Our art is in a rut. What should be radical is the status quo. Do we really need curators?
Archive
Lords of the Bling
Looking for some sparkle this festive season? It’s a wise man who snaps up tickets to these three glittering exhibitions.
Lou Reed: The Life by Mick Wall
Waldemar reviews Mick Wall’s biography of Lou Reed.
Save these men for the Nation
It’s not only this fine Van Dyck we must keep on our gallery walls. William Dobson is just as vital to the history of British art
Classical revival
Kenwood House, one of the great small collections, has finally been restored. What a delightful revelation.
Set the controls to Stunning
The Chapman brothers at the Serpentine is a heck of a show, perverted and grotesque, and it features war art to rival their hero, Goya
Far from the madding crowd
The Saatchi Gallery is championing figurative painters again — and this refreshing approach has come up trumps
Growing Paints
A couple of bright stars shine out in Tate Britain’s show of new painting — pity the curators insisted on being involved too.
Over the Great Wall
The V&A’s superb survey of 12 centuries of Chinese art is a fine insight into a national culture.
Bad hair, bad diet exposed me to Lou’s mild wild side.
Though famed for rock’n’roll excess, the late Lou Reed could still chide his friend Waldemar Januszczak over his choice of food and advice on hairdressers.