Reviews
The endless mystique of Franz Kafka
The term ‘Kafkaesque’ is in constant use and misuse, but, a century on from his death, are we any closer to understanding the man himself?
Mohammed Sami turns history inside out at Blenheim
The Baghdad-born artist’s gently subversive installations at Blenheim Palace make keen observations about the nature of war and of privilege, and who gets to be a hero
We’ll almost have Paris – the Olympic opening ceremony, reviewed
The riverine procession of competing nations took the focus off the athletes, but the spectacle of Celine Dion belting out Edith Piaf from the Eiffel Tower was worth the four-hour wait
Rave culture gets the museum treatment
From the flyer designs to the thumping music, a 1980s rave reconstructed in virtual reality feels almost like the real thing – with one crucial missing element
The silversmith who struck gold at Tiffany
Edward C. Moore played a crucial role in the firm’s 19th-century success and his own collecting inspired some of its most impressive creations.
The feuding artists who shaped art after the Russian Revolution
The story of Kazimir Malevich and Vladimir Tatlin’s competing artistic outlooks is told with verve in Sjeng Scheijen’s new book
How Marguerite Duras reinvented cinema
Though she remains best known as a writer, the French avant-gardist was a formidable force behind the camera, as a season at the ICA in London demonstrates
The light relief of Anthony McCall
When viewed in the right environment, the artist’s sculptures in light and experimental films illuminate new ways to think about objects in space
How to paint a revolution in miniature
The British-Iranian artist Laila Tara H’s refined images are thoughtfully framed to express her frustration with a patriarchal society – but never at the expense of playfulness
Olivia Laing’s guide to radical growth
Gardens aren’t just lovesome things. In the writer’s gently rambling book on the subject, they are seedbeds of rebellion too
How Bomberg and Auerbach reached dizzying heights
Before and after the Second World War, David Bomberg explored a vertiginous new style of landscape painting – and his student Frank Auerbach was clearly taking notes
From Bruges to the beach, it’s a big summer for sculpture in Belgium
Between the Bruges and Beaufort Triennials, contemporary art enthusiasts are spoiled for choice – and may see some unexpected sights
The art dealer who scammed his way to the top
A memoir by the friend and business partner of convicted fraudster Inigo Philbrick raises disturbing questions about the art world
Contemporary art casts a spell in a London chapel
The Fitzrovia Chapel is an atmospheric choice of venue for an exhibition with an occult edge
The last bohemians living in New York
The ‘Loft Law’ of 1982 protected artists living in industrial zones from rising rents and eviction. Joshua Charow’s photographs record the members of an endangered tribe
Getting down and dirty with Albert Serra
At the Eye Filmmuseum, the latest provocation by the Catalan artist and director features French libertines and turns us all into Peeping Toms
The puckish figures of Franciszka Themerson
The Polish-born artist’s paintings and drawings may have an air of the doodle, but her politically radical work is thrillingly inventive
Royals with really grand designs
From Louis XIV to Catherine the Great, monarchs didn’t just commission ambitious projects, but also played a serious part in the design process
The afterlives of the wives of Henry VIII
Being married to the monarch was a hazardous business, but all six queens have lived on in popular memory and the artistic imagination
The British artists who took a restless approach to still life
Still-life painting in Britain really took off in the 20th century when artists adopted a more experimental approach
The weird reflections of Jean Cocteau
An exhibition in Venice underscores the artist’s restless imagination and shapeshifting tendencies
Michelangelo’s careful image management
An exhibition at the British Museum shows that the artist deliberately shaped his legacy by the drawings he chose to leave behind
For Carole Gibbons, there’s no place like home
Now 88, the Glaswegian artist is finally being fêted for her unpredictable visions of domesticity
The dazzling paintings of Matthew Wong
The self-taught artist died tragically young at the age of 35, but there’s no denying the talent he demonstrated in his all-too-brief career
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The many faces of Mary Magdalene