ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review On The Sea, A Useful Ghost, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, and Pinocchio Unstrung
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An ongoing sense of ‘startling dread’
MICHAL BONCZA recommends an exhibition of uncompromising paintings by a 17th century artist whose work speaks to our own times
Head of Saint John the Baptist 1644
RON JACOBS enjoys a great tale, told by a US communist, of the lives of working-class New Yorkers
BRENT CUTLER searches a new history of contemporary Iran for an understanding of the Islamic Republic, finding both interesting detail and glaring omissions
MARIA DUARTE recommends the true story of the remarkable woman who sued Donald Trump for sexual assault not once, but twice
KENNY MacASKILL is disappointed by a polemical, rather than factual, account of the Lone Star State and its political path since the civil war
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the lives of Charles and Mary Bagot, and the insight this biography shines on the morals of pre-Victorian society
GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
Ribera: Art of Violence
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London
JOSE (JUSEPE) RIBERA was born in Xativa near Valencia, a town famous in Roman times for its linen and where later the Arabs introduced paper-production technologies.
Ribera came from a well-to-do household, but he was attracted by Italy and the career in letters favoured by his family was shunned in favour of adventure. By 1612, aged 21, he was in Rome and lived in the house of a cardinal impressed by his dexterity at copying frescos. Locals started calling him Lo Spagnoletto (the Little Spaniard).
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KEVIN DONNELLY accepts the invitation to think speculatively in contemplation of representations of people of African descent in our cultural heritage
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