The Time is Always Now emphasizes the continuing importance of Black identity, visibility, and recognition in predominantly White society.
Olivia McEwan
London based Olivia McEwan is a trained art historian with BA and MA degrees from the Courtauld Institute, now a freelance writer focusing on the London art world; this academic background contributing to a writing style that — positive or negative — is argued with crucial fairness and balance. Combined with curatorial awareness, she is also a practising painter of predominantly figurative work, lending a keen eye and understanding of painterly technique which powerfully informs her criticisms of historical and emerging arts.
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London’s Royal Academy Looks Critically at Its Past
The academic rigor of Entangled Pasts is counterbalanced by the poignant responses by contemporary artists and some astonishingly inspired curating.
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Two Decades of British Women Artists Striking Back
Women in Revolt! is essential viewing for those keen to understand the evolution of British feminism from the 1970s to 1990s.
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Two Views of a Family Breakfast
Twenty years after creating his pastel “Lavergne Family Breakfast,” Jean-Etienne Liotard recreated it in oil, and it is astonishing to see how close the two versions are.
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Can “Rubenesque” Be Feminist?
Rubens & Women argues that, far from objectifying his models, the artist depicted a nuanced female body.
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What We Lose When Curating Follows the Money
Capturing the Moment pairs works from the private YAGEO Foundation with those from Tate Modern for a show with no named curators or patent purpose.
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Frans Hals, a Dutch Golden Age Rebel
He contributed to his own obscurity by portraying his sitters and characters with humor and smiles, rather than aloof nobility.
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The Illicit Allure of Art Forgery
An anarchic desire to undermine the art world’s institutions lends art forgers a roguish, rebellious identity that is both compelling and unsavory.
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A Seance and a Beer With Hilma Af Klint and Piet Mondrian
Today’s audiences are evidently more open to Mondrian and af Klint’s sensibilities than those of their time.
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Every Dog Has Its Portrait
A little like dogs themselves, Portraits of Dogs at the Wallace Collection is a complimentary companion piece to the human story.
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What Does Peter Doig Have to Do With the Impressionists?
A new exhibition at London’s Courtauld Gallery pits Doig against artists like Cézanne, Gauguin, and Van Gogh. Does it work?
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A Women’s History of Global Abstraction
Action, Gesture, Paint is a pointed challenge to the common definition of Abstract Expressionism: White, male, American artists.
