Reviews
In sharp focus – Steve McQueen at Tate Modern, reviewed
A series of understated yet powerful works make clear that McQueen is as effective in the gallery as in the cinema
Baroque stars – the birth of a style in 17th-century Rome
Caravaggio and Bernini are the headliners – but the Rijksmuseum’s show reveals the range of artists who adopted the baroque style
Burning desires – Céline Sciamma’s ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’, reviewed
The French director’s film about an 18th-century painter and her muse is a visual feast
African-American artists from the South put on a show of defiance
A survey of black artists from the American South reveals how oppression and inequality couldn’t crush their creativity
Personality cult – Alfred Jarry makes an impression at the Morgan Library
The creator of King Ubu and inventor of pataphysics was deeply attached to the art of the book
Money matters – the art of German hyperinflation
The emergency money issued by many German towns during the First World War featured a range of designs – including witches, devils and donkeys
Nature boy – how John Nash brought new life to British landscape painting
A new biography reasserts the significance of the self-described ‘artist plantsman’ among his modern British peers
A cut above – Linder takes over Kettle’s Yard
The artist’s feminist photomontages fill the galleries, while the house is now punctuated with her interventions – and the scent of potpourri
Force of nature – the weathered canvases of Vivian Suter
Vivian Suter’s paintings, on show at Camden Arts Centre, are marked by the elements of the rainforest where she works – as well as by her dogs’ paws
Surreal deal – on Salvador Dalí’s tarot deck
Long out of print, the cards have been reissued by Taschen. But what of the artistic merits of their designs?
Floating around on Planet Polke
Potatoes orbit around barstools and beer spurts out of coasters in the whimsical worlds explored by Sigmar Polke
Frayed histories – unravelling the stories behind seven women’s textile collections
An exhibition on the textile collections of women from the 19th century to the present day tells us as much about their own lives as about the objects themselves
The Mesopotamian city that can claim to be the cradle of civilisation
Uruk may not be as well known as Babylon or Ninevah, but layers of complex, urban life have been uncovered there over the course of the 20th century
Fertile ground – ‘Portraying Pregnancy’ at the Foundling Museum, reviewed
A visual history of hundreds of years of veneration, satire, or the breaking of taboos moves from the Virgin Mary to Demi Moore
The great dictator – William Feaver’s biography of Lucian Freud, reviewed
The painter exerts the force of his personality from beyond the grave in the first part of this unconventional biography
Naked positions – Mary Beard’s Shock of the Nude, reviewed
The BBC programme takes a playful look at changing attitudes to nudity in art – from Michelangelo’s David to modern life drawing
How Charlotte Salomon turned her dark family history into a masterpiece of 20th-century art
‘Leben? oder Theater?’ is a totally unique work of art, produced in extreme circumstances
‘For Goya, the normal, the terrible, and the fantastical existed cheek by jowl’
A gathering of some 300 drawings at the Prado is a comprehensive guide to life in the artist’s cruel and chaotic world
Tullio Crali’s flights into the future
The Estorick Collection presents a rare exhibition of works by the Italian painter with a passion for planes
The private collection that paved the way for the National Gallery
The Marquess of Stafford’s noble endeavour gave the public a taste of what a national collection might look like
May Morris was a master of many crafts, but it’s her embroideries that steal the show at Dovecot Studios
The designer was born into the Arts and Crafts movement, but her achievements speak for themselves
Leonardo at the Louvre is full of wonders – and a few surprises
While the paintings are astonishing, the notebooks and sketches really draw you in
The ace caff that now leaves a bad taste – at the V&A Café
Henry Cole had the art of the museum cafe down to a tee. Oh for his veal cutlets!
Television licence – how Nam June Paik turned cathode-ray tubes into art
Tate Modern’s show of the artist’s experiments with technology suggests that TV was his favourite medium
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Seeing London through Frank Auerbach’s eyes