From a caper about the pensioner who swiped a Goya to the memoir of a curator who came in from the cold – the must-see movies and a first reading list for art lovers
The novelist Maaza Mengiste talks to Sophie Barling about the three works of art that mean the most to her – and how she sees every image as a self-portrait
Plus: Iwona Blazwick to step down as director of Whitechapel Gallery, and more of the week’s top stories
The ambitious post-war planning programme was an extraordinary achievement – and one that is ripe for reassessment
Burials uncovered in East Kazakhstan have revealed the nomadic Saka to be as skilled in gold-working as they were in horsemanship and war
Rachel Cohen spends some quality time with a series of installations and exhibitions by MacArthur Award-winners set throughout the city
The new-look Musée de Cluny and the Burrell Collection reopen, while there are also treats in store for fans of Bob Dylan and Serge Gainsbourg
The museum in Seoul is dedicated to the Joseon dynasty who ruled for more than 500 years, but also contains reminders of Korea’s turbulent 20th-century history
The year ahead brings significant anniversaries and, consequently, blockbuster exhibitions for Lucian Freud, Piet Mondrian and Rosa Bonheur
When John Tenniel drew the grumpy Gryphon in ‘Alice's Adventures in Wonderland’, he may have had a real heraldic monster in mind
Christianity, Judaism and Islam shared a visual language on the Iberian peninsula – but it was a fragile balance at the best of times
The photographer recorded life in New York for 70 years without receiving the same acclaim as her male contemporaries, but that seems to be changing
The journalist and author Charlotte Higgins talks to Sophie Barling about the three works of art that mean the most to her
The architect who created some of the most memorable buildings of the last century and was a major influence on urban policy in Britain has died at the age of 88
Plus: TEFAF and Salon du Dessin have been postponed, bell hooks (1952–2021), and more of the week’s top stories
Like many of the most notorious trials of modern times, Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial has been summed up by a skilful courtroom sketch artist
The German director brought fairy tales to gorgeous, animated life with her silhouette films – the earliest of which is as remarkable now as it was in 1926
US museums have long relied on wealthy individuals, but the sources of some of that wealth makes this increasingly untenable
Max Norman visits the very peculiar home of an eccentric count who tried to derive electricity from vegetables
The Lahore-born painter keeps his spacious New York studio scrupulously clean and tidy – but he’ll never sleep in it again, all the same
When it came to painting the industrial north-west, Stockport-born Alan Lowndes could hold his own
The artist’s commercial cat illustrations were hugely popular in his lifetime, but his series of psychedelic kitties have attracted rather more serious attention
The designer’s favourite museum is the Wallace Collection, so it’s no wonder her clothes are full of flourishes from Watteau, Boucher and Fragonard
In the course of her adventures in abstraction, the artist seemed determined to test herself in every available medium
