Robert Hughes: the greatest art critic of our time
8 August 2012 • Mark Westall
Rude, hilarious, eloquent, but never petty … the Australian writer, who has died aged 74, made criticism look like literature
Tag: Jonathan Jones on art
Will you ring Creed’s bell to mark the start of the Olympics?
26 July 2012 • Mark Westall
Artist Martin Creed has asked us all to ring a bell on the first day of the Olympics. Creed believes in public art of the collective, but what does it really mean if we all ring a bell at once?
Let’s hear it for Bruce Nauman, sculptor of sound
30 June 2012 • Mark Westall
In his new sound art installation, Days, at the ICA, Nauman sculpts the space with voices, giving sound a physicality that will open your ears to a whole new world of noise
Picasso: the brains behind the brawn
29 May 2012 • Mark Westall
We think of Picasso as a man’s man, a sensualist; but his work is fiercely intellectual. And the British Museum’s exhibition of his Vollard Suite prints proves that he is all about brain work
Richard Hamilton: the Duchamp-ion of intellectual art
15 May 2012 • Mark Westall
The father of pop art – who is to be the subject of a posthumous exhibition at the National Gallery – also rediscovered and popularised the once-neglected work of Marcel Duchamp
The British Museum’s Hajj takes us on a pilgrimage, not a propaganda journey
20 March 2012 • Mark Westall
The Observer’s Nick Cohen has laid into the British Museum for allowing Saudi Arabia to sponsor its Hajj exhibition. But Hajj has no political agenda; it simply captures the beauty of Islam
Thin line between art and hate: is this the most repellent work of modern art?
13 January 2012 • Mark Westall
The Chapman brothers’ sneering sculpture of Stephen Hawking sickened me in 1995, and still does now. What do you think is the most hateful work of modern art?
Martin Scorsese and Tacita Dean go back to the future of film
6 January 2012 • Mark Westall
Scorsese’s Hugo, shot in 3D, is an excited paean to film history using modern techniques. But Dean’s much darker Film, at Tate Modern, mourns the passing of celluloid
What colour should gallery walls be?
21 October 2011 • Mark Westall
The Musée d’Orsay in Paris has joined the Wallace Collection in trying out different background shades. But is anything beyond white just a distraction?
Tacita Dean and the quirky art of being English
19 October 2011 • Mark Westall
There is something very English about Dean’s latest work in Tate’s Turbine Hall, so why do we call her a British artist? You wouldn’t call Dylan Thomas British, would you?
The dark arts of Los Angeles
15 September 2011 • Mark Westall
This autumn, galleries and museums across the Californian city will celebrate its historic art scene. Just don’t expect rainbows
Was postmodernism born with Close Encounters of the Third Kind?
5 September 2011 • Mark Westall
The V&A is preparing to celebrate a cultural movement that has baffled some and invigorated others. But did it all begin with Steven Spielberg’s 1977 SF film?
The Artist Rooms collection is transforming our visual culture
1 September 2011 • Mark Westall
From Kiefer in Llandudno to Warhol in Hull, Anthony d’Offay’s roadshow is bringing great modern art to a wider audience
David Hockney: the outsider who sees, and paints, the bigger picture
26 August 2011 • Mark Westall
Pop art’s enfant terrible continues to influence modern culture and create memorable images – but from the outside, ignoring London fashions
Street art is dying – and it’s our fault
25 August 2011 • Mark Westall
David Cameron poses in front of it, old folks own books about it … has graffiti’s entry into polite society come at too high a price?
The people’s painters: what makes a work of art popular?
19 August 2011 • Mark Westall
Monet, Van Gogh, and Klimt are the favourite artists among virtual art collectors. But before you turn your nose up at these obvious choices, let’s consider their mass appeal
Joan Miró’s art is more alive than ever
15 August 2011 • Mark Westall
Tate Modern’s Joan Miró retrospective shows the artist’s evolution from Catalan landscape painter to a conjuror of dreamy abstracts – don’t miss this scorching show
Artistic sweeteners: Takashi Murakami and the great art giveaway
29 June 2011 • Mark Westall
The Japanese artist’s new show may not be to everyone’s taste but it cleverly taps into a universal weakness for a freebie
Mark Leckey’s art creates noise without meaning
26 May 2011 • Mark Westall
The Turner prize-winner’s Serpentine Gallery show sounds great on paper but is full of lumbering inanities
New Masters fair should end the classic art Frieze-out
20 May 2011 • Mark Westall
London’s influential fair has decided to open a Frieze Masters edition, featuring art from before 2000. Not a minute too soon