Features

Fakirs, Trinidad (c. 1890), Felix Morin.

Acquisitions of the month: June 2019

Chippendale furniture and early photographs of the Caribbean are among this month’s highlights

15 Jul 2019
The Visit (1899), Félix Vallotton. Kunsthaus Zürich.

The ‘very singular’ Félix Vallotton is finally given his due

Long eclipsed by his fellow Nabis artists Bonnard and Vuillard, this Swiss painter and printmaker produced brilliant and unsettling work

3 Jul 2019
The Carlile Family with Sir Justinian Isham in Richmond Park ('The Stag Hunt’) (detail; 1650s), Joan Carlile. Lamport Hall

A studio of one’s own – Britain’s first women artists

How to succeed as a woman painter in 17th-century England? A supportive husband, royal patronage and mentorship from Van Dyck certainly helped

2 Jul 2019

The Apollo summer party, in pictures

Leading lights from the art and museum worlds turned out on Monday night for Apollo’s annual summer party

2 Jul 2019

Crater glory – how artists have responded to Earth’s nearest neighbour

From Friedrich Nerly to Robert Rauschenberg – artistic fascination with the moon has never waned

1 Jul 2019
The Hood Museum of Art in Dartmouth.

Class act – a new look for Dartmouth College’s Hood Museum of Art

From Assyrian carvings to contemporary African art, the museum’s wide-ranging collection has a recently expanded home

30 Jun 2019
Sculpture of a large anthropomorphic crab by the Martin Brothers, 1880, salt-glazed stoneware.

Who’s going to shell out for this monumental crab?

‘Truly grotesque’ it may be, but the export bar placed on this characterful Victorian ceramic reflects its importance as a work of art

27 Jun 2019
Dido and Aeneas (detail; c. 1640s), Mortlake Tapestry Works.

What not to miss at London Art Week

Highlights of this year’s event include a long-lost tapestry commissioned by Charles I and dozens of drawings by Adolph von Menzel

26 Jun 2019
The 11 Lewis chess pieces owned by the National Museums Scotland. Photo: © National Museums Scotland

Pawn stars – famous chess sets in art and history

With a rediscovered Lewis chessman coming up for auction in July, Apollo takes a look at other great sets of the noble game

25 Jun 2019
Aquamanile in the form of Aristotle and Phyllis, late 14th century/15th century, South Netherlandish, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

From infant prodigy to infatuated old man – the many guises of Merlin

The mythical figure has taken many forms over the centuries, some more dignified than others

22 Jun 2019

Midcentury unmodern – how antique furnishings fell out of fashion

In the October 1945 issue of Apollo, readers ‘of moderate means’ were advised to invest in brown furniture – an unpopular but economical choice

20 Jun 2019
Relief showing a scene from a deer hunt, 9th century BC, Neo-Hittite kingdom of Milid (modern-day Malatya, Turkey), Musée du Louvre, Paris

‘The Hittites lived in interesting times’ – art after the end of civilisation

A show at the Louvre explores the rise, fall and what remains of the ancient Hittite empire

17 Jun 2019
Georg Baselitz (b. 1938) in Ammersee, Germany, 2018.

‘I am one and the same person’ – Georg Baselitz looks back at a life in art

An exhibition at the Accademia in Venice explores the link between the artist’s past and present work – as well as the influence of Old Masters

12 Jun 2019
Christ as the Good Shepherd, the Preaching of St John the Baptist, and the Baptism of Christ (second half of 16th century), Juan Baptista Cuiris.

Acquisitions of the month: May 2019

A mosaic of feathers from Mexico and a collection of classical gemstones are among this month’s highlights

5 Jun 2019

Runway successes – the appeal of fashion exhibitions in museums

Celebrations of costumes and couture are more popular than ever, but is there more to these shows than spectacle?

1 Jun 2019
Sandra Drew, Maryrose Sinn and Caroline Douglas outside Drew Gallery, 1986

Retrospectives are no longer just for artists – galleries are getting in on the game

A show exploring the legacy of Drew Gallery Projects in Canterbury is part of a wider recent trend

30 May 2019

Can reconstructing historic collections give us the wrong idea about the past?

Reuniting objects that belonged to important collectors can be a visual treat, but there are some intellectual traps to be avoided

30 May 2019

On the trail of Maria Lai in Sardinia

The folklore and customs of her island home provided rich material for the artist to spin her own yarns

29 May 2019
Moving Off the Land (2019), Joan Jonas. Performance with Ikue Mori and Francesco Migliacco, Ocean Space, Chiesa di San Lorenzo, Venice, 2019.

Politics, performance and porcelain – at the Venice Biennale and beyond

Themes of exile and migration thread their way through the works in the main exhibition, national pavilions, and elsewhere

15 May 2019
Modèle assise dans un fauteuil, se coiffant (detail; c. 1903), Édouard Vuillard.

Acquisitions of the month: April 2019

Paintings, prints and a vast video panorama – the best works of art to enter public collections recently

10 May 2019
Richard Sackville (1589–1624), 3rd Earl of Dorset (detail; 1613), William Larkin. English Heritage, Kenwood.

Behind the curtain – it’s time William Larkin finally got his due

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the death of the great English court painter, long known only as the ‘Curtain Master’

9 May 2019
Rosso Plastica M3 (1961), Alberto Burri. © Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini Collezione Burri, Città di Castello

The legacy of Alberto Burri burns bright – at home in Umbria, and in Venice

Some 50 works by the enigmatic artist have travelled from his hometown to Venice this summer

9 May 2019
Still from the digital video installation One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk (2019), by Isuma, the central work in the Canadian Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale.

Venice in furs – an Inuit collective at the Biennale

The Isuma collective’s new film draws on the history of coerced relocation of Inuit communities in Canada

8 May 2019
Left: Painted bowl with geometric design and possible flower images, Classic Mimbres period (1000–1130), New Mexico. Right: Painted bowl with composite animal figure, Classic Mimbres period (1000–1130).

Bowled over – the painted pots of the ancient Mimbres people

Around a thousand years ago in the American Southwest, a highly sophisticated ceramic tradition emerged

7 May 2019