Reviews

The Gwangju Biennale charts uncertain new waters

The current edition of Asia’s oldest biennial is far from perfect, though there’s a lot of very good art here

5 May 2023

Frank Auerbach faces himself

At the age of 91, the artist has produced a series of remarkable self-portraits, now on show at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert

28 Apr 2023

Sterling work – European silver at the Louvre, reviewed

A catalogue of the museum’s unrivalled collection of silver and gold is a thing of beauty

27 Apr 2023

The French archaeologist who was a force to be reckoned with

From the May 2023 issue of Apollo. Preview and subscribe here. Nestled in the wealthy 16th arrondissement of Paris, a…

27 Apr 2023

Reality check – ‘Tartan’ at the V&A Dundee, reviewed

A show about the many variations and chequered history of the fabric even lets visitors see what’s worn under the kilt

27 Apr 2023

Self awareness – Alice Neel at the Barbican, reviewed

The painter who never stopped seeing her subjects as individuals described her works as ‘pictures of people’ rather than ‘portraits’

27 Apr 2023

The magpie eye of Giovanni Bellini

The Musée Jacquemart-André shows that the painter was always open to new influences

27 Apr 2023

Beneath the surface of Photorealism

The genre has often been dismissed as a kind of copying – but at their best, these paintings make us look again at the act of looking

26 Apr 2023

Andy Warhol’s textiles are finally back in fashion

Painstaking sleuthing has tracked down the artist’s colourful commercial designs for garment manufacturers

25 Apr 2023
Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt (detail; 1876), Georges Clairin.

How Sarah Bernhardt stole the heart of Paris

Nobody embodied the glitz and glamour of the fin-de-siècle quite like ‘La Divine’, as a lavish show at the Petit Palais proves

20 Apr 2023

Family fortunes – ‘The Rossettis’, reviewed

The Tate does a decent job of bringing the Rossetti women to the fore – but it still lets Gabriel run away with the show

19 Apr 2023

How modern artists caught the doodle bug

A compelling exhibition in Paris proves that scrawling and scribbling have long been a way for artists to let go

18 Apr 2023

Dosso Dossi’s scenes from the Aeneid are a Roman triumph

Reuniting the surviving works from the painter’s ‘Frieze of Aeneas’ series allows us to imagine one of the great Renaissance ensembles more clearly

16 Apr 2023

The art of getting deep into debt

A demanding group show about the world economy could do with some more showing and less telling

7 Apr 2023

Undercover work – the unsettling art of Pilvi Takala

By working in offices or trying to play Snow White at Euro Disney, the Finnish artist takes aim at the monotony of modern life

30 Mar 2023

What should a well-dressed Morris dancer wear?

British folk rituals have often required the wearing of outlandish outfits, some of which have remained unchanged for centuries

28 Mar 2023
The ‘Resolution’ in a Gale (detail; c. 1678), Willem van de Velde the Younger. National Maritime Museum, London

Naval-gazing in Restoration England

Securing the services of Willem Van de Velde and his son was a coup for Charles II – and it put wind in the sails of England’s own maritime art tradition

28 Mar 2023

Vermeer’s very strange way of looking at things

The painter’s works invite us to marvel at the mysteries of perception – and we will never see so many of them in the same place again

28 Mar 2023

Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Titian

A book of original sources about the painter is a tribute to both a great artist and a great art historian

28 Mar 2023

The shuttered memories of Janet Malcolm

The attempts of the master journalist to focus on her own past are as intriguing and oblique as the rest of her work

28 Mar 2023

In his room – the retiring art of Giorgio Morandi

A show of paintings belonging to his most important patron reflects the artist’s quietly spirited side

24 Mar 2023

Peter Doig’s pick-and-mix approach to painting

The Courtauld’s show of recent works may be uneven but, at his best, the artist is more than capable of rubbing shoulders with the greats

23 Mar 2023

When the wearing of white is a morally grey affair

The non-colour may convey notions of innocence and idealism, but it can also denote a darker side

23 Mar 2023

A right royal dog show

Do photographs of the late Queen’s corgis at the Wallace Collection truly represent the depth of her devotion to this best of all breeds?

13 Mar 2023