Arts
The art of celebrity
‘The Picture of the Prime Minister hangs above the Chimney of his own Closet, but I have seen that of…
Summer viewing
Was Kate due a grounding after the awards extravaganza of Revolutionary Road and The Reader? Because Labor Day (12A) slipped…
The home of Holland’s celebrity paintings gets a makeover
Laura Gascoigne on the treasures in the newly reopened Mauritshaus museum in The Hague
Is Handel’s Messiah anti-Semitic?
The Hallelujah Chorus crops up in the most unexpected places, says Michael Marissen in his new book about Handel’s Messiah.…
Had Hollywood not lured him away, Dennis Hopper could have made his name as a photographer
In an age when photographs have swollen out of all proportion to their significance, and are mounted on wall-sized light…
‘Artmaking is a drug’ - interview with poet Paul Muldoon
Olivia Cole talks to Paul Muldoon about the extraordinary buzz that writing gives him
Buxton Festival sticks its neck out with two rarities by Dvorak and Gluck
Dvorak’s The Jacobin and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, the two operas that opened this year’s Buxton Festival, are both relative…
Richard Bean doesn’t believe in humans - just weasels, snakes, rats and vultures
Mr Bean, one of our greatest comic exports, has an alter ego. The second Mr Bean, forename Richard, is the…
How did a New York nanny become one of the great photographers of the 20th century?
Finding Vivian Maier is a documentary about the American nanny who led a wholly secretive life as a photographer and…
The quest for the perfect guitar riff is a noble one – if not quite the key to unlocking the mysteries of the universe
A few weeks ago, my eight-year-old son, who’s taken up the guitar, announced that he’d learned something new. He then…
The two men who walked barefoot to the capitals of the four nuclear powers on a peace pilgrimage
You might (if you’re over a certain age) still think it pretty amazing that TV not only allows you to…
A celebration of Scottish artistic success over the past 25 years
Since spring this year, art venues across Scotland have been dedicating themselves to a gigantic project called Generation. Involving more…
‘Dabbling’ in poetry
A fellow festival-goer at the recent Calabash literary festival in Treasure Beach, Jamaica, enjoyed chatting to a gentle Irish poet…
Great Scots
Since spring this year, art venues across Scotland have been dedicating themselves to a gigantic project called Generation. Involving more…
‘Dabbling’ in poetry
A fellow festival-goer at the recent Calabash literary festival in Treasure Beach, Jamaica, enjoyed chatting to a gentle Irish poet…
Great Scots
Since spring this year, art venues across Scotland have been dedicating themselves to a gigantic project called Generation. Involving more…
Handling Handel
The Hallelujah Chorus crops up in the most unexpected places, says Michael Marissen in his new book about Handel’s Messiah.…
Handling Handel
The Hallelujah Chorus crops up in the most unexpected places, says Michael Marissen in his new book about Handel’s Messiah.…
Indiscretions from two veteran producers
Robert Gore-Langton talks to Duncan Weeldon and Paul Elliott about the good old days – and getting shafted
Isn’t it time we asked the National Theatre to support itself?
Isn’t it time we asked the National Theatre to support itself? Lloyd Evans says yes
Painted, sculpted and stuffed: a history of the bird in art
These days, as the sparrows and starlings so common in my youth are growing scarce, there’s less need for a…
Perfect dancing but boringly beautiful
Aesthetically speaking, last week’s performance by the Nederlands Dans Theater 1 was one by the slickest of the season. Fashionably…
How do you like your pop: clean, dirty or downright soap-shy?
I am still listening to the new Coldplay album, and liking it more and more, and not just because everyone…
Royal Opera's Maria Stuarda: pathos and nobility from Joyce DiDonato, lazy nonsense from the directors
London is lucky to have heard Joyce DiDonato at the height of her powers in two consecutive seasons. The American…
A miracle: a three-hour film that flies by
Richard Linklater’s observational chronicle, Boyhood, was 12 years in the making and is 166 minutes long — that’s nearly three…
