The unsettling domesticity of Jean Cooke
The claustrophobia in this British painter’s work hints at a talent stifled by her better-known artist husband
The best of BRAFA 2019
The fair in Brussels returns with a wide-ranging edition offering tribal art, modern Belgian painting and more
‘The paint makes its own image’ – an interview with Pat Steir
The artist’s ‘Waterfall’ series is about the movement of water, the movement of paint – and the painter’s own moves around the canvas
The madcap menagerie of Koen Vanmechelen
With his ambitious new public project in Genk, the Belgian artist fuses art, activism and animal husbandry
Did Italian art ever really take a Romantic turn?
Italian artists have been neglected in histories of the pan-European movement
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January 2019
• The Africa Museum reopens in Belgium
• An interview with Judy Chicago
• The most beautiful swimming pool in France
• Can Venice still be saved?
Plus: The Museum of Fruit in Turin, mummies in Mannheim, the cartoons of Saul Steinberg, a preview of BRAFA, and much more
The most beautiful boy in the Roman empire
Antinous, favourite of the emperor Hadrian, was commemorated all over the Roman world. He is a more troubling figure today
‘Joan Mitchell is the real star here’
Pairing the Abstract Expressionist’s work with that of her longtime partner Jean-Paul Riopelle makes it clear she was the greater artist
What not to miss at London Art Fair 2019
This year’s edition of the fair presents modern British works inspired by the Sussex countryside alongside global contemporary art
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Piecing together the untold story of Ida O’Keeffe
An exhibition in Dallas places the spotlight on the life and art of Georgia O’Keeffe’s younger sister
The freedom Gainsborough found in painting his family
The artist’s portraits of his household are more spontaneous than his commercial work
Warren MacKenzie’s commitment to craft
The renowned American potter believed simplicity, beauty, and affordability were of paramount importance
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How political is political art?
Many artists take themes such as migration, climate change, and human rights as their subjects, but what are they actually doing with them?
This film inspired by Gerhard Richter won’t tell you much about his art
Never Look Away is based on the life of the great German artist – but it doesn’t do justice to his work
The good, the bad and the ugly – neoclassical architecture in modern times
It was the favoured architectural style of Stalin and the Nazis. What forms does classical revivalism take today?
Should paintings be conserved in public?
Rembrandt’s Night Watch is set to be restored in front of visitors. Should we welcome the growing prevalence of public conservation?
Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time
Block Museum of Art, Evanston
Art, gold, ideas crossed the Sahara in the Middle Ages, linking Africa with the wider world
26 Jan - 21 Jul 2019
Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
The photographer’s early Polaroids, collages and nudes, plus the notorious S&M pictures
25 Jan - 10 Jul 2019
Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory
Tate Modern, London
Intense landscapes and vivid interior scenes by the Post-Impressionist painter
23 Jan - 6 May 2019
Lucio Fontana: On the Threshold
Met Breuer, New York
The Italian artist changed our ideas of how artworks relate to the space around them
23 Jan - 14 Apr 2019
The nun with lapis lazuli in her teeth is a great story – but she wasn’t alone
It shouldn’t be news that women illustrated manuscripts in the Middle Ages, but there’s no denying the appeal of a recent discovery