Features

When John Tenniel drew the grumpy Gryphon in ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, he may have had a real heraldic monster in mind

The architect who created some of the most memorable buildings of the last century and was a major influence on urban policy in Britain has died at the age of 88

The German director brought fairy tales to gorgeous, animated life with her silhouette films – the earliest of which is as remarkable now as it was in 1926

Max Norman visits the very peculiar home of an eccentric count who tried to derive electricity from vegetables

The artist’s commercial cat illustrations were hugely popular in his lifetime, but his series of psychedelic kitties have attracted rather more serious attention

The artist’s pampered pooch was often seen as an alter ego for the ‘pugnacious’ man himself

Art historians may be sceptical about artificial intelligence, but machine learning might enlarge our capacity for observation – and even revive connoisseurship

The artist’s first performance in a decade was a lot, even for the most ‘open-minded’ onlookers

The vast waterfront complex is a fitting emblem of the painter’s outsized importance to the city

The Transcendental Painting Group in New Mexico was sidelined for its esoteric beliefs, but its members are slowly entering the mainstream

As the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. celebrates its centenary, the museum is also looking firmly to the future

In museums, minerals are both everyday matter and also objects of scientific interest – but they carry more intangible meanings too

Luxury brands are certainly contributing to the conservation of Venice – but massive advertisements on historic buildings are starting to spoil the views

The novelist revered Raphael’s Sistine Madonna – and Holbein’s Dead Christ almost induced an epileptic fit

In Istanbul, an exhibition of works created by women between 1850 and 1950 has made some impressive finds

It’s not easy to repackage a museum devoted to a Victorian missionary, but the David Livingstone Birthplace Museum has pulled it off

Time is suspended in Nicolas Poussin’s paintings of dancers who revel in the viewer’s attention

The discovery that the astrologer’s ‘scrying glass’ is made of obsidian from Mexico points to the complex global webs surrounding many Tudor objects

The spirit of innovation and manufacture lives on in the Midlands city – as a redeveloped museum on the site of the old silk mill makes clear

From street actions to art exhibitions, the organisation empowers homeless people to tell their own stories

Oxford Botanic Garden has played a vital role in the evolution of plant science since it was founded 400 years ago

Painted in around 1625, the Penitent Mary Magdalene inspired a host of copies before disappearing. Now, it has resurfaced in a private collection

Will the glittering new arts complex bring about a ‘Bilbao effect’ in the southern French city?