Arts & Books
The best art exhibitions in the UK this October 2020
Plus Jimmy Robert at the Nottingham Contemporary,
The unrelenting vision of Lucian Freud
The British artist pushed his life and art to the limit
The surprising history of “Rule, Britannia!” and Last Night of the Proms
This is not the first time controversy has erupted
Farewell, Argos catalogue, the book of dreams that democratised playtime
For many children, dissecting its pages for gifts became its own kind of play activity. Perceptive scholars of a distant future may traverse the Argos catalogue to demystify our world
I’m a transwoman who signed the Harper’s letter with JK Rowling. Here’s why
Free speech includes the right of people to say silly, or even hateful, things
The eerie experience of visiting a socially distanced art gallery
That artists, curators and directors will respond to the pandemic in their work is inarguable. Yet my visit to the Whitechapel also proved that the viewer’s role has also changed
Vivian Gornick unlocks the pleasures of re-reading
In the legendary critic's rendering, re-reading isn’t just a portal to consolidation but exposes the emotional distortions that accrue through repetition
Celebrating the best of 25 years of Prospect
In an extract from Prospect's new anthology featuring some of the best articles published in the last 25 years, Editor Tom Clark explores the key themes the book touches on
The mystery of the Timurid Qur’an
Christie’s sold the most expensive Qur’an manuscript ever in June for £7m. But where did it come from?
Beyond the kingdom of the sick: What literature teaches us about illness
Virginia Woolf, Hilary Mantel, and Susan Sontag have often described illness as a landscape of sorts—but new writers point to a different way of approaching disease that seems more fitting to our time
Ali Smith’s revelatory Summer captures a polarised Britain
Set during the coronavirus outbreak, the final novel of Smith's seasonal quartet is complete with references to Zoombombing, Black Lives Matter and Dominic Cummings’s blog
Sarah Moss’s Summerwater subverts expectations
Summerwater re-examines some of the diverse themes of Moss’s other novels in just over 200 pages