Arts feature

The thankless art of the librettist

8 February 2025 9:00 am

Next week, after the première of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s new opera Festen, the cast and conductor will take their bow. All…

‘Innovation is not enough’: meet visionary English painter Roger Wagner

1 February 2025 9:00 am

In the side chapel of the church of St Giles’, at the northern apex of the historic Oxford thoroughfare, hangs…

Was Brazil the real birthplace of modernism?

25 January 2025 9:00 am

A paradox of art history: to understand the artists of the past, it helps to study how, and where, they…

Is the tide turning on restitution?

18 January 2025 9:00 am

When passions are aroused, all of us are liable to overstate our case. Dan Hicks, a curator at Oxford’s extraordinary…

The architectural provocations of I.M. Pei

11 January 2025 9:00 am

When first considering architects for the new Louvre in 1981, Emile Biasini, the project’s head, liked that I.M. Pei was…

How French absolutism powered a techno-progressive revolution

4 January 2025 9:00 am

The Enlightenment is back. Despite the best efforts of the past decade of handwringing about cultural imperialism and wailing over…

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre contains terrible art – but is filled with magic

14 December 2024 9:00 am

For a press tour of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem – the Church of the Resurrection, the…

‘La Scala was maddening’: an interview with John Macfarlane, the finest set designer of his generation

7 December 2024 9:00 am

Pantomime season is upon us, and unless your taste in colour runs no further than Smarties, there is no more…

‘When a work lands the excitement is physical’: William Kentridge interviewed

30 November 2024 9:00 am

Watching William Kentridge’s film Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot is like being submerged inside his mind, inside the coffee pot maybe.…

Why is Fauré not more celebrated?

23 November 2024 9:00 am

It is 100 years since the death of Gabriel Fauré, a composer whose spellbinding romantic tunes emerge from harmonies and…

William Morris’s debt to Islam

16 November 2024 9:00 am

When William Morris was born in Walthamstow, in 1834, it was little more than a clump of marshland at the…

Much more than just a game: World of Warcraft at 20

9 November 2024 9:00 am

On 23 November, the video game World of Warcraft celebrates its 20th anniversary. That’s no small thing. By most metrics,…

How a single year in Florence changed art forever

2 November 2024 9:00 am

The story goes that one day early in the 16th century Leonardo da Vinci was strolling through Florence with a…

Could AI lead to a revival of decorative beauty?

26 October 2024 9:00 am

In front of me is what appears to be an authentic Delft tile. The surface of the tile is mottled,…

The triumph of surrealism

19 October 2024 9:00 am

When Max Ernst was asked by an American artist to define surrealism at a New York gathering of exiles in…

At Las Vegas’s Sphere I saw the future of live arts

12 October 2024 9:00 am

Does Elon Musk have a good eye for the aesthetic? Earlier this month, the Tesla magnate took a break from…

‘Some pianists make me shake with anger’: Vikingur Olafsson interviewed

5 October 2024 9:00 am

At the BBC Proms this year, an Icelandic pianist dressed like a Wall Street broker played a slow movement from…

How some of the most derided bands of all time are making a comeback

28 September 2024 9:00 am

The fate of the pop musician – at least the pop musician below the top tier of stardom – has…

Who should win the Stirling Prize?

21 September 2024 9:00 am

The Stirling Prize is the Baftas for architects, a moment for auto-erotic self-congratulation. Awarded by the Royal Institute of British…

How Michael Craig-Martin changed a glass of water into a full-grown oak tree

14 September 2024 9:00 am

‘Of all the things I’ve drawn,’ Michael Craig-Martin reflects, ‘to me chairs are one of the most interesting.’ We are…

How claims of cultural appropriation scuppered an acclaimed new ballet

7 September 2024 9:00 am

On 14 March 2020 I was at Leeds Grand Theatre for the première of Northern Ballet’s Geisha. The curtains swung…

The unstoppable rise of stage amplification

31 August 2024 9:00 am

Recent acquisition of some insanely expensive hearing aids aimed at helping me out in cacophonous restaurants has set me thinking…

How did we ever come to accept the inhumane excesses of capitalism?

24 August 2024 9:00 am

What was neoliberalism? In its most recent iteration, we think of the market seeping into every minute corner of human…

Immersive and spectacular: Piet Oudolf’s new borders at RHS Wisley reviewed

17 August 2024 9:00 am

Piet Oudolf’s long borders at Wisley were worn out. The famous designer had in fact become a bit embarrassed by…

Edinburgh has turned into a therapy session

10 August 2024 9:00 am

Therapy seems to be the defining theme of this year’s Edinburgh festival. Many performers are saddled with personal demons or…