Art
Zadie Smith: a hip-hop enthusiast with Schopenhauer in her pocket
There’s a tiny mistake in Zadie Smith’s new collection of essays. She describes Geoff Dyer’s unimprovably funny ‘trick while introducing…
Letters: No, the Church of England is not planning an evangelical takeover
A church for all people Sir: I enjoyed reading Ysenda Maxtone Graham’s account of debates in the Church of England…
True, dogged likenesses
There are currently 151,000,000 photos on Instagram tagged #Dog which is 14,000,000 more than those tagged #Cat. The enormous number…
Geoffrey Clarke’s imaginative talents knew no bounds
At the height of his fame in the mid-1960s, the sculptor Geoffrey Clarke (1924–2014) was buying fast cars and flying…
What does ‘Guernica’ really symbolise?
It takes a bold author to open his book about ‘Guernica’ with a quotation from the Spanish artist Antonio Saura…
Ali Smith’s Winter is calm, cool and consoling
In 1939, Barbara Hepworth gathered her children and her chisels and fled Hampstead for Cornwall. She expected war to challenge…
Wonder Beyond Belief: a book to challenge and change you
I’m not a critic, I’m an enthusiast. And when you are an enthusiast you need to try your best to…
To Tate St Ives, where they serve up a generic menu for the emmets
Tate St Ives is a pale 1980s block, with a fat rounded porte cochère and sea-stained walls. It is the…
Letters: Why a Royal Commission is not the answer to the NHS’s problems
NHS in a mess Sir: Max Pemberton is quite right to say that the NHS is close to collapse, but…
Every Easter, I think of the artist and poet David Jones
Each Easter, I think of David Jones (1895-1974). He was a distinguished painter and, I would (though unqualified) say, a…
The mad, bad crusade against 'cultural appropriation'
It’s usually best to ignore the indignant fury of the 21st-century young. We’re used to them now, these snowflakes, posing…
David Jones – the 20th century’s great neglected genius
When Stravinsky visited David Jones in his cold Harrow bedsit, he came away saying, ‘I have been in the presence…
Why Auguste Rodin preferred to sculpt women who couldn’t sit still
The girl who posed for Auguste Rodin’s figure of Eve on the ‘Gates of Hell’ was, the sculptor said, a…
Nothing happens, but everything changes in Sara Baume’s new novel
This is an extraordinarily compelling novel for one in which nothing really happens but everything changes. Sara Baume’s narrator is…
Siri Hustvedt’s thoughts on art, science and the human condition
This past autumn has felt more uncomfortable than usual to be a woman looking at men looking at women. From…
What makes a great art room in school? It’s all about the mess
School art studios should be all about the creative atmosphere – and the mess, says Laura Freeman
My newest crush is Morgan Lake – the perfect combination of grace, youth and beauty
OK sports fans, the Games are over, Uncle Sam and Britain hit pay dirt, and the prettiest girl of the…
Peggy Guggenheim, collector of genius
She had come a very long way from the shtetl, but Marguerite ‘Peggy’ Guggenheim was still the poor relation of…
Dear Mary: On being an unappreciated patron of the arts
Q. Since my husband began to appear in the Rich List he has become much more popular with ‘artists’ in…
Bologna with Gilbert & George
Sooner or later, no matter where you are travelling on Italian railways, you are likely to pass through Bologna Centrale.…
The lifts are lovely: Tate Modern’s extension reviewed
Tate Modern, badly overcrowded, has built itself a £260 million extension to spread everyone about the place more. This means…
The RA’s new restaurant prioritises its art over its customers
The Keeper’s House sits in the basement of Burlington House, a restaurant in disguise. It is quite different from the…
The 17th century painter who hacked her way through Suriname in search of insects
Maria Sibylla Merian was a game old bird of entrepreneurial bent, with an overwhelming obsession with insects. Born in Frankfurt…
Peter Phillips bids farewell to his music column after 33 years
This, my 479th, is to be my last contribution as a regular columnist to The Spectator. I have written here…
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Cartoons
Is ‘jihadi culture’ a contradiction in terms?
Douglas Murray 28 October 2017 9:00 am
Jihadi Culture might sound like a joke title for a book, like ‘Great Belgians’ or ‘Canadian excitements’. But in this…