We've got rather more modern and contemporary art than usual in our preview this month, starting with the first ever museum show in the UK of Wayne Thiebaud, the US artist who died in 2021 at the age of 101. Thiebaud made his name in the 1960s painting quintessentially American subjects -- pinball machines, hot dogs, deli counters and cakes -- in vibrant colours. Wayne Thiebaud: American Still Life is on at London's Courtauld Gallery from October 10 to January 18. Those sweet treats should provide enough sustenance for the short walk across Waterloo Bridge to the Hayward Gallery for Gilbert & George: 21st-Century Pictures . This show highlights work the besuited pair have created since the start of the millennium, tackling themes such as sex, corruption, religion and death. On from October 7 to January 11, and it's perhaps one to miss if you're likely to be easily offended. A rather different experience awaits at the British Library, in the form of...
The 17th- and 18th-century Palace of Versailles wasn't just wealth, pomp and opulence; it was also a place where France's kings encouraged and promoted scientific research and innovation. The story will be revealed in Versailles: Science & Splendour at the Science Museum in London from December 12 to April 21, featuring historic objects and art from Versailles and other French collections. A new free display at the National Gallery focuses on a painting that's going back on show after 10 years of conservation. Parmigianino: The Vision of Saint Jerome explores a work created by an artist seen by the Pope as another Raphael. December 5 to March 9. Can you deduce what a pronkstilleven is? It's a Dutch word, and the painting below is the perfect illustration. One of the Golden Age artists who specialised in the genre of sumptuous still lives was Jan Davidsz de Heem; he painted four enormous such scenes that are now being displayed together for the first time ever at...