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This display of depressing mediocrity is only saved by the work of a few true greats, like beacons in the mist

Artist who mined the domestic details of his family life in unsettling works that he described as ‘rather like a strip cartoon’

The Royal Academy’s first big show of 2023 is unusual. As well as presenting an impressive collection from Spain and the Hispanic world (around 150 items covering over 4,000 years, including paintings, sculptures, maps, books and manuscripts), it also tells the story of the collection’s source – the Hispanic Society.

Caspar Hughes sprayed onto the wall 'no new oil' and then he and Simon Bramwell, Jessica Agar, Lucy Porter and Tristan Strange glued themselves to the frame of the painting in July last year