Recent articles

Against all the odds, the marriage of Mohammed Sami and Blenheim Palace turns out to be made in heaven. It’s against the odds because Sami is a 40-year-old from Baghdad who has ended up in London while Blenheim is a particularly posh and gigantic stately home, the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough, the birthplace […]

The cry goes out across the land. It whistles across the heather and rumbles through the tenements: “Who will rid us of these troublesome Tudors?” I mean, really. As a nation, have we not already lavished as much attention as can reasonably be lavished on Henry VIII and his unfortunate wives? And his malignant children? […]

The tiny shred of good that has come out of the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been the raising of awareness it has prompted of this fascinating and crucial corner of Europe. Before Putin began his mad war, many among us would have had difficulty pointing to Ukraine on the map, let alone understanding its […]

With football fever raging in the land, Britain’s least likely contemporary art space, the Oof Gallery, has become a must-go destination. The Oof Gallery is unlikely because it is located inside Tottenham Hotspur’s football stadium in north London. Worse than that, it is only accessible through the club shop. Anyone visiting the Oof needs first […]

To the Wallace Collection, a venue I try to visit at least once a month because I always emerge with joy in my heart and a song on my lips. The collection was assembled by assorted marquesses of Hertford, the most active of whom was the fourth and last. The earlier Hertfords collected sparsely and […]

What is the worst exhibition space in the land? My vote would go to the Duveen Galleries, which run down the centre of Tate Britain. Nothing works here. Everything is problematic. Even the name. Joseph Duveen was a crooked art dealer who falsified attributions, ruined old masters with over-cleaning and was directly responsible for the […]

I’ve been making a film about Marcel Duchamp. But it keeps making me think of Damien Hirst. It’s annoying. The film is for a series called The Art Mysteries in which I unravel the complex meanings of celebrated artworks. In this case I’m looking at Duchamp’s Fountain, the upturned urinal that’s been voted “the most influential artwork of […]

The feminist artist Judy Chicago hates men. Wandering through her angry and tumultuous show at the Serpentine Gallery, I felt like a trespassing schoolboy who was getting his face smacked. “This is for picking your nose!” Smack. ”This is for destroying the planet!” Smack. “This is for making God a man!” Smack. By the time I slunk […]

Marc Quinn has had a strange career as an artist. He emerged in the 1990s, arriving in the slipstream of the YBAs. But he was always a bit different. Having gone to Cambridge, where he studied history, he stood out: cerebral, well read, a touch superior. His debut in our consciousness was startling: a self-portrait […]

Expressionism is one of the better names for an ism. It tells you what to expect with unusual clarity. Expressionist artists express deep feelings and stormy emotions. They do it with brave and direct paintwork. No overthinking. No conceptual confusion. Expressionism does what it says on the tin. The movement’s origins lie in Van Gogh, […]