Art
Why are the Japanese so obsessed with the cute?
Some see it as a way of appearing harmless after the second world war – but an infantile delight in frolicking animals dates back to at least the 12th century
The beauty of medieval bestiaries
Spiders, owls, elephants and dragons appear alongside dog-headed men and tusked women in a wealth of texts explaining the world in the most vivid terms then available
The force of nature that drove Claude Monet
A compulsion to paint en plein air would remain with the great Impressionist for life, as well as a questing need to find new ways to express what he saw and felt
The splendour of Edinburgh’s new Scottish galleries
Claudia Massie on the spectacular new galleries that showcase the best of Scottish art for the first time
Lumpy, bulgy, human: Threads, at Arnolfini Bristol, reviewed
Trophy office blocks designed as landmarks are not welcoming to humans; their glass and steel reception areas feel more suited…
Our great art institutions have reduced British history to a scrapheap of shame
Calvin Po laments the pious distortions of history at two of Britain’s best-known galleries
The secret life of China’s Banksy
The secretive life of China’s most controversial cartoonist
How to protest the protestors
These are bleak times in our land, and we must take our pleasures where we can. Personally I have been…
How to stop Just Stop Oil
The National Gallery is home to Van Gogh’s still life Sunflowers. It’s an oil on canvas that, according to the…
The ‘delishious’ letters of Lucian Freud
Love him or loathe him, Lucian Freud was a maverick genius whose life from the off was as singular as…
Bisexuality was the Bloomsbury norm
It’s been a century since the heyday of the Bloomsbury group, and now Nino Strachey, a descendant of one of…
‘I came, I saw, I scribbled’: Shane MacGowan on Bob Dylan, angels and his lifelong love of art
Graeme Thomson talks to former Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan about his first art folio
Why Christie’s is wrong to cancel Eric Gill
Why Christie’s is wrong to cancel Eric Gill
Can you tell which of these artworks was created by a computer?
Will AI change painting — or destroy it?
It’s a miracle this exhibition even exists: Audubon’s Birds of America reviewed
In 2014, an exhibition of watercolours by the renowned avian artist, John James Audubon, opened in New York. The reviews,…
You’d never guess from her art how passionate Gwen John was
‘Dearest Gwen,’ writes Celia Paul, born 1959, to Gwen John, died 1939, ‘I know this letter to you is an…
The Tate’s grubby cancellation of Rex Whistler
Tate Britain’s Rex Whistler restaurant will never reopen the gallery announced yesterday. The restaurant – once known for its excellent…
The magic of champagne
The four portraits of four siblings that Catriona had painted from their photographs over four months were framed, hung and…
Are Bored Apes racist?
A plague of apes has spread across social media. Wherever you look, blank simian faces stare back at you. Their…
What musicians like me learned from the pandemic
My mother died earlier this year aged 85. She left me her old pianola. These were popular in the 1920s…
The art and science of Fabergé
From quartz to quince: Daisy Dunn on the art and science of Fabergé
How do we calculate the value of a painting?
There’s an intriguing conversation on YouTube between Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of England, and the artist Damien…
Sale of the century: the contents of the Sitwells' mansion are going under the hammer
In my bedroom there is a small lidded laundry basket. It was designed by Geoffrey Lusty for Lloyd Loom, a…
The political power of Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown
There is a rather sweet moment in the middle of each Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown show where, after some magnificently obscene…
The art of selling vaccines
I was bemused when I first saw the photograph of spaced-out chairs and vaccination booths in the Turbine Hall of the…
