Rod Mengham is a fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. His most recent book is ‘Midnight in the Kant Hotel: Art in Present Times’ (Carcanet).

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?

28 Feb 2025

The arresting satire of Sigmar Polke

The artist’s depictions of life in West Germany after the war are playful in form but deeply sarcastic under the surface

8 Nov 2024

How Bomberg and Auerbach reached dizzying heights

Before and after the Second World War, David Bomberg explored a vertiginous new style of landscape painting – and his student Frank Auerbach was clearly taking notes

10 Jul 2024

Georg Baselitz turns the world on its head

As the painter becomes older, the topsy-turvy figures that populate his invigorating canvases are becoming more skeletal

26 Apr 2024