Jonathan Jones

A roundup of UK art exhibitions highlights major showcases including David Hockney’s 1960s prints, Linder’s punk‑inspired work in Blackpool, Helen Chadwick’s nature‑focused pieces in Wales, Gillian Ayres’s abstract paintings in Plymouth, and an exploration of Andy Warhol’s vision of the American republic in Wolverhampton. A street mural featuring footballers Jude Bellingham and Morgan Rogers reflects a lighter cultural moment, while additional notes reference influential artists such as Enid Marx, Ana Mendieta, and Richard Dadd. A featured masterpiece discusses Giovanni Paolo Panini’s detailed rendering of St Peter’s Basilica, emphasizing Michelangelo’s lasting architectural impact.

An exhibition at Sir John Soane’s Museum showcases Madelon Vriesendorp’s surreal and erotic architectural drawings, including her iconic depictions of New York skyscrapers as sentient, copulating figures. Early works connected to the formation of OMA reflect a playful critique of modernist rigidity, celebrating Manhattan’s chaotic development as a source of imaginative architecture. Recent pieces address the climate crisis through humorous sculptures made from recycled materials. While some elements feel insular or self-referential, the exhibition aligns with Soane’s own rejection of strict classicism, offering an inventive postmodern complement to the museum’s visionary spaces.

Ana Mendieta’s Tate Modern exhibition highlights her fusion of art and nature through elemental materials such as blood, flowers and fire. Her works draw on ancient mythologies, feminist symbolism and an imagined prehistoric past, creating powerful imprints of the human form in natural environments. The show emphasizes her originality and conceptual depth, distancing itself from the controversy surrounding her death. Her influence is positioned as enduring and ahead of contemporary debates on gender and prehistoric imagery.

A sound installation by Terence Gower uses 18th‑century documents to argue that American ideals were hypocritical from the start, linking early US expansionism toward Canada to the contemporary political climate around Donald Trump. Despite its historical ambition and contemporary resonance, the work is criticised as monotonous, tendentious and lacking interpretive insight, offering little dramatic or artistic impact. The review argues that its portrayal of the United States oversimplifies 250 years of history and inadvertently idealises the British empire, overlooking both the complexity and the more inspiring elements of America’s legacy.

Medieval British art is highlighted as rich, varied and often overlooked amid the excitement over the Bayeux Tapestry’s loan to the British Museum. Cathedrals, castles and sculptures across the UK are praised for their craftsmanship, symbolism and dramatic landscapes, reflecting evolving medieval styles from Romanesque to late gothic. The article explores how religious, political and social forces shaped architectural and artistic expression, from monumental cathedrals to grotesque carvings and courtly imagery. It concludes by noting how much medieval art survives despite the destruction of monasteries, and recommends several notable sites and artworks accessible for free.

Emergency pandemic laws were frequently imposed by the UK government through hastily drafted secondary legislation with minimal parliamentary scrutiny, often published only hours before taking effect. These rushed measures created confusion, weakened legal accessibility, and undermined public confidence. While rapid action may be justified in emergencies, continuing such practices risks poorer policymaking and diminished respect for both law and democratic institutions.

Gustav Klimt is portrayed as the defining artist of Vienna’s late imperial cultural flowering and as a radical who transformed decorative art into a modern language of sensuality, abstraction and freedom. His paintings, especially The Kiss, turn private love and erotic pleasure into monumental, almost religious images, while his leadership of the Vienna Secession challenged conservative artistic institutions. Rooted in Viennese craft traditions, Byzantine mosaics and ancient cultures rather than the Parisian avant-garde, Klimt developed an isolated but enduring form of modernism that translated Romanticism into a vividly accessible visual style.