Charles Darwent is the author of 'Mondrian in London' and 'Josef Albers: Life and Work'.

How Italy remade Willem de Kooning

At the age of 65, the artist went to Rome a painter and returned to the United States a sculptor. It wasn’t the first time the city had changed him

26 Feb 2024

Studying abroad: what Mark Rothko learned in Europe

The painter was often forthright in his rejection of the old world – but it’s time to reconsider his European influences

4 Oct 2023
Barbara Hepworth carving in her studio

How Barbara Hepworth got into a new groove

The Palais de Danse in St Ives allowed the sculptor’s work to grow in ambition

27 Feb 2023
Derek Jarman

How did British artists respond to the AIDS crisis?

While Britain was no less affected by the disease than the United States, the response of its gay artists at the start of the crisis was provocatively distinct

28 Nov 2022
Milton Avery Blue Sea, Red Sky

Is Milton Avery really a forgotten American great?

We’ve struggled to classify the painter as one of history’s greats for very good reason

30 Aug 2022
Paula Rego studio

‘The meekest person can manipulate’ – a tribute to Paula Rego (1935–2022)

The Portuguese-British painter told stories of parental abandonment, misogyny and exile with a power that put her in a class of her own

10 Jun 2022
Detail of Trafalgar Square by Piet Mondrian

Off the grid – the side of Mondrian you’ve never seen before

A completely overlooked painting, left out of the artist’s catalogue raisonné, makes the case for an unexpectedly messier and much more interesting career

30 May 2022

Lines of control – the story of Jackson Pollock’s drips

The American painter may be famed for a chaotic approach, but in reality he had complete command of his materials – and he owed his technique to a printmaker

28 Apr 2022
Carmen Herrera in her studio in 2015.

It’s time to judge Carmen Herrera’s extraordinary work purely on its own terms

The artist may have been unsung for many years before critics and the market caught up, but her work was a wonder right from the start

18 Feb 2022

‘Her canvases breed uncertainty from certainty’ – the art of Carmen Herrera

Still working at the age of 105, the Cuban-born artist has had an unusually long career – and the results repay close attention

7 Oct 2020
Laren Landscape with October Sun (1910), Jan Sluijters. Stedelijk Museum Schiedam.

Dutch courage – Jan Sluijters, Holland’s little-known modernist

After flirting with Fauvism and other French modes in Paris, the painter brought home a dazzling palette – only to bottle it later on

27 Mar 2019