The objects, including what the museum describes as England’s oldest known figurative art work, will head to Bradford for a major exhibition opening this summer
The Gateshead sculpture was dressed up in a Newcastle United football shirt for the Carabao Cup final at Wembley, drawing fans to the site when the team won 2-1 against Liverpool
The written descriptions of works of art are more than just labels—they are a record of evolving cultural understanding, writes Curationist’s Amanda Figueroa
Though primarily a haven for artists and the like, arts clubs also have a lively programme of exhibitions and events—usually free—for members of the public
Politicians in Milan say the “inadequate” display of the mixed-media piece depicting Giuseppe Pinelli, who died after falling out of a police station window, fails to properly confront a dark chapter in the city’s history
The late artist’s first retrospective, at a pop-up space in Manhattan, offers an idealised, futuristic take on the 21st century
BY MARK ANDERSON
A masterpiece returned to its former splendor after a restoration campaign lasting over four years is now drawing the attention of art critics. The work in question is the Altarpiece of San Leo, titled Madonna Enthroned with Child among Saints, which Annalisa Di Maria—an international expert on Leonardo da Vinci and artists of the Neoplatonic movement—attributes to the Florentine master Sandro Botticelli. The findings from this extensive research will be published in an upcoming volume that will present all the studies conducted.
According to Di Maria:
“Seeing the altarpiece, I immediately recognized, through various pictorial and iconographic elements, that it was indeed the work of Botticelli and his workshop. For over 20 years, I have studied the artistic and cultural movement that experienced a significant revival during the Renaissance: Neoplatonism. My research has focused especially on artists who supported this philosophy and who were regular visitors to the Neoplatonic Academy of Florence, founded by Marsilio Ficino in 1462 at Villa Careggi, at the behest of Cosimo the Elder.
Throughout these years, I have concentrated on the techniques, symbolism, and themes found in the works of these great artists. Botticelli, along with Leonardo da Vinci, was one of the most prominent representatives of this movement. The altarpiece was traditionally attributed to the master Frosino, but this attribution appears to be incorrect.”
Di Maria refers to a document from the late 15th century by a certain Vecchietti, a notable Florentine notary, who commissioned a work from Maestro Luca di Frosino for the community of San Leo. However, the document does not clearly identify the artwork in question.
“It is tempting to believe that the commissioned piece depicted Saints Marino and Leone, as we see in this altarpiece. While Frosino had a workshop in Florence, his style differs significantly from that of the San Leo altarpiece. A case in point is his Annunciation of Pesaro (1507), also commissioned by the Servants of Mary. Several entries in Federico Zeri’s catalogue further suggest a stylistic link between Luca di Frosino and the Maestro di Marradi, possibly connecting both to Ghirlandaio’s workshop.
However, when considering the technical and scientific data—including dimensions—the connection to the altarpiece described in Vecchietti’s document doesn’t align. It’s more plausible that the Botticelli altarpiece was brought to San Leo to replace Frosino’s work when the cathedral reopened in 1700. If Frosino had created the original altarpiece for San Leo, it may have been lost or relocated during the decades the cathedral remained derelict. What we see today is certainly not that original work.”
The rediscovered Botticelli painting was in a poor state of conservation. Over the centuries, it had undergone various restorations, yet Botticelli’s unmistakable style—and that of his school—clearly remains. Stylistic comparisons and scientific analysis have revealed the hand of Botticelli himself, along with contributions from some of his students.
“After 1492, following the deaths of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Pico della Mirandola, and Angelo Poliziano in 1494, Botticelli fell into a deep depression. He abandoned Neoplatonic iconography and returned to a more austere Christian style, with considerable assistance from his students. This painting precisely reflects that transitional period—a return to his early altarpiece style, reminiscent of the Sant’Ambrogio Altarpiece at the Uffizi in Florence.”
Botticelli’s works fell into obscurity for centuries after his death in 1510 and were rediscovered only in the 19th century thanks to the Pre-Raphaelites. Many of his works were stored in church warehouses and later reused to replace lost or damaged paintings, often modified with added iconographic elements to suit their new contexts.
“The crown on the Virgin’s head, for example, was added later during one of the many reworkings. The two flanking saints—identified today as San Marino and San Leone—may originally have been intended as Pico della Mirandola and Angelo Poliziano, recurring figures in Botticelli’s oeuvre.”
This altarpiece becomes a symbolic journey—of saints, ideas, and artistry—traveling from Florence through Montefeltro, altered at each stop, yet never losing the spirit of the great Renaissance master.
“Many hands altered this painting over time, as if each felt entitled to leave their mark. But no one dared to change the face or bearing of the beautiful Simonetta, who now lives again in a land not her own. Here, she testifies to the enduring power of beauty—how it can overcome adversity.”
This work rightfully belongs to the Municipality of San Leo.
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By LUSYA YANGIROVA
In December 2023, fetchish_net reimagined the heart of London’s Pushkin House into a site of fantastical disruption, queer celebration, and dreamlike transformation. Titled “Winter Special: Ordinary Miracle”, the art performance fused the sensibilities of underground rave culture with the ornate spirit of masquerade—resulting in an unforgettable experience that blurred the boundaries between performance, visual art, and participatory costume.
Rather than adhering to any staid holiday tradition, Ordinary Miracle dared to rewrite it. Guests—draped in costumes ranging from angelic to grotesque—moved through a space that felt alive, reactive, and rich in myth. The atmosphere hovered between Slavic folklore and deconstructed club aesthetics. Every corner of Pushkin House was charged with the eerie magic of a fairy tale rewritten by queers, punks, and romantics.
A Visceral Space of Performance
Among the strongest conceptual anchors of the night was the audio-reactive visual environment crafted by Anastasia Kozlova, whose work acted not merely as set design, but as a vital organ in the event’s living body. Her visuals—dreamlike yet fragmented—stitched together club culture’s rawness with the tender melancholy of traditional winter iconography. Deconstructed visuals pulsed across walls: snowy television static bled into soft candle glows, Orthodox motifs flickered beneath digital frost, and echoes of Soviet holiday broadcasts were corrupted into glitchy ephemera.
Kozlova’s approach wasn’t decorative—it was dramaturgical. Her visual curation shaped the emotional arc of the night, syncing with sound in a way that made the room feel enchanted and unstable all at once. Her manipulation of archival aesthetics—looping VHS textures, pixelated memories, bursts of chroma—invoked a kind of haunted nostalgia, collapsing time into sensation. The work offered no fixed image of winter celebration; instead, it danced between broken fragments of memory and possibility. In her hands, tradition didn’t shatter—it shimmered, refracted, and reformed.
Importantly, Kozlova’s role extended beyond the screen. As a key part of the curatorial team, managed by Zlata Mechetina, a London-based producer and curator, she helped shape the night’s rhythm—ensuring the transitions between visual, sonic, and spatial experiences flowed like a hallucination rather than a program. Her work offered continuity and rupture in equal measure, becoming the very terrain on which other elements—performance, costume, intimacy—could unfold.
In one room, a “bedroom installation” softened the spectacle. Velvet-red sheets spilled onto the floor as bodies reclined, read, and connected. Amidst the flicker of chaotic visuals, this intimate corner provided a moment of grounding—a soft cocoon within the night’s revelry. It echoed the quiet, tender moments of a holiday night: warm drinks, whispered confessions, and resting in the arms of others.
Nearby, furry mythical creatures, created by Sonya Bleiph and Marina Aleksashina, loomed with playful menace. These beings—rooted in Slavic mythology—became touchstones of the night’s core inquiry: What happens when folklore is queered, fractured, and worn like a second skin?
A Queer, Sonic Mythology
Headlining the night were two magnetic performers whose styles echoed the event’s fusion of intensity and play. Henry Spychalski, frontman of the London-based experimental group HMLTD, delivered a performance charged with theatrical abandon and an undercurrent of erotic chaos. His presence—equal parts glam, punk, and spectral cabaret—embodied the night’s fluid energy.
Equally captivating was VenesiaWorld, a deconstructed hyperpop producer from Serbia, who conjured a soundscape of dazzling digital excess. Her performance oscillated between sweetness and distortion, offering up a sonic ritual that felt both futuristic and folklore-tinged. Together, their sets constructed an alternative mythology—one rooted in rupture, glitch, and celebration.
Bodies in Rebellion and Ritual
Looking at the documentation of the event—a series of flash-lit, analog-style photographs—we are met with a tableau of poetic dissonance: a woman in sheer lace and angel wings adjusting another’s crown; two figures in whisper-close conversation, makeup smudged and eyes glittering; a clown-faced guest speaking with someone cradling Bert and Ernie puppets like talismans. These are not just party snapshots—they are glimpses into a communal rite where costume becomes language, and gesture becomes resistance.
There’s a tension in every frame—between irony and sincerity, costume and identity, excess and vulnerability. What emerges is a living carnival, not of spectacle alone, but of self-revelation. This was a night where playfulness could coexist with political edge, and myth could become queered embodiment.
The Miracle Is the Gathering
In an era where winter holidays are often co-opted by commerce and emptied of subversion, Ordinary Miracle offered something radically different: an act of joyful resistance. Fetchish_net didn’t simply throw a party; they curated a world where magic, memory, and masquerade met in a state of flux. Through costume, performance, and immersive scenography, they invited a new kind of festive ritual—one that honored intimacy, absurdity, transformation, and the ecstatic truth of collective becoming.
The miracle was not in any one object or act. The miracle was the gathering.
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BY ALBERT CHEN
A long-unseen work by one of the 19th century’s most influential painters ignited a bidding frenzy at Bonhams New Bond Street in London, as James McNeill Whistler’s very first portrait commission soared to £406,800 (approx. $495,000)—more than five times its low estimate of £80,000 (approx. $97,000). Offered to the market for the first time in nearly six decades, Portrait of Lucas Alexander Ionides drew intense interest from collectors and institutions alike, marking a watershed moment for early Whistler works.
Painted in 1859–60, shortly after Whistler relocated from Paris to London’s historic artists’ quarter in Newman Street, the portrait represents not only a rare glimpse of the American artist’s formative period but also the beginning of a lifelong artistic and personal bond with the Ionides family, prominent Greek-origin patrons of the arts in Victorian London.
Commissioned by Alexander Constantine Ionides, the father of Lucas, the painting captures him with remarkable tenderness and psychological depth. It was accompanied in the sale by the original typed manuscript of Memories, the 1924 memoir in which Lucas Ionides fondly recalls his friendship with Whistler.
“This was the first time Whistler’s Portrait of Lucas Alexander Ionides had ever been offered at auction, and so it is no surprise there was so much interest,” said Charles O’Brien, Head of 19th Century British and Impressionist Art at Bonhams. “The work is an outstanding demonstration of Whistler’s early talent for portraiture, as well as revealing the tenderness for his friend.”
The portrait enjoyed pride of place in the Ionides family homes—first at Tulse Hill, then at the iconic 1 Holland Park—until it was passed down to Lucas’ son Cyril in 1924. It remained in the family for over a century until 1968, when it was sold to collector Michael Carruthers, whose family retained the piece ever since. Though briefly exhibited in a 1960 Arts Council retrospective in London and later in New York, the portrait has not been seen publicly in over half a century—making its reemergence, and record-breaking sale, all the more sensational.
As art historians and collectors continue to re-evaluate Whistler’s early oeuvre, the sale underscores the enduring fascination with his evolving style and storied connections. For a painting hidden from public view for generations, its dramatic return to the spotlight has proven nothing short of historic.
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By LUSYA YANGIROVA
The painting practices of Mariia Denysenko and Natalia Kungurova confidently align with the contemporary European tradition of fine art. Both artists favour abstraction over figurative narrative, choosing to prioritise the freedom of viewer interpretation. What unites their approach is a shared sense of experimentation — a dialogue between academic foundations and more fluid, exploratory decisions.
Abstract painting speaks the language of emotion and state of being. As a genre, it resists a singular or rigid reading. In the work of both artists, painting becomes a visual echo of their internal rhythms — rhythms that resonate instinctively with the viewer.
Mix Feelings by Mariia Denysenko
Mariia Denysenko’s series Mix Feelings, comprising two canvases, leans towards the legacy of abstract expressionism. Her vibrant palette — rich with contrasts between deep greens, soft blues, and a red tinged with orange — creates an emotional atmosphere that the artist herself describes as an “emotional journey.” This journey is not directed by linear narrative, but by immersion — the colours and gestures guiding us through states of tension, release, and reflection.
Large areas of colour and sweeping brushstrokes command the viewer’s attention, delivering a visual intensity that borders on the dramatic. Though figuration may seem to surface at times — as though a figure might be emerging from the composition — it remains an illusion, quickly dissolving into colour and form. Red appears to function as a central rhythmic device in this series. It anchors the viewer’s gaze, acting almost as a visual metronome against the more subdued tones surrounding it. The red doesn’t shout, but it insists — energising the entire composition and pushing the emotional tempo forward.
In certain works, the suggestion of figuration is built not through shape but through palette. This method draws a subtle line back to Wassily Kandinsky’s theoretical text Point and Line to Plane, in which the pioneer of abstraction treated painting as a system of relationships — colour and form becoming analytical tools rather than merely expressive ones. Denysenko’s work offers a contemporary echo of this lineage, yet remains unburdened by rigid theory, allowing intuition and emotion to rise to the surface.
Deformation and Confluence by Natalia Kungurova
Natalia Kungurova’s paired works Deformation and Confluence seem to be in direct conversation with one another — not in harmony, but in tension. Where one speaks of quietude and equilibrium, the other bursts with movement and energetic disruption.
Kungurova cites Gerhard Richter as a major influence, and this dialogue with the German master is evident in her sensitivity to colour. Her compositions are less about contrast and more about flow — soft lilacs and azure blues interspersed with white, forming an atmospheric, near-liquid surface. Despite her use of acrylics, her technique evokes the fluid transitions of watercolour — with gradients that bleed gently into one another and a sense of translucency that allows each colour to “breathe.”
Though the paintings vary in mood, they are united by their palette and by Kungurova’s deliberate focus on texture. In both works, the artist plays with undulating, wave-like brushwork — building not just imagery but sensation. The result is a flowing visual rhythm that feels almost tactile.
Her exploration of maritime themes is particularly subtle — rather than depicting seascapes directly, Kungurova isolates elements such as “sea foam,” transforming them into abstract forms. This approach recalls a lineage of imagery stretching from the mythological (The Birth of Venus) to the monstrous (the rise of the Kraken in popular culture). The marine becomes a metaphor, fragmented and reassembled into new emotional contexts.
Her preference for small formats is also noteworthy. Presented in a mosaic-like installation, these works function as modular elements — each piece part of a larger visual conversation. They encourage close looking and quiet contemplation, rewarding attention with detail.
Non-objective art always leaves space for interpretation, while simultaneously raising questions about the role of intuition versus intention. In the work of Natalia Kungurova and Mariia Denysenko, we see a compelling fusion of emotional spontaneity with thoughtful, deliberate use of composition and colour. Their painting practices are testaments to how abstract art, when rooted in personal rhythm and aesthetic clarity, continues to invite — and reward — deep engagement.
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