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The week in art news – Art Basel Miami Beach cancelled

Art Basel Miami Beach 2019. Courtesy Art Basel

The organisers of Art Basel Miami Beach have cancelled this year’s edition of the fair, due to take place on…

What’s left of Thomas Becket? – ‘The Book in the Cathedral’, reviewed

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The frontispiece and opening of the MS 411 psalter.

Christopher de Hamel argues that a book of psalms in a Cambridge library is the only surviving relic of the murdered archbishop

After the blast – at the Sursock Palace and Museum in Beirut

The Sursock Palace in the aftermath of the 4 August blast. Photo: Gregory Buchakjian

Surveying the damage at this landmark suggests how long and difficult the road to rebuild Beirut – once again – will be

Extra murals – on the discovery of medieval wall paintings on Torcello

Fresco (mid ninth century) showing a scene from the life of the Virgin Mary. Santa Maria Assunta, Torcello

Fragments of ninth-century frescoes uncovered during conservation shed new light on faith and power in the Venetian lagoon

Sugar high – the fine art of fast food

THE END (2020) by Heather Phillipson, installed on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London. Photo: Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images

A super-sized dollop of whipped cream now tops the Fourth Plinth – and there’s plenty more where that came from

‘Where are the posters to inform and persuade us in a pandemic?’

‘Protect your Eyes’ (c. 1942) designed by Manfred Reiss and G.R. Morris (left).

Posters are a powerful tool in clear and consistent public health-messaging – so why aren’t we seeing more of them?

‘Britain’s most visible artist’ – Barnett Freedman at Pallant House, reviewed

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(1936), Barnett Freedman for London Transport.

Freedman’s engaging designs were once impossible to avoid – and his lesser-known war paintings are a revelation

Leap of faith – how Mark Rothko reimagined religious art for the modern age

The Rothko Chapel, Houston (pre-restoration; opened in 1971).

For his chapel commission in Houston, the painter engaged with religion on his own terms – and forged a new, modern relevance for sacred art

How the Riga Biennial adapted to a world changed by Covid-19

Draftsmen’s Congress (2020), Paweł Althamer. Installation view at the 2nd Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art, RIBOCA2, 2020.

With a shortened run and reimagined artworks – plus, of course, social distancing – the exhibition has embraced the need to adapt

The week in art news – the Whitney cancels ‘Collective Actions’ exhibition after criticism

The Whitney Museum of American Art in 2014. Photo: Timothy Schenck

On Tuesday, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York cancelled a planned exhibition of artworks created in recent months ‘in response to…

Woe logo – the Osaka Expo goes googly-eyed

For the 2025 World Expo, the host city of Osaka has plumped for a bafflingly blobby logo

New York confidential – John Giorno’s memoir, reviewed

John Giorno (1936–2019).

In his posthumously published memoir, the poet recollects his life as a lover of some of the greats of the New York art scene

A threatened mural in Oldham illuminates a key moment in British art

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A detail of George Mayer-Marton’s mosaic and fresco before the latter was painted over.

George Mayer-Marton was an accomplished, influential émigré artist – and his Crucifixion for the Church of the Holy Rosary in Oldham must be protected

Amid all the talk of reopening, let’s not forget volunteer-run museums

Fry Art Gallery, Saffron Walden.

Volunteer-run museums play a vital role in the UK’s cultural landscape – and, as they cautiously reopen, may mean more to their visitors than ever

Breaking the glass ceiling? Women and the world of Murano

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Agnese Tegon working in the furnace.

Insular and secretive, the Murano glass industry has historically excluded women – but that may soon change

‘An amplitude of personal charm’ – Desmond Guinness (1931–2020)

Desmond Guinness. Photo: Amelia Stein; courtesy Irish Georgian Society

Desmond Guinness fought against the odds, and often against public opinion, to save Irish Georgian houses – and the nation will be forever in his debt

Acquired taste – the fashion for French interiors in Britain

Carlton House: the Blue Drawing Room (detail; c. 1816), Charles Wild

Dealers played a pivotal role in creating a demand for ancien–régime style across the Channel

The week in art news – Kariye Museum in Istanbul to be turned into a mosque

Mosaic of the Enthroned Christ and the Donor, Theodore Metochites above the entrance to the naos of the Kariye (Chora) Museum, Istanbul.

President Erdogan of Turkey today issued a decree to allow the Kariye (Chora) Museum to be used as a mosque.…

How to dress like an L.S. Lowry painting

‘Lowry Shirt’ by Blake Mill

A Manchester-based menswear designer has launched a shirt inspired by Lowry – and decorated with his ‘matchstick’ figures

Félix Fénéon: The Anarchist and the Avant-Garde – From Signac to Matisse and Beyond

Félix Fénéon (detail; 1894), Alphonse Bertillon.

MoMA reopens with a look at the career of this enigmatic critic, dealer, and champion of the avant-garde

Beyond Realism: Dada and Surrealism

Threatening Weather (1929), Rene Magritte.

Another chance to view highlights from the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s outstanding collection of Surrealist art

Doug Aitken: migration (empire)

migration (empire) (video still; 2008) Doug Aitken.

A motel menagerie on film – available to watch online courtesy of the Carnegie Museum of Art

Making the Met, 1870–2020

Interior View of the Metropolitan Museum of Art when in Fourteenth Street

The museum reopens with a belated birthday celebration, looking back at 150 years of collecting and exhibiting art

‘I found a Dorothea Lange who was new to me’ – an interview with Sam Contis

Dorothea Lange, from ‘Day Sleeper’ by Dorothea Lange and Sam Contis (detail), Library of Congress. Courtesy MACK

The artist Sam Contis talks about mining a rich seam in the personal archive of Dorothea Lange, and the parallels between Lange’s work and her own photography