Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing, The Queen's Gallery review - peerless drawings, rarely seen

Drawing was the language of thought for the greatest of Renaissance artists

It is a commonplace to describe Leonardo as an enigma whose genius, and perhaps even something of his character, is revealed through his works. But as his works survive only in incomplete and fragmented form, it is drawing, the practice common to all his various endeavours, that brings coherence and perhaps even a comprehensive view of a lifetime’s labours.

Anish Kapoor, Lisson Gallery review - naïve vulgarity and otherworldly onyx

★★★ ANISH KAPOOR, LISSON GALLERY Duds and gems in mixed show

Duds and gems in mixed show of paintings and sculptures

There are children screaming in a nearby playground. Their voices rise and fall, swell and drop. Interspersed silences fill with the sound of running, the movement and cacophony orchestrated by a boy who leads on the catch tone. It's simultaneously otherworldly and juvenile, adept and improvised  a fitting soundtrack to Anish Kapoor's latest exhibition at Lisson Gallery. 

Sea Star: Sean Scully, National Gallery review - analysing past masters

★★ SEA STAR, SEAN SCULLY AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY The latest encounter between a living artist and the national collection

The latest encounter between a living artist and the national collection

Either side of a doorway, framing a view of Turner’s The Evening Star, c. 1830 (Main picture), Sean Scully’s Landline Star, 2017, and Landline Pool, 2018,  frankly acknowledge their roots.

Dorothea Tanning, Tate Modern review – an absolute revelation

★★★★ DOROTHEA TANNING, TATE MODERN An absolute revelation

An artist with a unique voice eclipsed by her famous husband

Tate Modern’s retrospective of Dorothea Tanning is a revelation. Here the American artist is known as a latter day Surrealist, but as the show demonstrates, this is only part of the story. Tanning’s career spanned an impressive 70 years – she died in 2012 aged 101 – but as so often happens, she was eclipsed by her famous husband, German Surrealist Max Ernst. 

Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory review, Tate Modern - plenty but empty

★★★ PIERRE BONNARD, TATE MODERN Huge retrospective lacks illumination

A major retrospective of the French post-impressionist is huge, but unilluminating

“Slow looking” is the phrase du jour at Tate Modern, an enjoinder flatly contradicted by the extent of this exhibition, which in the history of the gallery’s supersized shows counts as a blow-out.

Nolan: Australia's Maverick Artist, BBC Four review – a lust for life in all its aspects

★★★★ NOLAN: AUSTRALIA'S MAVERICK ARTIST, BBC FOUR A lust for life in all its aspects

The gifted painter from Down Under who rocked the art world

Reckless, unstoppable, one step ahead of everyone else, a hell of a lot of fun, utterly charming, street smart – descriptions of the artist Sidney Nolan (1917-1992) poured out from colleagues, rivals, curators, art historians and dealers, not to mention friends and family, in this persuasive film.

Roderic O’Conor and the Moderns, National Gallery of Ireland review - experiments in Pont-Aven

★★★ RODERIC O'CONOR AND THE MODERNS, NG OF IRELAND Experiments in Pont-Aven

Friendship and rivalry among the Post-Impressionists

In the autumn of 1892 Émile Bernard wrote home to his mother that, following the summer decampment to Pont-Aven of artists visiting from Paris and further afield, there remained "some artists here, two of them talented and copying each other.

'That brick red frock with flowers everywhere': painting Katherine Mansfield

'THAT BRICK RED FROCK WITH FLOWERS EVERYWHERE' How Anne Estelle Rice painted Katherine Mansfield 100 years ago

Anne Estelle Rice painted the New Zealand writer 100 years ago, spinning a tale of love, friendship and artistic kinship

The well-known portrait of New Zealand’s greatest writer, Katherine Mansfield, is exactly 100 years old on 17 June 2018 (main picture). It was painted by the American artist Anne Estelle Rice.

Aftermath: Art in the Wake of World War One, Tate Britain review - all in the mind

Otto Dix’s prints at the heart of ambitious survey of British, French and German artists’ inter-war work

Not far into Aftermath, Tate Britain’s new exhibition looking at how the experience of World War One shaped artists working in its wake, hangs a group of photographs by Pierre Anthony-Thouret depicting the damage inflicted on Reims.