Martin Gayford

Overshadowing all the rest

15 October 2016 9:00 am

We don’t know what Caravaggio himself would have made of Beyond Caravaggio, the new exhibition at the National Gallery which…

Overshadowing all the rest

13 October 2016 2:00 pm

We don’t know what Caravaggio himself would have made of Beyond Caravaggio, the new exhibition at the National Gallery which…

American beauty

1 October 2016 9:00 am

‘At last,’ wrote Patrick Heron, a British painter, in 1956, ‘we can see for ourselves what it is to stand…

American beauty

29 September 2016 1:00 pm

‘At last,’ wrote Patrick Heron, a British painter, in 1956, ‘we can see for ourselves what it is to stand…

Root and branch

24 September 2016 9:00 am

Eventually,’ said Michelangelo Pistoletto, ‘it became a movement. In fact, I believe that arte povera was the last true movement.…

Root and branch

22 September 2016 1:00 pm

Eventually,’ said Michelangelo Pistoletto, ‘it became a movement. In fact, I believe that arte povera was the last true movement.…

In the shadow of Picasso

17 September 2016 9:00 am

‘My painting is an act of decolonisation,’ declared Wifredo Lam. These are the first words you read on entering the…

‘The Sombre Malembo, God of the Crossroads’, 1943, by Wifredo Lam

In the shadow of Picasso

15 September 2016 1:00 pm

‘My painting is an act of decolonisation,’ declared Wifredo Lam. These are the first words you read on entering the…

House style

27 August 2016 9:00 am

Last Sunday, I went to see two of the greatest paintings in Britain — at least in the estimation of…

At Kingston Lacy, Dorset (right): Rubens’s ‘Portrait of a Noblewoman with a Dwarf’, 1606

House style

25 August 2016 1:00 pm

Last Sunday, I went to see two of the greatest paintings in Britain — at least in the estimation of…

The Capability controversy

20 August 2016 9:00 am

In a piece of light verse from the 1770s ‘Dame Nature’ — out strolling ‘one bright day’ — bumps into…

The Capability Brown-landscaped garden at Prior Park, near Bath, and the first know image of a railway line, from a drawing by Anthony Walker, 1750

The Capability controversy

18 August 2016 1:00 pm

In a piece of light verse from the 1770s ‘Dame Nature’ — out strolling ‘one bright day’ — bumps into…

The Capability Brown-landscaped garden at Prior Park, near Bath, and the first know image of a railway line, from a drawing by Anthony Walker, 1750

The Capability controversy

18 August 2016 1:00 pm

In a piece of light verse from the 1770s ‘Dame Nature’ — out strolling ‘one bright day’ — bumps into…

Recycling the avant-garde

12 August 2016 11:00 pm

One overcast afternoon in late July I took a train to Norfolk. It seemed a good time and place to…

‘Todo Custo’, 2015, Caroline Achaintre

Recycling the avant-garde

11 August 2016 1:00 pm

One overcast afternoon in late July I took a train to Norfolk. It seemed a good time and place to…

Beauty and the banal

6 August 2016 9:00 am

In 1965 William Eggleston took the first colour photograph that, he felt, really succeeded. The location was outside a supermarket…

‘Untitled’, c.1971, by William Eggleston

Beauty and the banal

4 August 2016 1:00 pm

In 1965 William Eggleston took the first colour photograph that, he felt, really succeeded. The location was outside a supermarket…

Heavenly bodies

30 July 2016 9:00 am

Initially it must have been a nasty surprise. On 16 August 1972 an amateur scuba diver named Stefano Mariottini was…

One of the two bronze statues of Greek warriors found in the sea off Riace, on display for the first time at the presidential palace in Rome, 1981

Heavenly bodies

28 July 2016 1:00 pm

Initially it must have been a nasty surprise. On 16 August 1972 an amateur scuba diver named Stefano Mariottini was…

One of the two bronze statues of Greek warriors found in the sea off Riace, on display for the first time at the presidential palace in Rome, 1981

Heavenly bodies

28 July 2016 1:00 pm

Initially it must have been a nasty surprise. On 16 August 1972 an amateur scuba diver named Stefano Mariottini was…

Privates on parade

16 July 2016 9:00 am

In 1927, Georgia O’Keeffe announced that she would like her next exhibition to be ‘so magnificently vulgar that all the…

‘New York Street with Moon’, 1925, by Georgia O’Keeffe

Privates on parade

14 July 2016 1:00 pm

In 1927, Georgia O’Keeffe announced that she would like her next exhibition to be ‘so magnificently vulgar that all the…

Passing through Bologna

9 July 2016 9:00 am

Sooner or later, no matter where you are travelling on Italian railways, you are likely to pass through Bologna Centrale.…

Echoes of Italy

9 July 2016 9:00 am

‘Hidden beauty is best (half seen), faces turned away.’ So noted a young English painter named Winifred Knights in 1924.…

Bologna’s core: grand in the renaissance manner

Passing through Bologna

7 July 2016 1:00 pm

Sooner or later, no matter where you are travelling on Italian railways, you are likely to pass through Bologna Centrale.…