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\n As an arts editor, I\u2019m offered recommendations every day \u2013 TV shows I \u201chave\u201d to binge, books I \u201cwon\u2019t be able to put down\u201d, exhibitions accompanied by a \u201cgreat caf\u00e9\u201d. Sometimes I nod politely, knowing I\u2019ll never find the time to watch all 28 seasons of a well-meaning recommender\u2019s favourite series. More often, though, their enthusiasm is contagious.<\/p>\n Such was the case when our deputy editor, Laura Hood, told me about her visit to the Michaelina Wautier exhibition at the Royal Academy in London. Had there not been a laptop screen separating us on Zoom, I suspect she might have reached through and shaken my shoulders as she implored me to see it. <\/p>\n Art historian Gabriele Neher saw the show shortly after it opened and was equally galvanised. Painting in the 1600s, Wautier\u2019s portraiture is marked by an \u201celegant palette\u201d and \u201cmastery of textures\u201d. These masterpieces were designed to defy the challenge that a woman can not paint like a man.<\/p>\n \n Many times I\u2019ve pressed Hettie Judah\u2019s book Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood<\/a> into the hands of friends and her new book, How to Enter the Art World<\/a>, sounds just as sage.<\/p>\n A particular strength, according to our reviewer sculptor Benedict Carpenter van Barthold, is that \u201cJudah does not imagine her reader to be a blank tablet\u201d. She writes for someone who already has a life \u2013 a person \u201cat a transitional point as an artist\u201d: perhaps a parent, someone changing careers, or returning to a long-held passion after years of work or care. It\u2019s a book that takes the complex needs of older artists seriously.<\/p>\n \n Kokuho, Japan\u2019s highest-grossing live-action film, is well worth seeking out at your local independent cinema this week.<\/p>\n A vivid, expansive epic spanning five decades and running close to three hours, the film is set in the world of kabuki \u2013 Japan\u2019s most popular traditional performing art. Professional kabuki remains a tight-knit, all-male sphere built on family lineage: actors pass hereditary stage names down to their sons, and successful outsiders are exceedingly rare.<\/p>\n That makes Kokuho\u2019s central question more culturally specific than the usual A Star Is Born-style narrative: what makes a great kabuki actor \u2013 relentless hard work, or the accident of birth?<\/p>\n Kokuho is in select cinemas now<\/em><\/p>\n \n This week The Conversation UK launched a new climate poetry award to bring science and creativity closer together<\/a>, inviting UK-based researchers to write a poem inspired by climate change research.<\/p>\n The competition kicks off with a free introductory climate poetry workshop, led by poet Professor Sam Illingworth of Edinburgh Napier University, on May 13. Sign up here<\/a> and find out more about how to enter here<\/a>. <\/p>\n
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\n A new exhibition explores empire, love and loss through paintings of flowers from 1900<\/a>
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\n Michaelina Wautier review: an astoundingly skilled painter returned to her rightful place in the spotlight<\/a>
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\n How to Enter the Art World by Hettie Judah offers a sm\u00f8rgasbord of sage advice<\/a>
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\n Kokuho is Japan\u2019s highest ever grossing live-action film \u2013 a lavish kabuki epic about talent, lineage and sacrifice<\/a>
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