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FORGOTTEN HISTORY: Thomas gainsborough - The Untold Story

Gilbert & George, the wonders of ancient Egypt and Marina Abramović’s erotic epic – the week in art

Britain’s favourite contrarian duo depict the past 25 years, ancient Egypt showcases its incredible artists and the great performance artist stages skeleton orgies

The Guardian - UK

Thin Black Line legends return, William Kentridge dazzles and Van Gogh meets a modern – the week in art

Lubaina Himid reincarnates a pioneering show, the South African artist re-energises sculpture and Vincent goes head to head with Anselm Kiefer

The Guardian - UK

Pop hits, ordinary wonders and perfumed parables – the week in art

Sixties art stars reconsidered, 70 years of working-class British life on camera and a multisensory meditation on Indonesian art – all in your weekly dispatch

The Guardian - UK

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The Painter’s Daughters by Emily Howes review – Gainsborough’s girls

The spooky duality of private and public faces is explored in this compelling historical debut about the artist’s children

The Guardian - UK

Entangled Pasts: Art, Colonialism and Change review – the most radical show in the RA’s history

The latest institution to confront its colonial past, the RA does so to enthralling effect, using the art and its subjects – spanning 250 years, from Turner to Lubaina Himid – rather than the wall texts to shock and enlighten

The Guardian - UK

This 17th-century portrait was given plumper lips years after it was finished – an expert explains why

For the everyday visitor to a gallery or museum, alterations to artworks made years, sometimes decades, after their original creation are rarely obvious. After all, the skill of the modern art conservator is for their work to remain imperceptible at normal viewing distance, thus retaining the integrity of the original…

The Conversation

‘Queen of Drury Lane’ Sarah Siddons celebrated in new play

April De Angelis comedy, to be premiered in Hampstead, explores life of actor at a time when married women were ‘legally dead’

The Guardian - UK

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Britain’s first black voter honoured by Westminster Abbey

Peep Show actor Paterson Joseph said Charles Ignatius Sancho’s story is a ‘seminal’ part of British history.

The Independent UK

Spotlight on Reynolds review: a treasure trove of portraiture

Sir Joshua Reynolds “dominated the artistic life of England in his age”, said Melanie McDonagh in the Evening Standard. As the co-founder and first president of the Royal Academy, Reynolds (1723-1792) held immense power over the country’s art establishment, and was generally “revered” by his fellow painters. Constable, for one,…

The Week

Spotlight on Reynolds review – superficial portraits by a well-connected hack

One of his paintings recently sold for £50m – but William Blake was right when he said Reynolds ‘depressed art’, as this show demonstrates all too well

The Guardian - UK

Painting reattributed to Gainsborough after six decades labelled unknown

Experts delighted portrait refound but say this is ‘cautionary tale’, stressing importance of rigorous checks to avoid misattribution

The Guardian - UK

Lord Rothschild: ‘I loaned Lucian Freud £1,000 so the Krays wouldn’t cut his hand off’

As a vast wedding cake sculpture is unveiled on the lawn at his stately home Waddesdon Manor, Lord Rothschild, scion of the banking dynasty, talks art, gangsters, champagne magnums and giant teapots with Geordie Greig

The Independent UK

Novel about 18th-century black Briton Charles Ignatius Sancho wins RSL prize

Moving retelling of Sancho’s life by actor Paterson Joseph awarded prestigious Christopher Bland prize

The Guardian - UK

Portraits of Dogs: From Gainsborough to Hockney review

We British “love our dogs”, said Rachel Campbell-Johnston in The Times. And since at least the 17th century, British artists have shown equal enthusiasm for depicting man’s best friend. Thomas Gainsborough painted his beloved mutts and put their portrait in “pride of place” above the mantelpiece in his London house…

The Week

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Financial Times

Joshua Reynolds’ ‘Portrait of Omai’ is a national treasure. Why is Britain struggling to keep it?

The fight to save the iconic work reflects a painful truth about the UK’s financial state

The Guardian - UK

Dressing the Georgians: exhibition explores ‘pivotal moment’ in fashion

Show at Queen’s Gallery provides picture of style in the royal courts along with changing trends in society

The Guardian - UK

Why an avant-garde iris collector is sharing a space with Gainsborough

Former home of the 18th-century master exhibits the lesser-known works of Cedric Morris, thanks to Maggi Hambling

The Guardian - UK

Molly & the Captain by Anthony Quinn review – art and obscurity

This deft century-hopping novel follows the fortunes of a Regency portrait and a series of artists

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Evening Standard

Paterson Joseph on his debut novel and ‘bringing a bit of colour to the British picture’

Actor Paterson Joseph’s debut novel tells the incredible real story of the first black Briton to vote - here he tells Ralph Jones why it’s his mission to fight historical ‘whitewashing’

The Guardian - UK

The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho by Paterson Joseph review – a Georgian Black Briton

The actor’s first novel brilliantly conveys the life and times of an 18th-century composer, from his birth on a slave ship to thriving in London society

The Conversation

Ways of Seeing at 50: an icy blast of a book about male voyeurism, art, capitalism and so much more

I still remember the shock when I first saw John Berger’s television series, Ways of Seeing, in 1972. In the years before Australia had colour television BBC art programs were often screened at the Art Gallery of NSW. (Previously the same venue had shown Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation).

The Guardian - UK

Picasso faces down his hero while Henry Moore gets stoned – the week in art

Picasso goes toe to toe with his unlikely hero Ingres, Moore’s primordial forms go on show in Somerset, and punk feminist Penny Goring lets rip

The Independent UK

Gainsborough painting bought for £2,600 could sell at auction for £50,000

The portrait is one of the earliest known work by 18th-century British painter Thomas Gainsborough.

The Guardian - UK

Gainsborough’s Blue Boy: a cocksure kid who looks right through you – review

Sold in 1921 for a record price, this youth in blue and silver is back after 100 years away. Yet it’s as hokey a vision of English art as a Disney cartoon of a fox hunt

Evening Standard

Gainsborough’s Blue Boy at the National Gallery review: You’ll be blue if you miss it

A prodigal returns - after a century, one of the British artist’s best loved paintings is back on home soil for a visit

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