London Diary

Still Life with Seashell on Black Marble (1940), Henri Matisse. Photo © Archives H. Matisse © Succession H. Matisse/DACS 2017

A nosey parker’s paradise in London

Pore over Matisse’s prized possessions and get a glimpse into Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s home at these fascinating exhibitions

16 Aug 2017
Boxkampf fur die direkte Demokratie at documenta V (1972), Joseph Beuys. © Hans Albrecht Lusznat

Joseph Beuys’s boxing career

Waddington Custot celebrates Beuys’s boxing skills, while a mysterious British artist steals the show at Bagshawe Fine Art

20 Jul 2017
The Visitation (detail; 1518–19), Sebastiano del Piombo. © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Hervé Lewandowski

Which London shows are worth going indoors for?

Spring is here and the sun is out, so choose your exhibitions wisely…

11 Apr 2017
Exhausted renegade elephant, Woodland, Washington, June 1979, by Joel Sternfeld. © Joel Sternfeld. Image courtesy Beetles+Huxley and Luhring Augustine

The elephant in the road

Go and see Joel Sternfeld’s strange and beautiful photographs of the USA at Beetles+Huxley while you still can

10 Feb 2017
Installation view of 'John Baldessari: Miró and Life in General' at Marian Goodman Gallery, London. © John Baldessari. Courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, Paris & London. Photo: Thierry Bal

John Baldessari’s jumble sale style, and the wonders of Tooting Broadway

You can stumble across good art in the strangest places…

26 Jan 2017
Zaha Hadid, Installation view, Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London (8 December 2016–12 February 2017) © Zaha Hadid Foundation. Image © 2016 Hugo Glendinning

Legends in London: Zaha Hadid and Robert Rauschenberg

A look around some of London’s most talked-about winter exhibitions

23 Dec 2016
Orange Body (1969), Robert Raschenberg. © DACS

Spectacular Rauschenbergs and surprisingly good Gavin Turks

There’s an absolutely extraordinary exhibition of Robert Rauschenberg’s art in London right now – and it’s not at the Tate. Plus more London art highlights

9 Dec 2016
Author Stephen Bayley decided to baptise his book 'Death Drive' with a night of performance art in which guests were invited to destroy a beaten up old Saab...

Smashing stuff…London’s art world wakes up with a bang

Kicking off the London art season by kicking in an old Saab (for art’s sake)

27 Sep 2016
Bibi, Arlette and Irène. Storm in Cannes (May 1929), Jacques-Henri Lartigue

Art and politics in London (and where to go to escape it)

If the ‘Brexit’ debates have all got a bit much, there are some good shows on to take your mind off things

21 Jun 2016

Spilled water and naked bomber jackets in Marylebone

Returning to the scene of an embarrassing art accident…Plus, Simon Mullan’s surprisingly beautiful tiled compositions

29 May 2016
La Coupole V, Algiers, Algeria (2013), Jason Oddy

London needs a spring clean, or perhaps a period of stagnation…

The galleries haven’t changed that much, but the city itself has, and not for the better

20 Apr 2016

London has served up the diet version of Delacroix

Has the National Gallery made Delacroix a bit…dull? Can a B-movie really be classed as art? And why is Barry Flanagan only famous for his hares?

11 Mar 2016

The shows worth seeing in London this week

The art shows worth seeing in London this fortnight, from Naum Gabo’s subtle prints at Alan Cristea, to Jo Spence’s harrowing final work

15 Feb 2016

London Diary: fine art in ‘sinful Soho’

The current show at Marian Goodman gallery is a blast, and White Cube has come up with a winner, too

25 Jan 2016

London Diary: who gets to be a national treasure?

Is it acceptable to lay into an octogenarian painter who has long been a ‘national treasure’?

8 Dec 2015

London Diary: Art and Anxiety

‘I made it my mission last week to find a show that captured the city’s twitchiness.’

25 Nov 2015

London Diary

Hacktivists crash Tenderpixel’s private view; Berenice Abbott’s works intrigue at Beetles + Huxley; and Sadie Coles opens a new gallery

10 Nov 2015

London Diary: Auerbach’s City

Nobody has captured the city’s ever-changing whirl quite like Auerbach: don’t miss his shows at Tate Britain and Marlborough

26 Oct 2015

London Diary

Cartier-Bresson, Bomberg’s circle and Damien Hirst’s homage to Hoyland: don’t let Frieze week distract you from these London shows

12 Oct 2015

London Diary

Be won over by Ai Weiwei, blown away by Bridget Riley, and get lost in the National Theatre’s concrete corridors this week

29 Sep 2015

London Diary

Thank god for September. The art year has kicked off like a mule with a grievance

14 Sep 2015

London Diary

Zzzzzzz. That, in brief, is the most accurate way to sum up London at the moment

25 Aug 2015

London Diary

London is now stuck in the August doldrums. I’d complain about it more if only I could muster the energy

9 Aug 2015

London Diary

Thrilling and thoughtful work by an Angolan collective puts shows by Marc Quinn and Joseph Cornell in the shade

21 Jul 2015