Reviews

Image courtesy IFC Films

Ottolenghi’s French fancies at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

A film about the Versailles-inspired desserts the chef makes for an event at the museum is a visual treat – albeit one with a bitter aftertaste

12 Nov 2020
Rose Horizontal (2018), Bridget Riley.

Lines of continuity – learning from Bridget Riley’s prints

An expanded catalogue raisonné of the artist’s prints sheds new light on her pioneering approach to colour and composition

11 Nov 2020
Langlands & Bell in the Library-Dining Room with Grand Tour (2020). Photo: Gareth Gardner

‘They show where the bodies are buried’ – Langlands & Bell at the Soane, reviewed

The duo’s wry installations uncover the realities architecture often hides – and examine how buildings can manipulate people

9 Nov 2020
Becoming Alluvium (2019), Thao Nguyen Phan. Installation view at Chisenhale Gallery, London, 2020.

A voyage along the Mekong River with Thao Nguyen Phan

A film and a series of watercolour-on-silk paintings at Chisenhale Gallery reflect on the ‘beauty and suffering’ of the Mekong River

3 Nov 2020
Untitled (n.d.), JB Blunk. Photo: Diego Flores; courtesy JB Blunk Collection and Kasmin

The mischievous and mysterious art of J.B. Blunk

After a lifechanging encounter with Isamu Noguchi, J.B. Blunk dedicated himself to carving out his own path

30 Oct 2020
'Me and Dali in New York', 1972, David Bailey.

Exposure time – David Bailey’s autobiography, reviewed

A memoir as raw and unfiltered as the photographs that made Bailey’s name at Vogue, this curious book offers up some brilliant anecdotes but ultimately lacks focus

29 Oct 2020
Self-Portrait as a Lute Player (detail; c. 1615–17), Artemisia Gentileschi. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford

Role model – ‘Artemisia’ at the National Gallery, reviewed

This much-anticipated exhibition does justice to the restless creativity of Artemisia Gentileschi in her many guises

26 Oct 2020
Anti-racism sit-down protest, Bethnal Green, London, 1978.

The photographers who wanted their subjects to be heard as well as seen

Radical collectives in the 1970s were keen to make documentary photography more democratic

22 Oct 2020
Untitled #22 (1976), from the series 'Christopher Street', Sunil Gupta.

From rural India to Greenwich Village – life through the lens of Sunil Gupta

The photographer’s first UK retrospective explores his abiding interest in the experience of outsiders in society

21 Oct 2020
Bal au château des Noailles (c. 1929), Man Ray. Photo: © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, dist. Rmn-Grand Palais/Guy Carrard; © Man Ray 2015 Trust/Adagp, Paris 2020

À la mode – Man Ray’s forays into fashion photography

The artist was a reluctant photographer – yet from the 1920s to ’40s, the Surrealist vision he brought to fashion photography helped elevate it to an art form in its own right

20 Oct 2020
In Tangier (1987–90), Howard Hodgkin.

Recollected works – ‘Howard Hodgkin: Memories’, reviewed

In these paintings from the 1980s and ’90s, Hodgkin found a way to depict that ‘almost impossibly nebulous subject’ – his own past experiences

16 Oct 2020
Left: Head of Saint John the Baptist (1877/78), Auguste Rodin. Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe. Right: La Portinaia (1883/84), Medardo Rosso. Collection PCC, Lugano

What did Impressionism mean for sculpture?

A survey of artists inspired by the movement considers how successfully sculpture can convey a sense of transience

14 Oct 2020
John Simmons (detail; 1847), artist unknown.

The Black sailors who served in the British navy come out of retirement

An exhibition at the Old Royal Naval College tells the stories of the Black pensioners who lived there in the 18th and 19th centuries

9 Oct 2020
Installation view of ‘The Making of Husbands: Christina Ramberg in Dialogue’ at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, 2020. On the right is Ramberg’s Black Widow (1971).

The bound and fragmented bodies of Christina Ramberg

The artist’s strange, Surrealist-inspired paintings have in turn inspired more recent explorations of gender and body image

9 Oct 2020

‘Her canvases breed uncertainty from certainty’ – the art of Carmen Herrera

Still working at the age of 105, the Cuban-born artist has had an unusually long career – and the results repay close attention

7 Oct 2020
Black Water (1964), Armando. Installation view at the Kunstmuseum den Haag, 1964.

Murky waters – Armando and the art of moral ambiguity

An opaque installation by the Dutch artist raises difficult questions about ethics and interpretation

6 Oct 2020
Panel 10 (detail) (1954) from ‘Struggle: From the History of the American People (1954–56), Jacob Lawrence. Metropolitan Museum of Art. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Jacob Lawrence’s radical history of the United States

The reunion of the artist’s series of ‘Struggle’ paintings couldn’t be more timely

5 Oct 2020
Kingsgate Castle, near Broadstairs, designed by W.H. Romaine-Walker for Lord Avebury and built 1902–12.

Domestic reform – a liberal approach to architecture in the Edwardian era

Timothy Brittain-Catlin’s account of Edwardian houses challenges many misconceptions

3 Oct 2020
Mourning Dove (detail) from the series ‘ADSVMVS ABSVMVS’ (1982), Hollis Frampton.

The seriously absurd photographs of Hollis Frampton

Although the film-maker usually used still images as a means to other ends, his photographs are a useful introduction to his work

1 Oct 2020
Tablescape #2, (1999), Robert Kobayashi. Courtesy Susan Inglett Gallery

Showing his metal – the ingenious art of Robert Kobayashi

The artist made paintings and sculptures out of nailed-together strips of metal – and they’re transfixing

1 Oct 2020
Cromwell and Charles I (detail; 1831), Paul Delaroche.

Cavalier attitudes – the complicated visual legacy of the English Civil War

From memorials to history paintings, responses to the conflict often took telling liberties

30 Sep 2020
Portrait of Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous (detail; 1509), Lucas Cranach the Elder.

The seductive splendour of Lucas Cranach the Elder

An exhibition at Compton Verney shows off the full range of the master’s work – from slinky nudes to opulent portraits of the rulers of Saxony

26 Sep 2020
Soul Refresher (Mountain Rose Soda) (2020), Abbas Zahedi.

Brent’s borough-wide biennial offers welcome refreshment

A George Michael mural and a mountain rose-flavoured soda are among the contributions to the borough’s inaugural biennial

25 Sep 2020
Imitation Lesson; Her Shadowed Influence from ‘A Countervailing Theory’ (2019), Toyin Ojih Odutola. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; © © Toyin Ojih Odutola

Master class – a fictional civilisation makes its mark at the Barbican

Toyin Ojih Odutola’s scenes of a race of women warriors are a tour de force in pastel, charcoal and chalk

17 Sep 2020