Martin Gayford

The first sight that greets the visitor to the new Serpentine Sackler Gallery is a life-sized sculpture of an elephant’s posterior.

Although Australia is enormous, a whole continent in itself, the history of its art is not as vast as that of, say, Africa or the Americas.

This is becoming a habit, or at least an annual event. Another year, and once more I find myself hanging in the National Portrait Gallery.

David Dawson rose to fame as the world’s most prominent artist’s assistant. He saw Lucian Freud virtually every day for two decades.

Somehow, short though his existence was, there always seems to be more to discover about the life and art of Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890). The past week has brought two revelations about the hot and feverishly busy summer of 1888, during which Vincent created some of his greatest work.

“All art is erotic.”

The Royal Academy of Arts in London has gathered a star-studded cast for its exhibition “Mexico: A Revolution in Art 1910-1940.”

When Shakespeare wrote that music is “the food of love,” he made a good point.

The outsiders are heading inside -- at least in the art world.

There is something extremely British about marking the beginning of an era with a political sex scandal.

Gary Hume once told me that he was a caveman -- stuck in his cavern, attempting to paint the world outside. It was a neat way of saying that the problems of painting haven’t really changed much in 40,000 years.

The sun never shines in the paintings of L.S. Lowry.