Welcome to May’s Cassone

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Cassone is now a year old! It has gone extremely quickly - everyone in the editorial and production team has loved every minute, despite all the hard work. A big thank you to all our readers and contributors. If you have subscribed from the beginning, you will need to renew your subscription soon - many of you have already done so. Your next year will be added on to the time remaining on your current subscription. Just log in, click on log out and then choose 'Extend subscription' from the drop-down panel, and follow the instructions on screen.

When you visit Cassone, do you remember to check Our News? You do not need a subscription for this and it is updated every few days. For a snapshot of art events and developments from London to Carlisle, New York to Dubai have a look and keep checking, you will be surprised and intrigued by the information we offer, and all free to anyone who visits the site…

In this issue Rosalind Ormiston visits the refurbished and newly opened Kensington Palace and Jenny Kingsley visits The Royal Opera House, two iconic London buildings that should be visited by those crowding our capital to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee and visit the Olympics.

As usual we have a host of exhibition reviews for you consider. Peter Jones reports on the exhibition on British Design currently on at the V&A. The Leeds City Art Fund was established in 1912 and  this charity continues to operate as one of the oldest organisations of its kind. Rebecca Wade tells the story and looks at its current exhibition. Basia Sliwinska covers the exciting new exhibition at Tate Modern on the works of Damian Hirst while Jeremy Spencer reviews another exhibition at Tate Modern, on  Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama, who has been at work rather longer than Mr Hirst.

We also have reports on ‘David Shrigley: Brain Activity’, at the Hayward Gallery, on London’s Southbank (with video); a book on Wilhelm Sasnal's intriguing paintings; and a review of the spectacular exhibition in the Queen’s State Apartments at Hampton Court Palace, naughtily titled ‘The Wild, the Beautiful and the Damned’

We take a look at tour guides you can take with you on your iPad, and a new book on the hunt for Hitler’s stolen art works, and we talk to artist Steven Weitzman about his mosaic Map of Colorado. If you like the nudes painted by Edgar Degas, be prepared to see them afresh in our feature review of Degas and the Nude. Or perhaps you will turn first to our items on Indian art, mediaeval cats or Louboutin’s shoes? Romanticism wasn’t confined to the early 19th century – a new book shows how important it was in the early 20th century too.

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Wherever you are in the world, art is a source of pleasure and interest – enjoy it all the more with Cassone.