CONTENTS November 2007
CONTEMPORARY ART
Master of mud
Martin Gayford talks to Richard Long, the world’s most celebrated landscape artist, about mud and ‘big ideas’
ARCHITECTURE
Almost unbearable
The German war cemeteries in Belgium contain one of the greatest artistic responses to World War I, writes Gavin Stamp
Around the galleries
A stellar exhibition of Old Master paintings and a host of prestigious art and antique fairs sets up November as a bumper month for collectors, writes Isabel Andrews.
Collectors' focus
A sharp wane in demand for traditional 19th-century works coupled with a reappraisal of Picasso’s early contemporaries by a new generation of collectors has shaken up this market, writes Isabel Andrews.
Market review
Contemporary Chinese art fetched record prices in New York’s Asia week, but collectors of traditional art were more cautious – or more discriminating?
Market preview
A fabulous Gauguin and one of Van Gogh’s last paintings will draw crowds to New York’s sales while Paris and London offer sculpture, fine furniture and works on paper. Susan Moore selects the highlights.
Making it up
In the May 1988 issue, Alvar Gonzales Palacios published his reflections on Italian writing on art since the war. Here he discusses one notorious aspect of art-historical practice: the provision of certificates of authenticity for works of art.
Master of mud
Martin Gayford talks to Richard Long, the world’s most celebrated landscape artist, about mud and ‘big ideas’
A Decade of Remarkable Growth
The Freer and Sackler Galleries in Washington contain one of the world’s great collections of Asian art. James Ulak introduces the outstanding acquisitions of the last decade
Searching for his lost heritage
Christopher Ondaatje talks to Amin Jaffer about his Sri Lankan collection, which is inspired by his deep love for Ceylon, the country he was forced to abandon as a boy
In pursuit of the divine
The Punjab’s Sikh rulers lavishly patronised artists and craftsmen to enhance the extraordinary splendour of their court. Jasleen Kandhari explores the rich legacy of the Sikh maharajas
The Bobbin & the Distaff
Wendy Bird argues that Velázquez’s use of erotic imagery helps to explain his famous work in the Prado, one of the most mysterious paintings of the 17th century
Mumbai’s story
Louise Nicholson visits India’s second oldest museum, the Dr Bhau Daji Lad, which has been spectacularly restored after many years of neglect
Almost unbearable
The German war cemeteries in Belgium contain one of the greatest artistic responses to World War I, writes Gavin Stamp
Thorn in the flesh
In his restrospective exhibition at the Royal Academy Georg Baselitz emerges as an artist who provocatively brings bold techniques to bear on a few deeply felt themes, writes Corinna Lotz. Above all, he has said, ‘what I could never escape was Germany and being German’.
A noble set of books
Mark Evans reviews an exhibition on one of the most celebrated libraries of the Italian renaissance, created by Federico da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino.
Hockney’s Turner
David Hockney has chosen a group of Turner watercolours for a display at Tate Britain. How successful has he been? Eric Shanes investigates.
Life at Malmaison
Diana Scarisbrick visits an exhibition from Russia that evokes the Empress Joséphine’s house, garden and collections.
Banishing the mists of antiquity
Rosemary Sweet reviews an exhibition at the Royal Academy that reassesses the significance of the Society of Antiquaries.
Forgotten Fauve
A travelling exhibition has reestablished the reputation of that key but oddly obscure Fauve painter Emile-Othon Friesz, writes Nancy Ireson.