CONTEMPORARY ART

Freud’s animals

A new painting of a horse by Lucian Freud shows that his genius for portraiture is not applied only to humans.

ARCHITECTURE

Keeping an open mind

Listed-building laws provide an essential opportunity for us to change our opinions of buildings that were unpopular when new.

Beauty in pursuit of pleasure

19th-century Chinese export watercolours on pith depict a variety of idealised, attractive women. Ifan Williams traces the sources for these popular images, which appealed to western audiences as representations of the sophistication and exoticism of Chinese civilisation.

Ceramics of Thailand’s ‘Golden Age’

The ceramics made in Thailand between the 13th and 15th centuries are among the less well-known achievements of Asian craftsmen, but new discoveries and research are bringing them to greater public attention. Philip Courtenay discusses the current state of knowledge about these appealing wares, which are beginning to attract serious collectors.

6,000 years of Asia’s art

To mark the 40th anniversary of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, its curators present a selection of recent acquisitions by the museum, one of the world’s greatest and most diverse collections of the continent’s art. They range in time from remote antiquity to work by cutting-edge contemporary artists.

An Englishman abroad

Robin Jones discusses a remarkable collection that reveals much about the impact of British taste on art and craft in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in the 19th century.

Art to live with

Asian art offers rich opportunities for creating a serious collection. Louise Nicholson talks to four distinguished American collectors, whose passions range from Indian painting and Japanese decorative arts to cutting-edge contemporary Chinese work.