Exhibitions
‘This stuff goes on being alive’: Maggi Hambling on the power of painting
Maggi Hambling on Rembrandt, Twombly and the power of art
Better than Robert? Sonia Delaunay at Tate Modern reviewed
In 1978, shortly before she died, the artist Sonia Delaunay was asked in an interview whether she considered herself a…
Irresistible: Ravilious at the Dulwich Picture Gallery reviewed
The most unusual picture in the exhibition of work by Eric Ravilious at Dulwich Picture Gallery, in terms of subject-matter…
Reimaging the lost masterpieces of antiquity
Martin Gayford visits two new surveys of Greek and Roman sculpture at the British Museum and Palazzo Strozzi. Reimagining what’s lost is as much of an inspiration as what remains
Wellington's PR machine
The history of portraiture is festooned with images of sitters overwhelmed by dress, setting and the accoutrements of worldly success.…
Richard Diebenkorn at the Royal Academy reviewed: among the best visual evocations of LA there are
It is true that, like wine, certain artists don’t travel. Richard Diebenkorn, subject of the spring exhibition in the Royal…
James McAvoy is wrong – the arts are better off without subsidy
The season of cringe-making acceptance speeches at arts awards ceremonies is nearly over, thank heavens. But it hasn’t passed without…
Alexander McQueen may have been a prat but at least he was an interesting one
Alexander McQueen may have been a prat but at least he was an interesting one, says Shura Slater
Flying witches, mad old men, cannibals: what was going on in Goya’s head?
It is not impossible to create good art that makes a political point, just highly unusual. Goya’s ‘Third of May’…
Inventing Impressionism at the National Gallery reviewed: a mixed bag of sometimes magnificent paintings
When it was suggested that a huge exhibition of Impressionist paintings should be held in London, Claude Monet had his…
The Heckler: Tate Britain is a mess. Its director Penelope Curtis must go
Things have not been happy at Tate Britain for some time. Last year Waldemar Januszczak wrote an article culminating with…
The dos and don’ts of the Russian art scene
They’re doing fantastic deals on five-star hotels in St Petersburg the weekend the Francis Bacon exhibition opens at the Hermitage.…
Sargent, National Portrait Gallery, review: he was so good he should have been better
The artist Malcolm Morley once fantasised about a magazine that would be devoted to the practice of painting just as…
Where Van Gogh learned to paint
William Cook reports from the sooty netherworld that made an artist of Vincent Van Gogh
The future of the album lies in the gallery
The album is not what it was. It still exists, in record collections, as part of the torrential streaming of…
2015 in exhibitions - painting still rules
The art on show over the coming year demonstrates that we still live in an age of mighty painters, says Martin Gayford
Sorry – the Vikings really were that bad
Forget that guff about peaceful farmers with an interest in travel
