The shows to see in and around New York this month
With hundreds of exhibitions and events vying for attention in the city during Frieze and TEFAF, Apollo’s editors pick out the shows not to miss
TEFAF lights up New York
Korean art scans new horizons in London
Musical displays, immersive experiences and a series of talks celebrate the country’s rich cultural heritage and appetite for innovation
The National Gallery’s great reveal
The plan to redesign the Sainsbury Wing for the museum’s bicentenary soon morphed into a comprehensive rehang. How well does it succeed?
The Sussex cottage where Virginia Woolf had a room of her own
At Monk’s House, a 17th-century weatherboard house that the Woolfs bought in 1919, the author found the freedom to write some of her greatest works
Ari Emanuel buys Frieze from Endeavor
Plus: the video artist Dara Birnbaum has died; and the journalist Wolfram Weimer will be Germany’s next minister for culture
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A gripping wartime yarn at Wells Cathedral
Scenes from the British home front during the Second World War have been knitted to life by some 200 volunteers – and are now on display to mark VE Day
All roads lead to Frieze New York
Performance art, contemporary painting and delicately embroidered textiles are among the many pleasures to be found at this year’s fair
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In the studio with… Florence Houston
When painting her gelatinous desserts, the artist is surrounded by jelly moulds, jellies and even a mummified mouse for company
In the studio with… A.A. Murakami
For five years, the husband-and-wife artists have lived in rural Japan, surrounded by the clacking of bamboo in the forest and the sights of misty hills
May 2025
The National Gallery’s great reveal
An interview with Caroline Walker
When art deco went to the movies
On tour with the Von Trapps
Also: Virginia Woolf’s Sussex retreat, single-owner sales, Suzanne Valadon’s move from model to artist, Duccio’s drink of choice, and previews of Frieze New York and TEFAF New York; in reviews: Anselm Kiefer in Oxford and Amsterdam, chinoiserie at the Met, and high fashion at the Louvre. Plus: Robert Macfarlane is fascinated by a body of water
Glamping at the Vatican – a Renaissance guide to surviving the conclave
Cloistered cardinals would camp in the Sistine chapel itself – the wealthiest decking out their cubicles with silver and silks
The colossal achievements of Zurab Tsereteli (1934–2025)
The Georgian sculptor, who thrived in the Soviet Union and made his way to the heart of the Russian establishment, leaves an outsize legacy
The many faces of Medardo Rosso
The sculptor’s impressionistic works – and the photographs he took of them – always highlight the humanity of his subjects
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Meet two heroines of Irish modernism
Tutored in Paris in the 1920s, Dublin-born artists Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone brought a boldly avant-garde sensibility to traditional subjects
Poetic justice for the Parthenon Marbles
In her book, ‘Frieze Frame’, A.E. Stallings collects the responses of poets and artists to the marbles since the early 19th century. She tells Apollo why they now deserve a new lease of cultural life
The art of long-distance communication
The invention of the telegraph in a fractured post-Revolutionary France collapsed time and space, changing visual culture for ever
Andy Warhol enters the dustbin of history
A Dutch municipality has accidentally thrown a valuable print of Queen Beatrix out with the trash – but would the Pop art maestro really have minded?
Celia Paul faces the ghosts of her past
In recent portraits and seascapes the painter ponders time and memory, and the legacy of Lucian Freud and co.
The rise of performance art in Renaissance Italy
An accomplished musician as well as a painter, Lorenzo Costa was perfectly placed to capture the changing fashions and shifting social etiquette of his day
Gilty pleasures – Versailles in the 21st century
With new leadership and restored rooms that haven’t looked this good since the Ancien Régime, the palace is entering a new golden era
Huma Bhabha: Encounters – Giacometti
At the Barbican, imperious, often monumental statues by Huma Bhabha are paired with the figures of Alberto Giacometti to unsettling effect
The Angel of History
In Berlin, a delicate watercolour by Paul Klee is the focus of a display exploring what the work meant to Walter Benjamin
Superfine: Tailoring Black Style
This show at the Met celebrates more than two centuries of Black apparel – and remembers the hardships endured by even the nattiest of dressers
Spiegel im Spiegel
Work by Gerhard Richter and a soundscape by Arvo Pärt are accompanied by more than 700 years of German and Estonian art
How to give back looted objects
UK museums are hamstrung by outdated laws around restitution. It’s time for politicians to end the impasse and give them greater autonomy over their collections