‘I’m used to doing the impossible’: George Lucas unveils new LA museum – what’s its story?
Spaceship-shaped gallery, featuring works from Banksy, Norman Rockwell and Frida Kahlo, is devoted to ‘visual storytelling’ – and...
Art
News about visual arts, exhibitions, painting, sculpture, photography, and artistic expressions.
The must-see Bayeux masterpiece, Colombia’s chronicler and a Manchester odyssey – the week in art
Exhibition of the week The Bayeux tapestryBlood and thunder, friendship and betrayal, marginal monsters and raw sex – all human...
Margaret Preston: Australia’s most beloved and contested artist?
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia has staged the first Preston retrospective in 20 years, exploring what was gained and...
The Bayeux Tapestry: a stupefying, thrilling, horrifying masterpiece that shakes the earth
British Museum, London The greatest battle ever depicted in art is here at last – and it hurtles along, making your heart pound...
Down by the Hudson – ode to a New York swimming creek – in pictures
For more than a decade Caleb Stein has been photographing a communal swimming creek in Poughkeepsie, New York. Returning every...
Public given rare access as Thomas More painting goes under microscope
A spectacular, internationally important painting of Thomas More and his family is to have its secrets explored as the public...
‘My work has always been serious’: Maurizio Cattelan on his $6m banana, his gold toilet – and bringing Hitler and a pope to Berlin
He is famed for creating a golden loo that was stolen and a $6m banana that was eaten. But, says the sculptor ahead of a major new show in Germany,...
Celebrity impersonators fill the frame in DEEPFAKE: what does it mean to be seen? – in pictures
Cybele Malinowski has spent 20 years photographing the icons of contemporary culture. Shot over two years in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, DEEPFAKE is...
Joey Ramone smiling! And having fun! At the beach! Roberta Bayley’s best photograph
‘Joey didn’t surf. And he didn’t like this photo. He said, “You made my legs look thin.” Like it was my fault he had skinny legs’ The first band I...
Freelancers are getting buried with ‘soulless’ AI slop cleanup: ‘It’s a shame we need to do it’
As more companies turn to AI, they’re hiring freelancers to cleanup its mistakes rather than create original work Lisa, a freelance graphic designer...
HRH Helch: the graffiti artist who left an indelible mark on high-rise Britain
He upset Queen Elizabeth II, defied the developers and had to scrap for every inch of graffiti space in a gentrified, urban landscape • Prolific UK...
Meet the magical creatures inspired by shamanism, folklore … and an old Ikea bag
Woo Jin Joo’s studio is full of magic. Ceramic green goblin feet line the windowsill, disembodied furry legs jut out of one white wall and, on the...
‘She inspired my proposal’: Readers on Yayoi Kusama
‘She inspired my proposal … and our wedding day’ I have always loved Yayoi Kusama’s work, and when I visited an exhibition of hers on a gap year in...
Prolific UK graffiti artist Helch dies
The street artist Helch, known for murals and tags across England, has died, his gallery has said. He rose to prominence in 2018 by painting his...
Scaring monkeys? Detecting bedbugs? Meet the elite working dogs – in pictures
John Fabiano has travelled the globe photographing dogs with jobs – from Italian truffle sniffers and Greenlandic sled dogs to Perla the hotel...
The best art and architecture of autumn 2026
The Bayeux tapestry The most anticipated exhibition of the year centres on an embroidered epic of war and conquest that miraculously preserves an...
The American painting that sparked an Australian culture war - podcast
When Jackson Pollock painted Blue Poles, his masterpiece of American abstract expressionism, little did he know it would become one of Australia’s...
Messina mystery: theft of Renaissance art from Sicilian museum leaves investigators baffled
At about 8.47pm on the evening of 15 August, while tens of thousands of worshippers filled the streets of central Messina for a religious festival,...
Big things and pink poodles: Frida Las Vegas’s tour of Australian kitsch – in pictures
Stavroula Adameitis, AKA Frida Las Vegas, is an Adelaide-based artist and designer known for her camp, pop art aesthetic. A typical work might...
The showgirl sisterhood: five former variety stars look back at their wild careers – in pictures
I hear the Golden Girls of Eastbourne before I see them – hooting laughter leaking out of a house in the East Sussex seaside town. Inside, I find...
‘The angle of the dog, the hat and the tattoo on her foot all come together’: Trace Meek’s best phone picture
A family day in a Florida back yard was the setting for a summertime memory it would be impossible to recreate Trace Meek is abundantly proud of his...
The week around the world in 20 pictures
The Nepal-Tibet flood disaster, Russian strikes in Kyiv, Israeli settlers in the West Bank and tributes to Dolly Parton – the past seven days as...
The Guardian view on the loan of the Bayeux tapestry: a manifestation of soft power | Editorial
The British Museum’s landmark cultural exchange is a symbol of post-Brexit rapprochement between Britain and France “Harold Rex interfectus est”:...
Artist defends Ronnie O’Sullivan mural in Sheffield saying it isn’t finished
A street artist has defended his mural of the snooker player Ronnie O’Sullivan in Sheffield after critics suggested the world champion looked like a...
‘More bodyguards than Frank Sinatra’: When Blue Poles first toured, it was met with street protests. Now it’s crossing Australia
Moving Blue Poles is never straightforward. At more than 2m high and nearly 5m long, the legendary Jackson Pollock painting has almost always been...
A gallery glow up, spooky sculpture and a magical modern – the week in art
Exhibition of the week Victory Over the SunA Russian futurist spectacle from 1913 gives this grand survey of light art its title. Luminous works by...
Marty Gleeson: Dog Ear review – hangdog standup with an unexpected request for Santa
Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Even one of her own bugs takes the mic as the wild card comedian delivers these disconnected bits There’s an excellent...
Thieves steal bronze age Treasure of Villena in four-minute heist
Thieves have stolen the Treasure of Villena – one of the greatest bronze age gold collections – in the latest high-profile heist of a European...
Yayoi Kusama’s psychedelic art was at its best when taken in high doses
With dots that dizzied the viewer, the giddy sensory overload of seeing the grandest installations of her octopuses and giant pumpkins was hard to...
Share your tributes and memories of Yayoi Kusama
Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese outsider artist who became a global superstar, has died aged 97. Kusama died in a Tokyo hospital on 14 August, her company...
‘The technique was revolutionary’: Ha Chong-Hyun, the 91-year-old South Korean artist who turned painting inside out
In his trailblazing work, paint is pushed through the back of hemp to create spare, striking paintings. Abstraction is a form of rebellion, he says –...
‘I am so tired’: Jill Edelstein’s devastating portraits of apartheid and more – in pictures
The South African photographer documented her country’s harrowing Truth and Reconciliation Commission. These pictures form part of a new exhibition –...
The Nazis drove Bauhaus out of town. Now the far right is waging another war against the movement
The city of Dessau, where the Bauhaus design school flourished a century ago, catapulted Germany into the modern era and revolutionised global...
Yayoi Kusama, Japanese artist who became a global superstar, dies aged 97
Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese outsider artist who reached superstar status after decades living in a psychiatric hospital, has died aged 97. Kusama died...
A Ugandan quarry worker carrying rocks on her head: Dan Nelken’s best photograph
‘Janet had eight children. Her husband drove a boda-boda taxi, but had lost a leg – so she had been working in her local quarry for 10 years. “I am...
‘An act of resistance’: Baltimore’s holdout homes – in pictures
Ben Marcin’s stunning photographs show lone houses, derelict homes and makeshift camps that stand as epitaphs to past lives and offer insight into...
‘The whole world is becoming rightwing and anti-gay’: William Yang on 60 years of capturing LGBTQ+ life
As a young adult, William Yang discovered that his family’s story was actually a murder mystery. His uncle, William Fang Yuen, was killed by an...
The cat that fought Mussolini: how the Wulz photography sisters weaponised the family pet
Wanda and Marion Wulz defied the unbridled patriarchy of fascist Italy by shooting dancers, fencers and other famous women – as well as their cat...
Artist known for sculptures of Mao Zedong jailed for slandering ‘heroes and martyrs’
Gao Zhen, a prominent Chinese artist known for provocative sculptures of the former leader Mao Zedong, has been sentenced to three years in prison...
Climate-saving wonder – or €240m vanity bauble that ages like milk? The rocks set to hit Rotterdam docks
MVRDV – the firm behind Marble Arch Mound – says Rotterdam ROCKS! will inspire visitors to live sustainably. But in an era when the greenest building...
‘My way to escape reality’: LensCulture street photography awards 2026 winners – in pictures
From pre-dawn Vietnam to cats scaling walls, the scenes in these prize-winning photographs show how the everyday can become mysterious, poetic and...
Freddie Mercury’s ‘splendid things’ to go on display at V&A
Eight famous costumes worn by Freddie Mercury, including the outfit featured on the cover of Queen’s debut album and the catsuit from the video for...
