Arts news

• Angel that looked like Giorgia Meloni removed from Rome church fresco

  04-02-2026 18:27
  Vatican appears to have ordered removal of restored work, which artist confessed he had made to resemble PMThe face of a winged angel bearing a striking resemblance to the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has been erased from a fresco in a historic Rome church, putting an end to a debacle that embarrassed the Vatican.The image on the wall painting in a chapel of the Basilica of St Lawrence in Lucina in central Rome was removed overnight, leaving the cherub headless. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘It’s about hurling yourself into the unknown’: Charmaine Watkiss on turning a UK museum upside down

  04-02-2026 15:35
  The artist’s work resurfaces skills and knowledge that colonialism buried. She explains how her drawings and sculpture weave botanical illustration and traditional craft to engage with generational traumaWhen the artist Charmaine Watkiss was a child, she frequently visited G Baldwin’s, a herbalist who sold natural remedies and essential oils in London’s Elephant and Castle, to pick up medicinal herbs and sarsaparilla for her mother. “They’ve had an apothecary for ov
  
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• Make the orchestra great again: how a painting of Trump as conductor misunderstands the symphony | Tom Service

  04-02-2026 15:29
  A new painting by the maestro of Trumpian kitsch offers a fever dream of musical unity – and fundamentally misunderstands orchestras and conductors. And where are the music stands?Events in the United States of Trumpland continue to reveal staggering new dimensions to the possibilities of orchestral music. Trump’s announcement that his “Trump Kennedy Center” is to be shut for a refit is a brilliantly cynical way to stop the noise when artists try to cancel their appearanc
  
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• ‘Our bodies bear traces of all we’ve endured’: exhibition explores bodily photography

  04-02-2026 11:03
  A new exhibition at the Phoenix Art Museum looks at how the human body has been captured on film, from athletic portraits to revealing looks at ageingPhotography has a unique capacity to take us right to humanity’s extremes. Whether it’s the outsiders photographed by Diane Arbus, the revelatory motion studies of the human body made by Eadweard Muybridge, views of remote Indigenous communities taken by the Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide, or in-your-face shots of heated competi
  
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