Reviews

C.F.A. Voysey’s designs reveal his ‘puritanical love of simplicity’

Voysey’s designs were as pioneering as his architecture

13 Aug 2016

Is this exhibition Stanley Kubrick’s worst nightmare?

Kubrick took an ‘infinite amount of care’ over his films. The same can’t be said for this chaotic exhibition

12 Aug 2016

Quite mad and a little indecent’ – the complete works of Aubrey Beardsley

The first catalogue raisonné of Aubrey Beardsley’s works is a triumph – and a treat to pore through

9 Aug 2016

Has Jeremy Paxman made the most sensational Van Gogh documentary ever?

The presenter’s hunt for Van Gogh’s missing ear has been packaged like a thriller

7 Aug 2016

How photography and painting focused the Victorian mind

An exhibition at Tate Britain makes forceful claims for the imaginative use of memory in both art and photography

5 Aug 2016

Utopian dreams: Imagining what utopia might mean today

A year-long collaborative project at Somerset House celebrates the 500th anniversary of Thomas More’s famous work

3 Aug 2016

Michel Houellebecq’s new exhibition is extremely terrible and utterly compelling

The writer has deployed the deadpan satirical streak that runs through his novels to defy the rules of contemporary art

3 Aug 2016

‘I buy! I buy! I can’t stop myself’: Artists as collectors at the National Gallery

Artist collectors, it emerges, are driven by a mix of motives from compulsion to emulation

2 Aug 2016

Fighting for the beauty of the British landscape

The former director-general of the National Trust has written a spirited defence of Britain’s rural areas

1 Aug 2016

David Hockney and Alex Katz: two great colourists on top form

Neither painter seems afraid of trying new things in their respective shows at the Royal Academy and Serpentine Gallery

27 Jul 2016
Equestrian Portrait of Chancellor Séguier (c. 1660–61), Charles Le Brun

Stepping out of the Sun King’s shadow

The Louvre-Lens has mounted a long overdue survey of Charles Le Brun’s prodigious talents

26 Jul 2016
Bicho Caranguejo (1959), Lygia Clark.

‘It’s you who now give expression to my thoughts’: Lygia Clark’s art in London

The Brazilian artist was relentlessly inventive, moving from abstract drawing to ‘critter’-like sculptures and, ultimately, participatory works

22 Jul 2016

Art and life in the work of Bhupen Khakhar

A welcome exhibition of the Indian artist’s work reveals how he found inspiration in even the smallest of details

18 Jul 2016
Pose Work for Plinths 3 (detail; 1971), Bruce McClean.

Conceptual art’s all talk – and that’s a problem for curators

Tate’s ‘Conceptual art in Britain’ show is remarkably dense and text heavy, but then how could it be anything else?

14 Jul 2016
Michael Joo at EVA International 2016. Photo: Sean Curtin

Meditations on migration: Michael Joo at the Smithsonian

In his new installation in Washington the artist the has produced a powerful meditation on diaspora and resilience

13 Jul 2016
Molar (2016), Jennifer Wen Ma. Photo: Barney Hindle, 2016 © Cass Sculpture Foundation

China meets the South Downs in a new departure for the Cass Sculpture Foundation

The 18 Chinese artists involved in ‘A Beautiful Disorder’ have created sculptures that deliberately disrupt our view of the English landscape

13 Jul 2016
Momentary Monument – The Stone (2016), Lara Favaretto, installation view at Welsh Streets, Liverpool Biennial 2016.

The Liverpool Biennial’s emphasis on local identity could not be more prescient

The sociopolitical slant of this year’s event has added weight in light of the Brexit vote. Can a city’s regeneration be artist-led?

12 Jul 2016

The art of power in ancient Pergamon

How did a minor Greek dynasty create one of the greatest sites of Hellenistic art?

12 Jul 2016
Willem Sandberg in 1955

‘A poster has to be joyous’. The energy and enthusiasm of Willem Sandberg

The designer and director of the Stedelijk Museum had a remarkable life: don’t miss an opportunity to learn about him at the De La Warr Pavilion

11 Jul 2016
Calton Hill (2014), Jock McFadyen

Scottish artists who turned to the dark side

A survey of postwar Scottish art reacting against the forces of reason includes wonderful pieces, but explains its own meaning a little too neatly

2 Jul 2016
Remainder (2016), Omer Fast. Tom (Tom Sturridge) peers round model of Madlyn Mansions

‘Remainder’ replays the past in a doomed search for the truth

Let’s face it, this film about a man struggling to regain a sense of reality is perfect viewing this week

30 Jun 2016
The Ethics of Dust at Westminster Hall (2016), Jorge Otero-Pailos.

If walls could talk…The Ethics of Dust at Westminster Hall

An evocative new installation in the oldest surviving part of the Houses of Parliament strikes a chord

29 Jun 2016
The MNBAQ's new Pierre Lassonde Pavillion opened on 24 June

Québec’s latest project could transform the city’s cultural scene

The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ)’s new pavilion is an ambitious project that unites city, park and museum

28 Jun 2016

How Rainham Hall, a house with a history but no original contents, has come to life

At Rainham Hall, the National Trust has risen to the challenge of animating and interpreting an 18th-century sea captain’s house

23 Jun 2016