National Gallery, LondonBacchus and his cavorting retinue of centaurs, satyrs and naked nymphs are in constant motion and yet spellbindingly still in the precision-engineered art of Nicolas PoussinThe scene: a chain of dancers in a glade, Roman tunics …
Turner prize 2021; Summer Exhibition 2021 review – there can be no winner
Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry; Royal Academy, LondonSocial activism not art is the benchmark of a collective-juggling Turner prize. And Yinka Shonibare begins to shake things up at art’s annual pro-am fixtureFirst! That is the exultant boast for this y…
Helen Frankenthaler: Radical Beauty review – the most sublime show of the year?
Dulwich Picture Gallery, LondonSlow, determined and infinitely hard-won, the woodcut prints of the late American artist transcend their rigid medium with visions of radiant liberationThe show of the season, if not the year, is a sequence of 36 visions …
Bellotto: The Königstein Views Reunited review – he captures the castle
National Gallery, LondonFive huge views of a fortress in Saxony by Canaletto’s nephew demonstrate the younger Venetian’s mastery of landscape, but the characters who populate his paintings steal this fascinating showThe fortress rears up on its crag ag…