Chernobyl 40 years on, Paula Rego at Munch in Oslo, Gluck’s flower painting—podcast

Sebastian Quimiz, The Great Restoration
Courtesy the artist and Olha Kovalevska
From breaking news and insider insights to exhibitions and events around the world, the team at The Art Newspaper picks apart the art world’s big stories with the help of special guests. An award-winning podcast hosted by Ben Luke.
This Sunday, 26 April, marks the 40th anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Soviet Ukraine. It is the most serious disaster ever to occur in the nuclear power industry, with widespread effects then and now. An exhibition at the Nikolaikirche in Potsdam, Germany, called The Chernobyl disaster: 40 years ago and yet still relevant, continues until Monday 27 April, and Ben Luke speaks to one of its organisers, Olha Kovalevska.
Paula Rego, The Dance, 1988
© The Estate of Paula Rego; Tate: Purchased 1989; Photo: Tate Images
A new exhibition at Munch, the museum in Oslo, explores the work of Paula Rego, with new research on her interest in the artist after whom the museum is named, Edvard Munch. Ben speaks to the curator of the exhibition, which is called Paula Rego: Dance Among Thorns, Kari J. Brandtzæg.
Gluck, Convolvulus, 1940
Courtesy of The Fine Art Society Ltd © The artist’s estate
And this episode’s Work of the Week is Convolvulus (1940) by Gluck, the mononymous British painter. The picture is part of the exhibition called Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today, which opens this weekend at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, UK. Ben speaks to its co-curator, Naomi Polonsky, about the work.
Celebrating the life and work of the Australian performance artist, how Ukrainian artists and institutions are continuing to resist, and a close look at a pair of works from an Oslo exhibition
Plus, Michelangelo at the Albertina in Vienna and Julianknxx at the Barbican in London
Plus, the challenges facing the Old Master market and a lithograph by Honoré Daumier
From the British Museum thefts to the consequences in art and heritage of the Israel-Hamas war