Reviews
The photographer who created Cairo in his own image
Van Leo’s portraits capture a lost world and are in a class of their own, writes Raphael Cormack
Seeing modern Madagascar through the eyes of its greatest photographer
Ramily was a pioneer who captured the newly independent country as it wanted to be seen
Pulling faces – the art of showing emotion
An exhibition at the Musée Marmottan Monet considers how artists have tried to represent feeling through the centuries
The Italian painter who expressed himself in America
For all his care to balance the traditions of his Venetian forebears with the style of his US contemporaries, Afro Basaldella came to be seen as an Abstract Expressionist
The photographer who hated office life
Chauncey Hare was compared to Walker Evans and Diane Arbus, but he came to find the art world as repressive as the corporate world he loathed
James Morrison’s paintings take us on a journey into the unknown
The artist refused to paint people, preferring instead to focus on remote landscapes and natural phenomena
The pared-down poses of Aristide Maillol
The Musée d’Orsay’s survey of the French sculptor is admirably thorough, but his art was more modern than we’re often led to believe
Theaster Gates’ big idea – the Serpentine Pavilion, reviewed
The American artist’s ‘Black Chapel’ is an imposing addition to the manicured lawns of Kensington Gardens but is it where you’ll find perfection?
Why did European nobles go all gooey for waxworks?
They’re now little more than popular amusements – but with their discomfiting realism, wax effigies were once considered fit for royalty
How do women really wield power?
In attempting to give an account of ‘feminine power’ through the ages, the British Museum raises far more questions than it answers
The Design Museum proves that football really is the beautiful game
The subject of football and all its attendant paraphernalia makes for a surprisingly joyful exhibition
‘Littered with stumbling blocks’ – Cornelia Parker at Tate Britain, reviewed
The British artist’s retrospective might appear visually weighty, but the work pays little attention to the history and politics of the materials used
Speed freak – ‘Raphael’ at the National Gallery, reviewed
The artist’s true genius lay in the superhuman pace with which he mastered new styles
Survivors’ gilt – the luxury craftsmen who flourished after the French Revolution
Iris Moon’s account of how masters of the decorative arts adapted to turbulent times is a suitably unsettling affair
The British photographers who took their visual cues from the Grand Tour
Victorian photographers in Italy were inevitably influenced by forms of landscape painting made popular in the preceding century
Eternal fame – the world of the Kushite pharaohs
The Louvre’s latest exhibition has revived the vast ancient empire that once united Sudan and Egypt
‘This is a new Winslow Homer for our time’
The Met’s new survey reveals a more dramatic, more political side to the American painter
Acting out with Walter Sickert
A triumphant survey at Tate Britain – the largest in 30 years – revels in the British artist’s painterly games
In defence of the modern buildings of Britain
Some of Britain’s finest examples of modern architecture may be under threat, but in Owen Hatherley they have a fierce champion
The Scottish artist who liked to be beside the seaside
The seaside scenes of Willie Rodger aren’t necessarily a sunny affair, but they are always full of life
‘An elegy to a disappearing planet’ – Katie Paterson in Edinburgh, reviewed
Over the course of an almost a decade, the Scottish artist has gathered and crushed ancient geological specimens to create a work of real conceptual power
The strange and sinister world of Julia Soboleva
The Latvian-born artist takes found photographs and paints over them to make enigmatic and eerie images – but they’re not meant to be scary, she insists
‘A curatorial masterclass’ – the 59th Venice Biennale, reviewed
Cecilia Alemani’s focus on women artists goes beyond tokenism to present a strong statement about both contemporary art and the world we live in
The Soane Museum provides a masterclass in the art of architectural drawing
Frances Sands’ selection from one of the world’s greatest collections of architectural drawings will delight both experts and the general reader alike
The many faces of Mary Magdalene