To mark the exceptional Picabia retrospective at MoMA in New York (from 21 November to 19 March), I’m reposting my article about its earlier incarnation this summer in Zurich, featuring an exceptional account by specialist Alain Tarica. As the Zurich curator Catherine...
Art which is political to the exclusion of all else is pointless, regardless of how human its message. Art demands the foundation. It demands the form too. Otherwise you simply end up with illustrations. The greatest shock that I had the chance to experience recently...
The history of art spends its time righting past wrongs. The most recent case comes in the shape of a stunning exhibition on an Impressionist artist at the Musée d’Orsay, which runs until 5 March when it will travel to the National Gallery in Washington. Through the...
‘It is essential for the sensual element to be included in some way or another in any work of art.’ These words were written by Mark Rothko, the most sensual of abstract artists (in his paintings, at any rate). The sensual dimension is vitally important to art...
Every year in November and May, the contemporary art auctions in New York are awaited as the final verdict on the overall health of the art market. Their impact is colossal, trickling down across all price ranges, as well as across other areas of the market. This year...
The reigning king of Antwerp since the 17th century was an absolute genius when it came to painting, but also ambitious, dishonest and filthy rich. We’re talking, of course, about Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). In his hometown, the studio where he worked is...
‘This is not a pipe’. It appears on t-shirts, mugs, and in advertising slogans and has become the biggest cliché  of modern art. René Magritte (1898-1967), who painted the pipe in 1929 accompanied by the famous line ‘ceci n’est pas...’  or 'this is not...' has earned...
At the turn of the 20th century, with Europe about to be shaken by a world war and a revolution, the world of painting was also in a state of extreme turmoil. The objective was to destroy the old order. In Paris, then global epicentre of the avant-garde, but also...
France is a nation of great wealth, at least when it comes to art. And one of the most beautiful modern collections outside Paris is in Villeneuve d’Ascq, on the outskirts of Lille, in a  museum called Lille Art Moderne or LAM. From Picasso (25 paintings) to Leger (20...
It's a story that has got the entire old master world  talking. And it begins like the best art market myths: in 2014 a family in Toulouse, in the south-west of France, while doing work on their house, discovered a  canvas in the attic which appeared to be from the...
Sigmar Polke (1941-2010) is true a giant of painting from the second half of the 20th century but has yet to receive the full credit he deserves. This is especially apparent when compared with his fellow countryman Gerhard Richter (born 1932) who can properly be...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNudBHEsAlI Some painters have an overwhelmingly intellectual relationship to their work. For others it’s more physical. Ask one of the most famous among the latter group, Gerhard Richter, born in 1932, who his greatest inspirations...