UK,

Building the Picture, London

This compact examination of how Italian artists tackled architecture demonstrates that buildings played a more important role in 14th- to 16th-century art than previously thought.

Nicholas Marlowe Art & Architecture May 5, 2014 London,

"Building the Picture" is about the bit of an Italian Renaissance painting that often seems to be jostling with the figures for pictorial space: the architectural background. In fact, as curators Amanda Lillie and Caroline Campbell convincingly demonstrate, buildings played ...

Matisse Cut-Outs, London and New York

Tate Modern and MoMA offer a comprehensive exhibit of the artist's breakout technique.

Nicholas Marlowe Art & Architecture April 24, 2014 London,

Old age is no respecter of genius. True, there have been some artists — Goya, for example, or Monet — who managed one final great surge of creativity, but the sad fact is that far more end up plagiarizing themselves, ...

The First Georgians, London

The best works in this absorbing exhibit of the early Hanoverians show the royal family in informal settings.

Nicholas Marlowe Art & Architecture April 24, 2014 London,

The future King George VII carried out his first official engagement at a playgroup in Wellington, New Zealand, early in April 2014. By all accounts, the 8-month-old son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge handled the occasion with aplomb: ...

The Glamour of Italian Fashion, 1945 – 2014, London

This thorough exploration of 70 years of a country's style proves that the Italians have always had it.

Erato Art & Architecture April 7, 2014 London,

Those who remember the V&A’s 2007 exhibition “The Golden Age of Couture” will find this latest kicks off in the same place, chronologically (and, sadly, in the same inadequate exhibition space as well) — just geographically, a little farther south. ...

Veronese: Magnificence in Renaissance Venice, London

Opulence defines this show: Everywhere you look, extravagantly dressed, aristocratic figures swagger around in grand architectural settings, as if they were taking part in a series of lavishly staged theatrics.

Nicholas Marlowe Art & Architecture March 20, 2014 London,

For several weeks now, the National Gallery has been a hive of activity as preparations were made for this new show — the first ever in the UK — on the great Venetian painter Paolo Veronese. Rooms have been closed, ...

The Vikings: Life and Legend, London

This big, handsomely mounted exhibition reconsiders the fearsome Norsemen with up-to-date research and the latest archaeological finds.

Nicholas Marlowe Art & Architecture March 7, 2014 London,

History, they say, is written by the winners, but most of what we know about the Vikings was recorded by their victims, who were usually Christian monks, and the monks were very sore losers. To them we owe the traditional ...

Ruin Lust, London

Tate Britain, London

Erato Art & Architecture March 6, 2014 London,

What is it that we so enjoy in the gloomy comfort of a good ruin? The number of picturesque follies scattered about the English landscape might make one think this is a peculiarly British taste, but according to the Tate’s ...

The Great War in Portraits

National Portrait Gallery, London

Nicholas Marlowe Art & Architecture March 1, 2014 London,

This year sees the centenary of the outbreak of World War I, and museums and galleries across Britain are gearing up to commemorate the great event. The doors of the Imperial War Museum are closed until July 2014, and when ...

Richard Hamilton

at the Tate Modern, London

Nicholas Marlowe Art & Architecture February 27, 2014 London,

The artist Richard Hamilton, who died in 2011, is mostly remembered today for the collage that he made for the exhibition "This is Tomorrow" at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1956. "Just What is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, ...

Bailey’s Stardust

National Portrait Gallery, London

Frances Wilson Art & Architecture February 11, 2014 London,

  The National Portrait Gallery’s blockbuster spring exhibition is a landmark show focusing on the work of British photographer David Bailey. Featuring over 300 images, personally selected, printed and curated by Bailey himself, the exhibition offers a sumptuous survey ...