Reviews
Visual Feasts
Despite a few bland contemporary exhibits, ‘Art and Appetite’ at the Art Institute of Chicago is an excellent survey of a nation’s changing tastes
New Contenders
As the Turner Prize winner is announced in Derry, ‘Bloomberg New Contemporaries’ at London’s ICA seeks out tomorrow’s big names
All That Glitters
‘Artist of gems’ Joel A. Rosenthal measures the value of a stone not in carats but in colour. His designs sparkle at the Metropolitan Museum
Wit and Anger
The Fondation Cartier’s exhibition of Latin American photography features defiantly eloquent works that mix visual experiment and political fury
Super Cooper
Samuel Cooper famously painted Oliver Cromwell ‘warts and all’. It’s worth getting up close to his superb miniatures at Philip Mould’s gallery
Do Come In
‘Immersive’ artwork such as Elmgreen & Dragset’s ‘Tomorrow’ at the V&A is touted as the 21st century’s spin on a gesamtkunstwerk, but has the hyperreal already become familiar?
Only Connect
His work at the Royal Academy strives for poetic significance, but does Bill Woodrow offer anything new?
Art
‘Art Spiegelman’s Co-Mix’ at the Jewish Museum in New York celebrates the extraordinary breadth and variety of the comic artist’s career
Community of Risk
‘Uproar!’ From the creation of Eve to the kitchen sink, Ben Uri gallery celebrates the first 50 years of the London Group
Up in Arms
The New-York Historical Society’s ‘The Armory Show at 100: Modern Art and Revolution’ actually reveals a measured side to the legendary show
Wellcome Questions
‘Foreign Bodies, Common Ground’ – the Wellcome Collection’s current exhibition – is refreshingly self-reflexive
Lost Gold
The exhibits at ‘Beyond El Dorado’ are compelling not only for the myths associated with them, but for their idiosyncratic human appeal
Spencer’s Tour
Stanley Spencer’s paintings from the Sandham Memorial Chapel – currently touring the UK – are among the most important artistic responses to the First World War
Across the Pond
An exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery attempts to find a home for Whistler on the banks of the Thames
Calling Time
‘The Show is Over’ at Gagosian Gallery, where painting’s elaborate deferrals of its death-scene extend like a multi-volume suicide note
Under Scrutiny
Not every exhibition has to be a blockbuster: ‘The Young Dürer: Drawing the Figure’ is a scholarly show, and all the better for it
The Modern Way
‘California Design 1930–1965: Living in a Modern Way’ has spent two years skirting the edges of the Pacific Ocean, and just landed in Brisbane
Political Sympathy – Daumier at the Royal Academy
The political context of Daumier’s work is important, but doesn’t need over-stating: the humour and compassion of his art speaks for itself
Vexing Vienna
‘Facing the Modern’ at the National Gallery boasts masterful works from a turbulent period in Vienna’s history. It’s an exhausting display
Absent Elizabeth
The queen’s portraits in ‘Elizabeth I & Her People’ are among the least interesting in the NPG’s revealing exhibition of Tudor art
Dutch Details
Some extraordinary Dutch masterpieces from the Mauritshuis are spending the winter at the Frick Collection in New York
A Matter of Taste
The Ecole des Beaux-arts – now controversially sponsored by Ralph Lauren – is at the centre of debates about the relationship between art and luxury in France
A Surreal Touch
Blain|Di Donna’s exhibition of ‘Dada & Surrealist Objects’ in New York is a textural treat
Open Book
The recent two-day symposium, ‘Art, Poetry and the Making of the Book’, brought together three veterans of British book-art with some new tricks