Apollo

Acquisitions of the month: July 2025 Among this month’s highlights are a brooding self-portrait by Spilliaert and a masterpiece of late gothic sculpture

Among the most significant works to enter public collections recently are a brooding self-portrait by Léon Spilliaert and a masterpiece of late gothic sculpture by Tilman Riemenschneider

The man who marshalled England's gardens William Andrews Nesfield was a military man who designed elaborate schemes that sum up what people mean when they talk about Victorian formal gardens

Timothy Brittain-Catlin salutes the military man who marshalled England’s gardens in the 19th century

Louis Wain, the man who drew cats The artist’s commercial cat illustrations were hugely popular in his lifetime, but his series of psychedelic kitties have attracted rather more serious attention

With International Cat Day on everyone’s minds, read Kirsten Tambling’s piece on the marvellous feline art of Louis Wain

The cancelled, confiscated, vindicated art of Lovis Corinth The story of how the painter’s ‘degenerate’ works did or didn’t return to Berlin’s Nationalgalerie makes for a gripping show, writes Matthew Sperling

A Berlin exhibition about the painter Lovis Corinth ‘is also a great example of how to take a rigorous approach to a troubling political history. UK institutions could take note,’ writes Matthew Sperling

How Paz Errázuriz captured life at Chile’s margins Many of the 81-year-old photographer’s images were made when even taking a camera to the streets was an act of resistance in Chile

‘When simply being on the street with a camera was subversive, obfuscation and allusion were Errázuriz’s only recourse’ – Lucy Davies on the photographer’s images of Chile during Pinochet’s dictatorship

In the studio with... Daniel Richter While working in his studio in Berlin, the German painter spends hours staring at the wall, listening to reggae and beholding his gogotte

‘Working includes brooding and staring at the wall and self-doubt and reading and thinking, and then taking the brush or the knife and then working, and then staring at the wall for another 20 hours’ – Daniel Richter on what happens in his studio

The man who marshalled England's gardens William Andrews Nesfield was a military man who designed elaborate schemes that sum up what people mean when they talk about Victorian formal gardens

‘Nothing in his gardens was anything other than what it looked like’ – the Victorian landscape architect William Andrews Nesfield was a stickler for honesty when it came to design

Eight video games for art-lovers If you’ve ever wanted to curate your own museum, pretend to be a Medici patron or infiltrate the Louvre, these games are just the ticket

It has long been accepted that video games can be just as ripe for artistic interpretation as any other medium. But some designers have taken things a step further and put art history at the centre of their games

Antoine Watteau’s invitation to the dance Les Plaisirs du bal is a masterpiece set apart by its meticulous, poetic handling of light and shade

‘All the distinguishing – the painting is full of particularity – is done by the light and there is a sense that where the light falls now is not where it will always fall’ – Elizabeth Cook on a lively dance scene painted by Watteau

If we liked wasps more, we could learn from them Wasps have a terrible image problem but, after seeing an exhibition that highlights their design abilities, Will Wiles thinks we could learn from them

‘The industry on display is undeniable, so why is it hard to love?’ Will Wiles takes a closer look at the collaborative design of wasps’ nests – and considers other possibilities of the hive mind in action

Rogue’s gallery: the art of Barry Lyndon The painterly splendour of Kubrick’s film is widely recognised, but its relationship with 18th-century art is thornier than it seems

The painterly splendour of Kubrick’s ‘Barry Lyndon’ is widely recognised, but its relationship with 18th-century art is more complicated than it seems

How James VI and I managed his image From copious writings to portraits, decorative arts and more, the monarch left behind a rich cultural legacy

‘This exhibition might give James quiet satisfaction [...] There is so much intermingling of English and Scottish artefacts that the distinction between the two realms is often effaced.’ – David Gelber on the material culture of the court of King James VI and I

Wangechi Mutu gets reflective in Rome Hettie Judah looks at how the artist’s otherworldly sculptures fare in the lavish historic setting of the Galleria Borghese

‘Wangechi Mutu is that rare bird, a living artist invited to exhibit at the Galleria Borghese in Rome, a collection of Roman, Renaissance and baroque art housed in a pleasure palace fro which the word “lavish” falls piteously short.’ Hettie Judah on a meeting of two very different worlds

The colourful confections of Wayne Thiebaud In voluptuous paintings of cakes and other foods, the American artist captured both pleasure and a sense of surfeit, writes Keith Miller

‘We enjoy the voluptuous delights of his work all the more because it’s seasoned with something else: a squeeze of lemon; a pinch of salt’ – Keith Miller on Wayne Thiebaud’s enticing paintings of cakes

How Janet Dawson set her sight on new horizons After an avant-garde start, the Australian painter upped sticks to rural New South Wales and began painting life on the farm, writes Jane O’Sullivan

Although she seemed destined for a career in the avant-garde, Janet Dawson upped sticks to rural New South Wales and began painting life on the farm. Jane O’Sullivan reviews an exhibition of her work in Sydney

Tracey Emin’s passion for painting In a powerful painting acquired by the Yale Center for British Art, the artist grapples with universal themes of love and loss, explains the museum’s director, Martina Droth

The exhibition ‘Tracey Emin: I Loved You Until the Morning’ at the Yale Center for British Art ends this weekend. In March, the museum’s director, Martina Droth, talked Apollo through the artist’s passion for painting

Samira Ahmed, Twentieth Century woman The broadcaster and new president of the Twentieth Century Society talks to Arjun Sajip about conserving the built environment and making people feel it matters

‘Britain isn’t a Hollywood set’ – Samira Ahmed, new president of the Twentieth Century Society, on how to conserve the built environment and making people feel that it matters

The sculptors who sexed up minimalism The Courtauld presents a teasing show of work by Louise Bourgeois, Alice Adams and Eva Hesse, writes Rosalind Jana

‘The audience may not be allowed to run their fingers over the surfaces of these works, but it’s impossible not to be aware of the hands that have shaped them into being’ – Rosalind Jana on ‘Abstract Erotic’, a show of surprisingly sexy minimalist sculpture

The cancelled, confiscated, vindicated art of Lovis Corinth The story of how the painter’s ‘degenerate’ works did or didn’t return to Berlin’s Nationalgalerie makes for a gripping show, writes Matthew Sperling

In 1937, 357 of Lovis Corinth’s works were confiscated from German museums. An exhibition in Berlin about what happened to them next makes questions of provenance utterly compelling, writes Matthew Sperling

Eight video games for art-lovers If you’ve ever wanted to curate your own museum, pretend to be a Medici patron or infiltrate the Louvre, these games are just the ticket

If you’ve ever wanted to design your own museum, pretend to be a Medici patron or infiltrate the Louvre, then these are the games for you

How polenta caused a stir in Venice The grain originated in pre-Columbian Mexico but became so highly prized in Italy that it made its way into paintings, plays and more

‘The crop’s introduction into Europe is an example of what is called the Columbian Exchange, the movement of plants, animals and diseases between the New World and the Old World’ – Jenny Linford considers the complicated history of polenta.

Antoine Watteau’s invitation to the dance Les Plaisirs du bal is a masterpiece set apart by its meticulous, poetic handling of light and shade

Watteau’s masterpiece ‘Les Plaisirs du bal’ is set apart by its meticulous, poetic handling of light and shade, writes Elizabeth Cook

Samira Ahmed, Twentieth Century woman The broadcaster and new president of the Twentieth Century Society talks to Arjun Sajip about conserving the built environment and making people feel it matters

The broadcaster Samira Ahmed was recently appointed president of the Twentieth Century Society. She talks to Apollo about conserving the built environment and making people feel that it matters

How James VI and I managed his image From copious writings to portraits, decorative arts and more, the monarch left behind a rich cultural legacy

‘This exhibition might give James quiet satisfaction [...] There is so much intermingling of English and Scottish artefacts that the distinction between the two realms is often effaced.’ – David Gelber on the material culture of the court of King James VI and I

The twists and turns in Ruth Asawa’s reputation The artist mixed making abstract sculpture with populist public commissions. As her reputation soars, her generosity of spirit is as apparent as her inventiveness

‘Asawa was generous and pragmatic, and far from the purist that her most famous work might suggest’ – Jonathan Griffin on the life and art of Ruth Asawa

Wangechi Mutu gets reflective in Rome Hettie Judah looks at how the artist’s otherworldly sculptures fare in the lavish historic setting of the Galleria Borghese

‘They are invited guests, but guests they remain’ – Hettie Judah on the otherworldly sculptures of Wangechi Mutu at the Galleria Borghese in Rome

If we liked wasps more, we could learn from them Wasps have a terrible image problem but, after seeing an exhibition that highlights their design abilities, Will Wiles thinks we could learn from them

An exhibition at the Grant Museum of Zoology swats away some of our negative perceptions of wasps. Will Wiles considers the success of its attempt to ‘reposition the beer-garden menace as an evolutionary marvel’.

How Paz Errázuriz captured life at Chile’s margins Many of the 81-year-old photographer’s images were made when even taking a camera to the streets was an act of resistance in Chile

‘When simply being on the street with a camera was subversive, obfuscation and allusion were Errázuriz’s only recourse’ – Lucy Davies on the photographer’s images of Chile during Pinochet’s dictatorship

Eight video games for art-lovers If you’ve ever wanted to curate your own museum, pretend to be a Medici patron or infiltrate the Louvre, these games are just the ticket

It has long been accepted that video games can be just as ripe for artistic interpretation as any other medium. But some designers have taken things a step further and put art history at the centre of their games

Antoine Watteau’s invitation to the dance Les Plaisirs du bal is a masterpiece set apart by its meticulous, poetic handling of light and shade

‘All the distinguishing – the painting is full of particularity – is done by the light and there is a sense that where the light falls now is not where it will always fall’ – Elizabeth Cook on a lively dance scene painted by Watteau