Exhibitions
How to dress a queen
The problem with exhibiting costumes is well known. Should the mannequins be lifelike with human features, or faceless? What about…
The weakness of the V&A East Museum
I’d just emerged from Stratford station when I realised it had been almost a decade to the day since I’d…
Brooklyn’s answer to Nathan Barley has struck gold
I was on the way to Cecily Brown’s exhibition at the Serpentine last week when I heard that Kensington Gardens…
Tracey Emin at her most operatic
I feared this summing-up of Tracey Emin’s career might be self-congratulatory – biennale here, damehood there. But it’s Emin at…
A Tate show with dreamy, elusive power
One of the miracles of art history is how painting, so often written off, keeps on coming back. Right now…
How sure are we that all the Michaelina Wautiers at the RA are by her?
Roll up, there’s a new old master in town. Or a new old mistress, if you prefer. Michaelina Wautier (1614-89)…
This Hockney show is disorientatingly enjoyable
When so much contemporary art is riven with obscurity and angst, it is disorientating, at first, to encounter something as…
A Ramses show that has little to do with Ramses
Ramses and the Pharaohs’ Gold is, let’s not shy away from it, a profit-seeking exhibition mounted by an entertainment business.…
I miss post-internet art
I got my first paid writing gig back in the early 2010s, for an online magazine fixated on the then-current…
A parade of monstrous and toxic generals: Beatriz Gonzalez reviewed
You might be forgiven for thinking that a charity sale of particularly kitschy furniture has been set up just past…
Marvellous but repetitious: Gwen John – Strange Beauties reviewed
A pilgrimage to Cardiff Central, sorry, Caerdydd Canolog (according to the signage in the station, which also had my return…
How Greece carried the arts to rustic Rome
‘Cultural cringe’, that lovely Aussie coinage, perfectly describes the Roman attitude towards Greece. The curators don’t say so, but it…
Warhol meets Rauschenberg: John Giorno retrospective reviewed
At the end of last week, I caught a budget flight to Milan to see a woman. As soon as…
How fantastic to see Hogarth’s largest paintings in their original glory
The long overlooked staircase by Hogarth at St Bartholomew’s Hospital has been cleaned and restored in a £9.5 million scheme.…
Dazzling: Hawaii, at the British Museum, reviewed
Climb the Reading Room steps to reach the British Museum’s dazzling Hawaii exhibition, and you perform an obeisance. At the…
Does Tate’s director care about art?
I met the Tate’s outgoing director Maria Balshaw only once, back when she was in Manchester running both the Whitworth…
Cadavers will always captivate. Museums need to chill out
Is it right to put human remains on show? It’s a question that museum curators and the public have been…
Constable, not Turner, changed the course of painting
Flanders and Swann; Tom and Jerry. Some things come in pairs. Like Turner and Constable, even though our two most…
The thrill of Stanley Spencer
‘Places in Cookham seem to me possessed by a sacred presence of which the inhabitants are unaware,’ wrote Stanley Spencer.…
Why is divorce so seldom addressed in art?
Two years ago I was flown to Reykjavik to interview the Icelandic performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson. It was a weird…
The genius of William Nicholson
Even if you think you don’t know William Nicholson, it’s a fair bet that you’ve come across his work. If…
London’s stupidest gallery
Everyone loves a private view, and I am no exception. I don’t know how many hours I must have spent…
This exhibition made my companion gasp
Numerous research academics have contributed to this highly cogent show celebrating the craftspeople of Ancient Egypt. My pre-teen companion, though…
The Two Roberts drank, danced, fought – but how good was their art?
The Two Roberts, Robert MacBryde (1913-66) and Robert Colquhoun (1914-62), are figures of a lost British bohemia. Both born in…
Lice combs, vaginal syringes and cesspits: at home in 17th century Holland
The room is dark, the lighting deliberately low. At its centre stands a solitary object: a yellow and green earthenware…
