Ben Luke

Ben Luke is a contributing editor and podcast host at The Art Newspaper

A brush withinterview

A brush with… Lois Stonock, the director of Metroland Cultures, London

The arts charity director tells us about her cultural influences, from Lucian Freud to the British-Pakistani writer and artist Rasheed Araeen

The Big Review: Michelangelo: the Last Decades at the British Museum, London ★★★☆☆

In the absence of large-scale works, the London show focuses instead on the objects that reveal the artist’s deepening spirituality

The Week in Art podcast | Arts and the UK election, ex-Uffizi head fails in Florence mayoral bid, Hank Willis Thomas at Glastonbury

What a change in government might mean for the UK culture sector, a close look at Eike Schmidt’s unsuccessful campaign, and Willis Thomas discusses displaying his new afro pick sculpture at the world’s biggest music festival

Titianfeature

'A little masterpiece': Titian's youthful canvas of 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt', goes for auction at Christie's

The Venetian master's exquisite early depiction of the Holy Family, once recovered in a bag at a bus-stop seven years after being stolen from Longleat House, is estimated to fetch £15m-£25m in London sale

The Week in Art podcast | Just Stop Oil’s latest protests, Tavares Strachan, Louise Bourgeois at the Galleria Borghese

Is the climate activist group’s campaign proving a success? Plus, Bahamian-born, US-based Strachan on his new Hayward show and a close look at a hanging bronze by Bourgeois

Podcast | A brush with… Igshaan Adams

An in-depth interview with the artist on his cultural experiences and greatest influences, from Louise Bourgeois’s art to the love poems of Rumi

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by David Clack
Sponsored byBloomberg Connects

The Week in Art podcast | Art Basel: fireworks and nuance, Lynn Barber on her artist interviews, Guillaume Lethière at the Clark

We find out what this year's fair says about the state of the art market. Plus, the veteran journalist Lynn Barber tells us about her encounters with artists and we discover a forgotten master of Neo-Classical art

Podcast | A brush with... Otobong Nkanga

The Nigerian-born artist talks to Ben Luke about her influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by David. Clack
Sponsored byBloomberg Connects

Carsten Höller: ‘We have been very successful in eliminating the unpredictable'

The artist is working with an MIT scientist to help Fondation Beyeler visitors learn the art of flying—in their dreams, at least

Obituariesfeature

Remembering Paul Auster, the ground-breaking novelist who fused art and literature

The New Yorker's collaboration with the artist Sophie Calle was just one way in which art was interlaced with his life and work

The Week in Art podcast | Georgia O’Keeffe’s New York, Studio Voltaire at 30, Martha Jungwirth responds to Goya

We discuss O'Keeffe’s deeply personal renderings of Manhattan cityscapes and skyscrapers, plus look back at Studio Voltaire’s achievements and talk to a curator about a bold Jungwirth still life

Podcast | A brush with... Lynn Hershman Leeson

An in-depth interview with the artist on her cultural experiences and greatest influences, from Cézanne to the theatre of Tadeusz Kantor

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by David Clack
Sponsored byBloomberg Connects

The Week in Art podcast | Art’s AI reckoning, the rise of comic art and Degas’ Miss La La

Why the art world must tackle the questions posed by artificial intelligence head on, plus comics celebrated in two European locations and Degas’ portrait of the circus artist Anna Albertine Olga Brown

London Gallery Weekend 2024: our critics pick their top shows

As 130 galleries take part in this year's fourth edition of the event, Ben Luke and Louisa Buck roundup some of their exhibition highlights, from John Baldessari to Michaël Borremans, Nan Goldin to BLCKGEEZER

Podcast | A brush with... Michaël Borremans

An in-depth interview with the artist on his cultural experiences and greatest influences, from Goya to Taylor Swift

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by David. Clack
Sponsored byBloomberg Connects

The Week in Art podcast | The Mona Lisa’s endless, and problematic, allure; Judy Chicago; and New Objectivity

We speak to the Leonardo da Vinci scholar, Martin Kemp, about the famous painting's potential move and the latest research on its background, to the US artist about her show at Serpentine North and to the director of the Leopold Museum in Vienna about Christian Schad’s 'Self-Portrait with Model' (1927)

The Week in Art podcast | Tate’s historic women artists show, Dia at 50, Martin Wong’s record-breaking painting

Exploring Now You See Us, which celebrates the output of Vanessa Bell, Mary Beale and many more, plus conversations about Dia’s legacy and the ’visual linguist‘ Wong

Alex Katzcomment

From Titian to Alex Katz, artists and poets have long enjoyed a symbiosis

Katz’s fruitful relationships with John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara among others are a reminder that art and poetry thrive in proximity

The Week in Art podcast | Artists’ stories from Gaza, Frank Stella remembered, Vanessa Bell’s garden view

How Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has changed the lives of artists, plus an insight into working with Stella and a highlight from a new show at the Garden Museum

The Week in Art podcast | Should UK museums charge for entry? Plus, Michelangelo’s last decades and Maria Blanchard

The case for and against the policy of free admission for UK museums, a tour of the British Museum's new Michelangelo show and an in-depth look at Maria Blanchard’s Girl at Her First Communion in Malaga

A brush withinterview

A brush with... Ruba Katrib, director of curatorial affairs, MoMA PS1, New York

The curator tells us about her cultural influences, from Izumi Suzuki’s short stories to the Detroit house music of Theo Parrish

The Week in Art podcast | Klimt’s last picture auctioned, Rebecca Horn in Munich, a Cézanne restored

Unpacking the mystery around the Austrian artist’s painting, which sold for €30 million in Vienna, plus a look at a retrospective of Horn’s pioneering practice and a newly conserved Cézanne

Venice Biennale 2024 review | Intimacy and violence: 'Foreigners Everywhere' explodes the Biennale model

Adriano Pedrosa's international exhibition combines the old and new to undermine Western narratives, but still creates a compelling survey of global contemporary art, in which Queer art stands out

The Week in Art podcast | Venice Biennale 2024 special

We review the international exhibition, talk to artists and curators behind five national pavilions and take an exclusive look at Titian’s newly conserved Assunta

The poetry in Jean Cocteau’s visual art celebrated in Venice exhibition

A multimedia exhibition at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection includes many of the famed filmmaker's drawings, including his sketches while working with Picasso on the ballet 'Parade'

A brush with... Kapwani Kiwanga

An in-depth interview with the artist on her cultural experiences and greatest influences, from residencies in Paris to the jazz legend Sun Ra

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by Louis Jebb
Sponsored byBloomberg Connects

Willem de Kooning’s Italian adventures explored in Gallerie dell’Accademia show

The American artist’s prolific career included two spells in Italy, ten years apart. An exhibition in Venice explores the impact these visits had on his work

The Week in Art podcast | Marlborough Gallery closes, Rose B. Simpson in New York, Caravaggio’s final painting

Looking back at the history of the pioneering dealership in post-war art, plus a thought-provoking new installation in Madison Square Park and Caravaggio's The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula

Podcast | A brush with... Michael Raedecker

An in-depth interview with the artist on his cultural experiences and greatest influences, from the New Romantics of the 1980s to a 1992 edition of Documenta

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by David Clack
Sponsored byBloomberg Connects

The Week in Art podcast | Inigo Philbrick and art world fraud, Hong Kong’s new security law, a Maharaja’s sword

Is a return for the disgraced art dealer that unthinkable? Plus, how Article 23 might impact the art sector, and a closer look at a royal weapon coming on show in London