Reviews

The British artists who took a restless approach to still life

Still-life painting in Britain really took off in the 20th century when artists adopted a more experimental approach

28 Jun 2024

The weird reflections of Jean Cocteau

An exhibition in Venice underscores the artist’s restless imagination and shapeshifting tendencies

26 Jun 2024

Michelangelo’s careful image management

An exhibition at the British Museum shows that the artist deliberately shaped his legacy by the drawings he chose to leave behind

20 Jun 2024

For Carole Gibbons, there’s no place like home

Now 88, the Glaswegian artist is finally being fêted for her unpredictable visions of domesticity

20 Jun 2024

The dazzling paintings of Matthew Wong

The self-taught artist died tragically young at the age of 35, but there’s no denying the talent he demonstrated in his all-too-brief career

14 Jun 2024

Who should we believe about the British Empire?

Drawings and watercolours of India belonging to a Scottish railway engineer take on new meaning if we look for what they don’t show

12 Jun 2024

The optical allusions of Constantin Brancusi

Identifying the inspirations for the Romanian sculptor’s enigmatic works remains quite the puzzle

12 Jun 2024

The British colourist who passed down the lessons of Matisse

Matthew Smith’s striking use of colour, learnt from the Post-Impressionists, left a mark on the British artists who succeeded him

6 Jun 2024

The burning ambitions of Roger Ackling

Using nothing but a magnifying glass and the sun’s rays, the artist created sculptures that defy easy categorisation

The Renaissance patrons who were no saints in religious paintings

Christopher Wood’s account of a turning point in early Renaissance art is typically demanding and always stimulating

3 Jun 2024

The British collectors who developed a decided taste for Degas

William Burrell came to own 23 paintings by the artist, but an exhibition in Glasgow shows that his contemporaries were just as appreciative

31 May 2024

When Robert Rauschenberg went on tour

The artist spent much of the 1980s making works inspired by his international trips – and showing off the results in the countries themselves

30 May 2024

The artists who were obsessed with West Sussex

Blake, Constable and Ivon Hitchens all feature in Alexandra Harris’s account of a place she knows well, but it’s the more obscure figures who really shine

22 May 2024

Bohemian rhapsodies – Augustus John and his brilliant friends

In a show at Piano Nobile, the artist and his circle vie for our attention with the women who made their art possible

15 May 2024

For the Loewe Foundation, there is no higher art than craft

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell whether the finalists of the annual Craft Prize are artisans aspiring to art, or artists getting crafty

15 May 2024

The ancient role models that inspired women after the French Revolution

In the late 1790s, modern women looking for new forms of freedom were often inspired by distant and mythical histories

14 May 2024

A tale of two British artists turns out to be a real whodunit

Why did Dorothy Hepworth allow her lover Patricia Preece to take the credit for her paintings? An intriguing exhibition at Charleston provides some clues

13 May 2024

There’s more to Japan’s Arts and Crafts movement than meets the eye

In its telling of the story of the Mingei movement, the William Morris Gallery takes a refreshingly international approach

13 May 2024

Crossed wires – the strange music of Tarek Atoui

At his best, the Beirut-born artist offers gallery-goers weird and wonderful new ways of experiencing sound

7 May 2024

Court in the middle – the arts in France under Charles VII

In the first half of the 15th century, artists drew on the Northern and Italian Renaissances to create a distinctly French cultural flowering

1 May 2024

Enter the void with Pierre Huyghe

An exhibition in Venice of the French artist’s work is conceptually dense, but does it work in visual terms?

1 May 2024

Getting back to basics with Enzo Mari

The Italian designer’s pared-back approach to craftsmanship always prized the practical over the pretty

29 Apr 2024

Georg Baselitz turns the world on its head

As the painter becomes older, the topsy-turvy figures that populate his invigorating canvases are becoming more skeletal

26 Apr 2024

The real deal – Jacques Lacan and the art of psychoanalysis

Part biographical survey, part crash-course in Lacanian thought, an exhibition about the psychoanalyst’s links to art could do with a sharper focus

25 Apr 2024