Reviews

Equestrian Portrait of Chancellor Séguier (c. 1660–61), Charles Le Brun

Stepping out of the Sun King’s shadow

The Louvre-Lens has mounted a long overdue survey of Charles Le Brun’s prodigious talents

26 Jul 2016
Bicho Caranguejo (1959), Lygia Clark.

‘It’s you who now give expression to my thoughts’: Lygia Clark’s art in London

The Brazilian artist was relentlessly inventive, moving from abstract drawing to ‘critter’-like sculptures and, ultimately, participatory works

22 Jul 2016

Art and life in the work of Bhupen Khakhar

A welcome exhibition of the Indian artist’s work reveals how he found inspiration in even the smallest of details

18 Jul 2016
Pose Work for Plinths 3 (detail; 1971), Bruce McClean.

Conceptual art’s all talk – and that’s a problem for curators

Tate’s ‘Conceptual art in Britain’ show is remarkably dense and text heavy, but then how could it be anything else?

14 Jul 2016
Michael Joo at EVA International 2016. Photo: Sean Curtin

Meditations on migration: Michael Joo at the Smithsonian

In his new installation in Washington the artist the has produced a powerful meditation on diaspora and resilience

13 Jul 2016
Molar (2016), Jennifer Wen Ma. Photo: Barney Hindle, 2016 © Cass Sculpture Foundation

China meets the South Downs in a new departure for the Cass Sculpture Foundation

The 18 Chinese artists involved in ‘A Beautiful Disorder’ have created sculptures that deliberately disrupt our view of the English landscape

13 Jul 2016
Momentary Monument – The Stone (2016), Lara Favaretto, installation view at Welsh Streets, Liverpool Biennial 2016.

The Liverpool Biennial’s emphasis on local identity could not be more prescient

The sociopolitical slant of this year’s event has added weight in light of the Brexit vote. Can a city’s regeneration be artist-led?

12 Jul 2016

The art of power in ancient Pergamon

How did a minor Greek dynasty create one of the greatest sites of Hellenistic art?

12 Jul 2016
Willem Sandberg in 1955

‘A poster has to be joyous’. The energy and enthusiasm of Willem Sandberg

The designer and director of the Stedelijk Museum had a remarkable life: don’t miss an opportunity to learn about him at the De La Warr Pavilion

11 Jul 2016
Calton Hill (2014), Jock McFadyen

Scottish artists who turned to the dark side

A survey of postwar Scottish art reacting against the forces of reason includes wonderful pieces, but explains its own meaning a little too neatly

2 Jul 2016
Remainder (2016), Omer Fast. Tom (Tom Sturridge) peers round model of Madlyn Mansions

‘Remainder’ replays the past in a doomed search for the truth

Let’s face it, this film about a man struggling to regain a sense of reality is perfect viewing this week

30 Jun 2016
The Ethics of Dust at Westminster Hall (2016), Jorge Otero-Pailos.

If walls could talk…The Ethics of Dust at Westminster Hall

An evocative new installation in the oldest surviving part of the Houses of Parliament strikes a chord

29 Jun 2016
The MNBAQ's new Pierre Lassonde Pavillion opened on 24 June

Québec’s latest project could transform the city’s cultural scene

The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ)’s new pavilion is an ambitious project that unites city, park and museum

28 Jun 2016

How Rainham Hall, a house with a history but no original contents, has come to life

At Rainham Hall, the National Trust has risen to the challenge of animating and interpreting an 18th-century sea captain’s house

23 Jun 2016
MINT (2016), Debora Delmar Corp.

This year’s Berlin Biennale should get rid of the art

The curators’ vision of an iDystopian world can only work if it’s all-encompassing. The more obvious artworks just dilute the effect

22 Jun 2016
A female nude (1930), Frank Dobson

Don’t miss Dobson’s drawings at Daniel Katz gallery

The rough-and-tumble humanity of the modern British sculptor’s sketches is refreshing to see

22 Jun 2016
Paradox of Praxis 5: Sometimes we dream as we live & sometimes we live as we dream; Ciudad Juárez, México (2013), Francis Alÿs in collaboration with Julien Devaux, Rafael Ortega, Alejandro Morales, and Félix Blume

Poetry and violence in the work of Francis Alÿs

The Belgian artist brings the subject of drug wars in Mexico to the heart of Mayfair: but he insists that art comes before politics

19 Jun 2016
Abashed at her delight; of her deep joy afraid. Folio from a Gita Govinda series. Pahari, by a member of the fist generation after Nainsukh; (c. 1775–80)

‘Taste the essence’ of Indian painting

A new book promises to open up the world of Indian art to a wide new audience

15 Jun 2016

This Cindy Sherman exhibition is good – but have we seen it all before?

Sherman’s groundbreaking work paved the way for so many of today’s artists – but her own creations are starting to seem too familiar

14 Jun 2016
Portrait of Dora Wheeler (1882–83), William Merritt Chase.

What William Merritt Chase learned from Europe

The 19th-century artist who brought modern spirit to American painting

14 Jun 2016
Self-portrait (1773–74), Pompeo Batoni.

Pompeo Batoni didn’t just paint aristocrats abroad

The most prestigious portrait painter in 18th-century Rome also had a flair for religious and mythological subjects

9 Jun 2016

The timeless modernity of a forgotten Danish painter

C.W. Eckersberg’s 19th-century paintings are barely known outside Denmark and Germany, but they should be…

8 Jun 2016

Peggy Guggenheim steals the show in Florence

A show about the Guggenheim’s art collections is really about the battle between Peggy and Solomon

8 Jun 2016

The work of Mona Hatoum bristles with a bodily charge

This large exhibition provides an opportunity to engage with the physical effects of Hatoum’s work

7 Jun 2016