News

Installation view of ‘Kate Crawford, Trevor Paglen: Training Humans’ at Fondazione Prada, Milan, 2019. Shown are images from the ImageNet training set.

Trevor Paglen trains his sights on the rise of machine vision

What are the implications of using object recognition technology to classify human faces and emotions?

17 Oct 2019
The Glasmuseet in Ebelhoft

Glass act – inside the Danish museum devoted to studio glass

The Glasmuseet in Ebeltoft has a significant collection of works donated by artists from around the world

17 Oct 2019
The embrace (2015–16), Marlene Dumas, in Venus & Adonis (2019; David Zwirner Books).

Venus enlargement? Marlene Dumas takes on Shakespeare’s erotic verse

The artist is one of few to have attempted to illustrate Venus and Adonis

16 Oct 2019
A five thousand year old laugh (2019), Mark Bradford.

Mark Bradford descends into the hell of modern America

A new series of sprawling canvases by the Los Angeles-based artist takes inspiration from Cerberus, the mythical hound of Hades

15 Oct 2019
OSPAAAL poster (detail; 1969), Alfredo Rostgaard.

Public relations – solidarity posters from Castro’s Cuba

The 1960s and ’70s were a golden age for Cuban artists who designed striking graphics for liberation movements across the world

15 Oct 2019
The Mocking of Christ (detail; c. 1280), Cimabue.

A long-lost Cimabue has emerged – and the ‘first light’ of painting now burns brighter than ever

The chance discovery in a kitchen in France has major significance for scholarship on the Florentine master

14 Oct 2019
Camp Nou, Barcelona in 2014.

Messier and Messier – at the FC Barcelona Museum

A visit to Camp Nou – where Lionel Messi’s boots can be found alongside works by Miró, Dalí and Tàpies

12 Oct 2019
Agnes Denes walking through her installation Wheatfield – A Confrontation (1982) in the Battery Park landfill, New York.

‘My art is about overcoming our limitations’ – an interview with Agnes Denes

The artist talks about what it meant to plant a wheatfield in Manhattan – and why she wants her work to outlive her

11 Oct 2019
Noah’s Ark, from the Jami‘ al-Tawarikh of Rashid al-Din (MS 727), copy from 1314–15.

Around the world in 35,000 objects – and a handful of clicks

The Khalili Collections have partnered up with Wikimedia UK to broaden access to their vast holdings spanning centuries and cultures

11 Oct 2019
Photograph of the saleroom of the Continental Havana Company in Berlin, designed by Henry van de Velde in 1899, and published in Innen-Dekoration, October 1899.

From schools to cigar shops – the eclectic vision of Henry van de Velde

The Belgian painter-turned-designer was a prominent figure in the early history of modernism – although his precise role is not so easy to pin down

9 Oct 2019
Imran Perretta filming the destructors (2019).

‘Making already complex things more complex’ – an interview with Imran Perretta

The artist discusses his latest film, whose title – the destructors – is borrowed from a short story by Graham Greene

9 Oct 2019
Richard III (detail; late 16th century), English School.

Painted as a villain – how the Tudors regarded Richard III

The latest addition to the long gallery at Hever Castle presents the Plantagenet king in the worst possible light

The Death of Breuse sans Pitié (detail; 1857; retouched 1865), Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Acquisitions of the month: September 2019

This month’s highlights include a rock-crystal Venetian coffer and a once-lost watercolour by Rossetti

7 Oct 2019
Congo with Desmond Morris in 1957.

Your chance to own a painting by Congo the chimpanzee

Picasso and Miró were fans – now the gifted simian is getting a solo show in London. Plus other arty animals

7 Oct 2019
The triumphal car of the Emperor with his family (detail), from Triumphal Procession of Emperor Maximilian I (c. 1512–15), Albrecht Altdorfer. Albertina Museum, Vienna

Knight vision – how Maximilian I used the arts to bolster his brand

The emperor was no connoisseur – but he understood the power of art to paper over the cracks in his troubled reign

7 Oct 2019
Installation view of Monster Chetwynd’s Hybrid Creatures (Snake, Spider, Bat, Crocodile) at the Istanbul Biennial, 2019.

Monsters, mirrors and ruined mansions – on Büyükada island at the Istanbul Biennial

The decaying grandeur of the island makes for a beautiful setting – but it’s one that vies for attention with the art on view

4 Oct 2019
Boy Blowing on Firebrand (detail; c. 1660), Georges de la Tour.

Dijon’s grand old museum has a new look – and it really cuts the mustard

After a decade-long renovation, the palatial Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dijon can now show its masterpieces to even greater advantage

3 Oct 2019
Stills from The Bad Feel Loop (2019), Benedict Drew.

Benedict Drew’s new film gives form to the anxiety of modern life

Currently on view at the Science Gallery London, The Bad Feel Loops is a nervous, nerve-wracking piece of work

3 Oct 2019
In the Bezestein, El Khan Khalil, Cairo (1860), John Frederick Lewis. Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery

Cairene conversions – the adopted identities of John Frederick Lewis

The Victorian painter certainly had a penchant for play-acting, but his depictions of Egypt remain something of an enigma

2 Oct 2019
Ansel Elgort in The Goldfinch (2019)

A filched finch that never really takes flight – The Goldfinch, reviewed

The film adaptation of Donna Tartt’s novel is visually enticing but unwieldy

1 Oct 2019
Installation view of ‘Damien Hirst: Mandalas’ at White Cube, Mason’s Yard, London, 2019.

The misplaced outrage over Damien Hirst’s dead butterflies

From sepia to rabbit skin glue – Hirst’s butterfly wings are far from the only animal products used to make art

30 Sep 2019
The Redentore, Venice (detail; c. 1746), Canaletto.

Florence’s art and antiques fair returns to its roots

Exceptional Italian artworks should prove a big draw at the Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato in Florence

16 Sep 2019

A tour of Titania’s Palace

The fairy-tale doll’s house, now at Egeskov Castle in Denmark, still has the power to beguile with its miniature marvels and deceptions

13 Sep 2019
Alexander taming Bucephalus (c. 1800), Antoine-Jean Gros. Photo: © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre)/Michel Urtado

Battle lines – the tortured genius of Antoine-Jean Gros

An exhibition of drawings at the Louvre reflects the artist’s struggle between his warring inclinations

13 Sep 2019