Art
Eric Ravilious: a talent too long ignored
Ravilious’s ethereal, understated paintings are quietly dazzling
The Critic Books Podcast: Bacon in Moscow
What was it like to take Francis Bacon to the USSR?
Masterly study of sacred masterpieces
Embodied divinity
The art of introspection
This gathering of Van Gogh’s self-portraits is as unsettling as it is impressive
Mystery of the missing bronze
A new excavation to find the third Riace statue is planned
Humanity, red in tooth and claw
The Francis Bacon exhibition revels in the animalistic side of mankind
Money doesn’t smell
What’s the point of refusing Sackler funds for concert halls?
Man’s best friend
Eric Gill was an awful man — but that doesn’t make his art any less brilliant
To critique the critic
Harold Rosenberg’s mixed legacy counterbalanced both Communism and formalism
Getting the picture in 2021
From cryptocurrency to pandemic plagued exhibitions, it’s been an eventful year in art
Cultural Christianity and the vulgar wisdom of memes
Dawkins is caught between the pure idea of rationalism, and the messy meme of cultural Christianity
The spectre of the past
The “Great English Ghost Story” offers a form of comfort and is rooted in the ache of nostalgia for a more elegant era
Essential all-embracing warmth
Gidon Kremer: Songs of Fate (ECM)
The misanthropic history man
Yuval Noah Harari has become an intellectual superstar, but his predictions have become wilder and sillier
The never-ending question
Jonathan Gullis may still be in the middle of his parliamentary question
Rugby’s debt to Mrs T
Rugby league was transformed from a fringe working-class activity into part of national life
“Problematic” art
This kind of adolescent tripe passes these days for thought
Intangible benefits for intangible heritage?
It remains to be seen whether the UK’s Ratification of UNESCO’s Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage will be valuable
This is not where I live at all
Cynthia Erivo’s slighting of Sunderland was indicative of British arts establishment beholden to a homogenous, Americanised vision of culture
The slick glide through the institutions
When values are outsourced to third-party organisations, everybody suffers
Regency romance
Small human moments cut across the centuries
