Art
The appeal of asymmetry: Contrapposto, by Dave Eggers, reviewed
In his portrait of an incongruous friendship, Eggers explores the imbalances that constitute adult life – creativity vs commerce, talent vs discipline and solitude vs companionship
The art of betrayal: Exhibition, by Alex Hyde, reviewed
Two young women artists in the 1990s collaborate in an affectionate, creative partnership – until one appropriates the other’s work and passes it off as her own
Blood, sweat and tears on the road to Nice
Provence Straight from a weekend of helping a friend with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, I drove to Nice airport to…
How to paint like the ancient Greeks
Last week David Hockney was cited as an example of a great English artist who insisted on working, like ancient…
Small, skewed pictures that cast a spell: the art of Mollie Douthit
The novelist Sara Baume describes how her admiration for Douthit’s idiosyncratic oil paintings led to a strange, tentative friendship
Would the ancients have appreciated David Hockney?
David Hockney has died, and there has died with him an artist whose work has given those of us who…
Still life
Provence ‘Painting is a stupid job. Do something useful and train to be a nurse,’ commented a man beneath a…
The art of noise
I’m bullish about AI. All aesthetic snobs should be. In the war on man-made slop – still the most pressing…
Letters: what vegetarians get wrong
Flat broke Sir: John Power’s article on the property squeeze (‘Flatlined’, 18 April) identifies a symptom of a deeper problem,…
Antony Gormley’s lonely figures transfer to paper
Many drawings depict a single male in a featureless environment or emerging as though from a Rorschach blot
My wild house parties with Rose Wylie
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna I rang up my old best friend, Luke-John, for a chat a few days ago and to…
A prolonged love affair: The Two Roberts, by Damian Barr, reviewed
A tender, evocative novel portrays the lives of the once celebrated painters Colquhoun and MacBride, from their first meeting in Glasgow to their fractious later years
Childhood illnesses and instability left Patti Smith yearning for ‘sacred mysteries’
Bedridden for much of her youth, she found consolation in music, and a way ‘into fairyland’ through a treasured poetry anthology
What’s wrong with elitism?
There was a time when the serious business of concert-giving closed down for the summer. Artists were expected to take…
Give Eric Ravilious a rest
How do artists sustain a reputation? We’d like to think it’s on the basis of their work. In the case…
Why do my outfits make people so angry?
I have always cycled everywhere in London, not because I want to save the planet but because I want to…
Admirable in their awfulness – the siblings Gus and Gwen John
The self-styled Gypsy King and his reclusive sister seemed polar opposites – but both painters were selfish, obsessive monsters, according to Judith Mackrell
Real artists have nothing to fear from AI
Christie’s is making digital-art history again – or at least trying to. Between 20 February and 5 March, it is…
How art collective Remilia captured the MAGA movement
The MAGA social scene was defined on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration by the Coronation Ball – perhaps the…
The plain-speaking bloke from Warrington who painted only for himself
Born in 1932, Eric Tucker created his art not for exhibition or in pursuit of fame but simply because he felt compelled to do so
The otherworldly artist who made his name at The Spectator
There is something otherworldly about Rory McEwen’s paintings of plants, leaves and fruit. They are indisputably beautiful, often breathtakingly so,…
‘When a work lands the excitement is physical’: William Kentridge interviewed
Watching William Kentridge’s film Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot is like being submerged inside his mind, inside the coffee pot maybe.…
The curse of distraction: Lesser Ruins, by Mark Haber, reviewed
A former college professor prepares to write his long-gestated book on Montaigne, but finds his mind wandering from 1970s nudism to Balzac’s coffee dependency
Wondrous treasure troves: the Jewish country houses of Europe
Among the greatest collectors was Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, whose furniture, paintings and objets at Waddesdon Manor rivalled those of many museums
