‘Alt text is, by necessity, often cursory – an issue that is especially pronounced in museums and galleries. How to convey colour, texture and tone in 150 words or less?’ Emma Cieslik on how the best descriptions can help everyone see art more clearly

‘Beyond her exuberant persona, sharp tongue and carnivalesque subject matter (sex, intoxication), the overarching theme of her work has always been suffering.’ Hettie Judah on the faith that sustains Tracey Emin’s art

The architect of the Kennedy Center, Edward Durell Stone, is far from a household name. But he designed some of the most powerful expressions of US soft power both at home and abroad

An exhibition of Diane Simpson’s sculptures in New York ‘reveals a self-assured artist who found a satisfying formula for making art early on and gave herself ample time to develop it’, writes Claire Barliant

At the Old Master sales in New York last week, Michelangelo’s tiny study for the Sistine Chapel became ‘the most expensive foot ever sold’ and Rembrandt’s handsome sketch of a lion made quite a roar. Anna Brady rounds-up the action.

‘The curators [...] repeatedly push the consideration of style in interesting directions.’ Matthew Kerr on how an exhibition of Turner’s work in Liverpool, which ends this Sunday, helps us see the artist more clearly

It has been a big month for Artemisia Gentileschi, with a new record set at auction and the National Gallery of Art acquiring an ecstatic Mary Magdalene. And her stock seems set to rise even higher, writes @jessemlocker.bsky.social

‘Christ looks so very dead – almost as if carved out of wood – in part because so much of the rest of the painting is so very full of life.’ Thomas Jones on Luca Signorelli’s ‘Lamentation over the Dead Christ’, and his mastery of contrasts and crowds

Over a long career, Gerhard Richter’s unsettling images have questioned the value and purpose of painting. At their best, they are at once deliberately empty and supremely powerful. Martin Herbert gets to grips with the artist’s mammoth retrospective in Paris

‘Emin has so fully re-established herself as a painter that it’s now a shock to recall the diversity of media in which she has worked over the course of her career.’ Hettie Judah on the artist’s recovery from her crisis of faith about painting.

‘It may not have helped Nicholson’s reputation that he was as much a showman in his person as he was in his painting.’ Peter Parker on the underrated talents of William Nicholson

‘It’s too big to heat so it can be bitterly cold in winter but that’s a nice problem to have. My chilblained toes, however, scream in agony.’ The painter Jonathan Wateridge talks to Apollo about the pits and peaks of working in his Norfolk studio

Frederick Wiseman, the great documentarian, chronicler of civic life, dedicated skier and ballet enthusiast, has died at the age of 96. Here is Emilie Bickerton on his films about the arts – a small but distinct strand among the 50-odd documentaries he made over a very long career.

‘Marilyn Monroe remains the only blonde in the world, in a sense, being more or less unsurpassable in terms of her iconic status, and yet she has produced many descendants.’ A fascinating study of her British counterparts impresses Philippa Snow

‘Today, for all that figurative painting is to the fore, Uglow’s art has come to look half alien.’ Julian Bell considers the revival of interest in the unfashionable and exacting art of Euan Uglow.

‘It is, in a way, an American Palast der Republik, and it may now be facing the same fate as that unhappy East Berlin landmark, which was torn down and replaced with a baroque pastiche in an act of historical vengeance.’ Will Wiles fears for the Kennedy Center

‘If the rest of the world needed time to catch up, that says more about which narratives get centred in art history than about Simpson herself.’ Claire Barliant on the self-assured sculptures of Diane Simpson, who at the age of 90, is the centre of major institutional attention.

At the recent Old Master sales in New York, Michelangelo’s tiny study for the Sistine Chapel became ‘the most expensive foot ever sold’ and Rembrandt’s handsome sketch of a lion made quite a roar. Anna Brady rounds-up the action.

‘Why an artist of such outstanding talent and originality should have been ignored for more than three centuries is obvious – because she was a woman.’ Luke Uglow visits a revelatory show of Michaelina Wautier’s paintings in Vienna, which ends this week before moving to the Royal Academy, London

Devotion – to painting, to creativity, to performance and to much else – has always been at the centre of Tracey Emin’s art, writes Hettie Judah

‘Working in oils on panel, Signorelli had time to attend to details that would be impossible to achieve in fresco before the plaster set … there are 200 fingers in the foreground of this painting.’ Thomas Jones looks at the ‘Lamentation over the Dead Christ’ in Cortona.

An exhibition of Diane Simpson’s sculptures in New York ‘reveals a self-assured artist who found a satisfying formula for making art early on and gave herself ample time to develop it’, writes Claire Barliant

The Kennedy Center has had a turbulent year: under new management, with its programming torn up, perhaps in danger of being torn down. It was intended to be a symbol of national confidence and a ‘living memorial’ to JFK. So what does it stand for today?

‘Joan Semmel has been through a lifetime of ‘Nobody wants to see that!’ Hettie Judah, on the contrary, is thrilled by the painter’s determination to keep painting her own body as she sees it.

‘The fear of moving away from London is that you will be cut off, wither on the vine or lose that urban edge, but I found it liberating. I thought that if no one’s looking, who cares?’ Jonathan Wateridge finds freedom in his Norfolk studio

‘Does painting matter in the face of history, or – given that his career feels somewhat divided by Germany’s reunification – the end of history?’ Martin Herbert on the riddling art of Gerhard Richter

At the Old Master sales in New York last week, Michelangelo’s tiny study for the Sistine Chapel became ‘the most expensive foot ever sold’ and Rembrandt’s handsome sketch of a lion made quite a roar. Anna Brady rounds-up the action.

‘Emin has so fully re-established herself as a painter that it’s now a shock to recall the diversity of media in which she has worked over the course of her career.’ Hettie Judah on the artist’s recovery from her crisis of faith about painting.

‘It may not have helped Nicholson’s reputation that he was as much a showman in his person as he was in his painting.’ – Peter Parker on the underrated talents of William Nicholson

Charles Saumarez Smith asks why plans for a widely opposed redevelopment of London Liverpool Street have been approved when there is a better, less costly alternative

‘The work of Edward Durell Stone is the closest architectural translation of American power and self-assurance at its zenith.’ Will Wiles on the undersung architect of the Kennedy Center

‘Ask any curator, particularly if they work in an old building, and they often have strange stories to tell.’ And none more than M.R. James, who drew deeply on his work as a medievalist and as director of the Fitzwilliam Museum for his ghostly tales, writes Christina J. Faraday

Metamorphosis is a running theme in the work of Miquel Barceló, who moves between paintings and ceramics to translate his ideas into images – whether that’s an installation at Palma Cathedral in his native Mallorca, or illustrating Kafka

‘Writing alt text is not only an exercise in close looking and tackling certain cultural assumptions but also something of an art form in itself’ Emma Cieslik on how descriptions intended for low-vision users can change the way everyone looks at art.

There is much to be applauded at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, but the sixth edition of the event is still plagued by shortcomings that are ‘hard to dismiss as growing pains’, writes Debika Ray

‘For fans and critics alike, there is no denying the grandeur of Viollet-le-Duc. Seen through the eyes of a smaller age, he appears less as an architect than an incarnation of 19th-century France in all its equivocal magnificence.’ Tim Smith-Laing on the hardest-working architect in France.

‘For sure, there are bad paintings here, but there are rarely two exactly alike and that’s a sign of a guiding intelligence’ – Morgan Falconer on the early, usually overlooked work of Donald Judd

‘In this moment of our politics, I find myself seeking out certain images of cruelty in art’ – Tessa Hadley is drawn to Giovanni Bellini’s depiction of the murder of Saint Peter Martyr

‘It’s only by watching Jonathan Glazer’s promo work that you start to recognise the contours of his style – and how that style feeds into his theatrical releases.’ Robert Barry turns to music videos and ads for clues about the director of ‘The Zone of Interest’ and ‘Under the Skin’

‘Working in oils on panel, Signorelli had time to attend to details that would be impossible to achieve in fresco before the plaster set … there are 200 fingers in the foreground of this painting.’ Thomas Jones looks closely at the ‘Lamentation over the Dead Christ’ in Cortona.

‘It’s too big to heat so it can be bitterly cold in winter but that’s a nice problem to have. My chilblained toes, however, scream in agony.’ – the painter Jonathan Wateridge talks to Apollo about the pits and peaks of working in his Norfolk studio

‘An enormous visual encyclopaedia of humans in motion’: Emilie Bickerton watches Frederick Wiseman’s documentaries about arts institutions, from the Comédie-Française to New York Public Library

The architect of the Kennedy Center, Edward Durell Stone, is far from a household name. But as one of the most in-demand architects in the United States, he designed some of the most powerful expressions of its soft power both at home and abroad

‘Why can’t the existing railway station be given a gentle and historically sensitive upgrade without the addition of an architecturally redundant tower block?’ – Charles Saumarez Smith on why plans to redevelop Liverpool Street station are an architectural train wreck

Alexis Soyer was a celebrated French chef who presided over the kitchen of the Reform Club. His wife, Emma, was a sought-after portrait painter. Andrew Jones toasts a culinary-artistic power couple of Victorian London.

At the Old Master sales in New York last week, Michelangelo’s tiny study for the Sistine Chapel became ‘the most expensive foot ever sold’ and Rembrandt’s handsome sketch of a lion made quite a roar. Anna Brady rounds-up the action.

‘Emin has so fully re-established herself as a painter that it’s now a shock to recall the diversity of media in which she has worked over the course of her career.’ Hettie Judah on the artist’s recovery from her crisis of faith about painting.

‘Christ looks so very dead – almost as if carved out of wood – in part because so much of the rest of the painting is so very full of life.’ Thomas Jones on Luca Signorelli’s ‘Lamentation over the Dead Christ’, and his mastery of contrasts and crowds.

Euan Uglow was a famously bossy and exacting tutor at the Slade School of Art. But a book of ‘witness statements’ by former pupils and friends convey his total commitment to painting and a real gift for friendship

Alexis Soyer was a celebrated French chef who presided over the kitchen of the Reform Club. His wife, Emma, was a sought-after portrait painter. Andrew Jones toasts a culinary-artistic power couple of Victorian London.