have led to new discoveries of stunning interiors and wall paintings that also tell us more about everyday life in the city
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The fragile business of French art
In 18th-century France, an emerging consumer society created a new kind of buyer and encouraged artists to look to the short-term
The shape-shifting art of Adam Bruce Thomson
The Scottish painter’s openness to developments in modern art led him to adopt a remarkable number of styles in the course of a long career
When Francis Bacon made furniture
The artist did his best to destroy any traces of his work as a designer, but the little that survives offers new perspectives on his art
The endless mystique of Franz Kafka
The term ‘Kafkaesque’ is in constant use and misuse, but, a century on from his death, are we any closer to understanding the man himself?
The joyous art of fancy Victorian ices
Modern creations may offer a riot of flavours but in form they’re no match for the fantastical shapes of the past
Jeremy Frey weaves new worlds
The seventh-generation basketry artist is bringing new dynamism to an ancient craft
On the road with Ed Ruscha
The artist laureate of Los Angeles also draws on the everyday junk of Southern California to embellish the myth of a city nestled between the ocean and the desert
Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers
The two years the artist spent in Arles and Saint-Rémy in the south of France are the focus of this exhibition at the National Gallery in London
Maurice de Vlaminck: Modern Art Rebel
The first exhibition of de Vlaminck’s work in Germany since his death in 1958 demonstrates his remarkable knack for intensely colourful landscapes
Playing with Design: Gameboards, Art, and Culture
The rich visual history of gameboards since the mid 18th century is celebrated in this show, which also highlights how abstract art influenced game design
Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment
An exhibition in Washington, D.C. displays 130 works by the leading lights of Impressionism, and zooms in on how photography shaped the movement
In praise of the cat ladies of contemporary art
Hettie Judah considers how artists such as Tracey Emin and Kiki Smith have represented the sacred bond between women and their cats