Kitty Hauser books include Shadow Sites (Oxford University Press), and Bloody Old Britain (Granta). She is currently working on a book about Geoffrey Bardon for Giramondo Publishing.

Francis Bacon photographed by Cecil Beaton in 1960 in his studio at Overstrand Mansions in Battersea, London.

How Francis Bacon got by – with a lot of help from his friends

A new biography of the painter gives full credit to the cast of characters who supported him before he found success

12 Oct 2021
Still from CREATION dance by Deborah Kelly; installation view at The National 2021: New Australian Art’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia.

Australian art that doesn’t beat about the bush – The National 2021, reviewed

A survey of new Australian art presents a planet in crisis – but it’s more uplifting than it sounds

4 Jun 2021

Light exposure

Kate Flint’s history of flash photography highlights the uses of a technology many practitioners have mixed feelings about

3 Apr 2018

Stanley Spencer’s endless autobiography

The painter’s reams of autobiographical writing are as idiosyncratic as his art

20 Apr 2017
(1988), Sidney Nolan.

Sidney Nolan’s heart of darkness

Australia continued to haunt Sidney Nolan’s imagination long after the painter made his home in Britain

19 Dec 2016

Refreshingly partisan: David King’s homage to John Heartfield

The graphic designer, writer, editor, photographer, and researcher David King died earlier this month. His last book was a collection of John Heartfield’s pioneering photo montages

29 May 2016