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From the June issue of Apollo: preview and subscribe here One of the bloodiest battles in European history was fought 200 years ago, on 18 June. If you visit the site today, near the village of Waterloo to the south of Brussels, there is little tangible evidence that Great Britain was on the winning side, or […] More
Ruth Scurr’s entrancing new book, John Aubrey, My Own Life, stitches together fragments of the 17th-century antiquary’s own writing, to create a patchwork diary or autobiography that reads as if it had been composed by the man himself. Aubrey emerges from the book in a moving and vivid portrait. He was learned, compulsively curious, gregarious, […] More
This year’s Turner Prize shortlist includes the artists Bonnie Camplin, Janice Kerbel and Nicole Wermers – and Assemble, an architectural collective of 18 under-30-somethings nominated for Granby Four Streets, a project to reclaim and renovate a number of apartments in Toxteth, Liverpool. In the usual flurry of hastily composed reactions, the typical critique – ‘How […] More
It is surely right that so comparatively soon after this devastating earthquake the world’s attention remains focused on the humanitarian aspect of the disaster. However, there is another cultural aspect to this tragedy that is only just beginning to be properly reported: the damage to the famed architectural and artistic heritage of the Kathmandu Valley […] More
From the May issue of Apollo: preview and subscribe here The restoration and conservation work at Chartres Cathedral, overseen by the French Ministry for Culture, is proving to be a controversial project. Are critics of the scheme, which involves the repainting of the interior to match the original colours and the cleaning of the stained […] More
Of the 1,715 proposals for the official Guggenheim Helsinki design contest, the only one that made me look twice (in a good way) was a bright pink reclaimed cargo ship. A floating museum – what a beguiling proposition! Somewhat ironically, another ship-museum appeared this week among the eight shortlisted proposals for The Next Helsinki, a […] More
The Italian architect Bernini submitted a series of designs for the Louvre’s East wing in 1665. How would Paris look today if Louis XIV had commissioned him instead of turning his attention to Versailles? Paris: all the great monarchs and statesmen of France have left their mark on the capital. In March 1989, President François […] More
Art and architecture, it sometimes seems, have an unhealthy obsession with each other. When the commercial art gallery Hauser & Wirth announced an architecture season at its farmyard conversion in Somerset, I decided it would be a good opportunity to explore this relationship, and to pick out some trends in the way they connect. After […] More
