Rakewell

Coronation Street joins the northern renaissance

A Coronation Street character is heading to art school. What's next, the Turner Prize?

The Rake’s progress: last week in gossip

Victoria Beckham gets the Venus de Milo treatment; what Dubya's family think of his painting; and the Pont des Arts minus the padlocks

The Rake’s progress: last week in gossip

Sainsbury's bid to employ an artist (for free); love in the Tate Modern carpark; and Fearne Cotton's art for the apiarists

Gun sculpture silenced in trigger-happy Texas

A university museum in Houston has removed a revolver from an artwork critical of Texan gun culture – and Rakewell is baffled by the decision

The Rake’s progress: last week in gossip

The high-school pottery that fooled an antiques expert, Darth Vader hits the museums, and an artist who has removed his nipples in, erm, the name of art

Pills, thrills and (musical) bellyaches: lunch, the Damien Hirst way

Rakewell enjoys lunches Damien Hirst's new Pharmacy 2 restaurant – if only the waiters would provide earplugs to drown out the '90s soundtrack

The Rake’s progress: last week in gossip

Art slides and crazy golf in London, and Giacometti's Jezza phase

William and Kate’s taste for the Old Masters

The Rake’s progress: last week in gossip

Italian scientists claim art is a stress buster, while the staff of a London gallery have been told to put their feet up. Rakewell has his doubts...

The spirit of the Renaissance, via YouTube

Has Tate Modern secretly switched directors?

The Rake’s progress: last week in gossip

The garden bridge gets hijacked on Twitter. Plus, how Damien Hirst like his fish cooked (clue: he's fussy)

Found in Florence! The lost tribe of Leonardo

Rakewell likes nothing better than a good bit of amateur genealogy

Mrs Thatcher’s missing handbag and the case of the disappearing duck

Rakewell ponders two statues in London that have come in for criticism because they are missing vital accessories

The Rake’s progress: last week in gossip

David Shrigley's foam hands, Olafur Eliasson's shaky economics and a chance to buy Andy Warhol's studio

Pencils, irons and used underwear: the world’s wackiest museums

Whatever your thing, says Rakewell, there's a museum for you out there somewhere

The museum pratfalls of London’s mayoral candidates (yep, Zac AND Sadiq)

Neither Zac Goldsmith nor Sadiq Khan seem to know a thing about the capital's museums

The Rake’s progress: last week in gossip

How Brazilian fowl play has left a Dutch artist spitting feathers

Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman claims that Brazilian protesters have plagiarised his inflatable rubber duck.

Top artists are narcissists. It’s official (sort of)

An academic paper claims you can tell an artist's vanity by the size of their signature. Well, maybe.

Dr Who isn’t the only art-historical lookalike out there – here are four more of the best

Rakewell picks out his favourite lookalikes in historical paintings, from David Cameron to Sylvester Stallone

When politicians paint over their mistakes

Iain Duncan Smith once said that oil painting was like politics – because you could easily paint over your mistakes. Rakewell picks out a few politicians who have done just that

The Rake’s progress: last week in gossip

Why has Arsène Wenger slipped in to artspeak? Plus a dog that can paint and more yet more art pouting from Kanye West