This week: as a tribunal in London hears of human rights atrocities against the Uyghur community and other Muslim groups in China, how will museums, galleries and other cultural institutions working with government-supported institutions in China respond? We talk to The Art Newspaper’s editor-at-large Cristina Ruiz, who has heard many hours of disturbing evidence at the tribunal, and to Sir Geoffrey Nice, the tribunal’s chair.

Also, this week, Martin Bailey tells us about his latest book, Van Gogh's Finale, looking at his final months, his death and his legacy. And in this episode’s Work of the Week, we talk to Kenneth Tyler, the master-printmaker who has collaborated on some of the great prints of the post-war era, about his collaboration on a group of six woodcuts by Helen Frankenthaler, The Tales of Genji (1998), now on view in an exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London.

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As a huge survey of contemporary painting opens at the Hayward Gallery in London, we ask: is the time-honoured medium of painting the art form best suited to exploring the complexity of our age?

We look at the thriving and diverse contemporary painting scene in the UK and explore the Hayward director Ralph Rugoff’s suggestion that this ancient medium “seems like the best technology there could possibly be for reflecting on what it's like to live in a culture where image is the primary currency it is”. We talk to two emerging artists in that show: Baghdad-born Mohammed Sami and Beijing-born Vivien Zhang, who are both based in London. We meet Doron Langberg, the Brooklyn-based painter, and discuss his latest work reflecting on queer desire and identity and landscape as a space of mourning. And we ask art advisor Lisa Schiff, founder of SFA advisory, about paintings and collectors.

And in this episode’s Work of the Week, we explore a newly restored canvas by one of the greatest of all painters, Johannes Vermeer—Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window (around 1657-59) has just been unveiled in its full glory for the first time in centuries at Dresden’s Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, fully revealing a hidden image of Cupid, painted by Vermeer but painted over by someone else. And we hear about new research on the painting. Plus, the latest big stories in the world of art and heritage.

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We're back with a new season of The Week in Art, which takes us right up to the holidays.

In this episode, we reflect on events in Afghanistan in recent weeks. We hear from an anthropologist and an Afghan artist about the country's people, art and heritage as the Taliban assume power again. Melissa Chiovenda, an assistant professor of anthropology at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi, discusses the sixth-century Bamiyan Buddhas that were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001 in the context of the Hazara people that live in Bamiyan city and province, and reflects on what the return to power of the Taliban means for that community. The artist Yama Rahimi addresses the implications for artists in Afghanistan and reflects on the contemporary art scene there over recent years. He also talks about the situation facing those people, including artists, that are able to leave Afghanistan and seek asylum in the West—a situation whose complexities he is familiar with as an asylum-seeker living in Germany.

We also hear about a work being made in Notre Dame in Paris by the sound artist Bill Fontana, who is recording the cathedral's bells as they resonate to the sounds of the city. Fontana's project is the first to be made in Notre-Dame since the catastrophic fire in 2019.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week: Mary Beard on Nero, one of the most infamous Roman emperors. Was he the sadistic murderer of legend, the emperor who fiddled as Rome burned, or has he been a victim of spin and myth? As well as getting Mary’s take on this infamous figure and Nero: the man behind the myth, the exhibition about him that’s just opened at the British Museum in London, Ben Luke also talks to the exhibition's curator Thorsten Opper.

Also this week, as the first London Gallery Weekend begins—with 140 galleries from Mayfair to Mile End taking part—The Art Newspaper's editor-at-large Georgina Adam speaks to Jeremy Epstein, co-founder of Edel Assanti gallery and one of the founders of London Gallery Weekend initiative. And in this episode’s Work of the Week, we talk to the artist Nina Katchadourian about a very personal piece of embroidery, created by her adopted grandmother, which has inspired a new work by the artist in her show at Pace in New York.

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This week: Viking-age treasures—what the medieval gold, silver, textiles and even dirt in a hoard found in 2014 in Scotland can tell us about the Viking age, its people, its art and its international networks.

Ben Luke talks to the curator Martin Goldberg about the Galloway Hoard, which has just gone on view at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

Also this week: six proposals for the highest-profile public art commission in London, the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, have gone on view at London’s National Gallery. We discuss the proposals and the current climate for public art in London with Ekow Eshun, Chair of the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group, and Justine Simons, London’s Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries.

And in this episode’s Work of the Week, we talk about Nike Air Force 1s, the design that changed the face of global sneaker culture, with Ligaya Salazar of London’s Design Museum.

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