In this post, we highlight the articles and other media coverage by the Critics’ Circle members on art and architecture during July 2026.
Rachel Kubrick has written that the historic Tallinn Art Hall will reopen this November following a €13m renovation, and ‘Even sewing a button can be subversive’: Ai Weiwei opens vast new show in Manchester, both for The Art Newspaper.
Tabish Khan, in his newsletter, Londonist Urban Palette, asks Why are we so obsessed with Frida Kahlo? He examines the life, work and death of Ana Mendieta, unveils 6 Secrets of the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, and asks Is this a truly terrible portrait? For FAD magazine, he has his weekly top 5 art exhibitions; he shares his Top Art Books to read this Summer, and asks Can you have a world-class museum and a five-star hotel in one? MACAM says you can in Lisbon. As co-host of the podcast The Good, The Bad and The Arty, he has spoken to artist Gordon Cheung about the Financial Times and Lord of the Rings, discussed the Henry Moore exhibition at Kew Gardens, and sat down with the director of Jupiter Artland.
Sue Hubbard says Gillian Ayres is Elevated To Her Rightful Place at The Box, Plymouth, for Artlyst.
Maev Kennedy writes that Buckingham Palace doubles the number of paintings on display in its rehung picture gallery, and a London mansion where ‘secret listeners’ spied on Nazi prisoners for intel opens as a museum. Both for The Art Newspaper.
The lead image is an installation image from the Frida: Making of an Icon exhibition at Tate Modern. Photograph copyright Tate (Larina Fernandes).