Apollo

Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture

The rebels who thumbed their nose at the serious-minded efforts of East Coast artists are celebrated in this colourful show in Seattle

‘Crazed egomaniacs who want to subjugate us’ – a brief history of architects in film

Hollywood films are full of characters who design buildings for a living, but how well do they reflect the realities of the profession?

The dazzling paintings of Matthew Wong

The self-taught artist died tragically young at the age of 35, but there’s no denying the talent he demonstrated in his all-too-brief career

Four things to see: Cars

To mark 180 years since Charles Goodyear got his patent for vulcanised rubber approved, we look at four artworks that capture the appeal of automotives through the years

Who should we believe about the British Empire?

Drawings and watercolours of India belonging to a Scottish railway engineer take on new meaning if we look for what they don’t show

The optical allusions of Constantin Brancusi

Identifying the inspirations for the Romanian sculptor’s enigmatic works remains quite the puzzle

The everyday radicalism of Joanne Leonard

A photo taken by the artist in 1979 arranges the documents of a family’s life in humorous – and radical – style

The awesome art of Caspar David Friedrich

The leading exponent of German Romanticism was keenly concerned with the destructive effects of humans on a rapidly industrialising world

Greece welcomes Turkish rejection of Lord Elgin’s right to remove Parthenon marbles

Plus: Dealers Robilant+Voena hit by employee lawsuit, and French Fluxus artist Ben Vautier has died at the age of 88

Collecting Inspiration: Edward C. Moore at Tiffany & Co.

The firm’s chief silver designer was also an avid collector of decorative arts from all over the world, many of which he donated to the Met

Rembrandt & the World

The artist never left the Netherlands, but these etchings show that the animals, architecture and clothing from faraway places certainly sparked his imagination

William Blake’s Universe

A collaboration between the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Hamburger Kunsthalle puts Blake’s myth-making in the context of his European contemporaries

The Book of Marvels: Wonder and Fear in the Middle Ages

The Getty Center presents an illuminated French manuscript that takes armchair travellers to foreign and often fantastical places

Dior cruises through Scotland’s chequered history

The fashion megabrand has used Drummond Castle in Scotland as the backdrop for a new campaign – but was it fully clued up about the site’s colourful history?

Should UK museums start charging entry fees again?

Keeping the national museums free to enter comes with significant hidden costs, but admission fees are not the answer

Acquisitions of the month: May 2024

An uncanny family portrait by Lavinia Fontana and Sorolla’s striking copy of a Velásquez are among the most important works to have entered public collections last month

Why London’s auction houses are feeling so flat

With cancelled sales and market uncertainty, Christie’s and Sotheby’s have been taking hammer blows in recent months – but it’s not just a London problem

Four things to see: Heavy weather

As climate change continues to affect the world and the way we see it, here are four paintings of weather events, which serve as dramatic reminders of the power of nature and of human vulnerability

The British colourist who passed down the lessons of Matisse

Matthew Smith’s striking use of colour, learnt from the Post-Impressionists, left a mark on the British artists who succeeded him

In the studio with… Wendy Sharpe

The artist has all she needs in her capacious studio in Sydney, where her artist partner, some audiobooks and a Mexican papier-mâché skeleton keep her company

The burning ambitions of Roger Ackling

Using nothing but a magnifying glass and the sun’s rays, the artist created sculptures that defy easy categorisation

In Norway, a converted grain silo contains a bumper crop of Nordic art

A 1930s structure has been repurposed to house the collection of Nicolai Tangen. It’s certainly impressive, but how coherent is the work on show?

Should permanent collections tell up-to-the-minute stories?

Museums often have a responsibility to reflect major events, but should be careful not to disregard seemingly smaller stories

The women who channelled violence into art

Chantal Akerman and Valie Export have both deployed aggression as a means of artistic expression