Reviews
This year’s Turner Prize nominees are all doing valuable work – but why compare them?
The shortlisted collectives are more interested in what takes place outside the museum – so considering them for an art prize seems besides the point
The uncanny universe of Leiko Ikemura
The Japanese-Swiss artist’s first exhibition in the UK introduces her eerie, fantastical world to a new audience
Paris Hilton takes a leaf out of Jane Austen’s recipe book
The venerable tradition of copying out recipes in household books lives on in the most unexpected places
The Candyman is back – and this time he’s haunting the art world
The Chicago art scene turns out to be a suitably chilling setting for Nia DaCosta’s sequel to the cult horror film
The Romantics who revolutionised how we think about the past
Rosemary Hill’s nimble survey shows how 19th-century antiquarians paved the way for modern historians
Sting in the tale – how Gustave Moreau added bite to La Fontaine’s fables
Rarely exhibited since their creation, the intense, jewel-like watercolours of the French symbolist make for exhilarating viewing
The British painting scene is a free-for-all these days – and that’s no bad thing
The Hayward’s survey of contemporary painting proves that the medium is thriving – with the figurative artists perhaps edging that little bit ahead
Hazardous dukes – Medici portraits at the Met, reviewed
An entrancing exhibition shows how Cosimo I de’ Medici harnessed art to consolidate his family’s grip on power
What we say when we say it with flowers
Artists and writers have always been fascinated by flowers – and we all like receiving them – but some floral arrangements are more sinister than others
Drinking wine in ancient Greece was a divine but demanding business
The gods were great sticklers for ceremony and frowned on oenophiles who didn’t observe the rules
Dust jackets and dinner jackets – the man who illustrated Bond
Richard Chopping’s striking designs for Ian Fleming’s novels add greatly to the books’ allure for collectors – but his artistic talent went far beyond Bond
Eyes on the ball – the new art gallery at the Spurs stadium is an unexpected winner
Exit through the gift shop at Tottenham Hotspur and you’ll find a gallery full of art inspired by the beautiful game
Do paintings have minds of their own?
Not all works of art need be interpreted – some simply demand that we spend some quality time with them
John Crome is forgotten today – but he once ranked alongside Constable and Turner
John Crome was among the greatest English landscape painters of his day – but you’ve probably never heard of him
The flamboyant painters who made a spectacle of themselves
Nicola Suthor’s study of the self-confident style known as ‘bravura’ is something of a virtuoso affair
It’s time Laura Knight was rescued from the ranks of the middlebrow
The British artist rejected modernism, but in life as in art she was hardly conservative
This colour chart of nature is completely mad – and utterly beguiling
An Enlightenment project to classify all the colours in the natural world is an extraordinary feat of ingenuity
Grotto fabulous – Marie Antoinette’s decorative dairy was no rustic retreat
The dairy at Rambouillet was a masterpiece of neoclassical design
The Italian dynasty that kept all of Europe thoroughly entertained
For more than a century, the Bibiena family created spectacular sets that delighted and deceived audiences
Keys to success: how typewriters transformed the world of work
Typewriters may be museum pieces now, but they created office jobs for women and by doing so changed the 20th century
At the Fondazione Prada, painting refuses to play dead
Peter Fischli has curated a show about the demise of painting – but his take is that it’s still very much alive
Capital gains: how Gainsborough took London by storm
When the painter finally moved to the capital, he was quick to make the most of the opportunities on offer
The man who designed modern Britain
Tom Eckersley’s posters are rightfully regarded as masterpieces – partly because he worked with clients who were also first-rate
The late, great landscapes of Rubens, reunited at last
A pair of monumental landscapes painted in his later years offer an unusually personal glimpse of the artist himself
What happens when an artist wants to be anonymous?