Reviews

Icon (for Divine Lovers) (1923), Eric Gill. Courtesy of the Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft

The radical side of 20th-century Sussex

Modern art in Sussex was about more than just rolling hills and gentle abstraction

3 Feb 2017
Andrew Graham-Dixon in front of ‘Napoleon 1 on his Imperial Throne’, by Ingres at the Musée de l’Armée, Paris. From the BBC's 'The Art of France'. © BBC

We need more TV shows like the BBC’s ‘Art of France’

Andrew Graham-Dixon’s new show ranges from Islamic influence on French architecture to narcissistic nationalism – and we haven’t even got to Napoleon yet

31 Jan 2017
Thames Painting: The Estuary. (1994–95), Michael Andrews. © The Estate of Michael Andrews. Courtesy James Hyman Gallery, London. Photo: Mike Bruce/Gagosian

How Michael Andrews breathed life into painting

Abstraction and representation blend effortlessly and mysteriously in Michael Andrews’ paintings, which are on view at Gagosian in London

31 Jan 2017
Portrait of Charles Gravier Count of Vergennes and French Ambassador, in Turkish Attire (detail; second half of the 18th century), Antoine de Favray

A picture of past diplomacy in Istanbul’s Pera Museum

Charting the Ottoman Empire’s international relations through art, this exhibition reminds us that Turkey was once a thriving region for statesmen and artists alike

26 Jan 2017

Up close and personal with illuminated manuscripts

This is a gem of a book, full of scholarly insight

25 Jan 2017

The importance of South Africa’s craft traditions

This survey of the history of South African art needs to pay more attention to the country’s craft traditions

23 Jan 2017
Installation view of On Translation: The Games (1996) by Antoni Muntadas at Atlanta College of Art Gallery

Found in translation

Are there too many languages and can translation ever really bridge our gaps in understanding?

20 Jan 2017
'Lange eenzame man' (2010) (left) and P XIII (2008) (right), Berlinde De Bruyckere, installation view, Mona. Photo: Mona/Rémi Chauvin

Getting to grips with the nature of art at Mona

Turns out that the museum of sex and death has much more on its mind

19 Jan 2017

When Derek Walcott met Peter Doig

The only living poet to have won the Nobel Prize for Literature responds to one of the greatest living painters

19 Jan 2017
Untitled (1971), Philip Guston. Image © The Estate of Philip Guston. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth

Philip Guston’s Nixon drawings are a lesson in satire

It’s hard not to draw parallels between Guston’s biting caricatures of Richard Nixon and today’s political climate

18 Jan 2017

Paul Nash’s commitment to the English landscape

The artist’s feeling for place is a constant throughout his work – in both peacetime and war

13 Jan 2017
Mrs. Carl Meyer and her Children (1896), John Singer Sargent. Courtesy of Tate Britain

The glamorous family behind one of Sargent’s best-loved paintings

A personal history of a great painting currently on show in New York

12 Jan 2017

Why are there so many period rooms in US museums?

Influential private collectors were often keen to recreate their own experiences for the benefit of the public at large.

12 Jan 2017
All that is unknown (2016), James Webb. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Imane Farès. Photo © Maha Kays

The sound artist making a call for resilience

James Webb’s sound installations tackle difficult political, social and emotional issues with subtle immediacy

12 Jan 2017

Creativity and contradictions in Kochi

Kochi might be full of contradictions, but it remains a vibrant site for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale – now in its third edition

11 Jan 2017
Zerstörung einer Illusion (1977), Karin Mack. © Karin Mack / DACS, London, 2016 / The SAMMLUNG VERBUND Collection, Vienna

A fierce reminder of why we need feminism more than ever today

The Photographers’ Gallery has put together an exhibition of feminist art from the 1970s which is still worryingly relevant today

11 Jan 2017

Were the Egyptian Surrealists too unpatriotic to be popular?

Surrealism in Egypt was an international affair that lost out to more nationalist art movements

10 Jan 2017

Why it’s time for someone to catalogue Fra Bartolommeo’s drawings

As an exhibition in Rotterdam shows, Fra Bartolommeo draughtsmanship is ravishingly beautiful

9 Jan 2017
Pays Inconnu (2016), Vivienne Koorland. Courtesy the artist

William Kentridge and Vivienne Koorland peel back the layers of history

The two artists make a rewarding double act at Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Gallery

4 Jan 2017
Postcard advertising the Garden City Pantomime, written by residents C.B. Purdom and Charles Lee, (c. 1910)

An alternative vision of life in Letchworth, the world’s first Garden City

The radicalism of Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City is often overlooked, but Letchworth is an utopian success

3 Jan 2017

Beyond the myth of 1970s New York

Douglas Crimp’s memoir-cum-cultural history reveals the reality behind the myth of New York’s thriving art scene in the 70s

24 Dec 2016
Rama kills the demon warrior Makaraksha in combat. From a manuscript of the Ramayana (c. 1790), India; Himachal Pradesh state, former kingdom of Guler. Photo © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco

An epic exhibition for an epic subject

Clever staging, excellent exhibits and a timeless story combine to make the Asian Art Museum’s Ramayana exhibition a great success

23 Dec 2016
Easter Monday (c. 1950), Winifred Nicholson.

Winifred Nicholson and the pleasures of colour

An exhibition on Winifred Nicholson shows why her painting had such an impact on the work of her peers

21 Dec 2016
Venus of the Rags (1964–2016), Michelangelo Pistoletti. Photo: Tom Lindboe. Courtesy of the Blenheim Art Foundation

Michelangelo Pistoletto goes from rags to riches at Blenheim Palace

The Italian artist uses humble materials to promote a high-minded utopian message. How does his work fare in such opulent surroundings?

20 Dec 2016