art and design
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Transmitting Andy Warhol review – white light and black angels in an immersive explosionReview Transmitting Andy Warhol review – white light and black angels in an immersive explosion
5 / 5 starsThe first major Andy Warhol exhibition in the north of England recreates the world of the Factory and the Exploding Plastic Inevitable – and Warhol is revealed in all his compassion and searing insight -
Zaha Hadid's Tokyo Olympic stadium slammed as a 'monumental mistake' and a 'disgrace to future generations'Oliver Wainwright: The 2020 Olympic stadium has faced two years of widespread criticism and budget cuts. Now prominent Japanese architect Arata Isozaki has launched a blistering attack on the designs -
Weegee distorts the stars: rare shots of Streisand, Monroe and more – in picturesFor these unusual images, the notorious ambulance-chaser of New York City turned his lens on stars and high-society players, then doctored the pictures in his darkroom
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Erwin Olaf’s best photograph: restaging an Otto Dix painting in modern Berlin‘I’d always wanted to shoot in Berlin. But it’s a city of stairs and I found them hell – since I’ve got emphysema’ -
Torture trilogies and octopus heads: the world's most extreme performance artists – in picturesFrom barbershop signs made out of bloodied limbs, living mummies, and possessed drag acts, photographer Manuel Vason’s new book Double Exposures captures the artists pushing the boundaries of performance art
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Photo London ‘to utterly transform the photography audience’New annual Somerset House event aims to become the best photography fair in the world
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Geoffrey Clarke obituaryInnovative sculptor of ecclesiastical art and maker of stained glass, whose star declined in the secular 60s
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Readers' assignment: iconic landscapes and cityscapes from around the worldYou’ve sent in some great assignment ideas for GuardianWitness so we’ve started a bi-weekly series based on your best suggestions
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National architecture awards celebrate diverse choice of winnersAustralia’s top architecture awards dominated by projects that provided community benefits, including a refurbished toilet block
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Tower of London poppies to be removed as planned on 12 NovemberBlood Swept Lands and Seas of Red display will close, despite political appeals
news
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National architecture awards celebrate diverse choice of winnersAustralia’s top architecture awards dominated by projects that provided community benefits, including a refurbished toilet block
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Tower of London poppies to be removed as planned on 12 NovemberBlood Swept Lands and Seas of Red display will close, despite political appeals
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Giacometti and Modigliani works help Sotheby’s make record auction salesSale of impressionist and modern art took in a total of $422.1m
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One of world’s best private collections gets public airing in Madrid galleryThe Abelló Collection on display at CentroCentro Cibeles includes pieces by Picasso, Dali, Matisse and Miro
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Tony Tuckson's abstract masterpieces left to Australian nation by his widowAs Margaret Tuckson, artist’s wife and unlikely life model for his work, bequeaths 22 paintings to galleries across Australia, David Marr remembers her
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Is the rise in graffiti complaints a return to New York's dark days or a golden age of street art?Although NYPD reports 24% increase in complaints about graffiti, proponents of street art say police and gentrifiers are resisting a growing art form
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Rubens' majesty revealed in Los Angeles as tapestries go on displayThe Triumph of the Eucharist reveals four of the artist’s tapestries and the newly restored paintings they were taken from, in a landmark exhibition
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Louise Hearman wins 2014 Moran prize, Australia’s richest portrait awardPainter’s portrait of photographer Bill Henson takes $150,000 Moran prize, which attracted more entries than the Archibald in 2014
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Fondation Cartier celebrates 30 years with portrait tribute to artistsCelebrated figures in music, film and science included in nod to treasured ‘family’ as Paris museum marks anniversary
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Italian art historian claims magnificent Caravaggio masterpiece foundMina Gregori, author of several books on the painter, says she is 100% sure she has found original Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy
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Tracey Emin’s tent rises up like a phoenix in Chapman Brothers homageDuo chooses Hastings to recreate fellow YBA’s Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995, lost in 2004 warehouse fire
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Frank Gehry gives journalist the fingerArchitect describes 98% of modern architecture as ‘pure shit’ during press conference in northern Spain
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Paul McCarthy hits back at French critics of his ‘butt plug’ sculptureUS artist stages response with Father Christmas figurines in chocolate factory at Paris Mint
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Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota tops art world’s power 100 listTate Modern gallery praised for its global approach, creating ‘an international collection that happens to be in London’
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Banksy's 'Girl with the Pierced Eardrum' vandalised in BristolBlack paint was splattered on the graffiti artist’s latest piece ‘The Girl with the Pierced Eardrum’
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Grayson Perry’s latest tapestry celebrates mongrel BritainIn show at National Portrait Gallery in London, artist has a go at defining Britishness with a diverse collection of images
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Grayson Perry vase with Chris Huhne motifs depicts ‘audacious default man’Artist’s National Portrait Gallery show, tying in with C4 series, explores British identity, including that of jailed cabinet minister
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Magnum photographer René Burri diesSwiss photographer best known for iconic portraits of Che Guevara and Picasso dies aged 81 after a long illness
• René Burri – in pictures
in pictures
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The Photographers 2014: from Marlene Dietrich to Salvador Dalí – in picturesAn exhibition by two London galleries brings together a huge range of groundbreaking photographs, showcasing the work of acclaimed photographers including Brassai, Bruce Davidson and Robert Mapplethorpe
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Josef Koudelka: the man who risked his life to photograph the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia – in picturesAfter years of taking striking photos of Gypsies, the Czech photographer stood before the tanks during the 1968 invasion. He smuggled out his images, they went round the world and he fled to Britain. Here are his most poignant and powerful shots
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Carleton Watkins' breathtaking photographs of Yosemite from 1861 – in picturesThe definitive photographer of the American west made his name with these photographs of California’s Yosemite Valley, currently on show at New York’s Met. The series inspired President Lincoln to sign a bill preserving the valley’s beauty and laying the foundations for the US National Park system
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Into the wild: readers' animal artworks – in picturesWild things roam free in this month’s Share your art project, with psychedelic wolves, whale karaoke and JMW Turner on safari in Bali
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X-ray vision: magical montages made from floppy disks and scans – in picturesArtist Nick Gentry takes rolls of vintage negatives, piles of long-discarded computer disks and old x-ray results of rib cages and lodged nails … then brings new hi-tech humans to life
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Elvis at the O2 exhibition - in picturesA series of images of Elvis Presley and some of his treasured possessions. Part of an exhibition at the O2, which starts on 12th December 2014
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Second world war British propaganda posters – in picturesA huge collection of British propaganda posters, featuring everything from Spitfires to Hitler, is to be sold at auction
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Day of the Dead - in picturesObserver photographer Antonio Olmos takes a selection of images of Mexicans dressing up for the Day of the Dead celebrations in San Andrés Mixquic and Mexico City
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Poster children: the birth of British graphic design – in picturesThe Rolling Stones lips logo is just one of many iconic designs to come out of the Royal College of Art in London. Ahead of an exhibition celebrating 50 years of their eye-popping graphics, here’s our pick of the boldest and best
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The Singh project – in picturesThe Singh Project is a photo exhibition that showcases the beauty and diversity of the two most ubiquitous symbols of Sikhism: the beard and turban. You can see it at London’s Framers Gallery from the 3 until the 15 November 2014. All photographs: Amit and Naroop
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Rastas, royals and revolution: 100 years of photography in the CaribbeanA new photography book examines culture, politics, religion and tourism in the Caribbean over the past century. Here are some of the best images
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History's unsung sidekicks – in picturesA new illustrated book champions the friends, relatives and muses who helped change history, writes Corinne Jones
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Working on a children’s book with Russell Brand – pages from Chris Riddell's sketchbookWhat the Observer political cartoonist Chris Riddell has been up to with Britain’s favourite revolutionary…
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Emily Carr at Dulwich Picture Gallery – in picturesEmily Carr captured the wild landscapes and seascapes of early 1900s British Columbia in paintings so vivid you can almost hear them
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Readers' pictures on the theme of 'coat'For this week’s photography assignment in the Observer New Review we asked you to share your photos on the theme of ‘coat’ via GuardianWitness. Here’s a selection of our favourites. Share your photos on this week’s theme: ‘close’
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The 20 photographs of the weekThe uprising in Burkina Faso, El Clásico, the continuing crisis on the Turkish-Syrian border – the best photography in news, culture and sport from around the world this week
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Original Observer photography: October 2014The awards issue of Observer Food Monthly always produces excellent photography. It has contributed to a star-studded gallery, including Nigella Lawson, Keira Knightley, Mike Leigh and Professor Brian Cox, which showcases the best photography commissioned by the Observer
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Skye Sherwin's A Good LookThe Guide’s art critic Skye Sherwin on a month in pop culture visuals, from arty nuns to astronauts
talking points
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The art world’s shame: why Britain must give its colonial booty backJonathan Jones: The self-righteousnessness of British museums stops them from returning masterpieces pillaged long ago to their rightful owners. It’s time they stopped hogging the world’s treasures
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The buildings that won the national lottery jackpot – the hits and missesIt’s been 20 years since the national lottery first began providing funding for public building in the UK. Here, Rowan Moore reflects on the legacy of a venture responsible for the Eden Project, Tate Modern – and the Millennium Dome
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Ukip, poppies and an astonishing art fraud case – the week in artJonathan Jones: The debate over the Tower of London’s poppy sculpture hots up, as northern England gets its first Andy Warhol solo show – all in your favourite weekly art roundup
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The Sistine Chapel in 3D? The Vatican must think we are all idiotsJonathan Jones: 3D ‘experiences’ cannot replace seeing Michelangelo’s wonderful art in the flesh. Does Italy just hate tourists?
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A two-headed lamb and ancient dildos: the UK's strangest new museumOliver Wainwright: Viktor Wynd’s Museum of Curiosities contains skeletons, pickled genitals, giant eggs and McDonald’s Happy Meal toys. The eccentric collector says he’s “trying to get the whole world in here”
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The Tower of London poppies are fake, trite and inward-looking – a Ukip-style memorialJonathan Jones: Four million people will flock to see the 888,246 ceramic poppies deposited in the Tower’s moat to mark Remembrance Day. It’s disturbing that, 100 years on, we can only mark this terrible war as a nationalistic tragedy
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Butt-plug scandals and Banksy vandals – the week in artVandals took centre-stage this week, with Paul McCarthy’s Tree sculpture targeted for its resemblance to a butt plug, and Banksy and Jeff Koons art spray-painted
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Hogarth's anti-progress: how the father of British painting went missing from our galleriesJonathan Jones: The scathing satirist William Hogarth put Britain’s painters on the map, but on the 250th anniversary of his death you’ll have a hard time seeing his work
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India’s Love Commandos – and the runaway couples they protectArtist Max Pinckers has tackled arranged marriage, Bollywood romance, and a team of vigilantes who protect endangered lovers in a rich and elusive photobook, writes Sean O’Hagan
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Why does the Daily Mail love to hate art?The Mail loathes Tracey Emin, the Turner prize and modern art in general. Yet it elevates puerile jokers, pranksters and gimmick-peddlers to the status of artist, writes Jonathan Jones
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China's strangest buildings, from pairs of pants to ping-pong batsChinese president Xi Jinping wants to put a stop to China’s bizarre building syndrome. Here are the most outlandish oddities that have appeared so far
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Kiruna: the town being moved 3km east so it doesn't fall into a mineOliver Wainwright: Sweden’s most northerly town is being relocated to avoid being swallowed up by the world’s largest iron-ore mine
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From Byzantine bannings to the Jeff Koons attack: the lamest art vandalism everJonathan Jones: The recent lacklustre spray-paint job on a Jeff Koons is nothing new in art ... rubbish vandals have always been with us
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Frank Gehry's Fondation Louis Vuitton shows he doesn't know when to stopFunded by the richest man in France, Gehry’s new art museum reveals the danger of big budgets, writes Oliver Wainwright
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Shocked by Paul McCarthy's butt plug? You obviously haven't seen his phallic PinocchioMcCarthy’s controversial sculpture, Tree, has been vandalised in Place Vendrome – and the artist assaulted. Why are Parisians being so prudish? This is nowhere near his scandalous best, writes Jonathan Jones
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Top of the shots: photographers’ favourite photobooksWhich photobook would the world’s best photographers grab in a fire? Nan Goldin, Martin Parr and more pick their all-time favourites. Interviews by Sean O’Hagan
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Jimmy Nail at Frieze and the great Picasso scandal – the week in artFrieze is back with Jimmy Nail-inspired art and there’s a crisis in Paris over Picasso. Plus the return of Steve McQueen, Egon Schiele’s daring nudes and haunted houses in America, writes Jonathan Jones
reviews
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Picasso's fight against fascism – and the British surrealists who followed himA new show of UK artists’ responses to the Spanish civil war is dominated by Picasso’s emotive works, but British artists also realised Spain was an ominous testing ground for future conflict, writes Jonathan Jones
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Pop to Popism review – shock and social critique, with an Australian threadA summer blockbuster exhibition reveals the role Australian art played in the most influential art movement of our time, writes Andrew Frost
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Notre Dame de Lorette international memorial review – a different perspectiveA new tribute to those who died in northern France during the first world war brings a fresh view to a land heavy with monuments, writes Rowan Moore
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From the Forest to the Sea: Emily Carr in British Columbia review – Canada’s very own Van GoghEmily Carr captured the wild landscapes of early 1900s British Columbia in paintings so vivid you can almost hear them, writes Laura Cumming
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Chris Ofili: Night and Day review – an artist speaking proudly for himselfOnce notorious for his paintings encrusted with elephant ordure, Chris Ofili has blossomed into a complex, confident artist whose best work is his most recent
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The Nakeds: artists get turned on by the body laid bareNudes by everyone from Warhol to Emin are enticing, disturbing, distorting, masturbatory but ultimately most revealing of us as viewers, writes Adrian Searle
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Artes Mundi review – chocolate heads, psychosexual drama and donkey toysWith such a vague focus on ‘the human condition’, it’s no wonder the 10 artists at the UK’s biggest art prize exhibition have conjured such a disparate show, writes Adrian Searle
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Giovanni Battista Moroni; Egon Schiele: The Radical Nude – reviewHalf of 16th-century Bergamo has turned out for Giovanni Battista Moroni’s riveting show at the Royal Academy, writes Laura Cumming
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Jake and Dinos Chapman review – a hilarious, horrifying orgy of darknessFrom copulating plastic dinosaurs to crucified Ronald McDonalds and the severed feet of God, the arch-provocateurs’ teeming macabre landscapes offer a powerful vision of modern brutality, writes Jonathan Jones
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Egon Schiele: The Radical Nude review – a feminist artist ahead of his timeThe Austrian artist’s passionate love of women is illuminated in one of the most important – and sexy – exhibitions of the year, writes Jonathan Jones
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Giovanni Battista Moroni at the Royal Academy review – quietly magical and erotically charged
Giovanni Battista Moroni at the Royal Academy review – quietly magical and erotically charged
4 / 5 starsThe little known 16th-century Italian painter loved to paint exquisite clothing and craftsmen, but it was lavish portraits of men that really inspired him, writes Jonathan Jones -
Rembrandt: The Late Works review – dark, impassioned, magnificently defiantThis astonishing show reveals Rembrandt at his most profoundly original and compassionate, writes Laura Cumming
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Anarchy & Beauty: William Morris and His Legacy, 1860-1960 review – the virtues of simplicityAs an absorbing new show reveals, William Morris’s belief that everyone should make art had a huge impact on the 20th century, writes Rachel Cooke
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Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris review – everything and the bling from Frank GehryFrank Gehry’s new art museum for Louis Vuitton needed a smaller budget, writes Rowan Moore
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Cubism at the Met review – stupefying, heart-quickening and overpoweringConsisting of a collection given to the Met by the cosmetics magnate Leonard Lauder, this is the single most important exhibition of cubism since MoMA’s Picasso/Braque show in 1989, writes Jason Farago
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Was William Morris actually just a pious bore?By presenting the artist as a hero of the left, the National Portrait Gallery’s new show utterly misses the point about his true revolutionary spirit, writes Jonathan Jones
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Garry Winogrand: the restless genius who gave street photography attitudeGarry Winogrand pounded the streets of America every day of his life photographing reluctant subjects – and he left behind 6,500 undeveloped films when he died. A powerful new retrospective makes sense of the torrent of imagery by the prolific American master, writes Sean O’Hagan
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Mirrorcity review – reflections on a relentless rush of nonsenseJonathan Jones: This art show for the digital age is a catastrophic mix of the harebrained and the talentless – and it heralds disaster for London’s artistic ambitions
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Richard Tuttle’s Turbine Hall flying machine is lovely … and forgettableThe American artist’s massive winged sculpture is beautiful to look at, but has all the depth and profundity of a Christmas garland, writes Jonathan Jones
video
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Romance Was Born: fashion duo show off new kids show - video
Fashion duo Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales – better known as Romance Was Born – discuss the NGV's new gallery show for kids
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Melbourne art trams add colour to the city's streets – slideshow
Artist Jeff Makin climbs aboard as eight decorated art trams brighten up Melbourne's streets for the second year running
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Globe Theatre awash in colour for Alternative Miss World 2014 - video
Highlights from the 13th Alternative Miss World competition held at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on London's South Bank
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'Sex toy' sculpture raises eyebrows in Paris - video
A 60-ft tall green inflatable sculpture has caused a stir among Parisians for its resemblance to a sex toy
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Go figure: Frieze art fair in numbers - video
Mega art fair Frieze London is about to swing its doors wide – but just how many kilos of coffee will the art world consume this week, and what's the biggest bargain ever bagged there? Our animation spills its secrets
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'It's a moment in thought, not a conclusion' – Turner prize 2014 nominee Duncan Campbell explains his work
Duncan Campbell was nominated for a film, It For Others, which draws on a huge library of archive footage to look at a host of complex histories: the IRA, African art, and the language of advertising. He shows how his work came together
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'Chance encounters – that's when it's interesting': Turner prize 2014 nominee Ciara Phillips explains her work
Ciara Phillips set up a workshop and invited artists to come and collaborate – the result is a series of bright screenprints, but also a sense of shared inspiration. She explains how the project came together
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'The voice belongs but the body is gone': Turner prize 2014 nominee Tris Vonna-Michell explains his work
Using the precarious analogue technology of slide projectors, paired with his own recorded voice, Tris Vonna-Michell creates poignantly fractured travelogues that have won him a Turner prize nomination. Here he explains his work in more detail
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'It's about owning images – and disorientating them': Turner prize 2014 nominee James Richards explains his work
In the first of a series following 2014's Turner prize nominees at work in their studios, James Richards talks us through his 'abstract sculpture' which takes in film, sound and photography in a disquieting whole – from sources like submerged cameras and censored Japanese library books
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'A passionate, bloody arena': 30 years of the Turner prize, from Emin's bed to Grayson's dress – video
The Turner prize, launched 30 years ago, remains a focal point for British art and all its invention, vision and public outrage. Tate director Nicholas Serota and The Guardian's art critic Jonathan Jones consider its legacy, ahead of 2014's exhibition opening this week
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Ai Weiwei's new show at Alcatraz: Lego, mental health hospitals and Edward Snowden - video
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei talks about his newest exhibition at the Alcatraz prison. Take a tour of his large scale installations using Lego, traditional kites and porcelain flowers at the famous San Francisco penitentiary
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'Anyone who lives in New York will see it 100 times a day': meet Milton Glaser, the creator of the 'I love NY' logo – video
You're probably familiar with Milton Glaser's work, even if you don't know it. The graphic artist is the man responsible for creating the ubiquitous 'I love NY' logo that adorns T-shirts, coffee cups, bags and caps across the world
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What is art for? Alain de Botton's animated guide – video
In this exclusive video for the Guardian, philosopher Alain de Botton gives his top five reasons why art is such a vital force for humanity. Are we wrong to like pretty pictures? Watch and find out
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Six-storey inflatable rubber duck sails into the Port of Los Angeles – video
A super-sized rubber duck arrives in the Californian harbour to take part in the Tall Ships Festival
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Inside 'the Cheesegrater' – architect Graham Stirk gives a guided tour of the Leadenhall building – video
From Lloyds to Leadenhall: architect Graham Stirk gives a guided tour of the tallest office skyscraper in the UK
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Robots take you on an after-dark tour of Tate Britain - video
It's not a hi-tech art heist, but a brand new way to explore art galleries by night. Design team The Workers have created four robots that will roam Tate Britain for five nights. Oliver Wainwright gets the first glimpse of the robots' eye view
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Afghan life in wartime: Bolan Market by Mark Neville – video
Mark Neville spent two months as a war artist with British troops in Afghanistan in 2011. In this silent, slow-motion film shot in Lashkar Gah from a Husky armoured vehicle, he records Afghans' reactions to the troops – some warm, some hostile
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Surf's up: dive into our digital wave machine – video
Ever wondered what a wave looks like in extreme closeup? For Waves, the artist and programmer Memo Akten has mapped the motion of the ocean in digital images. In other words, don't click if you get seasick
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Francis Bacon triptych sells for record £26.7m at London auction - video
A small-format Francis Bacon triptych of his lover George Dyer sells for £26.7m at a London auction
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Shot by their own side: Chloe Dewe Mathews on her photographic journey to first world war execution sites – video
Visiting the sites at which British, French and Belgian troops were executed for cowardice and desertion during the first world war, Chloe Dewe Mathews pointed her camera in the same direction that the firing squads aimed their rifles. In this short film, she explains the sombre history and mood of the resulting landscape shots
