Features

Archie Brennan weaving in Nunavut in 1991.

Weft dreams – the utopian tapestries of Archie Brennan

Archie Brennan was a committed craftsman with a fondness for optical illusions and a strong idealistic streak

12 May 2021
Head of a king (c. 4th century), Sasanian. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Iranian kings who thought the world revolved around them

As the last rulers of pre-Islamic Iran, the Sasanians crafted a grand courtly culture that would go on to influence kings from the Balkans to Bengal

8 May 2021
Joan Eardley sketching in her studio in Townhead, Glasgow (photo by Audrey Walker, c. 1949–51). Collection Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

‘Here are the contradictions of Glasgow laid bare, with love’ – in the footsteps of Joan Eardley

The painter’s tender portraits of slum life are being celebrated across Scotland in her centenary year 

4 May 2021

The eccentric English socialite who embraced Surrealism

Heir to a railway fortune and an 8,000-acre estate in West Sussex, Edward James transformed his homes into total works of art – with a little help from Dalí and friends

1 May 2021
Detail of Self-Portrait with Madrigal (c. 1578), attributed to Marietta Robusti. Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

The lost paintings of Marietta Robusti are a maddening Renaissance mystery

Tintoretto’s daughter was a highly acclaimed artist in her own right, but there is frustratingly little to go on when it comes to identifying her paintings

28 Apr 2021
A selection of the bookplates in Simon Martin’s collection, showing the following plates (clockwise from top left): William Nicholson’s for William Heinemann; Stephen Gooden’s for John Raymond Danson; John Craxton’s for Stephen and Natasha Spender; Keith Vaughan’s for Mervyn Jones Evans, John Nash’s for Lionel Bradley, Eric Gill’s for Mary Gill, E. McKnight Kauffer’s for Jeanette Rutherston, Keith Vaughan’s for John Lehmann, Gladys Calthrop’s for Nöel Coward, and E. McKnight Kauffer’s for Ifan Kyrle Fletcher.

Book keeping: the bookplates that are artworks in their own right

With their miniature artistry and enigmatic personal histories, these striking prints are often more enticing than the volumes they’re found in

23 Apr 2021
Flower Thief (NFT promo) (2021), Jan Erichsen © the artist

Are digital artists waiting for the NFT bubble to burst?

Most of the fuss about NFTs has focused on what, if anything, buyers are getting – but how do digital artists feel about minting their art?

23 Apr 2021
Supra man: a detail of one of Niko Pirosmani’s feast scenes, included in an exhibition at the Albertina, Vienna in 2018–19.

The jobbing artist who became Georgia’s national painter – thanks to his eye for a feast

Niko Pirosmani’s paintings are a testament to Georgian conviviality – although he didn’t always have a place at the table

19 Apr 2021
Left: ‘Black Mask’, vol. 12, no. 1, September 1929, contains the first part (of five) of ‘The Maltese Falcon’ by Dashiell Hammett; right: ‘Harper’s Bazaar’, vol. 77, no. 3, March 1943, featuring Lauren Bacall on the cover.

The magazines that made America

The pages of US periodicals trumpet a country making it up as it went along, covering everything from prohibition to pulp fiction

15 Apr 2021
Urban development: on site at the newly discovered ancient Egyptian city known as the Rise of Aten (photo: April 2021).

What did city living look like in ancient Egypt?

The discovery of a 3,000-year old city at the West Bank of Luxor creates a more nuanced picture of ancient Egyptian life

15 Apr 2021
Gallery wall: installation view of Lucy Raven’s ‘Ready Mix’ (2021) at Dia Chelsea, New York.

With its return to Chelsea, Dia is having a New York moment

Dia Art Foundation’s support for ambitious experimental artists is as resolute as ever, its director Jessica Morgan tells Apollo

14 Apr 2021
In hibernation: covered gondolas line the shore in Venice in December 2020.

For the gondola builders of Venice, choppy waters lie ahead

Traditional boatyards and boat-building techniques have long been in decline – but the pandemic has only worsened the situation

13 Apr 2021
Charles Baudelaire (c. 1863), Etienne Carjat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The cantankerous criticism of Charles Baudelaire

On the bicentenary of the poet’s birth, his art criticism still hums with outrage

12 Apr 2021
In the flesh: Francis Bacon photographed in 1984.

Wild things: the beasts of Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon’s work reveals an endless fascination with animals – and the bestial side of human nature

11 Apr 2021
Jonathan Yeo's portrait of Prince Philip from 2006 (detail).

As a portrait sitter, Prince Philip was also a spirited sparring partner

In 2006, Jonathan Yeo painted Prince Philip’s portrait – an invigorating if at times nerve-wracking experience

10 Apr 2021
Terracotta statue of Euterpe, the Muse of instrumental music, in St George's Gardens, Bloomsbury.

Parks and recreation: how London grew its green spaces

The pandemic has highlighted the need for urban projects such as the Camden Highline – and London has a long history of transforming unloved sites into havens for city dwellers

7 Apr 2021
David Suchet as Hercule Poirot. Photo: courtesy ITV

Thoroughly modern murder: how Poirot came to personify art deco

Agatha Christie’s sleuth has been nowhere more at home than in ITV’s interwar locations – their clean lines the perfect match for the punctilious Poirot

5 Apr 2021
Nancy and Olivia (detail; 1967), Alice Neel. Collection of Diane and David Goldsmith.

Alice Neel, our contemporary

The painter’s urgent, sympathetic portraits of her fellow New Yorkers are exactly what we need in these troubled times

3 Apr 2021

How Britain’s first prime minister became a sitting target for satirists

Robert Walpole was a supreme political operator – but his power and personal wealth made him a splendid butt of satire, too

2 Apr 2021
Church of Saint-Médard, 5th arrondissement (detail; 1900–01), Eugène Atget. Musée Carnavalet – Historie de Paris.

In lockdown Paris, the photographs of Eugène Atget suddenly feel eerily familiar

Walking around the city can feel like following in the footsteps of the famous photographer – but today’s empty streets are altogether more depressing

29 Mar 2021

By royal arrangement: Queen Mary’s compulsive collecting

Many British royals have been keen on acquiring works of art, but few have been as diligent about looking after them as Queen Mary

27 Mar 2021

Seven cultural escapes if you’re stuck in the UK all summer

You’re not going abroad this summer – but you can still have a holiday with an artistic twist

25 Mar 2021
The Mausoleum of Augustus.

The tomb of Rome’s first emperor at last reveals its secrets

The restored tomb of Augustus reopened this month – and an extensive new website gives a good sense of what has happened to it over the last two thousand years

22 Mar 2021
Noël Coward and Gertrude Lawrence in Private Lives (1931) at Times Square Theatre, New York.

Surface tension: the glamorous world of Noël Coward

The glittering displays of Noël Coward and chums masked an altogether less divine reality – but anxiety and fear were always part of the act

20 Mar 2021