The Week in Art

This Sunday, 26 April, marks the 40th anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Soviet Ukraine. It is the most serious disaster ever to occur in the nuclear power industry, with widespread effects then and now. An exhibition at the Nikolaikirche in Potsdam, Germany, called The Chernobyl disaster: 40 years ago and yet still relevant, continues until Monday 27 April, and Ben Luke speaks to one of its organisers, Olha Kovalevska. A new exhibition at Munch, the museum in Oslo, explores the work of Paula Rego, with new research on her interest in the artist after whom the museum is named, Edvard Munch. Ben speaks to the curator of the exhibition, which is called Paula Rego: Dance Among Thorns, Kari J. Brandtzæg. And this episode’s Work of the Week is Convolvulus (1940) by Gluck, the mononymous British painter. The picture is part of the exhibition called Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today, which opens this weekend at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, UK. Ben speaks to its co-curator, Naomi Polonsky, about the work.

The Chernobyl disaster: 40 years ago and yet still relevant, Nikolaikirche, Potsdam, Germany, until 27 April.
Paula Rego – Dance Among Thorns, Munch, Oslo, 24 April-2 August; Paula Rego: Story Line, Victoria Miro, London, until 23 May.
Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, 25 April-6 September
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Two museum openings feature on this week’s podcast—V&A East in London and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

In our 300th episode in 2024, Gus Casely Hayford, the director of the V&A East, told us about the community-driven programming at the museum and its connection with its local environment in East London. Now, as the museum opens, he takes Ben Luke on a tour of its commissions, displays and its first exhibition, The Music is Black: A British Story. In California, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma) has just opened its new building by the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, which cost more than $700m, and has generated some controversy. Ben speaks to our correspondent in Los Angeles, Jori Finkel, about the new building and the debate about its scale, its cost, its suitability for LA and whether Angelinos and tourists will take to Zumthor’s building. And this episode’s Work of the Week is Satan Smiting Job with Sore Boils (around 1826) by the great 18th-century artist and poet, William Blake. The work is part of a new exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland, called William Blake: The Age of Romantic Fantasy, which opened this week. Ben speaks to the exhibition’s co-curator, Anne Hodge, about the work.

V&A East opens on Saturday, 18 April.
Lacma member previews begin on 19 April, before the full opening to non-members in early May.
William Blake: The Age of Romantic Fantasy, National Gallery of Ireland, until 19 July.
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Three artists who in different ways connect to the Surrealist movement are the subject of this week’s podcast. At the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the first major US survey of the full career of Marcel Duchamp since 1973 opens this weekend, before travelling later in the year to Philadelphia. Ben Luke talks to its curators at MoMA, Ann Temkin and Michelle Kuo. A new book, Dorothea Tanning: A Surrealist World, exploring the extraordinary life and work of the Surrealist artist, is published this week by Yale University Press and Ben speaks to its author, Alyce Mahon. And this episode’s Work of the Week is Down Below (1940), a painting by another of the great women artists of Surrealism, the British Mexican painter Leonora Carrington. It was made while she was hospitalised in Santander in Spain in the early stages of the Second World War, before her pivotal journey to Latin America. The picture is part of an exhibition at the Freud Museum in London, The Symptomatic Surreal, which also features drawings from Carrington’s sketchbooks. We speak to Vanessa Boni, the curator of special projects at the museum, about the work and the show.

Marcel Duchamp, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 12 April-22 August; Philadelphia Museum of Art, 10 October-31 January 2027
Dorothea Tanning: A Surrealist World by Alyce Mahon, Yale University Press, $45 or £30 (hb)
Leonora Carrington: The Symptomatic Surreal, Freud Museum, London, until 28 June 2026
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The UK government last week issued a response to a report ostensibly exploring the future of the funding body Arts Council England but containing an idea that has prompted much debate: that the government should consider changing its policy of free admission for all to national museums in England, and charge tourists an entry fee. Ben Luke discusses the report and the charging issue with Gareth Harris, The Art Newspaper’s chief contributing editor, and one of our London-based correspondents, Dale Berning Sawa. Last weekend in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened Raphael: Sublime Poetry, amazingly the first full career survey of the Italian Renaissance master in the United States. Seven years in the making, it explores Raphael’s remarkable output across his short life, from his earliest years in his native Urbino to his work for two Popes in Rome, where he died aged just 37 in 1520. We talk to the show’s curator, Carmen Bambach. And this episode’s Work of the Week is Senga Nengudi’s Performance Piece (1977), a series of three photographs depicting one of the iterations of the US artist’s landmark sculpture and performance work RSVP. The photographs are part of a small exhibition focusing on Nengudi’s performances at the Whitechapel Gallery in London, and Ben talks to the exhibition’s curator Hannah Woods.

Raphael: Sublime Poetry, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, until 28 June.
Senga Nengudi: Performance Works 1972-1982, Whitechapel Gallery, London, until 14 June.
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The Grand Palais in Paris this week unveiled an enormous exhibition focusing on the final 13 years of Henri Matisse’s life and work, a project conceived by the Centre Pompidou. The show includes abundant examples of the celebrated gouache cut-outs, his works for the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, and his final paintings, drawings, and illustrated books, among much else. Ben Luke interviews the exhibition’s curator, the Centre Pompidou’s Claudine Grammont, in Paris. The latest edition of Art Basel Hong Kong opened this week amid much uncertainty about the Hong Kong art world after a prolonged downturn in the Chinese economy. Yet, some commentators are suggesting that Hong Kong has turned a corner. The Art Newspaper’s chief contributing editor, Gareth Harris, has been in Hong Kong this week and tells us what he discovered. And for this episode’s Work of the Week, we focus on a related painting and dress. The painting is Salvador Dalí’s Necrophiliac Spring (1936), which was owned by the fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli; the dress is the Tears Dress with Veil, from Schiaparelli’s Circus Collection of 1938, made with a fabric designed by Dalí. The painting and the garment are in Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which opens this weekend, and Ben talks to Rosalind McKeever, one of the three curators of the exhibition, about the pairing.

Matisse 1941-1954, Grand Palais, Paris, until 26 July. You can read more on the show, and get the full details on a wealth of Matisse shows opening in various museums and galleries in 2026, on the website or app.

Art Basel Hong Kong continues until Sunday, 29 March.

Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 28 March-8 November

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