Ben Luke

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

A great send-off: Howard Hodgkin's extraordinary final paintings go on show at Gagosian

Late artist completed six paintings in five weeks, all of which are included in London gallery exhibition

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Podcast episode 34: Venice Architecture Biennale, and the Brutalist social housing debate

Edwin Heathcote of the Financial Times reviews the Biennale, and Christopher Turner on his controversial exhibition focusing on Alison and Peter Smithson’s Robin Hood Gardens housing estate.

Hosted by Ben Luke. , produced by Julia Michalska and David Clack

Artists show their power to effect change

In the visual arts, a greater sense of activism is possible, and it’s being helped by the absorption of a broader range of disciplines and media into the canon

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Podcast episode 33: Absent friends—Howard Hodgkin's final paintings; Robert Indiana remembered

We talk to Antony Peattie, the music writer and partner of the late Howard Hodgkin and to Barbara Haskell, curator of Robert Indiana's 2013 retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by Julia Michalska and David Clack
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Podcast episode 32: David Chipperfield on the new Royal Academy

The Academy’s £56m project opens, with subtle additions and revamps by the British architect. Chipperfield talks about the subtleties of architecture, the RA’s chief executive Charles Saumarez Smith discusses funding and the quirks of the institution and we review the buildings and its displays with Jane Morris.

Hosted by Ben Luke and Jane Morris. Produced by Julia Michalska and David Clack

How the Royal Academy Schools shook off their fusty image

Once seen as a bastion of tradition ignored by young artists, the institution's postgraduate fine art course has become the most desirable in London

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Podcast episode 31: The $646m Rockefeller sale. Plus: should big galleries subsidise smaller ones?

We drill down into the big numbers from the Post-Impressionist and Modern sale in New York with Georgina Adam, talk to Professor Rachel Pownall about the wider market and look at a small gallery housed in Piccadilly Circus Tube station.

Hosted by Ben Luke and Georgina Adam. , produced by Julia Michalska and David Clack
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Podcast episode 30: All about Berlin

Our guest host Arsalan Mohammad takes us behind the scenes of the explosion of shows during Gallery Weekend Berlin and beyond, speaking to dealers and artists about the changing face and enduring appeal of one of the world's most creative cities

Guest hosted and produced by Arsalan Mohammad. , with David Clack, Ben Luke and Julia Michalska
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Podcast episode 29: Taryn Simon on grief and mourning

We talk to the US artist about her acclaimed work An Occupation of Loss staged in New York and now London. We hear from a curator and conservator at the Met about resurrecting Moretto da Brescia’s final great painting, and appraise the Turner Prize shortlist.

Hosted by Ben Luke and Louisa Buck. Produced by Julia Michalska and David Clack
Politicscomment

Vital artistic exchanges will be stifled by Trump's travel ban

The amicus brief signed by more than 100 museums should shame the justices of the US Supreme Court

Who should win, who will win, and how smartphones dominate Turner Prize shortlist

Art critic Ben Luke gives us his take on this year's nominees

Three to see: London

From the high emotions of Taryn Simon’s professional mourners to photography galore at Somerset House and the Hayward Gallery

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Podcast episode 28: the battle over Ethiopia's treasures

Martin Bailey speaks to Hailemichael Aberra Afework, Ethiopia’s ambassador to the UK, about the artefacts seized by the British army at Maqdala, go behind the scenes of the Sony World Photography Awards with judge Gareth Harris and ask Richard Parry about his plans for Glasgow International

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Podcast episode 27: the enduring appeal of enigmatic Beuys. Plus, lost masterpieces reborn

We hear from Adam Lowe of Factum Arte about a new TV series in which seven lost paintings are recreated. And speak to Norman Rosenthal and Thaddaeus Ropac about the great German artist.

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by Julia Michalska and David Clack
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Podcast episode 26: Wrap star Christo and the most popular shows of 2017

We speak to the Bulgarian-born artist about his grand project for the Serpentine, and look at our annual survey of visitor figures

The Met resurrects Italian Old Master’s Entombment

Museum’s restoration lifts “grey veil” from final commission by the Renaissance artist Moretto da Brescia

Three to see: London

From Michael Rakowitz’s winged bull soaring above Trafalgar Square to the last chance to have a swing at Tate Modern

Sonia Boyceinterview

‘At the heart of all this is the question of power’: Sonia Boyce on the notorious Hylas and the Nymphs takedown

The artist reveals the story behind the headlines and the film she made about the painting's removal

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Podcast episode 25: Living with Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo specialist Martin Kemp on decades spent in the company of the Renaissance master, plus, we celebrate the 300th edition of The Art Newspaper

Hosted by Ben Ben Luke. Produced by Julia Michalska and David Clack

London's Fourth Plinth unveiled: Michael Rakowitz’s winged bull sculpture made from date syrup cans

Iraqi-American artist has recreated Assyrian lamassu destroyed by Islamic State

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Podcast episode 24: Mural-gazing with the Dalai Lama, plus Michael Rakowitz

We speak to Thomas Laird about his new book on the murals of Tibet and to Michael Rakowitz about his fourth plinth commission unveiled next week

Hosted by Ben Luke. , produced by Julia Michalska and David Clack
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Podcast episode 23: The death of Venice?

Salvatore Settis on the moral revival that could save Italy's sinking city, plus Tacita Dean on her three major London shows

Hosted by Ben Luke. , produced by Julia Michalska and David Clack

How much of conservators’ work should be visible and how much should be hidden?

The release of a pre-conservation image of Leonardo’s $450m Salvator Mundi reignites debate over the transparency of conservators’ interventions

Three to see: London

From Picasso's year of masterpieces at Tate Modern to his fellow Spaniard Murillo's portraits at the National Gallery

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Podcast episode 22: the genius of Picasso

We take a tour of Tate Modern's blockbuster and explore the strength of Picasso's market

Hosted by Ben Luke. , produced by Julia Michalska and David Clack
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Podcast episode 21: Photography special—from Victorian pioneers to 2018 prize contenders

We meet the men and women behind three fascinating but very different exhibitions of lens-based art

Hosted by Ben Luke. , produced by Julia Michalska and David Clack

Dreaming to drowning: a year in the life of Picasso

Tate Modern’s major new show focuses on 1932, a period of turbulent creativity that gave rise to some of the artist’s greatest work

Politicscomment

Büchel’s feeble satire ignores the hateful reality of Trump’s wall

The petition to make the proposed border wall a National Landmark is one of the worst excesses of contemporary art and needs to be called out

Civilisations: how the BBC's new series takes on Kenneth Clark's legacy

Documentary breaks with many of the assumptions in the art historian’s seminal series, but it also owes a great deal to it

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Podcast episode 20: Yes to Picasso, no to Van Gogh—inside the Rockefellers’ collection

We talk to the American dynasty’s historian about David and Peggy Rockefeller’s tastes, and explore the funding crisis at Glasgow’s Transmission Gallery

Hosted by Ben Luke. , produced by Julia Michalska and David Clack