art & design
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Playtime in the world's most inhospitable placesHow do children play in refugee camps, aboriginal reserves and places ravaged by war? Photographer Mark Neville found out -
Antiques dealer jailed for stealing painting from Chester CathedralLatvian Vasilijs Apilats, 61, sentenced to nine months for stealing painting worth about £2,000 in August 2014
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I threw away $100m of Picasso and Matisse art, says dealer in Paris theft trialCo-defendant in ‘Spider-Man’ trial says he destroyed five paintings stolen in 2010 from Museum of Modern Art -
The fall of modern SpainInspired by Cervantes and Velazquez, British photographer Richard Page travelled around Spain documenting a country struggling to recover from economic disaster
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Today's robots and the artists who foresaw themRoboThespian and the world’s first automaton newsreader are the stars of the Science Museum’s Robots show. But did Da Vinci and Michelangelo beat them to it?
news
in pictures
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Unimpressed zoo animalsEric Pillot photographs animals in captivity, amid poorly approximated backdrops of their natural habitats, for his award-winning series In Situ
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talking points
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How Vanessa Bell put the bloom in BloomsburyShe was best known as a member of the Bloomsbury group and sister of Virginia Woolf – but will the first major show of her artwork change her reputation?
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Christo cancels artwork to protest Trump – but we need his visionThe legendary land artist has wrapped up a Colorado installation after decades of planning in disgust at Donald Trump. But artists must allow their work itself to be the dissenting voice
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reviews
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Canaletto – a utopia with its head in the cloudsLondon’s latest skyscraper aims to be a new blueprint for communal living. But why does it act as if its neighbours aren’t there?
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Amie Siegel's Strata – from the depths of the Earth to the heights of excessAmie Siegel follows marble from quarry to tasteful, lifeless New York apartments. What will her cryptic excavations turn up?
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Rogues’ Gallery by Philip Hook – the gullible rich and the art marketThis expert and elegant history of art dealers provides background to today’s art world, funded by ‘idiots with pretensions’
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A balloon-seller in front of a filthy Indian power plant‘These places were initially located outside the city, to protect the air, but urban areas have expanded so fast they’re back inside’
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The female street photographers of InstagramThe art of street photography was long dominated by men and the ‘male gaze’, but new project Her Side of the Street celebrates women’s role in the practice
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Joel Sternfeld on his sly glimpses of wild AmericaThe 72-year-old photographer talks about his beguilingly sinister take on Americana
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A Gypsy family fleeing execution by the Russian army‘They had escaped, but lost their country. He played a Hungarian song on his violin’
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An Iranian woman with a gun in her hair‘It’s usually printed larger than life – so that when someone stands in front of it, the gun is pointing straight at their stomach’
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Rio de Janeiro's afro-feminist fantasistsPhotographer Pol Kurucz’s vivid collection of photos explores issues faced by black Brazilian women, from political misrepresentation to unrealistic beauty standards
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Yours for $250m: the most expensive house in AmericaReal estate developer Bruce Makowsky’s ‘eighth wonder of the world’ targets a narrow market. ‘I’ve found a niche. I’m trying to build houses only for billionaires’
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Can prefab homes solve UK's housing crisis?Modular developments in Manchester and Liverpool are energy efficient and built in quick time, but can they spark national interest?
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Is this the best new building in the world?The soaring buttresses and hanging walkways of UTEC in Lima have earned it the RIBA international prize. And Grafton Architects, the Irish team behind it, have equally big plans for Britain
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Architecture practice InterrobangBy daring to cross the disciplines of architecture and engineering, Maria Smith, Steve Webb and Andy Yates can approach their projects in a fresh way
the big picture
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The beauty of brain cellsThe 19th-century Spanish scientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the father of modern neuroscience, was one of the first people to unravel the mysteries of the structure of the brain – and he made stunning drawings to describe and explain his discoveries
you may have missed
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The Renaissance genius who swapped sex for GodThe National Gallery is pairing Michelangelo with the lesser-known Sebastiano in its latest exhibition. So who is this artist who gave up debauched Venice for the Vatican – and why did he waste his talent?
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I was invited to Sharon Tate’s house the night she was murderedThe snapper on the closest he’s come to death, his love of jazz and the meal he eats three times a week
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How an Aspen ski resort became a retreat for art's biggest namesThe likes of Theaster Gates and Catherine Opie have all used Anderson Ranch to experiment. Now Tom Sachs is the latest to go tell it to the mountain
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It's going to make art great againThe new president has inadvertently inspired a range of angry and satirical pieces, from altered street signs to a drone writing derogatory graffiti
video
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Standing Rock protesters are warning us to save what we canSaudi Arabian artist Ahmed Mater joins protesters at Standing Rock to celebrate their victory
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The artist’s hidden tribute to a sold-off LondonThe street artist Stik set out to ask the denizens of Old Shoreditch how his new mural should reflect their gentrified neighbourhood
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On what turns a picture into a masterpieceRembrandt’s perfect drawing, Caravaggio’s invention of Hollywood lighting, Monet capturing a moment in time. David Hockney and critic Martin Gayford discuss the craft behind the greatest art
Jacob Epstein: the immigrant bringing morals to the Oval Office