Reviews

The greatness of Constable’s lateness

In the decade before his death, John Constable developed a freer hand to follow new visions – to astonishing effect

22 Nov 2021
The Painter and his Pug

When it came to art, Hogarth had no real beef with Europe

William Hogarth liked to present himself as a bluff Englishman, but the truth was a touch more complicated

18 Nov 2021
Isaac Abrahamsz Massa (1626; detail), Frans Hals. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

Ruff and ready – how Frans Hals made his portraits crackle with life

The Dutch painter already knew the majority of the sitters in his lively portraits of merchants and dignitaries – and it shows

15 Nov 2021
From Muddy Dance (2021) by Erik Kessels, published by RVB Books.

Up in the air – the photographs that defy the laws of gravity

What goes up inevitably must come down – but for a fleeting moment some photographers have tried to suggest otherwise

6 Nov 2021
Chromatic (1932) Gluck. Private collection. Photo: Bridgeman Images

The messy reality of immaculate still lives

Rebecca Birrell’s absorbing book asks us to look beneath the surface of work by women artists – but perhaps a rose sometimes really is just a rose?

5 Nov 2021
The Conversion of Mary Magdalene (c. 1661–62), Guido Cagnacci. Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena

Judging by his Old Masters, Norton Simon had a better eye than J. Paul Getty

Nicholas Penny’s survey of 17th- and 18th-century Italian paintings in the Norton Simon Museum reveals the astute figure behind the collections

2 Nov 2021
The sculptor Beverly Pepper (1922–2020).

Material differences – the abstract women sculptors with utterly distinct approaches

The artists featured in this exhibition didn’t share the same outlook or methods, but their variousness is part of the point

29 Oct 2021
After a fashion – Mary Quant on the Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, in October 1960. Photo: Cyril Maitland/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

How Mary Quant defined the look of Swinging London

Sadie Frost’s documentary about the designer is hardly original, but then Quant didn’t actually invent the miniskirt – and it doesn’t hurt to be reminded of her genius

27 Oct 2021
Kilkeel Shipyard (1943), Nevill Johnson.

A century of art from Northern Ireland inevitably paints a complex picture

An exhibition in Belfast marking 100 years of the country treads rather carefully, for understandable reasons

26 Oct 2021
Flag (1954–55), Jasper Johns.

Jasper Johns, American dreamer

A monumental two-part survey in Philadelphia and New York proves that the artist has always forged his own path

25 Oct 2021
The statue of Christopher Columbus outside Sefton Park Palm House, redressed by the fashion designer Taya Hughes.

All dressed up and nowhere to go – the art of sprucing up public statues

There’s more than one way to knock a figure off its pedestal, as a documentary about dressing up public monuments in Liverpool shows

21 Oct 2021
Still from ‘Voyage to the Moon’ (1902) by Georges Méliès: the astronomers’ vessel lands on the moon.

The magical films of Georges Méliès make him a name to conjure with

The film-maker deserves pride of place in any history of early cinema – as the Cinèmathèque française’s new display confirms

16 Oct 2021
Courtyard facade of the Umayyad Mosque, Damascus (1862), Francis Bedford.

Damascene conversion – the knotty religious history of the Umayyad Mosque

Built to rival the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, the great mosque in Damascus has always been claimed by rival faiths

15 Oct 2021
Where Everything is Twice, Airmail Painting No. 173 (2007), Eugenio Dittborn.

The airborne art of Eugenio Dittborn

The Chilean artist’s practice of folding up his work and posting it to galleries began as a means of evading the censors

15 Oct 2021
James VI & I (detail; c. 1620), Paul Van Somer.

At home with the Stuarts – Palaces of Revolution by Simon Thurley, reviewed

A new study reminds us that royal palaces were places to live in as well as impressive displays of power

13 Oct 2021
Francis Bacon photographed by Cecil Beaton in 1960 in his studio at Overstrand Mansions in Battersea, London.

How Francis Bacon got by – with a lot of help from his friends

A new biography of the painter gives full credit to the cast of characters who supported him before he found success

12 Oct 2021
Shangri-La Express

The adventures of Reinhard Behrens and his rusty toy submarine

The painter has created a fictitious world called Naboland which he explores with the help of a rusty submersible

8 Oct 2021
Subway, from the series One Hundred New Views of Tokyo (1931), Senpan Maekawa.

For the real Tokyo story, look beyond kooky stereotypes of the city

An ambitious show at the Ashmolean Museum looks past the familiar clichés to the real city and its artists 

5 Oct 2021
Dublin, Number One Ferry – Dinner Hour

All aboard – the transporting art of Jack B. Yeats

Although grounded in actual places and actual people, the artist’s subjects were always utterly transformed by his imagination, writes Tom Walker

5 Oct 2021
Installation view, Array Collective at the Turner Prize 2021, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry.

This year’s Turner Prize nominees are all doing valuable work – but why compare them?

The shortlisted collectives are more interested in what takes place outside the museum – so considering them for an art prize seems besides the point

30 Sep 2021

The uncanny universe of Leiko Ikemura

The Japanese-Swiss artist’s first exhibition in the UK introduces her eerie, fantastical world to a new audience

28 Sep 2021
Putting the kitsch in kitchen: Paris Hilton is ready to cook.

Paris Hilton takes a leaf out of Jane Austen’s recipe book

The venerable tradition of copying out recipes in household books lives on in the most unexpected places

27 Sep 2021
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Anthony McCoy in Candyman (2021; dir. Nia DaCosta).

The Candyman is back – and this time he’s haunting the art world

The Chicago art scene turns out to be a suitably chilling setting for Nia DaCosta’s sequel to the cult horror film

23 Sep 2021
Marie-Caroline, Duchesse de Berry sailing to exile in Scotland (c. 1830), unknown artist. Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Bordeaux.

The Romantics who revolutionised how we think about the past

Rosemary Hill’s nimble survey shows how 19th-century antiquarians paved the way for modern historians

21 Sep 2021