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‘He found the extraordinary everywhere’ – a tribute to Atta Kwami (1956–2021)

The Ghanaian artist’s vivid prints, paintings and architectural structures were inspired by inner-city life in Kumasi

21 Oct 2021
Cece Bibby (left) painting the name ‘Friendship 7’ on John Glenn’s Mercury spacecraft in 1962.

Outer space – the final frontier for the art market?

Objects that leave Earth may reach astronomical prices on their return – but there are other reasons for sending art into space

A view of the reader's desk inside the bimah in Bevis Marks Synagogue in 2015.

Britain’s oldest synagogue is safe for now – but developers still threaten its future

Bevis Marks has seen off the latest threat to its existence, but such a significant site deserves much better

15 Oct 2021

Is this a golden age for art galleries?

Georgina Adam and Andrew Russeth wonder if changing circumstances might not suit bricks-and-mortar galleries down to the ground

27 Sep 2021
Maggie Cheng in never-before-seen-footage from Wong Kar-Wai’s ‘In the Mood for Love’ (2000).

Wong Kar-Wai gets nostalgic

The director’s sale of unseen footage from ‘In the Mood for Love’ reminds us that the Hong Kong of his films is fast disappearing

21 Sep 2021

Street smart – how to own a piece of London’s West End

A set of Misha Black’s famous street signs is going under the hammer – and it’s the closest most of us will get to owning some prime London property

10 Sep 2021
Illustration: David Biskup

Does the art world have a sense of humour?

Susan Moore and Niru Ratman wonder if anyone is still enjoying themselves

31 Aug 2021
Big Self-Portrait (detail; 1967–68), Chuck Close.

Boundary issues – the uneasy art of Chuck Close

It was always a mistake to take the painter’s portraits at face value, writes Nancy Princenthal – and we shouldn’t have any illusions about the man either

30 Aug 2021
The building now home to the Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts, Tbilisi, shown in a 19th-century photo.

Georgia’s greatest museum has been saved from demolition, apparently – but for how long?

The fate of the Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts in Tbilisi remains uncertain, with curators ordered to evacuate its vast collection within six months

11 Aug 2021
Geoffrey Rush as the Marquis de Sade in ‘Quills’ (2000).

How the Marquis de Sade became a pillar of the French establishment

The state has just shelled out €4million for the libertine’s most notorious work – how times have changed

10 Aug 2021
Courtesy Thomas Dane Gallery; © Phillip King

‘He transformed how sculpture is made’ – a tribute to Phillip King (1934–2021)

The British artist was a titan of modern sculpture – and following his example, it would never be the same again

6 Aug 2021
Bass instincts: Pennie Smith’s legendary photo of the moment Paul Simonon smashed his guitar on-stage, on the cover of the ‘London Calling’ album.

How a smashed-up bass guitar became the ultimate punk rock relic

The Clash bassist’s pulverised instrument can now be worshipped at the Museum of London

3 Aug 2021
Stained-glass window for the Salon Arabe in the Sursock Museum, in the workshop of Maison Tarazi.

A year after the blast, Beirut is in crisis – but look hard, and there are small signs of hope

With chaos in Lebanon and Beirut in crisis, the resilience of the city’s artists and heritage workers is something of a miracle

30 Jul 2021
Installation view of ‘Re-Entanglements: Colonial Collections in Decolonial Times’ at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge.

What should happen to colonial collections that weren’t looted?

Museums should lead conversations about archives and artefacts gathered in former colonies – and not leave the objects gathering dust

29 Jul 2021

The saga of the Salvator Mundi is catnip for film-makers

Two documentaries on the ‘lost Leonardo’ have found the story’s sensationalism irresistible – but hard facts are as absent as the painting itself

29 Jul 2021
Plaque (16th–17th century), Benin City. Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum, London

We need a fair and formal process for restitution claims – but what would that look like?

As calls grow for the return of objects acquired during the colonial era, the assessment of claims requires an independent process

21 Jul 2021
Sir Nicholas Goodison (1934–2021)

Remembering Sir Nicholas Goodison (1934–2021), the City grandee with a scholar’s eye for the decorative arts

Nicholas Goodison had a distinguished career in the City – but he will also be remembered for his scholarly and philanthropic contributions to the arts

20 Jul 2021
Bone age: the engraved phalanx from Einhornhöhle.

The cultural lives of the Neanderthals

The discovery of an engraved bone in Germany offers yet more evidence that our distant cousins were creatively minded

15 Jul 2021
Private party? Carnaby Street in Soho, London, in late 2020.

Why are painters getting pushed out of public spaces?

The privatisation of public space in UK cities means that artists are being made to feel increasingly unwelcome

15 Jul 2021
Wardrobe malfunction: statue of Princess Diana by Ian Rank-Broadley, unveiled in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace on 1 July 2021.

Diana was a fashion icon, so why is her statue in Kensington Gardens so badly dressed?

The disappointing bronze figure raises the difficult question of what a well-dressed statue should wear these days

6 Jul 2021
Tim Berners-Lee demonstrating the World Wide Web at CERN.

Tim Berners-Lee said the World Wide Web was for everyone, so why has he sold its source code as an NFT?

The sale at auction raises complex questions about who owns the internet today

29 Jun 2021
Illustration: David Biskup

Will unions make a difference at US museums?

Union drives have accelerated during the pandemic, but museum workers have been frustrated with management for years, write Dana Kopel and Maxwell L. Anderson

28 Jun 2021
Star gazing: still from the Abramovic Method by Marina Abramovic, designed by WeTransfer

The path to self-improvement, according to Marina Abramovic

The artist has partnered up with WeTransfer to create a digital version of the Abramovic Method, a series of exercises that will test your patience to its limit

18 Jun 2021
Detail of a 17th-century plaque depicting a junior court official in the Kingdom of Benin – one of two to be returned to Nigeria by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Met ought to have returned two stolen Benin Bronzes years ago

The museum has agreed to give back two plaques in its collection that were taken illegally from Nigeria after 1960. Why now?

17 Jun 2021