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Apollo at 100
As the magazine marks its centenary, its belief in being curious about both the past and present – and in the power of art – is more important than ever
Just the bare necessities of art
The idealised nude figure has a unshakeable place in art history, but many artists have turned their gaze to their own imperfect bodies
Why it’s time to stop rediscovering Eileen Gray
The designer was a genius but, as a new film shows, her achievements still have to be untangled from the men who kept getting in her way
The Department of Culture badly needs a sense of direction
Recent denials that the department for culture, media and sport is for the chop don’t address the problem of its glaring lack of purpose
Suzanne Valadon’s shifting gaze
The artist modelled for Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec and others, but her own sitters were afforded much more agency
Do we take craft for granted?
Japan’s support of its artisans shows how highly it views its cultural heritage, but the same isn’t always true of the rest of the world
The threat to Sudan’s cultural heritage
Reports of looting at the Sudan National Museum were confirmed last month as government forces retook Khartoum. The losses are still being reckoned
Suzanne Treister’s tarot offers humanity a new toolbox
The artist has updated her ‘Hexen’ deck charting the rise of the military-industrial complex for an age of climate crisis and disinformation
When the Nazis pilloried modern art
The attacks on ‘degenerate’ art were brutal and shocking, but the bravery of the artists whose work was singled out should also be remembered
Cultural leaders must resist being brought into line
It’s not just federally funded museums that have reason to be wary. Self-censorship is also a danger, and all institutions should stand up for their stated principles
What the dismantling of USAID means for world heritage
As development agencies have become increasingly entangled with heritage projects, the end of USAID raises the question of who will fill the funding gap
‘Archives are the closest thing we have to a time machine’
Archives are much more than stuffy storerooms filled with dried-out documents, and might be our best way of connecting to the past
How to give back looted objects
UK museums are hamstrung by outdated laws around restitution. It’s time for politicians to end the impasse and give them greater autonomy over their collections
The artists full of sympathy for the devil
Women have often been thought susceptible to demonic influence, and creativity can be seen as a form of possession – notions reclaimed by artists in ingenious ways
Who will put the art into artificial intelligence?
If AI is treated as little more than a fashionable selling point, then its potential to create genuinely innovative art may be lost
What Severance says about our fractured selves
The sinister corporation in the dystopian office drama really cares about art, but the paintings on the walls only highlight the workers’ sense of alienation rather than relieving it
Can Britain’s fragile pottery industry survive?
Shattered by high energy prices and shifting consumer habits, the historic Potteries in Stoke-on-Trent are more vulnerable than ever
What would Jane Austen say?
Nothing gets a certain type of viewer more hot under the cravat than anachronisms in period drama – but the best inaccuracies are artistically liberating
Who will reimagine the British Museum?
The winner of the competition to redesign the most popular galleries will be announced next month, but are the finalists thinking hard enough what the museum should really be?
In defence of the outsider artist
The art world tends to favour self-promoting extroverts, but it is often the eccentrics and wallflowers who make the most interesting work
How artists respond to disaster
Art can never bring anything back to life, but it can help what has been lost live on in the imagination
Do portraits have an image problem?
Figurative art is on the up and up but that doesn’t mean that every painting of a person is a literal depiction
‘He wasn’t edgy. He was honest’ – on the genius of David Lynch
The film-maker was always an original but what makes his work unforgettable – and inspiring to other artists – is its radical sincerity
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‘Like landscape, his objects seem to breathe’: Gordon Baldwin (1932–2025)
The modernist potter was one of a handful of British ceramicists who pushed clay to its expressive limits