London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Oct 06, 2025

Is Oscar Murillo the new Jean Dubuffet? Plus the real Dubuffet! – the week in art

Is Oscar Murillo the new Jean Dubuffet? Plus the real Dubuffet! – the week in art

Murillo shows work he commissioned by children in 30 countries, Alison Watts says it with flowers and time is ticking to catch the must-see Dubuffet
Exhibition of the week

Oscar Murillo: Frequencies
The joint winner of the 2019 Turner prize exhibits artworks he commissioned from children at 350 schools in 30 countries. Is Murillo the new Dubuffet?
Artangel at Cardinal Pole school, Hackney, London, 24 July to 30 August.

An artwork from Oscar Murillo’s Frequencies.


Also showing

Joshua Reynolds
The West Country connections of the great Enlightenment portrait artist who founded the Royal Academy are revealed in Family & Friends: Reynolds at Port Eliot, showing in the city where he was born.
The Box, Plymouth 24 July to 5 September.

Alison Watt: A Portrait Without Likeness
Scotland’s most skilled contemporary painter responds to 18th-century portraits by Allan Ramsay with precise images of flowers.
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, until 9 January.

Ian Hamilton Finlay: Martin
An exploration of the darkly meditative Scottish poet and conceptual artist’s fascination with the sea.
City Arts Centre, Edinburgh, until 3 October.

Garden with Melitaea (Jardin aux Mélitées) by Jean Dubuffet from the show at the Barbican, London.


Jean Dubuffet: Brutal Beauty
This explosive encounter with the hilarious and profound genius who invented art brut is the exhibition of the year. If you have not yet seen it, GO.
Barbican, London, until 22 August

Image of the week

The Fortress of Königstein from the North-West (1756–8) by Bernardo Bellotto.

Bernardo Bellotto, the nephew and pupil of Canaletto, channelled his master’s Venetian magic into these five sublime views of a fortress in deepest Germany, on display at National Gallery, London.

What we learned


Notes left on the defaced mural of Marcus Rashford are to be preserved …

… and a powerful memorial to Covid victims has been created in London

London’s National Gallery is to buy Thomas Lawrence’s Red Boy for £9.3m

Losing world heritage status has shone a light on Liverpool’s redevelopment …

… while Highways England may have to restore a Victorian bridge arch it filled with concrete

The EU’s tallest apartment building has been finished in Benidorm …

… but eye-catching new buildings will be in short supply when the Tokyo Olympics open

Funding cuts to university arts courses in England will go ahead …

… Artists in Britain do not have freedom of speech …

… particularly in Southend-on-Sea, where an artwork about Britain’s ‘nuclear colonialism’ was removed

Elsewhere in Essex is a coastal art trail …

… while Menorca’s newest art gallery carries a whiff of Somerset

Sophie Taeuber-Arp is the great overlooked modernist …

… and Phyllida Barlow is at large again – in Highgate cemetery

Four decades of British youth are captured in Youth Rising in the UK: 1981-2021

The Folkestone Triennial is big on fun – and home truths

More than 100 ‘unseen’ drawings by Hokusai will go on display at the British Museum

Photographer Sophia Spring captured London’s green spaces during lockdown

Community museums were shortlisted for UK’s most lucrative arts prize …

… while all the big museums want Pope.L’s guerrilla brilliance

Coby Kennedy made a plexiglass cell to show where a teenager was imprisoned on Rikers Island, New York …

… while Felipe Dana pictured Gaza’s silent children

Silo art has turned the Australian outback into a vast outdoor gallery

Stephen Doyle’s sculptures make novel use of books

Masterpiece of the week

Goya, A Scene from The Forcibly Bewitched, 1798
It’s just a play. It’s not real. Don’t worry. So you might tell yourself when looking at this scene from a Spanish drama in which a man is fooled into thinking he will die if he lets his lamp go out. Goya, who made his fortune in the late 18th century designing tapestries and painting portraits, captures the comedy in the bright, intense colours that made him fashionable. But something’s not right. Those spectral donkeys looming up – are they really just scenery? Goya makes the flame of the lamp intense and hot, as if it were the only light in the world. This is the uneasy joke of an artist whose nightmares were all too real. Within a few years, the Napoleonic wars would plunge Spain into cruel anarchy and Goya would paint the terrifying frescoes of madness, superstition and witchcraft known as his Black Paintings. Here he peeps behind the curtain into the dark.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
×