Painting
The frisky side of a classical master: National Gallery's Poussin and the Dance reviewed
In the winter of 1861, visitors to the Louvre might have seen a young artist painstakingly copying one of the…
The genius of Frans Hals
Since art auctions were invented, they have served to hype artists’ prices. It can happen during an artist’s lifetime —…
Fortifying snapshot of the gardener’s year: Saatchi Gallery's RHS Botanical Art show reviewed
Elizabeth Blackadder, who died last month at the age of 89, was probably the most distinctive botanical artist of our…
Glorious: Bernardo Bellotto at the National Gallery reviewed
What is the National Gallery playing at? Why, in this summer of stop-start tropical storms, is the NG making visitors…
Hugely pleasurable – a vision of summer: Jennifer Packer at the Serpentine Gallery reviewed
We need to talk about Eric. In Jennifer Packer’s portrait of her friend and fellow artist, Eric N. Mack sits…
Rich and strange: Eileen Agar at Whitechapel Gallery reviewed
Heads turn, strangers gawp, matrons tut or look in envy. A man doffs his bowler hat knowing when he is…
Joan Eardley deserves to be ranked alongside Bacon and de Kooning
Claudia Massie on the unjustly neglected artist Joan Eardley, who deserves to be ranked alongside Auerbach, Bacon and de Kooning
If you didn’t love Jansson already, you will now: Tove reviewed
Tove is a biopic of the Finnish artist Tove Jansson who, most famously, created the Moomins, that gentle family of…
The magical art of boxer, labourer & sometime gravedigger Eric Tucker
Artists’ estates can be a curse on a family. The painter dies, leaving the house stuffed with unsold canvases. What…
The art of government: what politicians’ paintings say about them
What politicians’ paintings say about them
The Dickensian delights of London in lockdown
I’m blessed by the fact that I live almost smack-bang in the middle of old London, a pebble’s toe punt…
An immensely rich show – though it consists of only two paintings: Rubens at the Wallace Collection reviewed
‘When pictures painted as companions are separated,’ John Constable wisely observed, ‘the purchaser of one, without being aware of it,…
The world's first robot artist discusses beauty, Yoko Ono and the perils of AI
Stuart Jeffries discusses beauty, Yoko Ono and the world’s disappointments with the first robot artist
Rodin was as modern as Magritte and Dali, but more touching and troubling than either
Rodin’s studio at Meudon in the suburbs of Paris is huge and filled with light — a sort of combined…
The art of the asparagus
Manet’s ‘Botte d’asperges’ are probably the most famous asparagus in the world. The artist painted the delicious white- and lilac-tinged…
It is impossible to imagine Henrician England except through the eyes of Hans Holbein
‘Holbein redeemed a whole era for us from oblivion,’ remarks the author of a trilogy of novels set at Henry…
The high and low life of John Craxton
Charm is a weasel word; it can evoke the superficial and insincere, and engender suspicion and mistrust. But charm in…
The bizarre art of Scottie Wilson deserves to be better known
On eBay I have an alert set for ‘Scottie Wilson’. Nine times out of ten, it’s a diamanté Scottie dog…
‘I’ve seen the bare bones of London’: street painter Peter Brown interviewed
‘I’ve been seeing the bare bones of London,’ explains the landscape artist Peter Brown, who is known affectionately as ‘Pete…
The truth about my father, Philip Guston
Musa Mayer talks to Hermione Eyre about her father Philip Guston’s cancellation and her fear that he will for ever be known as the artist who painted the Ku Klux Klan
How Algernon Newton made great art out of empty streets and dingy canals
Quite late in life Walter Sickert paid his first visit to Peckham Rye. He was excited, apparently, because he had…
Why is the smoky, febrile art of Marcelle Hanselaar so little known?
I first became aware of the work of Marcelle Hanselaar in a mixed exhibition at the Millinery Works in Islington.…
Francis Bacon: king of the self-made myth
In 1953, Francis Bacon’s friends Lucian Freud and Caroline Blackwood were concerned about the painter’s health. His liver was in…
The rise of bad figurative painting
Galleries are awash with gimmicky paintings that look like they’ve been designed by algorithm. Dean Kissick on the rise of zombie figuration
Paint in the bloodstream: The Death of Francis Bacon, by Max Porter, reviewed
Francis Bacon once told the art critic Richard Cork: ‘I certainly hope I’ll go on till I drop dead.’ Max…
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