Features

Medallion (detail; first half of 14th century), Iraq or western Iran. David Collection, Copenhagen

The making of one of the greatest Islamic art museums in the world

‘When this collection began, no one thought that Islam would be on everyone’s lips’

26 Nov 2016

Why Austria’s leading museum has cause to celebrate

Sabine Haag, the director-general of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, discusses how one of the world’s grandest museums is preparing for the future

23 Nov 2016

What’s in store at the National Portrait Gallery?

A tour of some of the highlights of the NPG’s hidden collection

23 Nov 2016
Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and Glenn D. Lowry, Director, The Museum of Modern Art, stand next to Alejandro Otero, 'Colored Lines on White Background' (1950) © 2016 Scott Rudd

Acquisitions of the month: October

MoMA and the Musée d’Orsay are the big winners: they both received landmark gifts from prominent collectors that will transform their holdings

17 Nov 2016
Jade boulder carved with Chinese landscape (18th century), Chinese, Qing dynasty, jade. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

What’s behind jade’s mystical appeal?

Throughout Chinese history, jade has been prized for its beauty and its spiritual associations. Its appeal continues today, but its role is changing

12 Nov 2016
The rise and fall and rise of Battersea Power Station. Apollo magazine.

The rise, fall, and rise of Battersea Power Station

For all its fame, Giles Gilbert Scott’s ‘temple of power’ in Battersea has had a chequered and difficult history. Is its future finally secure?

9 Nov 2016

A tribute to Giles Waterfield (1949–2016)

The curator, academic critic, and novelist was an inspirational figure, but also a dear friend to many in the art world

8 Nov 2016
Dragon-and-phoenix box and cover (depicted), Chinese, mark and reign of Longqing (1567–72). The Royal Collection

A closer look at the Chinese and Japanese masterpieces in the Royal Collection

More than 2,000 objects of porcelain, lacquer, jade, enamel and ivory have been catalogued, researched, conserved, and photographed

31 Oct 2016
Firefighters gather near the damaged Sant'Agostino church in the central Italian village of Amatrice on 26 August, 2016, three days after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck the region. ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images

The effort to save Italy’s earthquake-damaged art and architecture

Two months after the devastating quake in central Italy, it’s still not clear how much of the region’s heritage has been destroyed

Pink Drawing Room (known as the Matisse Room), in Sergei Shchukin’s house, the Trubetskoy Palace, Moscow.

The revolutionary collector who changed the course of Russian art

How Sergei Shchukin brought paintings by the most trailblazing members of the French avant-garde to Russia

17 Oct 2016

The art that built Martin Luther’s brand

Lucas Cranach’s service to the Reformation went beyond creating iconic images of the Protestant reformer Martin Luther

15 Oct 2016
Hall from Madanagopalaswamy Temple (c. 1560), Madurai, South India. Photo: Joseph Hu, 2016

A fresh look at Philadelphia’s unrivalled collection of South Asian art

A renovation project at the Philadelphia Museum of Art pays tribute to Stella Kramrisch, the woman who made their collection possible

13 Oct 2016
Inside the Basrah Museum. Photo: Eleanor Robson

Rethinking Iraq’s past – and its future – at the Basrah Museum

One of Saddam Hussein’s crumbling former palaces has been transformed into a state of the art display space for Iraqi antiquities

11 Oct 2016
SOS Library

‘The biggest single bunch of eccentrics in Europe’. Celebrating a century of SOAS

London’s School of Oriental and African Studies has taught scholars, spies and Hollywood stars

Acquisitions of the month: September 2016

September sees multiple new additions to museum collections, including the Getty’s record-breaking purchase of a Roman cabinet once owned by a Pope and a King

5 Oct 2016

Borrowing a baroque masterpiece

Xavier F. Salomon explains why he is so keen to show one of Guido Cagnacci’s most important paintings at the Frick

2 Oct 2016

It’s time to look again at the golden age of sleaze and splendour

Was the French Second Empire as morally and artistically bankrupt as its critics made it out to be?

26 Sep 2016

The Limbach Commission: What is it and will reforms make a difference?

The Limbach Commission mediates Nazi-looted art restitution disputes – but is it effective?

26 Sep 2016
London’s Design Museum at its Kensington site.

What are design museums for?

As London’s Design Museum is set to reopen in its new home, the role of design museums is still surprisingly unclear

26 Sep 2016
Dice Players (c. 1650–51), Georges de La Tour and Studio. © Preston Park Museum and Grounds

Stepping out of Caravaggio’s shadow

Plus: Neo Rauch finally comes to London; John Wesley’s odd eroticism; and Alighiero Boetti’s monumental use of mementoes

24 Sep 2016
From Medina to Jordan Border, Saudi Arabia (2003), Ursula Schulz-Dornburg

Saudi Arabia’s lost railway in Fitzroy Square

Plus: Virginia Chihota’s claustrophobic blast of colour; a surreal spectacle from James Richards at the ICA; and Suzanne Treister’s sinister take on technology

24 Sep 2016
Ttéia 1C (detail; 2001/2016), Lygia Pape. © Projeto Lygia Pape; courtesy Projeto Lygia Pape and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Paula Pape

Lygia Pape’s fragile threads

Plus: The final painting of Francis West; Yinka Shonibare without his trademark fabric; and Paula Rego’s first tapestry

24 Sep 2016
Untitled (2011–12), Marisa Merz

The quiet importance of Marisa Merz

Plus: Abstract expressionism outside the RA; Njideka Akunyili Crosby at Victoria Miro; Helen Marten’s rise to stardom; and Philippe Parreno in the Turbine Hall

24 Sep 2016
Portraits (2016), Tacita Dean

Smoking with Hockney and Tacita Dean

Plus: lining up the evidence at Michael Hoppen Gallery; Fausto Melotti’s ingenious sculptures; and an unsung branch of the Bauhaus

24 Sep 2016