On the AfD attack on the Bauhaus in Germany, and why we should take note. open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

As #Bayeux arrives in Britain — thoroughly irresponsible from a conservation point of view, but I rather like that. open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

Mrs Nichols has brought a packed lunch.

This is the future, and the final line is the most important one of all from @mayor.nyc.gov

This is excellent, by @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social on the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 via the sculpture of Virgil Ortiz and museums of New Mexico. Most of what is now America was not so in 1776. What are the good fictional accounts of the Pueblo Revolt? www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Isti Mirant Stella! Mexican Bayeux, at a stretch... open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

Same to you, you're a gent. I get zero engagement on here so this counts as a lot for me, thank you.

‘They are portraits of a marriage, but also images of a body approaching the extremes of old age. Flesh folds around a thickened abdomen; limbs are attenuated. Ankles become brittle.’ @johnpaulstonard.com on Georg Baselitz’s portraits of his wife. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

This is good, writing writing on art, unusual.

‘The scumbles of colour are more like floating fig leaves, a form of protection: the rose, cobalt and sienna daubs compensate for the thinness of the aged bodies, giving them back some life, like fruit growing on an old tree.’ @johnpaulstonard.com on Georg Baselitz. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

On the AfD attack on the Bauhaus in Germany, and why we should take note. open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

First five pages pretty much everything you want from a book and a secondhand bookshop find.

Best arts podcast out there, and I'm on it! Hope you like it. open.spotify.com/episode/56kg...

‘The scumbles of colour are more like floating fig leaves, a form of protection: the rose, cobalt and sienna daubs compensate for the thinness of the aged bodies, giving them back some life, like fruit growing on an old tree.’ @johnpaulstonard.com on Georg Baselitz. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Georg Baselitz devoted himself to showing the body – obdurately, directly, entertainingly – being reshaped by the catastrophe of ageing.’ @johnpaulstonard.com at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘The golden Elkes confirm that Georg Baselitz devoted himself to showing the body – obdurately, directly, entertainingly – being reshaped by the catastrophe of ageing.’ @johnpaulstonard.com at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

At the Fondazione Giorgio Cini www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

... Hester van Hensbergen on pesticides Christopher Kelly on St Augustine David Todd on the Marquis de Morès Philippa Conlon on Sarah Hall’s 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘮 @johnpaulstonard.com on Georg Baselitz and two poems by Stephanie Burt (@notquitehydepark.bsky.social). Read online now at www.lrb.co.uk

'GOODBYE DAVID HOCKNEY! Few artists have meant more to so many people over the past seven decades in Britain and abroad. His work has been part of life, part of the way we see the world. He made us happy by opening our eyes' open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

Affectionate tribute to the inventive, resourceful, imaginative, ingenious.....David Hockney, who has died.

'GOODBYE DAVID HOCKNEY! Few artists have meant more to so many people over the past seven decades in Britain and abroad. His work has been part of life, part of the way we see the world. He made us happy by opening our eyes' open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

I wrote about Knife Edge Mirror Two Piece, and the Dallas Piece, by Henry Moore, and the best sited public sculptures in the world, and an astonishing exhibition a world away at Kew Gardens. open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

Paul Klee and anti-Nazism. @paul-klee.bsky.social

England.

Good to see The Worst Exhibition with wind in its sails.

My books popular with dogs it seems nothing to do with the cake.

'Terrific...an imaginative tour de force' Bel Mooney in @dailymail.co.uk Books on @johnpaulstonard.com's THE WORST EXHIBITION IN THE WORLD: Degenerate Art, 1937. www.dailymail.com/home/books/a...

I really recommend subscribing to Carbon Brief, down to the facts and brilliantly informative. Makes it all seem a little less hopeless. This piece fact-checking Kemi Badenoch's position on the Climate Change Act is a classic. pdpwbj.clicks.mlsend.com/ty/cl/eyJ2Ij...

Just finished The Worst Exhibition in the World: Degenerate Art, 1937 (2026) by @johnpaulstonard.com and it was really excellent. Short 🧵👇 #booksky

If you're an independent cinema interested in hosting a screening and audience Q&A with a local indie bookshop to sell my book, do drop me a line via my contact me page on the blog link in my profile.. (Newcastle, Belfast, Brighton, London already done or sorted)

Some words on the great modern sculptor Wilhelm Lehmbruck. Someone to know. open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

Just finished @johnpaulstonard.com - *such* a good read, centred on an enthralling virtual visit, complementing vivid encounters with juxtapositions of artworks with acute critical commentary, and overall a smart, timely revisionist reading that suggests surprising positives from the event. Bravo.

Now reading - The Worst Exhibition in the World: Degenerate Art, 1937 (2026) by John-Paul Stonard #booksky

The lump of marble out of which the next book is being carved. Drafted to 60,000 words, but half of them will have to go.

Really wonderful to see 'The Worst Exhibition In The World' doing well, out there in the world. Thank you all, this is the real reward for writing: 'Our praises are our wages'. I thought about this while admiring the last Elm tree in London earlier today, on Marylebone High Street.

Love the new Queen Elizabeth II garden at Regents' Park - an intriguing walk-through and not at all what you might expect - especially the Mexican apocalypse mood this afternoon.

Thank you @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social for these images from Basel - it is like seeing my book 'The Worst Exhibition in the World' up on the wall. Really great pleasure to be on Start the Week last week, talking all things German and Weimar.

I wrote a book. Out now!

Today’s Editor’s Pick is 'Comment | Degenerate art all over again? Nazi attack on Modern art is not far away from trends in today’s world' by @johnpaulstonard.com for @theartnewspaper.bsky.social.

In which money for bananas just keeps on appearing, a vision of Venice in Aqua Alta, thirty years ago. open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

The Wikipedia page on Donald Trump and fascism is itself a monument to resistance, and yet there is not a single mention of the spectacle and visual element so important to the fascisms of the thirties.

Wrote on how to paint a cloud, and a hidden figure in a famous (ish) painting. open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

For anyone who’s ever wondered what the connection is between Suffolk and the Straits of Hormuz, here from @johnpaulstonard.com is the answer: open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

Today’s Editor’s Pick is 'Comment | Museums must be the leaders in a moral revolution' by @johnpaulstonard.com for @theartnewspaper.bsky.social. Examining how museums can lead a moral shift by confronting societal issues through art.

Dürer's canonical cannon & Constable's commendable copy. open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

Dürer's canonical cannon & Constable's commendable copy. open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

Oh! Watching Gardener's World last night (don't ask) I saw a lovely interview with Karim Habibi, an apple specialist from Kent. I was delighted - I'd interviewed his parents, Hamid (now sadly deceased) and Sima for the 2007 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. I'm so happy he's carrying on their work.