When the sculptor was announced for the US Pavilion at Venice, many in the art world declared their unfamiliarity with his work, doubts about the selection process and incredulity that abstract art could speak to the current moment
A photo of the star at the Art Institute of Chicago whets Rakewell’s appetite for her upcoming turn in Sondheim’s musical about Seurat’s most famous painting
Once the jewel of a 17th-century collection in Rome, this playful painting is reunited with old friends – or suggestions of them at least
The History Faculty Building in Cambridge, completed in 1968, is hard to love. But love it Will Wiles, a former student, does
To mark its centenary and the 25th anniversary of the Royal Drawing School, the magazine is funding a scholarship and a prize for talented artists
As ‘one of the most imperious women in 19th-century Britain’, the Marchioness of Londonderry knew that political status required putting on something of a show
Plus: United States withdraws from two UN cultural heritage bodies; and Louvre workers strike over working conditions and redevelopment plans
The Nasjonalmuseet in Oslo celebrates the art of imitation as practised by Norwegian artists in all kinds of media
Two centuries after Hawaiian royals visited the British Museum, an exhibition of some 150 objects charts the history of two nations
Contemporary artists offer fresh perspectives on myth-making about the American West at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth
A baroque masterpiece leaves Rome for the Morgan Library & Museum in New York to hang alongside works by Arcimboldo and Annibale Carracci
The artist’s ‘candlelight’ paintings marry the pursuit of knowledge with wonder and suspense
While annual registers that sound the alarm for architectural and cultural sites have accumulated, their challenge remains Sisyphean
Constable gets a bumper birthday celebration, museums around Europe pay tribute to Brâncuși and the National Portrait Gallery honours Marilyn Monroe
Pomegranates are popular with Instagrammers, but cultures around the world have long prized the fruit for its symbolism and aesthetic appeal
A painting-focused challenge on the hit BBC series has caught Rakewell’s attention, and reminds us all of the pleasures of the Victorian tableau vivant
An ambitious exhibition in the painter’s home city of Florence makes clear that his art had a touch of the divine
Labour has been in power for 18 months now, but the arts sector is still very much in the red
A mammoth retrospective in Paris confirms the German artist as one of the world’s greatest living painters – and one of the most elusive
Plus: V&A director Tristram Hunt knighted for services to museums; and resignation of Istanbul Biennial curator cuts event short by two years
A biography of the Purist artist Amédée Ozenfant brings welcome attention to an esoteric period of modernism
The rise of the term ‘pitch curator’ to replace ‘groundsman’ shows that the influence of the art world is greater than even Rakewell suspected
An exhibition of artists’ depictions of sleep at the Musée Marmottan Monet is very far from a snoozefest
Much of the art of Rembrandt and his peers was influenced by Jewish culture, as this show in Boston attests
