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.

Courtesy Royal Mint

The King’s new portrait is right on the money

They are symbols of great change, but Rakewell finds pleasing continuities in the new Charles III coins

28 Oct 2022
Photo: Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images

At last! A prime minister who knows how to dress

Thomas Blaikie pens a paean to the new emperor’s clothes

25 Oct 2022
The Daily Star

Salad days for satirists – a farewell to Liz Truss

She has been outlasted by a lettuce – but could the Iceberg Lady take comfort from a pear-shaped French king?

21 Oct 2022
Frieze art fair

Is real success being crushed in a crowd of VIPs?

Despite allowing a few celebrity sightings, the preview day of Frieze London felt more like the tube during rush hour than an exclusive experience for art collectors

14 Oct 2022
Liz Truss, with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (second from left). Photo: Alastair Grant/Pool/Getty Image

Can Liz Truss hold on to her marbles?

The British prime minister has brought her knack for careful diplomacy to the Parthenon marbles row

7 Oct 2022
John Pawson and his pooch Lochie. Courtesy Dylan Thomas

Pampered pooches of the rich and the famous

A picture-book of the lucky mutts of ‘high-flying creatives’ is just what we all need

30 Sep 2022
Photo: Marilla Sicilia/Archivio Marilla Sicilia/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images

Pitt peeve – why are Brad’s sculptures getting rave reviews?

Rakewell takes umbrage with the idea that the Hollywood superstar’s sculptures are to be taken seriously as art

23 Sep 2022
Morfydd Clark as Galadriel in ‘The Rings of Power’.

Can the British Museum learn from The Lord of the Rings?

Given J.R.R. Tolkien’s apparent attitude to cultural property, the British Museum made an interesting venue for ‘The Rings of Power’ launch party

2 Sep 2022

Why are climate activists in an Old Masters frame of mind?

It is impossible not to be glued to the ongoing protests of environmental activists in the world’s leading museums

26 Aug 2022

Is Keanu Reeves about to become the architect of his own destiny?

May the actor’s upcoming role as the successful Chicago architect Daniel H. Burnham be more promising than his previous skirmishes with the profession

19 Aug 2022

Will the Groucho Club become the art world’s watering hole?

Does Hauser & Wirth’s purchase of a favourite haunt of the YBAs spell the end of an altogether more riotous era?

12 Aug 2022
portrait of antony gormley

Who will stand up for Antony Gormley’s art?

The students at Imperial College London are objecting to the sculptor’s ‘phallic’ new sculpture, proving that an outsize reputation isn’t everything

5 Aug 2022
The cover of Beyonce's latest album, ‘Renaissance', by photographer Carlin Jacobs

Beyoncé remixes the Renaissance

The pop star’s latest album contains fewer treats for art-history buffs than its title promises – but Rakewell is too busy dancing to care

29 Jul 2022
Bison at the Wildwood Trust nature reserve in Kent on 18 July 2022.

Welcome to Britain, where the wild bison now roam

Bringing the European bison to Kent is intended to do wonders for the woodland, but Rakewell can’t help wondering if art needs rewilding too

22 Jul 2022
Valentino haute couture fall/winter 22/23 fashion show on 8 July, 2022 on the Spanish Steps in Rome. Photo: Franco Origlia/Getty Images

A summer of madness on the Spanish Steps

First a man in a Maserati, then the hurling of a scooter – and now a spat between fashion houses. What on earth has got into everyone?

15 Jul 2022

What really went on inside Number 10

In the light of Boris Johnson’s resignation, Rakewell examines a leaked invoice supposedly detailing the exquisite interiors of Number 10

8 Jul 2022
Boris Johnson at the Prado before a dinner of the leaders of NATO member states on 29 June 2022.

NATO’s night out at the Prado

Leaders of the alliance’s member countries have a lot on their minds at the moment, but there was still time to look pensive in front of Old Master paintings at this week’s summit

1 Jul 2022
Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT (left); The Hood (right).

Striking resemblances – the puppets with a surprisingly political side

Recent industrial action by railworkers in the United Kingdom has got Rakewell thinking about the difference between men and marionettes

24 Jun 2022
BTS

How will the art world cope without BTS?

Rakewell despairs at the recent announcement that K-pop sensation BTS are taking a hiatus. Is this really the end?

17 Jun 2022
(2005), Antony Gormley, installed on Crosby Beach, Merseyside.

Trash talk – the antagonising antics of Antony Gormley

Rakewell wonders whether Apollo readers can corroborate the recent and rather bewildering claim that the British sculptor has been stealing his neighbour’s bins

9 Jun 2022
English Heritage, via Twitter

Fit for a queen? The quirkiest Jubilee tributes

As the country prepares for a blowout, Rakewell takes a look at some of the more peculiar ways in which people are marking the occasion

2 Jun 2022

The crème de la crème of bungled art attacks

The Mona Lisa has been smeared with cream cake in an inscrutable act of climate protest

30 May 2022
Bob Dylan in 1962. Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Has Bob Dylan got a bit too close to the Bone?

Rakewell raises an eyebrow at the musician’s latest three-way collaboration with producer T Bone Burnett and Christie’s

27 May 2022

Are all the V&A’s chickens coming home to roost?

Rakewell laments what has been a rather dismal week for the Grande Dame of South Kensington, involving the UK government and a Russian-owned Fabergé egg

20 May 2022