The palace of Caserta has lost nothing of its power to astonish
The palace of Caserta has lost nothing of its power to astonishDesigned in the 18th century by Luigi Vanvitelli for Charles VII of Naples, Italy’s answer to Versailles is as dizzying today as it was 250 years ago
At home with Charles Dickens
The novelist was a wandering soul, so what can his house in London – now celebrating its centenary as a museum – tell us about the man?
Four things to see: Sculpting wood
On the 125th anniversary of the birth of the Jamaican artist Edna Manley, we examine four sculptures carved from wood
Tech bros of Versailles – ‘Science and Splendour’ at the Science Museum, reviewed
Technology and ornament went hand in hand at the court of Louis XIV, and his successors expected the same from the scientific advances of their day
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Meet John Singer Sargent’s favourite family
The artist painted the Wertheimers 12 times, in portraits that shed light on the changing fortunes of an extraordinary family
Playing mind games with Joseph Kosuth
As the Hungarian-American artist celebrates his 80th birthday, is his brand of conceptual art still as radical as it once was?
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In the studio with… Catherine Wagner
The San Francisco-based photographer has moved into a new space, and she’s getting used to a more communal environment – but order is still all-important
In the studio with… Jakkai Siributr
The Thai textile artist prefers silence in his studio so he can listen to his thoughts – which proves tricky when his dogs are hanging around
February 2025
How pastels caused a stir in 18th-century Paris
Cimabue, the first light of the Renaissance
When Rubens was king of his own castle
Will US tariffs threaten the art market?
Also: American museums and the culture wars, in defence of eccentrics, the retro pleasures of Viennetta, Italy’s answer to Versailles; reviews of Orphism in New York and medieval women in London, John Singer Sargent’s favourite family, and the only Disney character who was ever funny. Plus: Helen Gordon on the meteorite that captivated Dürer
Can Britain’s fragile pottery industry survive?
Shattered by high energy prices and shifting consumer habits, the historic Potteries in Stoke-on-Trent are more vulnerable than ever
The Chinese artist who brought ink painting to a new audience
A meditative painting by Qi Baishi demonstrates his modern approach to an ancient art form, explains Jeremy Zhang of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco
When Rubens was king of the castle
The Flemish castle bought by Rubens in 1635 was intended as a country retreat, and it inspired the artist’s greatest landscapes
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The intimidating art of Louise Nevelson
The artist’s monochrome sculptures made of everyday objects are full of menace and all the more exhilarating for it
Art for after the apocalypse
Impressionists and post-Impressionists rule among the paintings in Disney+ series ‘Paradise’, but it’s a Sargent that becomes a talking point
The painter who poked fun at 18th-century Paris
Working in the new medium of pastels, Maurice-Quentin de La Tour portrayed the cultural and political elite of his day in a style that matched the hedonism of the age
What would Jane Austen say?
Nothing gets a certain type of viewer more hot under the cravat than anachronisms in period drama – but the best inaccuracies are artistically liberating
The memory palace of Mario Praz
The scholar’s meticulously preserved apartment in Rome testifies to his passion for all things 19th century, and to how he treated collecting as a form of memoir
‘I’m not worried about going stagnant or out of fashion’ – an interview with Jake Grewal
Ahead of an exhibition at Studio Voltaire, the painter talks to Apollo about queerness, his obsession with charcoal and why he loves the work of Keith Vaughan
Citizen Guillaume – the painter whose fortunes followed the French Revolution’s
The story of an artist who has been forgotten for nearly 200 years reflects the hopes and failures of the turbulent times he lived through
A fitting tribute to Dior
An imaginative exhibition in The Hague stresses how much the fashion house still owes to its founder
Proust and the Arts
In Madrid, the Thyssen-Bornemisza goes in search of the painters who inspired Marcel Proust and his magnum opus
Elizabeth Fritsch: Otherworldly Vessels
The Hepworth Wakefield celebrates the British ceramicist whose pots take cues from jazz to achieve a sense of spontaneity
Leonardo–Dürer: Renaissance Master Drawings on Colored Ground
The Albertina draws on its outstanding collection and calls in some loans to show how the Old Masters made the most of working on tinted paper
Anselm Kiefer: Where have all the Flowers Gone
As one of Europe’s greatest living painters turns 80, the Stedelijk and Van Gogh museums in Amsterdam split a show of his work between them
What Severance says about our fractured selves
The sinister corporation in the dystopian office drama really cares about art, but the paintings on the walls only highlight the workers’ sense of alienation rather than relieving it