Features

A tour of Titania’s Palace

The fairy-tale doll’s house, now at Egeskov Castle in Denmark, still has the power to beguile with its miniature marvels and deceptions

13 Sep 2019
Jane Seymour (detail; c. 1537), after Hans Holbein the Younger.

Acquisitions of the month: August 2019

This month’s highlights include paintings of Henry VIII’s favourite wife and Dorothea Tanning’s much-loved dog

10 Sep 2019

Crafty capers – the art of the heist on screen

The glamour of the art world lends itself perfectly to that most glamourising of movie genres – the heist film

30 Aug 2019
The Dark Rigi, The Lake of Lucerne (1842), J.M.W. Turner.

‘Ravishing essays in light and colour’ – on Turner’s views of Mount Rigi

The view of Mount Rigi from Lake Lucerne inspired a series of great watercolours – one of which is currently under export bar in the UK

28 Aug 2019
Adolf Fischer at the Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne, c. 1913.

The prescient pair who created Europe’s first museum of East Asian art

Adolf and Frieda Fischer’s globetrotting led to their founding the Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst in Cologne

24 Aug 2019
Moby Dick Transcendent (1930), Rockwell Kent, illustration for the Lakeside Press edition of Moby-Dick.

Depicting Moby Dick – the artists who set out to capture Melville’s white whale

Moby-Dick is a novel suspicious of visual representation – but one that has inspired scores of illustrators and painters

21 Aug 2019
The Gruuthusemuseum in Bruges (pre-2014).

A history of Bruges in 20,000 objects

The gothic heart of Bruges now beats a little faster at the renovated Gruuthusemuseum

19 Aug 2019
Photograph of Baltimore waterfront in c. 1910/15.

The museums putting Baltimore back on the cultural map

The American city has not one, but two world-class art institutions – both contributing to its wider revival

17 Aug 2019
Opus 217. Against the Enamel of a Background Rhythmic with Beats and Angles, Tones and Tints, Portrait of M. Félix Fénéon in 1890 (1890), Paul Signac. Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Félix Fénéon – critic, collector, and champion of African art

The Parisian critic may have been an enigma who stayed out of sight – but he introduced African art to the French avant-garde

14 Aug 2019
untitled (to you, Heiner, with admiration and affection) (1973), Dan Flavin. Installation view of ‘Königsklasse’, Herrenchiemsee Palace, Munich, 2019.

Minimalism, murals and makeshift studios – contemporary art comes to Munich

The Bavarian capital is reasserting its position as a city to rival Berlin in its embrace of the arts

12 Aug 2019
The Menil Drawing Institute at the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, designed by Johnston Marklee

‘All viewers are equal – no one is told how to see’ – at the Menil Drawing Institute

The latest addition to the Menil’s ‘neighbourhood of art’ in Houston offers an expanded vision of what drawing means

10 Aug 2019
Clevedon Bandstand (1964), Peter Lanyon.

Acquisitions of the month: July 2019

One of Peter Lanyon’s last works and a rare print by Rembrandt are among this month’s highlights

9 Aug 2019
The pyramids in the Saqqara necropolis, with the Pyramid of Unas in the foreground and the Step Pyramid of Djoser in the background.

Peak practice – the art of building pyramids in ancient Egypt

Looking beyond the pyramids at Giza, royal tomb design was a more varied affair than we sometimes realise

9 Aug 2019
Installation view of ANOTHER TIME by Antony Gormley at Turner Contemporary, Margate, 2017.

On the seashore – beachside art around the world

From Barcelona to Venice Beach – with summer in full swing, Apollo rounds up some notable examples of art on the beach

31 Jul 2019
A visualisation of what visitors to the Ara Pacis Museum see via their AR headsets. Image: © Zètema Progetto Cultura

The digital reconstructions bringing Roman ruins to life

From the Circus Maximus to the Ara Pacis, virtual and augmented reality can enhance our experience of ancient sites

30 Jul 2019
Piglet (1st century BC–1st century AD), Roman. Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli.

Hedonism in Herculaneum – a guide to good living in a luxurious Roman villa

The Villa dei Papiri gives us a glimpse into the world of a Roman statesman and his interest in Epicurean philosophy

27 Jul 2019
The Lovell Telescope at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, Chesire.

Jodrell Bank – a beacon of British science and a boon for artists

While few would contest the scientific significance of the site, its cultural impact has been less widely acknowledged

26 Jul 2019
The 16th-century Zabalaga farmhouse of Chillida Leku, Hernani.

How Eduardo Chillida carved out a place for himself

The reopening of the sculptor’s museum in the Basque Country allows visitors to encounter his works in their intended home

23 Jul 2019
Tuareg Rug (detail; 2018), Abdoulaye Konaté.

A pan-African event keeps its sights set on local scenes

A year-long travelling exhibition celebrates the continent’s leading artists

22 Jul 2019
The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist (2018), Michael Rakowitz’s sculpture for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London.

Making up for the past – the artists filling in the blanks in our collective memory

How artists such Michael Rakowitz, Kader Attia and Hew Locke are picking up where official narratives leave off

20 Jul 2019
Yahon Chang’s work installed at Fèlsina.

Pairing Chinese calligraphy with performance art in the Chianti Valley

A display of ink painting in action launched Tuscan wine country’s annual art event

16 Jul 2019
Fakirs, Trinidad (c. 1890), Felix Morin.

Acquisitions of the month: June 2019

Chippendale furniture and early photographs of the Caribbean are among this month’s highlights

15 Jul 2019
The Visit (1899), Félix Vallotton. Kunsthaus Zürich.

The ‘very singular’ Félix Vallotton is finally given his due

Long eclipsed by his fellow Nabis artists Bonnard and Vuillard, this Swiss painter and printmaker produced brilliant and unsettling work

3 Jul 2019
The Carlile Family with Sir Justinian Isham in Richmond Park ('The Stag Hunt’) (detail; 1650s), Joan Carlile. Lamport Hall

A studio of one’s own – Britain’s first women artists

How to succeed as a woman painter in 17th-century England? A supportive husband, royal patronage and mentorship from Van Dyck certainly helped

2 Jul 2019