Features

The early Olympic games of the modern era set out to celebrate both ‘muscle and mind’ – which meant that artists were in the mix for medals

The former stock exchange building in Paris has been filled with blue-chip art from the French billionaire’s collection

Sport nowhere for most of last year – and now sport everywhere. But there is some passable sport art out there, we promise…

It’s the aquatic cousin to metal detecting – and an increasing number of devotees are casting off into rivers and canals in search of trash and treasure

Every 18 year old in France has been given €300 to spend on culture

Museums might be better at bringing the contents of grand historic piles to life than the houses themselves

The British artist’s scope and influence have long been neglected – but at the centenary of his birth, will a pair of exhibitions turn the tide?

Works produced in prison by the artist Fatos Irwen speak to the increasingly repressive climate for Kurds in Turkey

The visual arts have often toyed with odours and smells, however challenging they are to represent

The much-loved author cut his teeth on illustrations for medical ad campaigns – which proved ideal training for the world of children’s books

Modern masters from Joseph Cornell to Paul Klee have produced works expressly for children, writes Ben Street – but perhaps all great art is a type of child’s play?

The Palazzo Vendramin Grimani has opened with a display that reunites some of the paintings it was once home to – plus a helping of contemporary art

An early commission by the painter for a public theatre in Rijeka is the subject of a major display in the city this summer

Toys aren’t just for children, at least if a 250-year-old musical elephant at the grandest house in Buckinghamshire is anything to go by

Archie Brennan was a committed craftsman with a fondness for optical illusions and a strong idealistic streak

As the last rulers of pre-Islamic Iran, the Sasanians crafted a grand courtly culture that would go on to influence kings from the Balkans to Bengal

The painter’s tender portraits of slum life are being celebrated across Scotland in her centenary year 

Heir to a railway fortune and an 8,000-acre estate in West Sussex, Edward James transformed his homes into total works of art – with a little help from Dalí and friends

Tintoretto’s daughter was a highly acclaimed artist in her own right, but there is frustratingly little to go on when it comes to identifying her paintings

With their miniature artistry and enigmatic personal histories, these striking prints are often more enticing than the volumes they’re found in