Art and design, photography and architecture

A Christmas gif for you Off the wall: Jeremy Deller brings William Morris back to life

Deller has turned back time with this magical piece of Victoriana – a mashup of the 33 stages it would take to make a roll of William Morris wallpaper
Bang bang: Judy Chicago wishes you an explosive (and naked) happy holidays

Jake and Dinos Chapman: 'What Christmas looks like when you're dying'
- Bang bang: Judy Chicago wishes you an explosive (and naked) happy holidays
- Jake and Dinos Chapman: 'What Christmas looks like when you're dying'
Off the wall: Jeremy Deller brings William Morris back to life
Jasper Doest’s best photograph: a Japanese snow monkey in Hell Alley

‘To show macaques in a new light, I spent a month and a half in Japan’s Hell Alley. This monkey looks like he’s floating through space on a magic carpet’

Jasper Doest’s best photograph: a Japanese snow monkey in Hell Alley
Monk cocktails and a blitzed Santa Christmas in the 40s and 50s

Santa on a bomb site, smokes on Christmas Street, and the RAF pulling a cracker ... every year, the Picture Post kicked off the festive season with a yuletide photoessay. Here are some classics from their vaults

Christmas in the 40s and 50s

Review Olafur Eliasson conjures a delightful grotto of lights and wonder in Paris
5 / 5 stars

The alchemist of the art world effortlessly transports us into the sublime, writes Jonathan Jones

Olafur Eliasson conjures a delightful grotto of lights and wonder in Paris
Arlene Gottfried's humorous eye for New York City's eccentricity

She’s a photographer and gospel singer who captured a bygone New York and whose brother is a successful comic. Yet it’s only now that Arlene Gottfried is getting her dues

Arlene Gottfried's humorous eye for New York City's eccentricity
Rowan Moore’s top 10 exhibitions of 2014

Parking lots in Los Angeles, Dada collages and 1960s visions of future living – Rowan Moore picks his favourite shows of the year
Sean O’Hagan’s top 10 photography exhibitions of 2014
- Sean O’Hagan’s top 10 photography exhibitions of 2014
Rowan Moore’s top 10 exhibitions of 2014
Renzo Martens The artist who wants to gentrify the jungle

Eastern Congo is one of the poorest parts of the planet – which is why its plantations really need an art gallery, the artist tells Stuart Jeffries

The artist who wants to gentrify the jungle

Tate Archive puts thousand of artists’ artifacts online

52,000 letters, photographs and sketchbooks belonging to great 20th-century British artists to be made available on internet

Tate Archive puts thousand of artists’ artifacts online
Flash forward Gjon Mili's amazing stroboscopic photographs

Alfred Hitchcock clowning on set, Sammy Davis Jr jiving in Porgy and Bess and ping-pong players and javelin throwers in action ... the great experimenter Gjon Mili created these cutting-edge images in the 40s using a new type of flash

Gjon Mili's amazing stroboscopic photographs
Phil Stern The photographer who humanised Hollywood

The former war photographer used his charm to gain access to stars like James Dean and Frank Sinatra, then take shots that revealed the reality beneath the image

The photographer who humanised Hollywood
Sean O’Hagan’s top 10 photography exhibitions of 2014

Monks surfing on sharks, Hollywood hustlers, portraits of black Victorians and imperilled American landscapes ... Sean O’Hagan selects his favourite shows of the year

Sean O’Hagan’s top 10 photography exhibitions of 2014
James Turrell: I can make the sky any colour you choose

Using only light, the American artist has lifted the ceiling off the traditional gallery and taken experiential art to surreal – even volcanic – new heights

James Turrell: I can make the sky any colour you choose
Queen of the fairies Kirsty Mitchell's rainbow wonderlands – in pictures

Photographer Kirsty Mitchell has spent five years dreaming up fantastical scenes that look straight out of fairytales for her project Wonderland. Here are the most magical, from an origami armada to a cloak of autumn leaves

Kirsty Mitchell's rainbow wonderlands – in pictures
All mini cons A peek inside the history of the doll's house

From stately homes with plumbed-in baths to council houses and high-rises, the story of Britain can be told through 300 years of doll's houses. Oliver Wainwright gets a giant’s eye view of Small Stories

A peek inside the history of the doll's house
That’s me in the picture Dean Cook on his starring role in the Yellow Pages Christmas campaign, 1992

‘I got a bit of positive attention from the girls at school. I kept a bit of mistletoe in my back pocket that year’

Dean Cook on his starring role in the Yellow Pages Christmas campaign, 1992
Laura Cumming’s top 10 art shows of 2014

All human life was on show at the staggering Late Rembrandt exhibition, and there were revelatory works elsewhere by Ai Weiwei, Mondrian, Matisse and Malevich

Laura Cumming’s top 10 art shows of 2014
50 years of gentrification Will all our cities turn into 'deathly' Canberra?

The drive to make cities more ‘liveable’ means parks, plazas and happy pedestrians. But the reality is ever more sterile, identikit cities where public space isn’t public at all

Will all our cities turn into 'deathly' Canberra?
British Museum right to loan Parthenon marbles to Russia, says minister

Sajid Javid defends decision to let sculptures go to Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, saying culture is bigger than politics

British Museum right to loan Parthenon marbles to Russia, says minister
Review Second Home review: a good day at the office

This elegant curated workspace for ‘creative nomads’ by SelgasCano stops just the right side of kitsch

Second Home review: a good day at the office
Beautiful dark twisted fantasies The world's most ancient trees

From 4,000-year-old pines in California to Welsh yews carved into pulpits, photographer Beth Moon has spent 14 years travelling the globe in search of exquisite trees

The world's most ancient trees
The $6.5m canyon It's the most expensive photograph ever – but it's like a hackneyed poster in a posh hotel

Peter Lik’s hollow, cliched and tasteless black and white shot of an Arizona canyon isn’t art – and proves that photography never will be

It's the most expensive photograph ever – but it's like a hackneyed poster in a posh hotel
Jockum Nordström's art Sex, secrets and shame in an age of innocence

From the figures who smoke pipes and wear frock coats to the couples that copulate behind closed doors, Nordström’s prurient pictures belong to an old-fashioned age. Adrian Searle peeps through the keyhole

Sex, secrets and shame in an age of innocence
Beyond Man Ray Essential avant-garde photography – in pictures

A treasure trove from the ultimate age of experimentation – between the world wars – shows a man mid-parachute jump, a woman clutching her Leica, and limbs dismantling before your very eyes

Essential avant-garde photography – in pictures
Thieves walk out of Madrid gallery with 70 paintings

Theft from Puerta de Alcalá art gallery happened overnight, with perpetrators apparently propping their haul against trees before loading it into a van

Thieves walk out of Madrid gallery with 70 paintings
China’s wild west: photographing a vanishing way of life

For her book Wild Pigeon, Carolyn Drake spent seven years exploring a mysterious, isolated region 2,000 miles west of Beijing – then asked the persecuted Uyghur locals to graffiti over the shots she took

China’s wild west: photographing a vanishing way of life
Museum honours Christina Broom – pioneer of news photography

One of Britain’s first press photographers, Broom sold prints as postcards in early 1900s before taking pictures for Fleet Street

Museum honours Christina Broom – pioneer of news photography
Goya’s ‘witches and old women’ drawings to be reunited at Courtauld

Funny, rude and macabre works by Spanish artist will feature in new exhibition at Courtauld Gallery in London

Goya’s ‘witches and old women’ drawings to be reunited at Courtauld
Fast and furious California's first rollergirls and skateboarders – in pictures

Take a ride back in time to the dawn of rollerskating and skateboarding, with police run-ins, boardwalk love-ins and stratospheric stunts

California's first rollergirls and skateboarders – in pictures
Adrian Searle's top 10 art shows of 2014

Richard Serra defied gravity and Camille Henrot set loose a mechanical snake. But Matisse proved a cut above

Adrian Searle's top 10 art shows of 2014
Somerset House to celebrate beards in new exhibition

Series of 80 photographic works of people sporting impressive and interesting facial hair will go on display next year

Somerset House to celebrate beards in new exhibition
Christmas and contemporary art? Like chalk and blue cheese

The Yuletide spirit makes today’s art look brittle, cold and unseasonal – it’s time to set aside good taste and embrace the kitsch

Christmas and contemporary art? Like chalk and blue cheese
Forced to ride Child jockeys in Indonesia – in pictures

Children as young as five risk death as they hurtle around racetracks at speeds of up to 50mph. Photographer Romi Perbawa enters their world

Child jockeys in Indonesia – in pictures
Hadid and Japanese at loggerheads over ‘turtle-like’ Olympic stadium

London-based architect brands critics of controversial design for Tokyo 2020 Games as hypocrites

Hadid and Japanese at loggerheads over ‘turtle-like’ Olympic stadium
The daffodil code Doubts revived over Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks in London

Experts say London version of painter’s Madonna masterpiece has fake flowers and ‘misses the point geologically'

Doubts revived over Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks in London
Cathy Henderson obituary

Other lives: Artist who co-designed the 1913 Lockout Tapestry, which commemorated the Dublin battle for workers’ rights

Cathy Henderson obituary
Bungaree, the first Australian: history revisited in Aboriginal art today

The man who witnessed the First Fleet sailing through Sydney harbour in 1788 has inspired 16 contemporary Indigenous artists to re-interpret his response

Bungaree, the first Australian: history revisited in Aboriginal art today
Phil Stern, Hollywood photographer – in pictures

Phil Stern, who died on Sunday at the age of 95, liked to call himself a ‘humble paparazzo’

Phil Stern, Hollywood photographer – in pictures

Tate Archive puts thousand of artists’ artifacts online

52,000 letters, photographs and sketchbooks belonging to great 20th-century British artists to be made available on internet

Tate Archive puts thousand of artists’ artifacts online
- British Museum right to loan Parthenon marbles to Russia, says minister
  
  Sajid Javid defends decision to let sculptures go to Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, saying culture is bigger than politics
  
  British Museum right to loan Parthenon marbles to Russia, says minister
- Thieves walk out of Madrid gallery with 70 paintings
  
  Theft from Puerta de Alcalá art gallery happened overnight, with perpetrators apparently propping their haul against trees before loading it into a van
  
  Thieves walk out of Madrid gallery with 70 paintings
- Goya’s ‘witches and old women’ drawings to be reunited at Courtauld
  
  Funny, rude and macabre works by Spanish artist will feature in new exhibition at Courtauld Gallery in London
  
  Goya’s ‘witches and old women’ drawings to be reunited at Courtauld

Museum honours Christina Broom – pioneer of news photography

One of Britain’s first press photographers, Broom sold prints as postcards in early 1900s before taking pictures for Fleet Street

Museum honours Christina Broom – pioneer of news photography
The $6.5m canyon: it's the most expensive photograph ever – but it's like a hackneyed poster in a posh hotel

Jonathan Jones: Peter Lik’s hollow, cliched and tasteless black and white shot of an Arizona canyon isn’t art – and proves that photography never will be

The $6.5m canyon: it's the most expensive photograph ever – but it's like a hackneyed poster in a posh hotel
The daffodil code: doubts revived over Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks in London

Experts say London version of painter’s Madonna masterpiece has fake flowers and ‘misses the point geologically’, writes Dalya Alberge

The daffodil code: doubts revived over Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks in London
Hannah Rothschild to become first woman to chair National Gallery

Documentary maker and writer vows to ensure the National Gallery remains internationally respected and challenging

Hannah Rothschild to become first woman to chair National Gallery
UK export ban on Jan Brueghel the Elder Garden of Eden painting

British buyer sought for 17th-century work Garden of Eden With the Fall of Man, judged to be of outstanding aesthetic importance

UK export ban on Jan Brueghel the Elder Garden of Eden painting
Prada brings artistic spirit into Milan’s industrial centre

Former distillery to become city’s newest and largest gallery of contemporary art

Prada brings artistic spirit into Milan’s industrial centre
Parthenon marbles: Greece furious over British loan to Russia

Greek prime minister says loan of statue from pillaged frieze puts end to British Museum argument that disputed antiquities are immovable

Parthenon marbles: Greece furious over British loan to Russia
Parthenon marbles loaned to Russian museum

Headless statue of a Greek god Ilissos goes on display in the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg

Parthenon marbles loaned to Russian museum
Serpentine pavilion 2015 to be built by Spanish subversives Selgas Cano

The Spanish architects, who specialise in semi-submerged builds in harmony with their natural surroundings, promise an ‘experimental’ pavilion that will ‘embrace the garden’

Serpentine pavilion 2015 to be built by Spanish subversives Selgas Cano
Turner masterpiece sells for £30.3m, setting world auction record for artist

Rome, From Mount Aventine was one of the last great works in private hands and remains in exceptional condition

Turner masterpiece sells for £30.3m, setting world auction record for artist
Andy Warhol and William Morris face off in Oxford exhibition

Artist Jeremy Deller draws direct links between two of his artistic heroes

Andy Warhol and William Morris face off in Oxford exhibition
Thames 'private' garden bridge could cost £3.5m a year in public money

The controversial bridge scheme has now been passed by Westminster Council despite vociferous opposition, writes Oliver Wainwright

Thames 'private' garden bridge could cost £3.5m a year in public money
Russian bathers and LGBT South Africans on Deutsche Börse photography prize 2015 shortlist

Zanele Muholi’s portraits of post-apartheid sexuality join Nikolay Bakharev’s shots of swimmers in an eclectic, political selection

Russian bathers and LGBT South Africans on Deutsche Börse photography prize 2015 shortlist
UK museums receive £45m of art in inheritance-tax windfall

Works by Van Gogh and Constable among treasure trove of paintings, books and sculptures accepted by government in lieu of tax

UK museums receive £45m of art in inheritance-tax windfall
Ian Fairweather's Drunken Buddha paintings reunited at Tarrawarra

Queensland artist survived prisoner of war camp, near drowning and arrest to become one of Australian art’s most influential figures, writes Fiona Gruber

Ian Fairweather's Drunken Buddha paintings reunited at Tarrawarra
Turner prize 2014: Duncan Campbell wins Britain’s prestigious art award

Irish favourite takes prize for ‘essay film’ It for Others, which uses dance, the IRA and Marxism to explore the value of art

Turner prize 2014: Duncan Campbell wins Britain’s prestigious art award

Phil Stern, Hollywood photographer – in pictures

Phil Stern, who died on Sunday at the age of 95, liked to call himself a ‘humble paparazzo’

Phil Stern, Hollywood photographer – in pictures
- Flash forward: Gjon Mili's amazing stroboscopic photographs – in pictures
  
  Alfred Hitchcock clowning on set, Sammy Davis Jr jiving in Porgy and Bess and ping-pong players and javelin throwers in action ... the great experimenter Gjon Mili created these cutting-edge images in the 40s using a new flash invented by MIT professor Dr Harold Edgerton
  
  Flash forward: Gjon Mili's amazing stroboscopic photographs – in pictures
- Queen of the fairies: Kirsty Mitchell's rainbow wonderlands – in pictures
  
  Photographer Kirsty Mitchell has spent five years dreaming up fantastical scenes that look straight out of fairytales for her project Wonderland. Here are the most magical, from an origami armada to a cloak of autumn leaves
  
  Queen of the fairies: Kirsty Mitchell's rainbow wonderlands – in pictures
- Towers of strength: readers' photos on the theme of 'strong'
  
  For last week’s photography assignment in the Observer we asked you to share your photos on the theme of ‘strong’ via GuardianWitness. Here’s a selection of our favourites
  
  Towers of strength: readers' photos on the theme of 'strong'
- The 20 photographs of the week
  
  The cleared democracy protests in Hong Kong, the reaction to the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner in the US, the aftermath of typhoon Hagupit, the ongoing civil war in Syria – the best photography in news, culture and sport from around the world this week
  
  The 20 photographs of the week

Beautiful dark twisted fantasies: the world's most ancient trees – in pictures

From 4,000-year-old pines in California to Welsh yews carved into pulpits, photographer Beth Moon has spent 14 years travelling the globe in search of exquisite trees

Beautiful dark twisted fantasies: the world's most ancient trees – in pictures
Beyond Man Ray: essential avant-garde photography – in pictures

A treasure trove from the ultimate age of experimentation – between the world wars – shows a man mid-parachute jump, a woman clutching her Leica, and limbs dismantling before your very eyes

Beyond Man Ray: essential avant-garde photography – in pictures
Fast and furious: California's first rollergirls and skateboarders – in pictures

Take a ride back in time to the dawn of rollerskating and skateboarding, with police run-ins, boardwalk love-ins and stratospheric stunts

Fast and furious: California's first rollergirls and skateboarders – in pictures
Beard exhibition at Somerset House – in pictures

A series of 80 photographic works of people sporting impressive and interesting facial hair will go on display in London in early 2015

Beard exhibition at Somerset House – in pictures
The Art of Building 2014 competition – in pictures

From a flaming brick kiln in India to a rare look inside the futuristic new Metro in Amsterdam, here are the finalists for the Art of Building 2014 photography competition

The Art of Building 2014 competition – in pictures
Forced to ride: child jockeys in Indonesia – in pictures

Children as young as five risk death as they hurtle around racetracks at speeds of up to 50mph. Photographer Romi Perbawa enters their world

Forced to ride: child jockeys in Indonesia – in pictures
Photographer of the year – 2014 shortlist: child wrestlers, uprisings and performing poodles

Covering everything from world conflict and repressive regimes to erupting volcanoes, chugging trains and children’s camps in North Korea, here are the Guardian’s agency photographers of the year

Photographer of the year – 2014 shortlist: child wrestlers, uprisings and performing poodles
RHS photographer of the year – in pictures

The Royal Horticultural Society’s Photographer of the Year competition winner and runners up

RHS photographer of the year – in pictures
Look into my vortex: the astonishing experimental photography of Alvin Langdon Coburn

An accomplished photographer by the age of eight, this Bostonian visionary invented a kaleidoscopic mirror to take ‘vortographs’, took some of the most innovative images of the early 20th century – then gave it all up to focus on being a freemason

Look into my vortex: the astonishing experimental photography of Alvin Langdon Coburn
Art Kane's photographs of 60s music greats – in pictures

In the 1960s and 1970s, Art Kane made his name photographing rock stars, fashion and everyday life in America, as these images from a new book show, writes Kathryn Bromwich

Art Kane's photographs of 60s music greats – in pictures
Dressed to impress: readers' photos on the theme of 'decoration'

For this week’s photography assignment in the Observer New Review we asked you to share your photos on the theme of ‘decoration’ via GuardianWitness. Here’s a selection of our favouritesShare your photos on this week’s theme: ‘strong’

Dressed to impress: readers' photos on the theme of 'decoration'
Original Observer photography: November 2014

Big names from the world of culture dominate this month’s gallery – including David Hockney, Debbie Harry and Noel Fielding – as we showcase the best Observer photography

Original Observer photography: November 2014
The 20 photographs of the week

The reaction to the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, the funeral of Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes, the continuing democracy protests in Hong Kong – the best photography in news, culture and sport from around the world this week

The 20 photographs of the week
Thailand school emerges from shadow of Boxing Day tsunami – in pictures

Yaowawit school in Thailand, a positive legacy that remains 10 years on from the devastating Boxing Day tsunami

Thailand school emerges from shadow of Boxing Day tsunami – in pictures

Wassily Kandinsky at 148: a revolutionary Google Doodle star

Jonathan Jones: The great abstract artist’s paintings are spiritual symphonies that speak directly to our senses and feelings

Wassily Kandinsky at 148: a revolutionary Google Doodle star
Sean O’Hagan’s top 10 photography exhibitions of 2014

Monks surfing on sharks, Hollywood hustlers, portraits of black Victorians and imperilled American landscapes ... Sean O’Hagan selects his favourite photography shows of the year

Sean O’Hagan’s top 10 photography exhibitions of 2014
- Laura Cumming’s top 10 art shows of 2014
  
  Laura Cumming: All human life was on show at the staggering Late Rembrandt exhibition, and there were revelatory works elsewhere by Ai Weiwei, Mondrian, Matisse and Malevich
  
  Laura Cumming’s top 10 art shows of 2014
- All mini cons: a peek inside the history of the doll's house
  
  From stately homes with plumbed-in baths to council houses and high-rises, the story of Britain can be told through 300 years of doll’s houses. Oliver Wainwright gets a giant’s eye view of Small Stories
  
  All mini cons: a peek inside the history of the doll's house
- Spectacular beards and the best shows of 2014 – the week in art
  
  Jonathan Jones: An exhibition devoted to the hirsute is announced, as our critics pick their top events of the year. Plus California’s pioneering skaters and rollergirls, ancient trees and the world’s most expensive photograph
  
  Spectacular beards and the best shows of 2014 – the week in art
- 50 years of gentrification: will all our cities turn into 'deathly' Canberra?
  
  The drive to make cities more ‘liveable’ means parks, plazas and happy pedestrians. But the reality is ever more sterile, identikit cities where public space isn’t public at all
  
  50 years of gentrification: will all our cities turn into 'deathly' Canberra?
- Jonathan Jones’s top 10 art shows of 2014
  
  From Anselm Kiefer’s rotting sunflowers to a rollicking super-show all over Scotland, via Rembrandt, Matisse, Andy Warhol and Egon Schiele … it was an eye-opening year
  
  Jonathan Jones’s top 10 art shows of 2014
- Photography is art and always will be
  
  Sean O'Hagan
  
  Do Jane Bown, William Eggleston and Diane Arbus not sing on a gallery wall? Photography critic Sean O’Hagan hits back at Jonathan Jones’s damning claim that photographs cannot be considered fine art
  
  Photography is art and always will be

Oliver Wainwright’s top 10 design highlights of 2014

Comfy wheelchairs, Koolhaas in Venice and Soviet washing machines – Oliver Wainwright picks his favourite objects and shows of the year

Oliver Wainwright’s top 10 design highlights of 2014
China’s wild west: photographing a vanishing way of life

Sean O’Hagan: For her book Wild Pigeon, Carolyn Drake spent seven years exploring a mysterious, isolated region 2,000 miles west of Beijing – then asked the persecuted Uyghur locals to graffiti over the shots she took

China’s wild west: photographing a vanishing way of life
Adrian Searle's top 10 art shows of 2014

Richard Serra defied gravity and Camille Henrot set loose a mechanical snake. But Matisse proved a cut above. Adrian Searle picks his top 10 art shows of 2014

Adrian Searle's top 10 art shows of 2014
Christmas and contemporary art? Like chalk and blue cheese

The Yuletide spirit makes today’s art look brittle, cold and unseasonal – it’s time to set aside good taste and embrace the kitsch, writes Jonathan Jones

Christmas and contemporary art? Like chalk and blue cheese
Teaching Nigel Farage the fine art of breastfeeding

Jonathan Jones: Renaissance art rejoices in breastfeeding. Does the Ukip leader think all the paintings of Madonna and child should be banished from UK galleries?

Teaching Nigel Farage the fine art of breastfeeding
Lewis Baltz obituary

Landscape photographer who specialised in austere images revealing the impact of development on the American wilderness

Lewis Baltz obituary
Mr Turner’s record year should blaze a trail for British painting’s other greats

The avalanche of interest in JMW Turner is welcome – but he was not the only artist to give colour to the 18th and 19th centuries. Let’s give some others a chance

Mr Turner’s record year should blaze a trail for British painting’s other greats
Serpentine pavilion 2015 to be built by Spanish subversives Selgas Cano

The Spanish architects, who specialise in semi-submerged builds in harmony with their natural surroundings, promise an ‘experimental’ pavilion that will ‘embrace the garden’

Serpentine pavilion 2015 to be built by Spanish subversives Selgas Cano
Thames 'private' garden bridge could cost £3.5m a year in public money

The controversial bridge scheme has now been passed by Westminster Council despite vociferous opposition, writes Oliver Wainwright

Thames 'private' garden bridge could cost £3.5m a year in public money
Russian bathers and LGBT South Africans on Deutsche Börse photography prize 2015 shortlist

Zanele Muholi’s portraits of post-apartheid sexuality join Nikolay Bakharev’s shots of swimmers in an eclectic, political selection

Russian bathers and LGBT South Africans on Deutsche Börse photography prize 2015 shortlist
‘Our cities are insufferable’: Chinese artists go back to the land

China’s president Xi Jinping wants artists to move to villages. But some are well ahead of him, writes Oliver Wainwright

‘Our cities are insufferable’: Chinese artists go back to the land

Art James Turrell: A Retrospective – light and colour reach for the sublime

The American artist plays with real and artificial light to create tricks on the mind and eye, invoking a feeling of awe that’s rare in contemporary art

James Turrell: A Retrospective – light and colour reach for the sublime
Art Reiner Ruthenbeck and Julio Le Parc – elegant, charming, fetchingly simple

The first big UK shows for German artist Reiner Ruthenbeck, 77, and Argentina’s Julio Le Parc, 86, are long overdue

Reiner Ruthenbeck and Julio Le Parc – elegant, charming, fetchingly simple
The scars of war How good is photography at capturing conflict?

Conflict, Time, Photography, a new show at London’s Tate Modern, explores the horror of war by looking at the traces it leaves on the landscape

How good is photography at capturing conflict?

- National Gallery Jonathan Jones reviews Maggi Hambling: ‘If she’s a painter, I’m Rembrandt’
  1 / 5 stars
  
  A total lack of integrity distinguishes Hambling’s latest collection of daft daubs
  
  Jonathan Jones reviews Maggi Hambling: ‘If she’s a painter, I’m Rembrandt’
- Just the ticket The joy of England’s railway stations
  
  The story of the English railway station since its Victorian heyday is that of a distinctively creative free-for-all
  
  The joy of England’s railway stations
- Beyond taste Post Pop: East Meets West review
  4 / 5 stars
  
  From Paul McCarthy's penis spaghetti to Jeff Koons' floating basketballs, this show is refreshingly unrepressed by today’s idea of cool
  
  Post Pop: East Meets West review
- Architecture Second Home review: a good day at the office
  
  This elegant curated workspace for ‘creative nomads’ by SelgasCano stops just the right side of kitsch, writes Rowan Moore
  
  Second Home review: a good day at the office
- Art The Forever Now review: calling time on the avant garde
  
  Moma’s first show of contemporary painting in 30 years contains some great work – mainly by women – but takes an overly optimistic view of the state of art
  
  The Forever Now review: calling time on the avant garde
- Art Pierre Huyghe at Lacma – a sometimes baffling but always engaging retrospective
  
  LA is the ideal location for a Pierre Huyghe retrospective – the artist’s baffling and borderless installations fit right in with the city’s chaotic character
  
  Pierre Huyghe at Lacma – a sometimes baffling but always engaging retrospective
- Performance art Ryan McNamara – ME3M 4 Miami Art Basel review: the web made dance
  
  This award-winning work attempted to convey the experience of the internet through performance art
  
  Ryan McNamara – ME3M 4 Miami Art Basel review: the web made dance
- Art Tony Bevan: Trees and Archives interview – organic, geometric, and human
  
  Exhibition showcases figurative painter’s first archive paintings alongside an exploration into the natural world – and several new studies of his own head
  
  Tony Bevan: Trees and Archives interview – organic, geometric, and human

Art and design One Way: Peter Marino Art Basel review – a spectacle of decadence

This show of the leather-clad architect’s private collection suggests that art’s recession into fashion and luxury is not just inevitable but something to be celebrated

One Way: Peter Marino Art Basel review – a spectacle of decadence
Art Conflict, Time, Photography review – emptiness, ruin and absence

Tate Modern’s huge survey of the ways photographers have conveyed the aftermath of conflict is astonishingly short of images of people, writes Laura Cumming

Conflict, Time, Photography review – emptiness, ruin and absence
Installation Julio le Parc review – punching bankers and balls isn’t such radical fun
2 / 5 stars

An amusement arcade of optical tricks and dangling punchbags daubed with hate figures fails to conjure up the spirit of artistic rebellion

Julio le Parc review – punching bankers and balls isn’t such radical fun
Architecture Fulton Center review: a vision of New York's cold future

While the light-diffusing Sky-Net is a feat of technical virtuosity, the transport hub is grey and glassy, with the placeless feel of a shopping mall

Fulton Center review: a vision of New York's cold future
Art Imran Qureshi review – a hauntingly beautiful show at the Ikon Gallery

Imran Qureshi is a master miniaturist who also has bigger things on his mind, writes Laura Cumming

Imran Qureshi review – a hauntingly beautiful show at the Ikon Gallery
Francisco de Goya Goya: Order and Disorder review: clerics, hats and flying cats

Though flawed, this titanic exhibition brings together some of the most racked and disturbing artworks in history, writes Jason Farago

Goya: Order and Disorder review: clerics, hats and flying cats
Chuck Close Chuck Close review – analogue printmaking explores a digital era

Prints, Process and Collaboration reveals as much about the artist’s huge range of techniques as his prodigious output

Chuck Close review – analogue printmaking explores a digital era
Art The Baroque Underworld: Vice and Destitution in Rome review – high art and low life in the Eternal City

Colourful lives of 17th-century artists on show at Villa Medici exhibition

The Baroque Underworld: Vice and Destitution in Rome review – high art and low life in the Eternal City
Architecture Farshid Moussavi: ‘We are in a world where ideas migrate’

Rowan Moore talks to Farshid Moussavi about fashion, function and the power of physical space in a virtual world

Farshid Moussavi: ‘We are in a world where ideas migrate’

The best of 2014 in lists

Writers and readers highlights of the year in culture

The best of 2014 in lists

Phil Stern: the photographer who humanised Hollywood

The former war photographer used his charm to gain access to stars like James Dean and Frank Sinatra, then take shots that revealed the reality beneath the image

Phil Stern: the photographer who humanised Hollywood
Bowling, riding and kite-flying: everyday life in Kabul

Emma Graham-Harrison: Souvid Datta’s photographs of Kabul capture the attempts of its five million residents to find peace amid the violence

Bowling, riding and kite-flying: everyday life in Kabul

Your pictures: share your photographs on the theme of 'box'

Wherever you are in the world, we’d like to see your pictures of ‘box.’ Share your best photos via GuardianWitness

Your pictures: share your photographs on the theme of 'box'
From the archive, 13 December 1971: An interview with photojournalist Eve Arnold

Originally published in the Guardian on 13 December 1971: The Philadelphia-born photographer talks to Raymond Gardner about her breakthrough in documentary making

From the archive, 13 December 1971: An interview with photojournalist Eve Arnold
That’s me in the picture: Dean Cook recalls his starring role in the Yellow Pages Christmas campaign, 1992

‘I got a bit of positive attention from the girls, at school. I kept a bit of mistletoe in my back pocket that year’

That’s me in the picture: Dean Cook recalls his starring role in the Yellow Pages Christmas campaign, 1992
Beautiful dark twisted fantasies: the world's most ancient trees – in pictures

From 4,000-year-old pines in California to Welsh yews carved into pulpits, photographer Beth Moon has spent 14 years travelling the globe in search of exquisite trees

Beautiful dark twisted fantasies: the world's most ancient trees – in pictures

Your pictures: share your photographs on the theme of 'escape'

Wherever you are in the world, we’d like to see your pictures of ‘escape.’ Share your best photos via GuardianWitness

Your pictures: share your photographs on the theme of 'escape'
Beyond Man Ray: essential avant-garde photography – in pictures

A treasure trove from the ultimate age of experimentation – between the world wars – shows a man mid-parachute jump, a woman clutching her Leica, and limbs dismantling before your very eyes

Beyond Man Ray: essential avant-garde photography – in pictures
China’s wild west: photographing a vanishing way of life

Sean O’Hagan: For her book Wild Pigeon, Carolyn Drake spent seven years exploring a mysterious, isolated region 2,000 miles west of Beijing – then asked the persecuted Uyghur locals to graffiti over the shots she took

China’s wild west: photographing a vanishing way of life

One rule for the windfarms but quite another for London’s peerless skyline

Rowan Moore

Rowan Moore: It’s right that plans relating to the countryside are carefully scrutinised. But let’s accord the same respect to London’s incomparable heritage

One rule for the windfarms but quite another for London’s peerless skyline
The 10 best murals

Marijke Steedman, a curator for east London arts organisation Create, chooses her favourite murals

The 10 best murals
A tale of two cités: can the Philharmonie de Paris bridge the social divide?

Built on the boundary between the capital’s banlieues and its affluent boulevards, the new state-of-the-art concert hall aims for social transformation through the arts. Gillian Moore takes a peek and asks what makes the perfect concert hall.

A tale of two cités: can the Philharmonie de Paris bridge the social divide?
Moscow embraces 'hipster Stalinism'

Following the wildly popular transformation of Gorky Park from rusting funfair to Wi-Fi heaven, Muscovites finally felt as if their city was becoming liveable. But with more gentrifying projects on the cards, is it just a way to silence dissent?

Moscow embraces 'hipster Stalinism'

London's post-war reconstruction plan promised 'new order and dignity'

Picturing place: The mass cultural appeal of the exhibition and film helped enthuse the public to trust the future of the city to planner Patrick Abercrombie and architect JH Forshaw

London's post-war reconstruction plan promised 'new order and dignity'
Oliver Wainwright’s top 10 design highlights of 2014

Comfy wheelchairs, Koolhaas in Venice and Soviet washing machines – Oliver Wainwright picks his favourite objects and shows of the year

Oliver Wainwright’s top 10 design highlights of 2014
Pruitt Igoe: Blowing up this St Louis housing project was easier than demolishing the myth it created

Picturing place: The demolition of the Pruitt Igoe social housing project in St Louis is held as stark evidence of the failure of modernism, yet it cannot convey the social, political and economic mix that lay behind the unfortunate conditions at the complex

Pruitt Igoe: Blowing up this St Louis housing project was easier than demolishing the myth it created
Hadid and Japanese at loggerheads over ‘turtle-like’ Olympic stadium

London-based architect brands critics of controversial design for Tokyo 2020 Games as hypocrites

Hadid and Japanese at loggerheads over ‘turtle-like’ Olympic stadium
The Art of Building 2014 competition – in pictures

From a flaming brick kiln in India to a rare look inside the futuristic new Metro in Amsterdam, here are the finalists for the Art of Building 2014 photography competition

The Art of Building 2014 competition – in pictures
Is Jan Gehl winning his battle to make our cities liveable?

Ahead of a special Guardian Cities event, the renowned urban ‘rethinker’ says cities should be six or seven storeys high, Helsinki is on the verge of revolution, and that he’s sceptical of London’s cycle superhighway plans

Is Jan Gehl winning his battle to make our cities liveable?
Review The best architecture books of 2014

Rowan Moore picks the year’s best architecture books, from a study of Latin American cities to a dictionary of Duchamp

The best architecture books of 2014
Review Rowan Moore: the five most inspiring buildings of 2014

Rowan Moore reviews the best architecture of the year

Rowan Moore: the five most inspiring buildings of 2014
Ebenezer Howard's three magnets

Picturing place: The Three Magnets diagram has travelled widely since its original publication in 1898, but divorced from its original text the image has often been mis-read, highlighting the ease with which images can be isolated from their original context and be mobilised in new ways

Ebenezer Howard's three magnets
If women built cities, what would our urban landscape look like?

The number of women in UK architecture firms is falling, and many urbanists are worried by the ‘very, very male-dominated’ worlds of planning and construction. So how would cities differ if women designed them?

If women built cities, what would our urban landscape look like?
Serpentine pavilion 2015 to be built by Spanish subversives Selgas Cano

The Spanish architects, who specialise in semi-submerged builds in harmony with their natural surroundings, promise an ‘experimental’ pavilion that will ‘embrace the garden’

Serpentine pavilion 2015 to be built by Spanish subversives Selgas Cano
This 'hero shot' of Shanghai’s future skyline projects China's success

Picturing place: In an age of intense competition between the world’s cities, authorities are focused on presenting a particular image for global consumption

This 'hero shot' of Shanghai’s future skyline projects China's success

Queen of the fairies Kirsty Mitchell's rainbow wonderlands

Photographer Kirsty Mitchell has spent five years dreaming up fantastical scenes that look straight out of fairytales for her project Wonderland. Here are the most magical, from an origami armada to a cloak of autumn leaves

Kirsty Mitchell's rainbow wonderlands

Beautiful dark twisted fantasies The world's most ancient trees

From 4,000-year-old pines in California to Welsh yews carved into pulpits, photographer Beth Moon has spent 14 years travelling the globe in search of exquisite trees

The world's most ancient trees
Beards to take over Somerset House

A series of 80 photographic works of people sporting impressive facial hair will go on display in London

Beards to take over Somerset House
Look into my vortex The astonishing experimental photography of Alvin Langdon Coburn

An accomplished photographer by the age of eight, this Bostonian visionary invented a kaleidoscopic mirror to take ‘vortographs’, took some of the most innovative images of the early 20th century – then gave it all up to focus on being a freemason

The astonishing experimental photography of Alvin Langdon Coburn
Fashion forward Edward Steichen's trailblazing Vogue photographs

Shooting for Vogue and Vanity Fair in the 20s and 30s, father of fashion photography Edward Steichen devised a mode of portraiture that still sets the template for style magazines today

Edward Steichen's trailblazing Vogue photographs
Audrey Hepburn is back – at the scene of her big break

An exhibition of the famously glamorous film star shows Hepburn from first appearances at Ciro’s nightclub, which is now part of the National Portrait Gallery

Audrey Hepburn is back – at the scene of her big break
In pictures The beauty of a red-headed man

The Red Hot 100 exhibition challenges social stigma towards ‘gingers’ by celebrating the modern-day, red-haired male

The beauty of a red-headed man
Lost highway Creepy Lynchian dreamscapes

Part-nightmare, part-reverie, Julien Magre’s peculiar pictures are full of mysteries to unravel

Creepy Lynchian dreamscapes
Hipgnosis' mind-bending album art

They made dispersive prisms sexy with Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, and transformed Mick Jagger into a goat. Here’s how the design duo Hipgnosis turned the art of the album sleeve upside down for the biggest names in rock

Hipgnosis' mind-bending album art
Love unlimited Studio 54 at the height of its fame

Photographer Tod Papageorge documented the beautiful people he found inside glittering New York disco club Studio 54 – in all their debauchery, glamour and cool

Studio 54 at the height of its fame
Disco kitsch Are these the world's most ridiculous record covers?

Soft porn, engorged limes, erect bananas – and an extra-special zebra print carpet courtesy of Kool and the Gang ... disco cover art is endlessly, brilliantly OTT

Are these the world's most ridiculous record covers?
André Kertész: the photographer's photographer

The Hungarian artist who pioneered photojournalism, influencing Cartier-Bresson and Brassaï, is back in the spotlight with an auction of his most moving images

André Kertész: the photographer's photographer
The frog with kaleidoscope eyes Psychedelic close-ups of nature

Nature photographer Michael Kern turns reptiles, insects and creepy-crawlies into strange psychedelic creations. It’s time to get up close and weird

Psychedelic close-ups of nature
The Strip-Steppers Backstage with burlesque dancers in the 1930s

In 1936, Margaret Bourke-White went behind the scenes with top burlesque acts to show them setting their hair and tweaking their nipples before they hit the stage. Here are her most candid shots

Backstage with burlesque dancers in the 1930s

As time goes by: share your artworks about nostalgia

As the year draws to a close, take a trip down memory lane and share your nostalgia-themed art

As time goes by: share your artworks about nostalgia
Top toys for Christmas From Snow Glow Elsa to the 50mph foam blaster

Future classic or throwaway junk? Oliver Wainwright gives his verdict on the UK’s must-have toys this Christmas

From Snow Glow Elsa to the 50mph foam blaster
The art world’s shame Why Britain must give its colonial booty back

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

Why Britain must give its colonial booty back
The big-eyed children The extraordinary story of an epic art fraud

In the 1960s, Walter Keane was feted for sentimental portraits that sold by the million. But in fact, his wife Margaret was the artist, working in virtual slavery. She tells Jon Ronson her story, now the subject of a Tim Burton biopic

The extraordinary story of an epic art fraud

David Hockney When I’m working, I feel like Picasso, I feel I’m 30

Last year David Hockney moved from Yorkshire to the Hollywood Hills after a series of personal tragedies – and it has totally rejuvenated him

When I’m working, I feel like Picasso, I feel I’m 30
Thames 'private' garden bridge could cost £3.5m a year in public money

The controversial bridge scheme has now been passed by Westminster Council despite vociferous opposition, writes Oliver Wainwright

Thames 'private' garden bridge could cost £3.5m a year in public money
Clip Art: you might be gone – but your happy floppy disks will never be forgotten

Stuart Heritage: Microsoft Office’s brutal closing of the legendary image library signals the end of a glorious era of clumsily resized birthday cakes and disembodied bridges

Clip Art: you might be gone – but your happy floppy disks will never be forgotten
Shotguns and sundaes Gordon Parks's rare photographs of life in the segregated South

Lost for more than 50 years, Gordon Parks’s stunning images show daily life for one Alabama family in the shadow of race riots, bus boycotts and the fight for civil rights

Gordon Parks's rare photographs of life in the segregated South
We are family Nicholas Nixon’s 40 years photographing the Brown sisters

The US photographer has taken a portrait of his wife BeBe and her siblings every year since 1974, making us confront the passing of time, family ties and our own mortality

Nicholas Nixon’s 40 years photographing the Brown sisters
Garry Winogrand The man who gave street photography attitude

Garry 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

The man who gave street photography attitude
The real Mad Men Mac Conner's stunning New York illustrations

A new exhibition presents classic hand-painted illustrations from 1950s women’s magazines by one of the original Mad Men

Mac Conner's stunning New York illustrations
Into the orgasmatron! The Institute of Sexology hits the spot

Stephen Moss flings off his pullover to unleash his inner libido at the Institute of Sexology exhibition, which probes everything from Victorian masturbation manuals to priapic pottery

Into the orgasmatron! The Institute of Sexology hits the spot
A line in history The east German punks behind the Berlin Wall's most radical art stunt

=>The Berlin Wall fell 25 years ago, taking with it miles of artists’ graffiti. But a simpler art protest captured the wall’s power. This is a story of spies, betrayal and buckets of white paint

The east German punks behind the Berlin Wall's most radical art stunt

Ben Eine: I'm a graffiti artist; I'm not meant to meet David Cameron – video

Graffiti artist Ben Eine reveals his surprise at being invited to Downing Street for tea and biscuits

Ben Eine: I'm a graffiti artist; I'm not meant to meet David Cameron – video
Tower of London poppies artist says transience is crucial to the installation - video

Ceramic artist Paul Cummins says he didn't realise how popular the idea would be after an estimated four million people visited his poppies installation at the Tower of London

Tower of London poppies artist says transience is crucial to the installation - video
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

Romance Was Born: fashion duo show off new kids show - video

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

Melbourne art trams add colour to the city's streets – slideshow
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

Globe Theatre awash in colour for Alternative Miss World 2014 - video
'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

'Sex toy' sculpture raises eyebrows in Paris - video
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

Go figure: Frieze art fair in numbers - video
'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

'It's a moment in thought, not a conclusion' – Turner prize 2014 nominee Duncan Campbell explains his work
'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

'Chance encounters – that's when it's interesting': Turner prize 2014 nominee Ciara Phillips explains her work
'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

'The voice belongs but the body is gone': Turner prize 2014 nominee Tris Vonna-Michell explains his work
'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

'It's about owning images – and disorientating them': Turner prize 2014 nominee James Richards explains his work
'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

'A passionate, bloody arena': 30 years of the Turner prize, from Emin's bed to Grayson's dress – video
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

Ai Weiwei's new show at Alcatraz: Lego, mental health hospitals and Edward Snowden - video
'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

'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
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

What is art for? Alain de Botton's animated guide – video
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

Six-storey inflatable rubber duck sails into the Port of Los Angeles – video
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

Inside 'the Cheesegrater' – architect Graham Stirk gives a guided tour of the Leadenhall building – video
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

Robots take you on an after-dark tour of Tate Britain - video
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

Afghan life in wartime: Bolan Market by Mark Neville – video
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

Surf's up: dive into our digital wave machine – video

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