Review
David Bowie, patron saint of gender bending
Duncan Fallowell on the blockbuster travelling show, now at the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands, until 13 March
Secrets from a lost world: David D'Arcy on Martin Wong at the Bronx Museum
The exhibition is too stiff for the artist, but he shines through
Monuments to absence: Gregory Gilbert on a new book about Charles Ray
The artist's excessive emphasis on production eclipses everything else
An unconventional pastoralist: on Samuel Palmer
The charm of Samuel Palmer’s work is its refusal to submit to analysis
A uniquely British phenomenon: how museums sprang up in the UK
From the 1860s, a network of museums were founded nationwide
Short, sharp—and funny: Bernhard Schulz on Adolph Menzel
To mark the 200th anniversary of his birth, a book celebrates Adolph Menzel as the “painter of modern life”
Charles I’s other portrait painter
The Anglo-Dutch artist Cornelius Johnson emerges from the shadow of Van Dyck
Top ten shows of 2015
Louisa Buck and Pac Pobric pick their favourite exhibitions of the year in the UK and the US
Answers to partially stated problems: Sammy Medina on the Chicago Architecture Biennial
Politics are everywhere in the inaugural edition of the show
One God to rule them all: Garry Shaw on Faith After the Pharaohs at the British Museum
The exhibition beautifully captures how religion shaped the region
A ‘heroic’ era, but for whom? on Brutalist architecture
The voices of owners, occupants and users of British Modernist architecture are unheard in this admiring—and admirable—history
Frank Stella’s decline: on the artist's Whitney Museum retrospective
Critical conviction regarding Stella's work has fallen with the quality of the art
A chicken tikka masala of snakes and crocodiles
The Imperial Roman construction of ancient Egypt
A substantial but overlooked artist
Georg Pencz comes into his own at last. By David Ekserdjian
How and why works change
A book for non-specialists on painting conservation. By Will Shank
Put not your trust in princes
The story of Daniel Nijs, who impoverished himself selling Italian art to King Charles I
Monks’ marriage of poverty and riches
How Italian Renaissance mendicant orders struggled to reconcile their ideals and their wealth. By Christopher Colven
Bluestockings and botany
Horticultural art of the 18th century owes much to the aristocratic female garden-makers who were at the centre of Georgian society
An island of bitter-sweetness: Caroline Bugler on Paul Klee
Two shows in Bern reveal how the artist grappled with youth, exile and death
The least studied aspect of a closet liberal: Jonathan Brown on Goya
Set in the context of their times, Goya’s portraits finally get the attention they deserve, says the art historian
Eating out of his hands: Kelly Grovier on Francisco Goya’s portraits
Is there a more dramatic 19th-century painter of hands than Goya?
Bubbles, burps and chimes: Sophie Lvoff on Jim Shaw at the New Museum
The artist’s exhibition is at its best in its quieter, less spectacular moments
Notes on a former student: Sean Scully on Ai Weiwei
From Manhattan to Beijing, with 30 years in between, Scully writes about his pupil
Another side: Andrew Lambirth on Francis Bacon
A personal view of Francis Bacon by his Boswell, Michael Peppiatt
At his best, he was without error: Eliot Rowlands on Andrea del Sarto in New York
Two shows in New York focus on the achievements of the Renaissance master
A schizophrenic city: Becca Rothfeld on Berlin Metropolis, 1918-1933 at the Neue Galerie
The show captures the conflicting artistic tendencies of Weimar Germany