Art history

Activismarchive

Ethics and aesthetics: the increasing prominence of socially engaged art

Away from the glitz of record-breaking auction prices and extravagant art parties, austerity has given strength to a new movement of socially engaged artists

Booksarchive

Books: How Warburg helped to invent the exhibition—and the curator

The art historian’s collected writings include an illuminating essay drawn from his dazzling, lengthy lectures

How printmaking made Rembrandt an international star

New technology and growing middle class consumption opened up his works and those of his contemporaries to new markets

Forgeriesarchive

Books: The fake’s progress from a sign of genius to a nefarious act... and back again

The history and scholarship of art forgery, and a faker’s delighted account of a life of deception

Who’s in the picture? Anti-terror software might tell us

Face recognition software used to spot terrorists may be the answer to identifying unknown sitters in portraits.

Books: The National Gallery’s latest Technical Bulletin makes some great discoveries

The volume is a compendium of papers presented at the Gallery in September 2009

Why the art world is crazy about Cranach

New technology is shedding light on an Old Master as the prolific, multi-talented artist enjoys a renaissance

Booksarchive

Books: Art not made by artists and trends in art production

When artists subcontract technicians to make the works they design, who’s the artist?

Booksarchive

Books in brief: British and Irish Art, 1945-51

Despite some factual inaccuracies, this is a refreshing and invigorating presentation that challenges assumptions

Books: A portrait of Ford Madox Brown through his four 'loves'

A study of the women who had the greatest impact on the life and work of Ford Madox Brown

Books: The continuities in Medieval and Renaissance art at the V&A

A deep look into the remarkable objects now on display in the museum's recently opened galleries

Booksarchive

Books: What does Pre-Raphaelite mean?

This collection of essays questions how we understand the terms Pre-Raphaelite, Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement

Opinionarchive

Saving the ephemeral art gallery: The director of Tate Liverpool on preserving institutional history

'History is unpredictable, and we cannot know which obscure artist or minor exhibition may once be regarded as a groundbreaking historical event'

Booksarchive

Books: Material culture and medieval "Hindu-Muslim" encounter

Objects of translation and the cultural interactions of Muslims and Hindus in the late 12th and early 13th centuries

Interviewarchive

Interview with Robert Storr: Most theory has little bearing on art

The critic and curator spoke to The Art Newspaper about the role of art theory, and what advice he is giving to his students in today’s artistic climate.

Booksarchive

Thomas Kabdebo's "Tracking Giorgione" reviewed

The author is hindered by his own technique

Booksarchive

Books: French culture under the Nazis

How artists and the arts fared under the Vichy regime and the German occupation of France, 1940-44

The Cold War may be over, but it is still being fought in terms of its artists

With LACMA's “Art of Two Germanys/Cold War Cultures” opening soon, the artistic heritage of Germany is again under the microscope

Filmsarchive

Art in the media: Light and dark after the war at the Ferus Gallery and in the art of Georg Baselitz

Ostensibly disparate films illuminate art after the end of World War II

New York’s women on film

Chiara Clemente's "Our City Dreams" at Art Basel

From the archive | Gauguin’s teeth found in well

Bovril jar, perfume and morphine also discovered

The real meaning of Rubens’ women

A new analysis suggests the artist was sending mixed messages in his work

Booksarchive

The art world’s Christmas reading

Artists, collectors, critics, museum directors and auction house executives pick their holiday books