Reviews
Pride and prejudice in 19th-century France
Depictions of lions by leading lights of the Romantic movement and more Academic types reveal humanity’s dark side
How Peter Blake makes his sculptures Pop
The artist has always combined high and low culture, and an exhibition at Waddington Custot captures his witty approach to assemblage
A Renaissance painter restored to his rightful place in art history
The conservation of two jewel-like panels by Francesco Pesellino is an opportunity to discover a little-known artist who was highly regarded by the Medici
The sound of silence – how Joshua Leon gives voice to Jewish history
The artist’s harmonious installation at Chisenhale Gallery memorialises his musician grandfather
Forging relationships – Eduardo Paolozzi at 100
A centenary celebration of the Edinburgh-born artist puts his collaborative side in the spotlight
Lee Ufan and the art of slowness
The South Korean artist has perfected an aesthetic of harmony and balance that rewards patient looking
Reel life – how Zineb Sedira found herself through film
At the Whitechapel Gallery, the French-Algerian unspools personal and political histories through imitation sets and empty stages
The clockwork marvels that tell a tale of two empires
These timepieces are fluttering, chiming embodiments of how Britain and China traded with each other in the 18th and 19th centuries
Breaking the mould – the women who rewrote the rules of sculpture
In the decades after the Second World War, female artists chafed at the strictures of abstraction and began expressing their gender through their work
The bric-a-brac brilliance of Gillian Lowndes
An exhibition of the late ceramicist’s creations features only 11 works, but open-minded viewers will find plenty to delight in
Art of the blue – the chilly iconoclasm of Rayyane Tabet
The Lebanese artist’s new installation cleverly undermines the utopian ambitions of the architecture that surrounds it
How cuteness conquered the world
An aww-inspiring exhibition explores adorability through the ages, and suggests it can be subversive as well as sweet
The Impressionists who put pastel to paper
As an exhibition at the Royal Academy shows, the Impressionists were never more immediate or intimate than in their drawings
Josephine Baker, agent provocateur
The American star and sometime spy was more than capable of defining her own image, as an exhibition in Berlin makes clear
States of awareness – experimental art from the Eastern bloc
Artists in the Soviet satellite states often adopted the forms and techniques of mass surveillance to mordant effect
From Africa to Byzantium, and back again
Trade and cultural exchange meant that the iconographical traditions of East Africa and Byzantium had much in common
The artists who made it in London against the odds
Making a living in the capital has always been a challenge for creative types, but British television was once very interested in how they managed
The painter who took a quixotic view of Spain
Ignacio Zuloaga was once as celebrated as Sorolla, but the artist’s searching paintings soon fell out of favour after his death
At the Fondazione Prada, folding screens divide and totally rule
From pieces of furniture to works of conceptual art, an exhibition in Milan reveals that folding screens are functional, adaptable and always divisive
Shore thing – the artists who flourished on the New York waterfront
What did Agnes Martin, Ellsworth Kelly and Lenore Tawney have in common? They all lived cheek by jowl in a wharfside district of Manhattan
Weird Barbies and other unheavenly bodies – Anu Poder at the Muzeum Susch, reviewed
The Estonian artist stretched materials to their limit to create wonderfully distressed and disturbing sculptures
How Harriet Backer worked wonders in Norway
The painter is in no need of rediscovery at home, but her painstaking depictions of everyday life deserve to be better known abroad
Whose imperial majesty? – ‘South Asian Miniature Painting and Britain’ at the MK Gallery, reviewed
When it comes to miniatures, size doesn’t matter, but a show of historic and contemporary works should spark a bigger colonial conversation
What do English country houses tell us about the state of the nation?
Stephanie Barczewski’s book considers how stately homes have evolved according to the needs of their owners and wider changes in society
‘She had no time for elitism, but was passionate about excellence’ – a tribute to Rosalind Savill