At a dinner party, seated around a table beautifully laid with splendid porcelain and silverware, glittering crystal and extravagant centre-pieces, it’s absolutely ‘not done’ to slurp or smack your

Damien Hirst (b.1965) is not only fascinated by death, but likes to draw on traditional art historical themes and examples to inspire his work. There was an opportunity to see this last year in the

Intriguing dialogue between the poetry of Zwagerman and the work of artist friends Pieter Bijwaard and Harald Vlugt

‘Artists have helped God create the world’

– Markus Lüpertz

To German painter and sculptor Markus Lüpertz (b. 1941), it is blindingly obvious that art far transcends everyday life. Wherever possible

Pablo Picasso was perhaps the greatest artist of the twentieth century. His constant stylistic innovations at crucial points of his career – the emotional Blue and Pink Period paintings, the

Cézanne is the ‘father of modern art’. Ironically, the painter who frequently found himself turned down for the Paris salons is now regarded as one of the most important artists of his day. Picasso

Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831-1915) was a leading member of the Hague School and the only one of that group to specialise in painting seascapes. As part of the Mesdag Year, this exhibition at the

It's night

In the Period Rooms at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, the sun slowly sets. The light dies and darkness moves in. Stars twinkle in the night sky, a candle burns at a window and people prepare