Art
Hew Locke Probes the British Museum’s History
The volume of problematic artifacts Locke uncovered in the British Museum’s archives illustrates the fundamental importance of objective historical research.
Olivia McEwan
Olivia McEwan is a trained art historian and freelance writer focusing on the London art world. She is also a practising artist, lending a keen eye and understanding of painterly technique which informs her criticisms of historical and emerging arts.
Art
The Eternal Dance Between Beauty and Decay
A London show examines the concept of beauty and its inevitable decay across pan-historical, pan-geographical, and pan-religious examples.
Art
An Exhibition Pairs Two Artists and Somehow Both Seem Worse
If it had simply suggested that François Boucher and Flora Yukhnovich are united in creating tasteful house decoration for the rich, the exhibition would be a success.
Art
London’s National Gallery Celebrates Its Birthday With Van Gogh
Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers boasts some curatorial firsts and delights in the artist’s explosion of experimental color and expressive, urgent feeling.
Art
David Hockney Celebrates His Renaissance Inspirations
The core message of visual analysis and close looking in Hockney and Piero: A Longer Look is an apt mantra for the National Gallery's history.
Art
Women Artists Take Over Tate Britain
What’s clear in Now You See Us is that the artists were excluded from the canon because of sociopolitical factors, not artistic merit.
Art
The Six Wives of Henry VIII Get Their Due
Six Lives seeks to fill in the queens’ backstories and present them as individuals rather than supporting players to the King.
Art
How Should Art History Judge Angelica Kauffman's Work?
Though technically proficient, the painter and Royal Academy cofounder owed a great deal of contemporary recognition to her active social networking.
Art
London’s National Portrait Gallery Catches Up to Black Portraiture
The Time is Always Now emphasizes the continuing importance of Black identity, visibility, and recognition in predominantly White society.
Art
London’s Royal Academy Looks Critically at Its Past
The academic rigor of Entangled Pasts is counterbalanced by the poignant responses by contemporary artists and some astonishingly inspired curating.
Art
Two Decades of British Women Artists Striking Back
Women in Revolt! is essential viewing for those keen to understand the evolution of British feminism from the 1970s to 1990s.
Art
Two Views of a Family Breakfast
Twenty years after creating his pastel “Lavergne Family Breakfast,” Jean-Etienne Liotard recreated it in oil, and it is astonishing to see how close the two versions are.