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.

Shy Renaissance? Cicciolina promoting Pornhub's 'Classic Nudes' campaign

Lewd Louvre, porno Prado – Pornhub makes a foray into fine art

The adult streaming site Pornhub has roused some of the world’s most revered nude paintings to life in a series of graphic videos

16 Jul 2021

In Denmark, a very silly, supersized sandcastle

The tallest sandcastle ever built towers over a seaside town – and there’s no risk of the waves washing it away

9 Jul 2021
Denise Coates accepting her CBE at Buckingham Palace in 2012.

The Courtauld takes a punt on the queen of online gambling

The Courtauld has named its new exhibition galleries after Bet365 billionaire Denise Coates – and Rakewell has a suggestion for the exhibition programme

2 Jul 2021

Rio Ferdinand, model maker

The footballer-turned-pundit has designed a model stadium. Don’t hold your breath for a work of art, writes Rakewell – it’s been crafted to hold a crowd of mass-produced sausage snacks

2 Jul 2021

Poor Matt Hancock – he could still be taking it easy as culture secretary

The beleaguered health secretary probably enjoyed the culture brief more than his current role

25 Jun 2021
The Tartan Army arrives at Kings Cross.

Check mates: the Tartan Army and its royal robes

Travelling Scottish football fans don everything from fake ginger sideburns to traditional Hawaiian dress – but they also have a right royal tartan of their own

18 Jun 2021
Renaissance lads: Puma’s FIGC home kit

The fine art (of sorts) of Euro 2020 football kits

The Italians have opted for a ‘Renaissance design’ – although the floral patterning looks more William Morris than Michelangelo

11 Jun 2021
Stephen Hawking in his office at the Department of Advanced Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, commissioned by the Science Museum Group in 2011 to mark Hawking’s 70th birthday.

Offices have become museum pieces – in the case of Stephen Hawking’s, literally

The contents of the late scientist’s office are heading to the Science Museum in London – and it’s not the first workspace to be preserved in this way

28 May 2021
The Mock-Turtle (right) in ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ (1865), illustrated by John Tenniel.

Mock turtle soup in the museum

Heston Blumenthal’s homage to the famous dish is served up in the V&A’s Alice in Wonderland show

21 May 2021
Two of the dinosaur sculptures in Crystal Palace Park.

Extinction rebellion – the Jurassic parks of London and beyond

A band of dynamic dinosaurs is arriving in the UK this summer – but will they be a match for the Victorian sculptures at Crystal Palace Park?

14 May 2021

In defence of giant squid sculptures

A town in Japan has spent coronavirus relief funds on a giant squid sculpture – a fine addition to the tradition of squid art, says Rakewell

7 May 2021
Cubes of cubism: chocolatiers at work on their rendering of Picasso’s anti-war masterpiece in April 2021.

Bittersweet moment: confecting Guernica out of chocolate

A team of Basque chocolatiers has made a life-size replica of Picasso’s monochrome masterpiece

27 Apr 2021
Design for living: ‘Supermarket’ at the Design Museum

This week only, you can do your weekly shop at the Design Museum

For five days the South Kensington museum has reopened as a supermarket, stocked with artist-designed essentials

22 Apr 2021

Ramen reason: the art of the cup noodle

A museum devoted to the instant noodle has opened in Hong Kong – but it’s not the first time that ramen has been put to creative uses

16 Apr 2021
Aidan Turner in ‘Leonardo’, which launches on 16 April on Prime Video

Leonardo, heart-throb of the small screen

Rakewell suspects that Leonardo would have loved the invention of film and TV, but what would he have made of Aidan Turner, aka Ross Poldark, playing him?

9 Apr 2021

Did somebody say Just Art?

Yes, it’s happened – a leading art collection is now available on a food delivery app

2 Apr 2021
Art attack: Sacha Jafri painting his record- (and potentially back-) breaking artwork.

The world’s largest painting – a backbreaking endeavour, basically

Sacha Jafri’s vast canvas may have fetched $62m, but it also landed him in hospital – and he’s not the first artist to have suffered a work-related injury

24 Mar 2021
Jaw-dropping: Charles I singing along to Gloria Gaynor, courtesy of Wombo.ai (and the pairing skills of Twitter user @oldnorthroad)

It’s deepfake karaoke, Old Master style

The latest AI tool to go viral turns still images into singing videos – so warbling Mona Lisas and disco Holbeins are taking over your social feeds

15 Mar 2021
Screen printing (money). Courtesy Christie’s

NFT mania has swept the art world – and yes, that’s the scent of tulipomania.jpeg

Christie’s just sold a Jpeg file for a staggering $69.3 million. There’ll be a saving on shipping costs, if nothing else…

12 Mar 2021
Bird’s eye – Lear’s macaw in its natural habitat.

How a parrot named after Edward Lear is taking flight again in Brazil

A pair of Lear’s macaws, named after the poet, painter and parrot-lover, have been released into the wild in Brazil

12 Mar 2021
Rembrandt looking shifty – courtesy of My Heritage’s Deep Nostalgia™

Bring your favourite paintings to life – with exceptionally creepy results

Thanks to deepfake technology you can make Rembrandt roll his eyes – and be creeped out by the results

5 Mar 2021
Schlock jock: Kelsey Grammer as Frasier.Photo: Gale Adler/Paramount

Will Frasier’s dodgy art collection make a comeback?

With the sitcom set to return to our screens, Rakewell wonders if its pompous protagonist will know more about art than he used to

26 Feb 2021

What’s on Oliver Dowden’s walls?

The Secretary of State for Culture has paintings by Lubaina Himid and Charles Mozley in his office – but perhaps video art is more his thing?

25 Feb 2021
Flat-pack museum, anyone?

Some national collections may be sent to Coventry – and its old IKEA awaits them

If Coventry Council votes to buy an empty IKEA store next week, several national collections could be heading to the city

19 Feb 2021