Features
Acquisitions of the Month: September 2023
A Regency torchère and a recently rediscovered work by Francisco de Zurbarán are among the most remarkable works to enter public collections
In Edinburgh, the National Gallery now gives Scottish art the space it deserves
The opening of a whole new suite of galleries means that Scottish artists now have the same status as the museum’s Old Masters
Studying abroad: what Mark Rothko learned in Europe
The painter was often forthright in his rejection of the old world – but it’s time to reconsider his European influences
Soul mates – the story of Yusuf and Zuleikha
Sameer Rahim is impressed by a 16th-century Iranian manuscript illustrating a Sufi poem of seduction and spiritualism
Brave new world – how Glenn Spiro breathes new life into old materials
The London-based jewellery artist uses antique forms to challenge received notions of preciousness
The South African winemakers who are cultivating the arts
A new initiative combines adventurous winemaking with an unusual form of art philanthropy
For not-so-humble pies – a short history of the tureen dish
Pastries topped with taxidermy and lavish decoration were the inspiration for elaborate tureen dishes, masterpieces of the goldsmith’s craft
The women who keep reappearing in Rubens’s paintings
The adjective ‘Rubenesque’ was coined in the 19th century, but there’s rather more to the female figures in his paintings than acres of flesh
Collectors are falling for the British Neo-Romantics
The market for paintings by the likes of John Craxton and John Minton – and Paul Nash in pastoral mode – is having an idyllic time
Wrestling with Michelangelo
Achim Gnann of the Albertina Museum gets to grips with sketches that show the artist embracing a dynamic new style
Tourist for a day – who’s watching who at London Zoo?
The Regent’s Park attraction offers plenty of opportunities for people-watching when the animals decide to make themselves scarce
Tourist for a day – the spectacular Paris park that needs a helping hand
The parc des Buttes-Chaumont was meant to be a ’Tuileries of the people’, but the crowning glory of Haussman’s Paris has fallen on hard times
A seriously good trip – the Dreamachine at Hackney Downs Studios
The psychedelic artwork-meets-wellbeing experience is still in its pilot stages but it deserves to be a mainstream hit
‘There’s no denying the power of this museum to move’
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum is as powerful as you would expect, but the Hiroshima Museum of Art may catch you unawares
The most spectacular floor in Italy
With its combination of visual splendour and complex allegory, the marble pavement of Siena Cathedral is one of the most enticing of all Renaissance masterpieces
How a leopard stool from Cameroon got its spots
This beaded seat represents the might of a monarch – and his global reach, says Kristen Windmuller-Luna of the Cleveland Museum of Art
Acquisitions of the Month: August 2023
The Green Vault in Dresden has received a baroque chess set for its 300th birthday, plus the rest of the most important items to enter public collections
Who do museums want to appeal to?
When institutions try to offer something to everyone do they risk spreading themselves too thin?
Can painting ever bear the weight of grief?
Gwen John and the contemporary artist Matthew Krishanu found comfort in a shared composition
The drinks are on Theaster Gates at LUMA Arles
A convivial collaboration between the American artist and a saké brewery is refreshing stuff
The Musée des Arts Décoratifs gets more modern
Under its new director Christine Macel, the historic museum full of masterpieces of French design is entering a brand new era
The invention of Frenchness
The national museum of immigration has a new mission – but it’s still housed in a building haunted by France’s colonial ghosts
The Norman conquest of the European imagination
It’s hard to say who, exactly, the Normans were – but even harder to make them out as a model migrants and proto-Europeans as a string of recent exhibitions has tried to do
Do children need museums of their own?
The reinvention of the Museum of Childhood as Young V&A has been a great success. Should more institutions follow its example and become younger at heart?
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