To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE
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Patterns of Russia: History, Culture and Spaces
Accessible and informed insights into the ‘lands of the Rus’
ENGAGING ACCOUNT: (L to R) Isaak Levitan, Eternal Peace, 1894; Dormition Cathedral in Vladimir, detail of the surprisingly unthreatening Last Judgement fresco by Andrey Rublyov and Daniil Chorniy, 1408; St Petersburg, south bank of River Neva, with the dome of St Isaac’s cathedral, 1818–58
If you can see past the relentless commodification you will be rewarded by enormously powerful work, suggests JENNY MITCHELL
CHRIS SEARLE revels in the one-off collaboration between an American polymath and a British Muslim, and detects the presence of their revolutionary forebear
GORDON PARSONS revels in an ebullient production of Shakespeare’s magical comedy
BRENT CUTLER welcomes a thoughtful analysis of the Erdogan regime, viewed through the evolving history of a neighbourhood in Istanbul
GORDON PARSONS regrets the price, but is dazzled by an outstandingly ambitious study of the way art restoration in particular, and culture in general was weaponised by the Nazis
A SERIES of reflections on the interrelationships between culture, history and place, Patterns of Russia makes no attempt to be comprehensive. It is a surprisingly personal account but nonetheless interesting for that.
Its author, Robin Milner-Gulland, writes in a relaxed and conversational style, covering the huge subject matter in a pleasurably engaging and jargon-free fashion.
Influences from different civilisations over the past two millennia are skilfully referenced throughout, highlighting the multicultural areas of influence that eventually created the “lands of the Rus.”
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BRENT CUTLER is intrigued by the imperialist, supremacist and contradictory history of a word that is used all too easily
Gin Lane by William Hogarth is a critique of 18th-century London’s growing funeral trade, posits DAN O’BRIEN