Introducing Rakewell, Apollo’s wandering eye on the art world. Look out for regular posts taking a rakish perspective on art and museum stories. Ever since Rakewell swooned through ‘Portraits of Dogs: From Gainsborough to Hockney’ at the Wallace Collection, only to be disappointed that the curators weren’t given a longer leash, your correspondent has been craving more canines on canvas. Source ..read more

Sotheby’s is purchasing the Breuer Building at 945 Madison Avenue from the Whitney Museum of American Art in a deal reported to be worth a little over $100m. The structure was built by the Bauhaus-trained architect Marcel Breuer for the Whitney in 1966; since the Whitney moved to its new premises in the Meatpacking District in 2015, the museum rented the building out first to the Metropolitan... Source ..read more

For the 12th edition of the Liverpool Biennial (10 June–17 September), curator Khanyisile Mbongwa is delving into the complicated colonial history of the city. Titled ‘uMoya: The Sacred Return of Lost Things’ – ‘uMoya’ means spirit, breath, air, climate and wind in the isiZulu language – the city-wide biennial looks to Indigenous forms of knowledge, wisdom and healing... Source ..read more

The relationship between painting and photography has been one of complex mutual influence since the birth of the younger medium in the 19th century. This exhibition at Tate Modern in London (13 June–28 January 2024) includes a number of works in which the boundaries between the two have been blurred, from Andy Warhol’s silkscreen prints to the photorealist works of Gerhard Richter. Source ..read more

Ragnar Kjartansson is widely considered to be one of the most significant performance artists of his generation. This retrospective at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk (9 June–22 October) presents a selection of his best-known works, with Kjartansson variously taking on the role of director, actor, comedian or musician. Among them is the nine-screen video installation The Visitors... Source ..read more

The painter of fear and loathing isn’t often thought of as a landscape artist – but Edvard Munch was fascinated by the natural world throughout his long life. More than 80 works are included in the first leg of this touring exhibition, at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown (10 June–15 October), ranging from depictions of the shore near Munch’s hometown of Kristiania (now Oslo) to landscapes... Source ..read more

Some visual memories stay with you from childhood. For me, one such vivid memory is of a large tapestry at Oxburgh Hall, a National Trust property in Norfolk. This, part of a series of hangings worked by Mary, Queen of Scots, features animals from all around the world – including one hilarious monkfish, memorably represented as a fish’s tail topped with the head of a monk. Thanks to the British... Source ..read more

Marriage, in the Renaissance, often gave rise to portrait commissions for the leading artists of the day, particularly when the union was a dynastic one. Prospective brides – and, less frequently, prospective grooms – needed to be inspected. The marriage itself might also be commemorated, either by a double portrait or by paired portraits, the latter sometimes fastened together to form a diptych. Source ..read more

A round-up of the best works of art that have recently entered public collections Museum of the Jewish People, Tel Aviv The Codex Sassoon (c. 900) This 1,100-year-old Hebrew Bible was sold at auction at Sotheby’s New York to the American Friends of ANU and donated to the Museum of the Jewish People (ANU) in Tel Aviv. Known as the Codex Sassoon – after the bibliophile David Solomon Sassoon... Source ..read more

‘Four things to see this week’ is sponsored by Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app. Bloomberg Connects lets you access museums, galleries and cultural spaces around the world on demand. Download the app here to access digital guides and explore a variety of content. Each week we bring you four of the most interesting objects from the world’s museums, galleries and art institutions... Source ..read more