Arts feature
How Fellini made his modernist masterpiece
Ian Thomson on the creative limbo that spawned Fellini’s modernist masterpiece, 8½
The audio anoraks bringing the great vintage recordings back to life
Damian Thompson on the audio anoraks rescuing some of the greatest recordings ever made
Reimaging the lost masterpieces of antiquity
Martin Gayford visits two new surveys of Greek and Roman sculpture at the British Museum and Palazzo Strozzi. Reimagining what’s lost is as much of an inspiration as what remains
How gaming grew up
Sometimes a guy feels abstracted from the world. He visits Europe’s finest galleries, but the paintings seem to hang like…
Will you miss Mad Men? James Delingpole won’t
Mad Men looked great but, as the final season draws to a close, was there really anything to it, wonders James Delingpole
Alexander McQueen may have been a prat but at least he was an interesting one
Alexander McQueen may have been a prat but at least he was an interesting one, says Shura Slater
How Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic, Blade Runner, foresaw the way we live today
How Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, made 33 years ago, foresaw the way we live today, by William Cook
The Spectator declares war on bad public art
Stephen Bayley announces the launch of What’s That Thing?, The Spectator’s award for bad public art
Will the real Swan Lake please stand up
Ismene Brown unpicks the great enigma of ballet theatre
Where Van Gogh learned to paint
William Cook reports from the sooty netherworld that made an artist of Vincent Van Gogh
The art of Coke
The Coca-Cola ‘contour’ bottle is 100 years old. Stephen Bayley salutes a design classic
How Japan became a pop culture superpower
Peter Hoskin on the island nation that has taken over popular culture
How will the British public take to Rubens’s fatties?
Are Rubens’s figures too fat for the British to appreciate them? Martin Gayford investigates
Mohammed — in pictures
Two months ago I was sitting beside the tomb of a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, telling a story about…
Shirley Williams: Saving my mother from the scriptwriters
Jasper Rees talks to Shirley Williams about the forthcoming screen portrayal of her mother
What unites Churchill, Dali and T.S. Eliot? They all worshipped the Marx Brothers
Ian Thomson celebrates the anarchic genius of Groucho and his brothers
2015 in exhibitions - painting still rules
The art on show over the coming year demonstrates that we still live in an age of mighty painters, says Martin Gayford
Climate change, Bruegel-style
The world depicted by the Flemish master is not so different from our own, says Martin Gayford
The Nazi origins of the Vienna Phil’s New Year’s Day concert
Vienna’s New Year’s Day concert is still tarnished by its Nazi origins, says Norman Lebrecht
Snow - art’s biggest challenge
In owning a flock of artificial sheep, Joseph Farquharson must have been unusual among Highland lairds a century ago. His…
Le French bashing has spread to France. Are things really that bad?
The popular sport has spread to France. Are things really that bad, wonders Jonathan Meades
Fortune tellers, pound shops and Orville: why I love Blackpool
Fortune tellers, pound shops and Orville: it’s easy to take the piss out of Blackpool, but William Cook loves it
Sex, lies and El Sistema
An explosive new book uncovers abuse at the heart of one of classical music’s most revered institutions. Damian Thompson investigates
How Hollywood is killing the art of screenwriting
Cinema is tough right now for writers. Thomas W. Hodgkinson reports from the front line at the Austin Film Festival
David Hockney interview: ‘The avant-garde have lost their authority’
David Hockney talks to Martin Gayford about 60 years of ignoring art fashion
