STEVE ANDREW enjoys an account of the many communities that flourished independently of and in resistance to the empires of old
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An ongoing sense of ‘startling dread’
MICHAL BONCZA recommends an exhibition of uncompromising paintings by a 17th century artist whose work speaks to our own times
Head of Saint John the Baptist 1644
TOM STONE urges you to catch the last dates of a New York singer/songwriter, never afraid to challenge her audiences musically or politically
JAN WOOLF examines work that aims to give viewers a material experience of the environments in the polar north and Britain equally affected by the climate crisis
The bard recalls advice received 50 years ago from his TRB muse, and sorts out appropriate legislation for football club ownership
MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE review Facing War, Kontinental ’25, Bugonia, and Relay
MAYER WAKEFIELD is frustrated by a production of Ibsen’s classic study of an anti-heroine that fails to elucidate her motivations
PETER MASON tunes his ear into the domestic affairs of a Carribbean couple with a troublesome son
Ribera: Art of Violence
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London
JOSE (JUSEPE) RIBERA was born in Xativa near Valencia, a town famous in Roman times for its linen and where later the Arabs introduced paper-production technologies.
Ribera came from a well-to-do household, but he was attracted by Italy and the career in letters favoured by his family was shunned in favour of adventure. By 1612, aged 21, he was in Rome and lived in the house of a cardinal impressed by his dexterity at copying frescos. Locals started calling him Lo Spagnoletto (the Little Spaniard).
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CAROLINE FOWLER explains how the slave trade helped establish the ‘golden age’ of Dutch painting and where to find its hidden traces
The Morning Star sorts the good eggs from the rotten scoundrels of the year