Features

Urban development: on site at the newly discovered ancient Egyptian city known as the Rise of Aten (photo: April 2021).

What did city living look like in ancient Egypt?

The discovery of a 3,000-year old city at the West Bank of Luxor creates a more nuanced picture of ancient Egyptian life

15 Apr 2021
Gallery wall: installation view of Lucy Raven’s ‘Ready Mix’ (2021) at Dia Chelsea, New York.

With its return to Chelsea, Dia is having a New York moment

Dia Art Foundation’s support for ambitious experimental artists is as resolute as ever, its director Jessica Morgan tells Apollo

14 Apr 2021
In hibernation: covered gondolas line the shore in Venice in December 2020.

For the gondola builders of Venice, choppy waters lie ahead

Traditional boatyards and boat-building techniques have long been in decline – but the pandemic has only worsened the situation

13 Apr 2021
Charles Baudelaire (c. 1863), Etienne Carjat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The cantankerous criticism of Charles Baudelaire

On the bicentenary of the poet’s birth, his art criticism still hums with outrage

12 Apr 2021
In the flesh: Francis Bacon photographed in 1984.

Wild things: the beasts of Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon’s work reveals an endless fascination with animals – and the bestial side of human nature

11 Apr 2021
Jonathan Yeo's portrait of Prince Philip from 2006 (detail).

As a portrait sitter, Prince Philip was also a spirited sparring partner

In 2006, Jonathan Yeo painted Prince Philip’s portrait – an invigorating if at times nerve-wracking experience

10 Apr 2021
Terracotta statue of Euterpe, the Muse of instrumental music, in St George's Gardens, Bloomsbury.

Parks and recreation: how London grew its green spaces

The pandemic has highlighted the need for urban projects such as the Camden Highline – and London has a long history of transforming unloved sites into havens for city dwellers

7 Apr 2021
David Suchet as Hercule Poirot. Photo: courtesy ITV

Thoroughly modern murder: how Poirot came to personify art deco

Agatha Christie’s sleuth has been nowhere more at home than in ITV’s interwar locations – their clean lines the perfect match for the punctilious Poirot

5 Apr 2021
Nancy and Olivia (detail; 1967), Alice Neel. Collection of Diane and David Goldsmith.

Alice Neel, our contemporary

The painter’s urgent, sympathetic portraits of her fellow New Yorkers are exactly what we need in these troubled times

3 Apr 2021

How Britain’s first prime minister became a sitting target for satirists

Robert Walpole was a supreme political operator – but his power and personal wealth made him a splendid butt of satire, too

2 Apr 2021
Church of Saint-Médard, 5th arrondissement (detail; 1900–01), Eugène Atget. Musée Carnavalet – Historie de Paris.

In lockdown Paris, the photographs of Eugène Atget suddenly feel eerily familiar

Walking around the city can feel like following in the footsteps of the famous photographer – but today’s empty streets are altogether more depressing

29 Mar 2021

By royal arrangement: Queen Mary’s compulsive collecting

Many British royals have been keen on acquiring works of art, but few have been as diligent about looking after them as Queen Mary

27 Mar 2021

Seven cultural escapes if you’re stuck in the UK all summer

You’re not going abroad this summer – but you can still have a holiday with an artistic twist

25 Mar 2021
The Mausoleum of Augustus.

The tomb of Rome’s first emperor at last reveals its secrets

The restored tomb of Augustus reopened this month – and an extensive new website gives a good sense of what has happened to it over the last two thousand years

22 Mar 2021
Noël Coward and Gertrude Lawrence in Private Lives (1931) at Times Square Theatre, New York.

Surface tension: the glamorous world of Noël Coward

The glittering displays of Noël Coward and chums masked an altogether less divine reality – but anxiety and fear were always part of the act

20 Mar 2021
Congo Woman (detail; 1942), Irma Stern.

In search of Irma Stern, whose paintings still embody the contradictions of South Africa

Irma Stern’s idylls of African life have too often been read at face value – but they mask a more troubled history

19 Mar 2021
Brooch (1963), Andrew Grima.

Pinpoint perfection: how the brooch became an experimental art form

Since the 1960s, artists and designers have regarded the brooch as a miniature sculpture – and an opportunity to try out new materials and techniques

13 Mar 2021
Alan Bowness with Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Yellow, Blue and Red at the Tate, 1980

Alan Bowness (1928–2021) – an evangelist for modern art who transformed the Tate

Norman Rosenthal celebrates a great champion of contemporary art in Britain, who as director of the Tate founded the Turner Prize

10 Mar 2021

How to turn your home into a DIY art gallery

Will Martin steps away from his screen and takes his cues from some of the world’s leading contemporary artists

9 Mar 2021
The Queen's Theatre at Versailles, built 1779–79 by Richard Mique for Marie Antoinette.

Drama queen: a peek inside Marie Antoinette’s private theatre

When Marie Antoinette had a theatre built at Versailles, her play-acting took to a stage of its own – and now this splendid interior has been meticulously restored

4 Mar 2021

Is the French government about to criminalise photojournalists?

A proposed law will prevent journalists and the public from photographing the police – and follows widely publicised acts of police brutality, writes Valeria Costa-Kostritsky

Steak night: Dario Cecchini grills a rib-eye, inspired by a still life by Jacopo Chimenti

A taste of the Uffizi, with Tuscany’s top chefs

Videos of top Italian chefs chewing over the Uffizi’s collection have a delightfully homemade flavour

1 Mar 2021
The tomb of Richard and Isabel Burton at the church of St Mary Magdalen, Mortlake, built 1891.

The Victorian adventurers who pitched their tent for eternity

Richard and Isabel Burton are buried in a quiet churchyard in south London – but their remarkable tomb is a fitting monument to these insatiable travellers

1 Mar 2021
Market crash: does anybody mourn the death of VHS?

Video in demand? The nostalgic appeal of VHS

Videos have become relics of a bygone era – but they are attracting a new following, glitches and all

27 Feb 2021