The major museum openings of 2025
The United States will be the centre of attention, but from London to Warsaw to Abu Dhabi, it’s a dizzying year for museum-goers all over the world
The art of crossing continents – ‘Silk Roads’ at the British Museum, reviewed
An exhibition about the civilisations that could be found along the trade route connects cultures at every turn, writes Sameer Rahim
Acquisitions of the month: November 2024
A panel by Fra Angelico and a video work acquired using cryptocurrency are among the most significant artworks to enter public collections recently
Contemporary art gets a permanent home in Malta
A 17th-century fort is now full of 21st-century art, and although the project has been a troubled one, the results are worth the wait
Inside the mysteries of Van Cleef and Arpels
The jeweller generally reveals precious little about its process, but Apollo gains access to the site in Paris where the magic happens
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How to be buried in style in ancient China
What can a bronze Han dynasty horse tell us about status anxiety and the afterlife? Ching-Ling Wang of the Rijksmuseum talks of grave matters
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In the studio with… Chrissie Hynde
The rockstar-turned-artist revels in her solitude and shuts the door to everyone except her dog when she’s in the studio – which is also her flat
In the studio with… Stanley Donwood
Best known for his designs for Radiohead’s album covers, the artist enjoys the sea air but laments the fug of wood varnish in his Brighton studio
December 2024
• The floral paintings of Rachel Ruysch
• What do museums think about climate protests?
• Turin’s Egyptian Museum at 200
• The winners of the Apollo Awards 2024
Also: An interview with Jeff Wall, the wild imagination of Maurice Sendak, spies and socialists at the Isokon building, and the ever-closer ties between luxury brands and the art world; reviews of Jacopo Bassano in Helsinki, art along the Silk Roads, the colourful interiors of Pierre Bonnard, and the art of predicting the future. Plus: John Banville on the sensuality of a late Rubens
How Egon Schiele saw the world
In his paintings of landscapes and townscapes, the artist created scenes that are as psychologically complex as his portraits
Robert Frank’s doom-laden images of America
The photographer’s first and most famous book quickly became a classic, but he would become sceptical about the power of still images
Rachel Ruysch says it with flowers
The Dutch artist’s floral paintings might look merely decorative but, as curator Bernd Ebert explains, they encapsulate a world of economic and scientific change in the early modern Netherlands
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Magritte’s genius bears fruit once again
As a giant green apple reappears atop the Magritte Museum in Brussels, Rakewell wonders which other artists might benefit from the super-size treatment
The long and bloody history of Smithfield Market
The recent decision to close the meat market for good marks the end of a certain idea of the City of London and perhaps even Britain’s sense of itself
The manly art of Gustave Caillebotte
The French painter was unusual among his Impressionist peers for preferring to depict men at work and at play
Dominique White plumbs the depths of history
An exhibition of work by the winner of the Max Mara Art Prize hints at the horror of the transatlantic slave trade
How Oxford became a pale shade of its former self
The replacement of Boswell’s department store with a luxury hotel is part of a beautification process that has gathered pace in recent years
The dreams of the Surrealists have become the stuff of our reality
The ideas and images of the artists who unleashed their unconscious on the world a century ago are now part of the fabric of everyday life
The cosmic art of Liliane Lijn
The artist has pursued her interest in light, motion and myth across drawing, sculpture and performance for six decades, but it’s her openness to new ideas that really defines her work
The Mughal emperors who forged a new artistic tradition
At its peak, the Mughal empire brought together scholars and artists of different languages and faiths to create art fit for kings
Nature on Notice: Contemporary Art and Ecology
A chance to see how artists from Southern California and elsewhere are engaging with the climate emergency and ecological imbalance
If Books Could Kill
Knowledge can be toxic, as this selection of killer manuscripts from the collection of the Walters Art Museum demonstrates
Tissot, Women and Time
James Tissot’s gimlet-eyed depictions of women’s lives and fashions in 19th-century Paris and London are celebrated in Toronto
Out of the Ordinary: Uncommon Materials, Marks, and Matrices
The Hammer Museum honours the artists who have poured blood, sweat, tears or other unusual substances into their work
What happens when an artist wants to be anonymous?
An Austrian museum is hosting a show by an unnamed artist – but perhaps this act of secrecy will help us see the work more clearly