Apollo's wandering eye on the art world. Look out for regular posts taking a rakish perspective on art and museum stories. Got a story for Rakewell? Email rakewell@apollomag.com. Follow @Rakewelltweets.

The unlikely art of the beer bottle

How beer art went from a Gilbert & George lager bottle to museums opening their own beer gardens

1 Apr 2017

A short history of (pretty dreadful) football statuary

The Cristiano Ronaldo bust is the latest in a tradition of bad football sculptures

31 Mar 2017
Rakewell logo

The Rake’s progress: last week in gossip

Rachel Whiteread on her publicity-hungry peers, plus the rest of the week’s art world tittle-tattle

28 Mar 2017

Shia LaBeouf waves the white flag (again)

The actor relocated his anti-Trump installation to Liverpool this week only to be hoisted by hooligans once more

24 Mar 2017

George Osborne MP. And editor. And banker. And art lover?

Perhaps George Osborne is good news for the Evening Standard’s culture pages

23 Mar 2017
Rakewell logo

The Rake’s progress: last week in gossip

Gilbert & George RA; Giles Coren, art historian; and Mary Beard takes aim at the Vatican Museums

21 Mar 2017
L'Eldorado (c. 1906), Walter Sickert

Take note, Patricia Cornwell. There are better ways to splash $6 million on Walter Sickert

The Sickerts that Patricia Cornwell could have bought for the $6 million she has spent ‘proving’ he was Jack the Ripper

17 Mar 2017
Rakewell's receipt

The artists who dine out on their reputation

Damien Hirst is by no means the first artist to have done a doodle for a restaurateur

16 Mar 2017
Rakewell logo

The Rake’s progress: last week in gossip

Howard Hodgkin’s acute eye for beach towels, plus Jack White and De Stijl

14 Mar 2017
Rakewell logo

How Ivanka Trump’s art collection turned on her

Ivanka Trump’s love of contemporary art and artists has led to a backlash from artists and curators

12 Mar 2017
Rakewell logo

The inky links between Ed Sheeran and Damien Hirst

A bromance is blossoming between Damien Hirst and the popstar Ed Sheeran

12 Mar 2017
Rakewell logo

The Rake’s progress: last week in gossip

Smashing (Kusama) pumpkins; the pop star and the painter; and at home with Maggi Hambling

6 Mar 2017
The McDonald's branch in Marino, Lazio

McDonald’s has opened its first ‘museum-restaurant’. Honest!

The McDonald’s branch where you can now visit an archaeological site while you nibble your McNuggets

4 Mar 2017
Rakewell logo

Meet Donald Trump’s artistic entourage

The second lady is a vocal advocate of art therapy and an art historian has joined the National Security Council

2 Mar 2017
Rakewell logo

The Rake’s progress: last week in gossip

The artist living inside a boulder in Paris; the portrait of Tony Blair that nobody wants; and the art publisher boosted by the Oscars

28 Feb 2017

I hereby dedicate this new museum to… myself!

The Bolivian president Evo Morales has opened a museum dedicated to – who else? – himself

22 Feb 2017

The Rake’s progress: last week in gossip

The artist who wants you to ‘thump a Trump’; Winston Churchill’s ET moment; plus the rest of last week’s art-world gossip

21 Feb 2017
Rakewell logo

Henry Moore takes to the catwalk

The new Burberry collection has taken inspiration from the work of Henry Moore…

17 Feb 2017

Jeremy Corbyn, coming to a museum near you!

The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is touting himself as a tour guide at the People’s History Museum in Manchester

16 Feb 2017
Rakewell logo

The Rake’s progress: last week in gossip

Robbie Williams’ verdict on David Hockney; Olafur Eliasson’s archery habit; and Shia Laboeuf’s art gets cancelled

14 Feb 2017

How an artist is trolling the Venice Biennale

The Icelandic artist Egill Sæbjörnsson has handed over the creation of the country’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale to a brace of trolls. Really.

9 Feb 2017
Rakewell logo

The Rake’s progress: last week in gossip

The YBAs party until their bedtime; Donald Trump learns to draw; and Richard Prince trolls the White House

7 Feb 2017

David Hockney – too much in the Sun?

David Hockney’s redesign of the Sun masthead split opinions in the art world

6 Feb 2017

Bones of contention at a museum near you…

Skeletons have come out of the closet at museums in the US and UK…

3 Feb 2017