Metamorphosis is a running theme in the work of Miquel Barceló, who moves between paintings and ceramics to translate his ideas into images – whether that’s an installation at Palma Cathedral in his native Mallorca, or illustrating Kafka
‘Gainsborough grew up surrounded by the raw materials of fashion.’
In the Frick Collection’s new exhibition, writes Susan Moore, we can see how the painter deployed that knowledge in polished society portraits
‘Where should these statues go? What can they communicate, ousted from their context and places of honour?’
In Los Angeles, Lyra Kilston finds some answers in an exhibition of contemporary artists responding to fallen Confederate monuments
The news that Bob Dylan bought a portrait of himself at a Christmas market in Belfast without being recognised couldn’t be more on brand, writes Rakewell
Sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s in London were surprisingly strong last week, even as the situation in the Middle East worsened, writes Anna Brady
‘Routine is not possible; it kills the studio – too dangerous. Sometimes we start with an amazing joke and end with a sculpture; sometimes we begin with a serious plan and happily destroy it.’
The Vienna-based art collective Gelitin talks to Apollo about its studio routine – or lack of it
As TEFAF opens in Maastricht, Samuel Reilly singles out some of the best museum exhibitions to see within easy reach of the fair
‘She gives her sitters the space to expand and become mysterious.’
Hettie Judah on Catherine Opie’s powerful portraits of adolescents
From a sumptuous still life by a successor of Chardin to a new painting by Caroline Walker made just for the fair, there’s plenty to see at this year’s edition of TEFAF, writes Anna Brady
‘An irascible, almost existential victim of circumstance, mechanical devices and mischievous critters, a tempest in his own teapot of fulminating patriarchal rage, Donald Duck took over the world in the 1930s.’
Todd McEwen on Disney’s only funny character
Henri Rousseau is often regarded as a naïve of modern painting, but a landmark exhibition reveals that, at its most sophisticated, some of his work could almost be mistaken for Magritte’s, writes Susan Moore
Gainsborough’s portraits were prized, writes Susan Moore, not for ‘capturing a likeness but also in conjuring the shimmering, seductive surfaces of silks, the sheen of pearls and the delicacy of gauzy, diaphanous lace.’
‘With a war in the Middle East still raging, who would be thinking about buying art? Quite a lot of people, it turns out.’
Anna Brady rounds up the spring sales results.
‘Comrades in Art reveals a rich seam of committed art that dispels clichés about the Red Decade.’
Matthew Taunton welcomes a provocative account of the role of art in the 1930s.
‘By the time Elizabeth I’s reign ended, [artists] had attained a status in society that would have been difficult to imagine when the queen’s grandfather Henry VII took the throne in 1485.’
Edward Town on culture shock in Tudor England
Bob Dylan’s undercover purchase of a painting of himself at a Christmas market in Belfast reminds Rakewell that the singer has always been on the side of sitters in his songs
While Barnaby Phillips was researching a book about Britain’s relationship with the West African kingdom of Asante, in modern-day Ghana, and tracing the fate of its looted regalia, he came across some surprising thefts at the British Museum – back in the 1990s.
A bronze statue of the Confederate martyr Stonewall Jackson was the focal point of a white suprematist rally in Charlottesville in 2017. Now sliced up and remade by the artist Kara Walker, it has become ‘the most loaded and historically charged of raw artistic materials’.
Euan Uglow was a famously bossy and exacting tutor at the Slade School of Art. But a book of ‘witness statements’ by former pupils and friends convey his total commitment to painting and a real gift for friendship.
Miquel Barceló first made his name as a painter but he is now celebrated for his ceramics as well. Most of all, the Mallorcan artist tells Emma Crichton-Miller, he wants to translate ideas and poetry into images.
Buoyed by strong sales of modern British art, results at Christie’s and Sotheby’s rebounded impressively, even as the situation in the Middle East worsened, writes Anna Brady.
‘Routine is not possible; it kills the studio – too dangerous. Sometimes we start with an amazing joke and end with a sculpture; sometimes we begin with a serious plan and happily destroy it.’
The Vienna-based art collective Gelitin talks to Apollo about its studio routine – or lack of it
More than 260 dealers from 20 countries are bringing their finest wares to the European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) this month. Anna Brady picks out some of the highlights not to be missed
‘Gainsborough grew up surrounded by the raw materials of fashion.’ In the Frick Collection’s new exhibition, writes Susan Moore, we can see how the painter deployed that knowledge in polished society portraits.
‘Collectively these portraits are a study of the unpredictable balancing act that occurs between childhood and adulthood, during which changes to mind and body happen with the fluttering speed of a heartbeat.’
Hettie Judah on Catherine Opie’s powerful portraits of innocence.
If you’re visiting Maastricht for TEFAF this month, why not make time for one of Apollo’s picks of museum exhibitions in the surrounding region?
Donald Duck was a marvel of 20th-century industrial production and the Second World War was the Disney star’s finest hour, writes Todd McEwen
Peter Stone, president of the Blue Shield, which is sometimes described as ‘the cultural equivalent of the Red Cross’, sets out what can be done to protect cultural heritage in war
In 1908, Picasso held a banquet attended by the leading lights of the Parisian avant-garde to celebrate the ‘primitive’ genius of Henri Rousseau.
This month, a landmark exhibition travelling from Philadelphia to Paris shows that he is indeed a painter to be admired, writes Susan Moore.
‘Collectively these portraits are a study of the unpredictable balancing act that occurs between childhood and adulthood, during which changes to mind and body happen with the fluttering speed of a heartbeat.’
Hettie Judah on Catherine Opie’s powerful portraits of innocence.
