The paradoxes of Frank Auerbach
The painter, who has died at the age of 93, was defined by his surfaces, but unconcerned with exteriors.
ByArtists
Immerse yourself in the world of art with our captivating collection of articles, featuring artist profiles, art movements, exhibitions, and critical discussions that celebrate the creativity and inspiration of talented artists from various disciplines.
Paul Gauguin’s art monster myth
Sue Prideaux’s biography of the unruly French painter shows his story was more complicated than that of colonial seducer.
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Van Gogh in the yellow house
The artist moved to Arles in 1888 full of optimism. The National Gallery’s major new exhibition, “Poets and Lovers”, selects…
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Francis Bacon’s vile bodies
The fusion of violence and pleasure defined the painter’s life and work.
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The Stormtrooper Scandal: a parable for our times
The BBC’s cautionary tale of greed and lies in the art world is full of bullshitters and rank opportunists.
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The birth of the Blue Rider group
The first comprehensive exhibition of the group’s works in Britain since 1960 shows how Wassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Münter, Franz Marc,…
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The internet has ruined true stories
In the social media age, autobiographical works invariably end in harassment for the individuals depicted. Can real-life storytelling ever be…
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Caspar David Friedrich and the mystery of eternity
The great painter, born 250 years ago, made it his lifelong task to depict the numinous in nature.
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Goya’s lessons for a world at war
Why the great Spanish painter’s work still resonates so urgently.
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The perils of artists’ posthumous fame
Also this week: Philip Larkin’s “ecclesiastical journeys”, and general election date intel.
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Caspar David Friedrich and the art of kitsch
The German artist, born 250 years ago, and his most famous painting The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog reveal…
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Frank Auerbach’s unsettling charcoal heads
These portraits have a haunted quality, the spectres of all the deleted images that went before.
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Tristram Hillier, England’s quiet surrealist
The painter’s immaculate pictures of an off-kilter world are works of concentration and contemplation.
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Wolfgang Tillmans: “Art doesn’t have a purpose”
The photographer on the decline of the London art scene post-Brexit, coming out at 16, and political responsibility.
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Winter wonderlands: writers on their favourite artworks
Ali Smith, Julian Barnes, Ai Weiwei and others choose seasonal scenes.
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The madness of Claude Monet
Jackie Wullschläger’s exemplary biography reveals the impressionist painter’s obsessive commitment to his art.
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David Hockney’s clumsy late style
His more recent portraits reveal an artist whose skills are fading.
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Max Pechstein and the politics of paint
Amid Germany’s 20th-century upheavals, the expressionist’s art brought him both renown and peril.
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Marina Abramović’s catalogue of self-harm
The stock-in-trade of the 76-year-old’s long career is endurance mixed with pain: something she demands of her audience, too.
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Frans Hals and the will to life
Where Rembrandt painted introspection, the Haarlem portraitist showed people as social creatures.
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