Don’t fear the gatekeeper

Artists may distrust intermediaries but it would be more difficult for anyone to get noticed in the art world without them

26 Feb 2024

Breaking the mould – the women who rewrote the rules of sculpture

In the decades after the Second World War, female artists chafed at the strictures of abstraction and began expressing their gender through their work

19 Feb 2024

The art museum in Athens that is making a feminist stand

For one year, the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens has an all-female display of works from its collection and an all-female programme

2 Feb 2024

The passion projects of Dorothy Iannone

Work by the artist who painted herself as a sex goddess sits uneasily within the category of feminist art – and is all the better for being discomforting

2 Jan 2024

The arrested adolescence of Mike Kelley

The artist found freedom in a form of DIY making that teeters on the edge of self-indulgence

24 Nov 2023

Taking Philip Guston on his own terms

Hettie Judah stops her ears to the endless chatter to find a painter whose work is full of flaws and self-doubt – and all the better for it

24 Oct 2023

The artists who want to enter the monster zone

Creativity often flouts conventions, so it’s no wonder more women want to become thoroughly monstrous

23 Oct 2023

Can painting ever bear the weight of grief?

Gwen John and the contemporary artist Matthew Krishanu found comfort in a shared composition

30 Aug 2023
Sculpture of a woman lying down wearing a red dress and hat

When outsider art entered the mainstream

A string of recent exhibitions have done much to raise the profile of so-called outsider artists

6 Jul 2023

Are artists getting screwed over by galleries and museums?

A new report shows that most practitioners are still working for love rather than fair pay

27 Apr 2023

The cosmic visions of Hilma af Klint

The Swedish artist is now fêted as a pioneer of abstract art, but her spiritual inclinations are what really resonate today

28 Mar 2023
Christopher Kulendran Thomas The Finesse

‘Every generation rewrites the past in its own image’

Hettie Judah revisits the past as it is presented by artists delving into the archives and reusing old footage

27 Feb 2023
Painting of the Dancer Alexander Sacharoff

Girls observed: the art of taking young women seriously

Hettie Judah on what artists have got right (and also wrong) when it comes to depictions of girls

27 Jan 2023
Flux Gourmet

The film-makers who deserve a fair hearing

While Peter Strickland’s most recent feature sends up sound artists, Georgina Starr’s short makes for a more challenging listen

3 Jan 2023

Can stones unlock the secrets of our existence?

Contemporary artists are looking to geological forms less for aesthetic cues than for perspective on time, place and human agency

28 Nov 2022
Cézanne The Three Skulls

Body politics – how physical illness affects an artist’s work

We are well used to art expressing mental anguish, yet when we are presented with work that responds to physical pain, our urge is to look away

24 Oct 2022
Gareth Cadwallader

Is slow painting gathering steam?

Slow painters, who only finish a few works each year, may be less visible in the art world, but their work is no less valuable

26 Sep 2022
Andi Galdi Vinko

Are artists who are parents getting a raw deal?

Artists have long turned to their children as subjects for their art but with each generation, such work is met with new objections

30 Aug 2022
Issey Miyake

How Issey Miyake brought art into fashion

The Japanese fashion designer revolutionised womenswear by creating comfortable clothes appreciated for their androgynous elegance and ease

11 Aug 2022
A Mother’s Duty painting

An everyday luxury – the artists finding beauty in banality

Artists have long found beauty in the mundane, but choosing to represent everyday subject matter is a privilege that requires the luxury of time

27 Jun 2022
Isamu Noguchi sculpture

Child’s play – why artists are looking to childhood for inspiration

Artists have long embraced playful behaviour – not just as a form of creative release, but also as a way of dealing with conflict and taboo

30 May 2022
Sofonisba Anguissola portrait painting

Why aren’t more women artists gazing at men?

There is no great tradition of male nudes by women artists, but this underlines an asymmetry of power rather than a lack of female desire

28 Apr 2022
Lubaina Himid

Has art writing made us forget how to think visually?

Lengthy exhibition texts, catalogues and essays are everywhere nowadays – but do they help us to see the art for what it really is?

5 Apr 2022