Rijksmuseum reveals painting to be early work by Rembrandt

Rijksmuseum reveals painting to be early work by Rembrandt

17th-century Dutch master’s Vision of Zacharias in the Temple to go on display this week It hung unrecognised on the wall of a private home for decades but now a 17th-century painting has been revealed as a Rembrandt, taking its potential value from thousands to millions of pounds. The Rijksmuseum announced on Monday that it had rediscovered an early biblical scene by the Dutch master that was once thought lost, thanks to hi-tech scanning and two years of expert analysis. Continue reading...

Rosa Garland: Primal Bog review – a slippery dive into desire with live tattooing

Rosa Garland: Primal Bog review – a slippery dive into desire with live tattooing

Soho theatre, London Fearlessly provocative and covered in gunk, Garland delivers a wild and elusive show about queerness and carnality ‘It’s divisive.” Well, you’d think so, a “kink performance art” clown show with nudity, bodily fluids, worms and, er, Gwyneth Paltrow. And yet Primal Bog left last year’s Edinburgh fringe with praise ringing in the ears of its creator Rosa Garland. To the degree that Garland is a winning and fearlessly provocative performer, I’m happy to join the chorus. But – hey, it’s divisive – I didn’t find the show as thrilling as some in the audience. A gross-out address to queerness and carnality, it’s vivid in its image-making, cheerfully elusive when it comes to making sense – and more inclined to celebrate than offer insight into misbehaving bodies and idiosyncratic desire. Garland shows her hand from the opening moments, urinating into a vase, then smearing herself head-to-toe in orange gunge. This she does in the supposed persona of Paltrow, proprietor of “wellness brand” Goop – against whose airbrushed vision of feminine grace the show styles itself. Here is Garland with slime dripping from chin, her breasts, the tip of her nose. Here she is thrusting into a folding chair, or making out with an earthworm. In another set piece, she narrates a dream about joining a community of masochists in their mountain hideaway. Continue reading...

Jailed for losing a pregnancy: how progress on El Salvador’s harsh anti-abortion law is unravelling

Jailed for losing a pregnancy: how progress on El Salvador’s harsh anti-abortion law is unravelling

Years of campaigning led to the release of 81 women imprisoned under the country’s strict reproductive laws, but the suspension of civil rights by President Nayib Bukele is fuelling a new wave of criminalisation Her ordeal began with stomach cramps; 19 years old and training to be a nurse, she knew something was wrong. At the hospital she waited for hours in the emergency department. She had suffered an obstetric emergency. Under El Salvador’s legal framework, emergencies including miscarriages and stillbirths, place women under criminal suspicion. She lost the baby and doctors alerted the police. She was arrested and handcuffed. Continue reading...