An insider account by a former head of Sotheby’s in the UK recounts how London’s post-war art market took off in the 1950s and has kept on reinventing itself
The making of rag rugs has never been considered high art, but an exhibition in Middlesborough shows just how intricate and inventive they can be
The ideas and images of the artists who unleashed their unconscious on the world a century ago are now part of the fabric of everyday life
The architect’s pioneering modernist buildings have outlasted critics and changing trends, as a monumental new biography makes clear
From explosions of chintz to thrusting postmodern architecture, the sets for Jilly Cooper’s bonkbuster leave us in no doubt we’re watching a 1980s period drama
A stimulating show at Alison Jacques perfectly captures the sculptor’s ability to combine familiar materials in unexpected ways
Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines turned their backs on the London art world to create an art school with an outsize legacy
The mosaic artist’s celebration of El Barrio combines influences including African clothing to Latin jazz to create something wonderfully new
The artists’ eerie prints have much in common, but this pairing at the Holburne Museum is something of a missed opportunity
It suits us to think of the movement as unpopular, but the passing of time makes it harder to see why the first Impressionist Exhibition of 1874 made such a stir
The German painter died tragically young, but in the course of her short life she became the artist she always wanted to be
The New-York Historical Society weaves together personal and social histories by assembling all manner of garments, from workwear to rebelwear
Printing is found throughout art history – and often in the places you least expect it, as Jennifer L. Roberts demonstrates in her highly original new book
A play about Harry Beck, creator of London Underground map we still use today, shows just how tricky it was to land on the perfect design
An exhibition of photographs, posters and protest objects shows the absurd side of the Cold War as well as the terror
The National Gallery has pulled off a seemingly impossible feat – to allow us to experience the intensity of the artist’s vision as if for the first time
The four nominees for the prize in its 40th year all fold forms of biography into their art – with mixed success
Spanning several continents and 13,000 years of graphic art, Susan Owens’s new book outlines the many reasons why artists have always been drawn to drawing
Sarah Purser’s reputation faded after her death, but an exhibition at the Hugh Lane in Dublin is putting her back in the frame
The British Surrealist’s colourful account of a long and eventful career is back in print, and her deep commitment to her work couldn’t be clearer
The artist has made a series of works that stand up to the space – and are attention-grabbing in their own right
In 18th-century France, an emerging consumer society created a new kind of buyer and encouraged artists to look to the short-term
The Scottish painter’s openness to developments in modern art led him to adopt a remarkable number of styles in the course of a long career
The artist did his best to destroy any traces of his work as a designer, but the little that survives offers new perspectives on his art
