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Rich art collectors 'know the price of everything – and the value of nothing'

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Art dealers have been reduced to mere "commodity brokers" as the super-rich have lost interest in the aesthetic value of major works and instead obsess about their monetary worth, according to one of the industry's most experienced auctioneers.

Queen's Jubilee portrait revealed

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

A new Diamond Jubilee portrait of the Queen has been released by Buckingham Palace today. The photograph, taken to mark the 60th anniversary of the accession to the throne of Queen Elizabeth II, was taken in the Centre Room of Buckingham Palace by John Swannell.

Never mind the Sex Pistols – punk artist backs Occupy

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

His artwork for "Never Mind the Bollocks" helped bring the Sex Pistols' only studio album to the wider world, defining the image of British punk rock. Now the anarchist Jamie Reid, 65, has stepped back into the limelight, supporting the Occupy movement and espousing the view that politics is now "far more repressive" than when he launched his career.

Samuel Aranda wins World Press Photo

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:23:49 +0000

The overall World Press Photo 2011 prize winner was revealed today to be Spanish photographer Samuel Aranda. He takes the gong for his shot of a Yemeni woman cradling an injured relative in her arms during violent clashes between anti-government demonstrators in Sanaa.

Yayoi Kusama brings colour to Tate Modern

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:10:08 +0000

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama was in London yesterday to open a retrospective of her work at Tate Modern.

Ai Weiwei defies China with Serpentine installation

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Ai Weiwei has been imprisoned, barred from leaving his homeland by the Chinese government and told not to speak to anyone outside its borders. That has not stopped the dissident artist from designing this year's Pavilion at London's Serpentine Gallery.

David Lister: Is this a case of a great but troubled ballet star being wronged? I don't think so

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

On Thursday, it was reported that Sergei Polunin, the Royal Ballet star who dramatically quit the company a week ago, has now lost his work permit, according to a Royal Ballet spokesperson. It would take a hard-hearted person not to feel sympathy with the brilliant 22-year-old. So, call me hard-hearted, because I'm afraid I don't.

Cézanne sale breaks world record

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

A painting by Paul Cézanne of two peasants playing cards has sold for a record price of £158.4 million.

The most expensive wall painting ever?

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Jackson Pollock may lose his record for creating the most expensive painting ever – and not to another enfant terrible of the art world , but to a minor Los Angeles mural painter who happened upon the Facebook offices in 2005.

Mona Lisa's 'twin sister' is discovered – 500 years late

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:40 +0000

The Mona Lisa at the Prado in Madrid was thought to be just another fine copy, with added eyebrows and an odd black background. But curators at Spain's national art museum yesterday announced a startling discovery: the painting was actually executed by an artist in Leonardo da Vinci's workshop at the same time as the original.

National Gallery staff in walkout

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:48:41 +0000

Workers at the National Gallery in London will stage another strike tomorrow in a continuing row over jobs.

Cape made of silk extracted from spiders to go on display

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:09:39 +0000

A cape created from golden silk spun by more than a million spiders is going on display this week.

£80m Design Museum plans unveiled

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:03:40 +0000

Plans for a new £80 million museum of design and architecture were unveiled today.

Hirst rewards lovers of his hot spots

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Three art lovers travelled thousands of miles and spent thousands of dollars in pursuit of a personally dedicated spot print from Damien Hirst. And hundreds more are set to follow.

Is it art – or science? The robotic Rubens that redefines portraiture

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Meet Paul, the toast of this year's London Art Fair. He has one arm, he scribbles out portraits in 20 minutes and uses a biro. Oh, and he's a robot.

David Lister: Jay-Z might be rethinking his degrading lyrics, but why do women in hip-hop stay silent?

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0000

The hip-hop star Jay-Z has apparently vowed to stop using the word "bitch" in his lyrics now that his wife and fellow superstar Beyoncé has given birth to a daughter, Blue Ivy. He was reported to have made his pledge this week in a poem, one verse of which reads: "Before I got in the game, made a change and got rich / I didn't think about using the word bitch / I rapped, I flipped it, I sold it, I lived it / Now with my daughter in this world I curse those that give it / No man will degrade her and call her names."

The mane attraction at art exhibition

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0000

A customised coffin from Ghana in the shape of a lion, and another like a Mercedes, feature in an exhibition celebrating death.

Former drug addict wins prestigious poetry prize

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0000

A celebrated poet who has documented his battle with alcoholism and drugs saw off competition from a heavyweight shortlist including laureate Carol Ann Duffy to win the highest accolade in British poetry at the third time of asking.

Block party: pattern-cutting beyond the garment

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:09:29 +0000

Those of you who are handy with a needle and thread, will be pleased to hear that a new exhibition exploring the creative possibilities of pattern-cutting (beyond making garments) is touring the country.

Art collective Liberate Tate uses Arctic ice to protest at gallery's BP sponsorship

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:18:56 +0000

An art collective protesting against the Tate Modern's partnership with oil giant BP used a block of Arctic ice to express their grievances this weekend.

Strike threatens Leonardo show

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Staff at the National Gallery in London are to walk out on Thursday in a dispute over staff cuts, which could disrupt the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition.

Ice sculptors kick off London festival

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Sculptors put the finishing touches to their work at the fourth annual London Ice Sculpting Festival.

US poaches Tate Modern curator

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0000

The woman in charge of filling the Tate Modern's turbine hall has been poached by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Celebrity-hunter turned photographer launches star-filled exhibition

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:44:37 +0000

A man whose childhood obsession with celebrities turned into a life-long photography project, taking him all over the world, will have excerpts from his collection of over 1000 celebrity snapshots displayed in a gallery this week in an exhibition curated by the Magnum photographer Martin Parr.

Mosaic marks birthday of pensioner Davie Bowie

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0000

David Bowie officially becomes a pensioner today as he turns 65, and one of Britain's leading mosaic artists has created a piece to mark the musician and actor's milestone.

Woman accused over art attack

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0000

A 36-year-old woman was accused of causing $10,000 worth of damage to a painting valued at between $30m and $40m by punching it, scratching it, and sliding her bare buttocks against it while urinating.

All about Eve: photographer blazed a bold, beautiful trail with pictures

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0000

The celebrated photographer Eve Arnold, who was equally comfortable shooting Hollywood stars and poverty-stricken migrant workers, has died just months before her hundredth birthday.

Master of St Trinian's: The death of Ronald Searle

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0000

The man who gave the world St Trinian's and St Custard's, who depicted the anarchy beneath the English school system, and whose scratchy, satirical pen skewered a throng of national stereotypes that included egomaniacal teachers, spindly aesthetes, clueless debutantes, droopy-moustached colonels, black-stockinged schoolgirls and ink-stained scholars, is no more. Ronald Searle, perhaps the greatest British graphic artist of the last 100 years, died on 30 December, aged 91.

Cartoonist Ronald Searle dies at 91

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:20:40 +0000

St Trinian's cartoonist Ronald Searle has died aged 91, his family said today.

David Hockney vs Damien Hirst: the Queen's chosen one puts king of the YBAs on the spot

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0000

A row is threatening to break out between two of Britain's most celebrated artists after David Hockney criticised Damien Hirst for the "insulting" use of assistants to create his works.

Feast of Freud goes under hammer

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0000

A collection of 45 works by the late Lucian Freud created over a 25-year period and said to be the most complete array of his prints ever to be auctioned is to be sold by Christie's next month.

Hockney joins Britain's most exclusive club with Order of Merit

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0000

The Queen has welcomed the celebrated artist David Hockney into one of the most exclusive clubs in Britain, making him one of just 24 members of the Order of Merit.

David Lister: There should be room in the arts world for people of all political persuasions

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0000

I don't really want to end the year by blowing Tracey Emin's trumpet, as she's no slouch when it comes to doing that for herself.

Pop artist James Rizzi dies aged 61

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0000

James Rizzi, a New York-born and based pop artist best known for his playful and childlike three-dimensional sculptures, has died. He was 61.

Are these Bacon artworks really kosher?

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0000

An Italian who claims to have been Francis Bacon's lover for 15 years is fighting to prove the authenticity of hundreds of drawings which he says were given to him by the artist.

Emin 'outsider' in art world for voting Tory

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0000

Tracey Emin has said that she feels an "outsider" in the art fraternity after admitting she voted for the Conservatives in the last general election.

Abstract painter Frankenthaler dies

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0000

The American abstract painter Helen Frankenthaler died in Connecticut on Tuesday, aged 83.

Lacoste accused of attempting to censor 'too pro-Palestinian' art

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:21:52 +0000

French luxury goods firm Lacoste last night dramatically terminated its sponsorship of a £21,000 photography prize after it was accused of attempting to censor the work of a London-based Palestinian artist.

Very grand theft: Barbara Hepworth's park sculpture is stolen for scrap metal

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0000

A reward was offered last night after an "irreplaceable" bronze artwork by one of Britain's most highly regarded 20th-century sculptors was stolen from a London park.

BP renews £10m deal with the arts

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0000

Four of the UK's biggest cultural organisations – the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Opera House and Tate – have announced they are to renew sponsorship deals with BP worth £10m over the next five years despite opposition from environmental campaigners.

Banksy sculpture targets church sex abuse

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:26:04 +0000

A sculpture of a "vandalised" priest by the underground artist Banksy has gone on display today alongside 17th-century Old Masters.

A perfect picture for Sam, OBE

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0000

The artist Sam Taylor-Wood was presented with an OBE by Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace yesterday.

Show me the Monet... at Tate Liverpool

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0000

Five of Claude Monet's water lily masterpieces are to be displayed at Tate Liverpool in June – two of them for the first time in Britain.

Royal Academy names new president

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0000

The Royal Academy of Arts has selected a painter as its new president for the first time in almost 20 years, yet questions were raised after no woman even made the shortlist to head the 243-year old organisation.

Government bars £28m Manet export

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:42:33 +0000

The Government has put a temporary export bar on an unfinished portrait by French impressionist Edouard Manet.

Deafblind artists give unique vision of the world

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:31:53 +0000

An insight into the unique perspective on life of people with neither sight nor hearing is being provided by an exhibition of artwork by two deafblind artists.

Great Scots! For the third year running, Turner Prize is installed north of the border

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0000

If the Turner Prize could become any further removed from the quintessentially English landscape painter after which it is named it did so at least geographically this year as the third Scottish artist in a row won.

David Lister: Here's a sacrilegious thought: maybe charging for museum entry would be a good thing

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0000

I have in my life met many, many people who have been to Paris and visited the Louvre and loved the experience. I have never in my life met anyone who has come back and complained about paying to get into it.

New Rembrandt revealed

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0000

A painting by an unknown artist has been identified as a Rembrandt after X-rays revealed the self-portrait of the Dutch master hidden below the surface.

Tate trustee reignites BP row ahead of Turner Prize

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

One of the Tate galleries' top officials has broken ranks to criticise the organisation's sponsorship deal with BP, calling the oil company "a disgrace" for its environmental record.

Britain's art pack does its bit to help

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

Work from some of the biggest names in contemporary art will go on sale tomorrow in a one-off charity auction in east London, being held to raise money for sufferers of organised violence and torture who arrive in Britain.

Prince Charles to rescue arts body from the axe

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

The Prince of Wales has intervened in a growing row over arts funding by taking the doomed sponsorship charity Arts & Business under his wing. A&B was partly funded by the Arts Council but lost its grant earlier this year and was preparing to close.

Art lovers queue up for RCA's £45 sale

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

They say you must suffer for your art. Usually this applies to the artists, not the buyers. Yet more than 1,300 art lovers braved the cold for hours in London yesterday morning to queue for the chance to snap up affordable original artwork at the Royal College of Art's Secret postcard sale.

An extraordinary bulb field – and there's no charge

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

The rather jolly Christmas light display beloved of homeowners and local authorities across the land has been given a stunning 21st-century makeover for the Holburne Museum in Bath.

A second helping of Leonardo's Last Supper

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, perhaps the most celebrated painting in the history of Western art, has been slowly disintegrating before our eyes, its demise hastened by the pollution from the clogged city streets of its home city Milan.

Designed by Anish Kapoor – built by Kirk, Matt, Andy, John and Wayne

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

Standing nearly twice as high as the Olympic Stadium, the crazed, twisted steelwork of the sculpture that has variously been described as "Meccano on crack" and a "catastrophic collision between two cranes" is an undeniably impressive feat of engineering. More impressive still (whatever you think of Britain's biggest artwork) is the fact that it was bolted together by just three men armed with pointy spanners.

Hockney named Britain's most influential artist

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

David Hockney is the most influential British artist of all time, according to a poll of 1,000 British painters and sculptors. Neither Damien Hirst nor Tracey Emin made the top 10 in a nationwide survey that is both revealing and damning for the Young British Artists.

Ancient symbol of Rome – or a Middle Ages knock-off?

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

The most celebrated and supposedly one of the oldest symbols of the Eternal City may not be a product of the ancient world after all.

Original artwork for Rolling Stones' album Let It Bleed to be sold

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 13:31:37 +0000

The original artwork from Rolling Stones album Let It Bleed - which included a cake created by Delia Smith - is to be sold for up to £40,000.

Hurrah for the Young Turks!

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

Take a close look at the works on these pages. There's a good chance that the next time you hear the names of their creators, they will be spoken of as among the best young designers and performers on the UK's contemporary arts scene.

Picture that put Ai Weiwei's assistants in porn inquiry

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

A cameraman and assistant to the dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is being investigated for distributing pornography, in what has been seen as the latest attempt by the Beijing government to silence one of its most outspoken critics.

Going incognito for the RCA

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

About 3,000 miniature works of art went on display at the Royal College of Art in London yesterday, as part of the Secret Postcards charity exhibition.

LS Lowry painting bought for £5.6m

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 08:53:04 +0000

A painting by LS Lowry has sold for £5.6 million at auction, matching a world record price for the artist.

Stuffed animals are so old hat... Natural History Museum to host Von Hagens' plastinated carcasses

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

Skinned elephants, plastinated gorillas and preserved giraffes will form a new and peculiar exhibit the Natural History Museum will receive next year when the controversial anatomist Gunther von Hagens brings his latest creatures to the British capital.

Neon cage hangs over London's King's Cross

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:55:56 +0000

If you caught a train at London’s King’s Cross last night you might have spotted something strange glowing in the sky. The elegant domed shape was not an Unidentified Flying Object but, in fact, an Identified Flying Object (IFO) - so named by its artist creator Jacques Rival. The IFO isn’t exactly flying either, but hangs suspended from a bright orange crane, resembling a songbird’s cage.

Two pillars of the establishment...and an irascible Duke

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

She has publicly outed her lovers and won art prizes by displaying used condoms, but Tracey Emin was upstaged yesterday by the Duke of Edinburgh when he visited Margate's Turner Contemporary Gallery with the Queen.

Chinese vase fetches £9m at auction

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:00:31 +0000

An Imperial Chinese vase thought to have been kept at the royal palace in Beijing's Forbidden City sold for more than £9 million at auction tonight.

Forte's forté: hotelier's Lowry collection for sale

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

An L S Lowry painting of an industrial landscape is set to fetch up to £1.8m when it is auctioned at Christie's in London next week. The 1944 artwork is one of 14 Lowrys belonging to the late multimillionaire caterer and hotelier, Lord Forte, who amassed his collection during almost three decades.

Remembrance: Artwork unveiled as prince pays tribute to the fallen

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

An art installation made of poppies is to be unveiled at London's St Paul's Cathedral today to mark Remembrance Day.

Pop goes the record price for a Lichtenstein

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

A painting by Roy Lichtenstein has sold at auction in New York for more than $43m (£27m), a world auction record for a work by the late pop artist.

Gallery returns France's 'stolen' masterpiece

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

France has offered to reach an amicable settlement with a British art dealer over a 17th-century masterpiece which was been missing, believed stolen, for two centuries.

National Gallery: Room for one more at the back

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

Want to make yourself really unpopular at the National Gallery's latest blockbuster exhibition? Then follow the advice of its curator and stand for a full 10 minutes before each Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece whilst "gallery rage" reaches new heights around you.

France bars removal of 'stolen' painting

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

A Franco-British tug of love and money broke out yesterday over a painting which disappeared from a museum in Toulouse in 1818.

It's raining money for Ai Weiwei as backers step in

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

A week after the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was hit with a 15 million yuan (£1.48m) tax bill, the money is landing in the courtyard of his home in the form of paper planes, as wads of cash in envelopes or wrapped around fruit. It's also coming by bank transfer and online payments.

A chance to see the masterpiece that once sold for £45

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

Valued at £126m and billed as one of the most controversial art finds of the century, Salvator Mundi will be unveiled this week at the National Gallery.

Top artists team up for London 2012 posters

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:01:19 +0000

London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games organisers have commissioned a series of posters from 12 of the UK's best-known artists in celebration of the games.

The dodo flies again – as do the great auk, giant moa...

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

There is the dodo, of course, from Mauritius; but there is also the o'o, from Hawaii. There is the great auk from the Outer Hebrides, and the ivory-billed woodpecker, the "Lord God Bird", from the American South.

Unseen Sylvia Plath drawings go on show

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:57:36 +0000

A collection of 44 drawings by the poet Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) never previously exhibited in this country go on show at the Mayor Gallery in London tomorrow. The sketches were given to Plath's daughter, the artist Frieda Hughes, by her poet father and Plath's former husband Ted before he died.

Diary: The talking dead

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:13:40 +0100

It's every teenage girl's dream: a séance with James Franco (above left). The Hollywood actor/ artist/everything will present a new three-part work inspired by Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie inNew York next month.

Serbia: Stolen Picassos found by police

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:00:01 +0100

Police have recovered two paintings by Pablo Picasso stolen in 2008 from a gallery in Switzerland.

Artist gives birth – in an art gallery

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:00:01 +0100

A performance artist who said giving birth is the "highest form of art" has delivered a baby boy – in a New York art gallery.

Time runs out for Germany's master forgers

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 03:00:01 +0100

They look more like old hippies stuck in a San Francisco time warp than the couple who conned the international art world out of an estimated €30m (£26m). He sports worn jeans, a greying blonde mane of shoulder-length hair, a moustache and a beard. Under the unforgiving neon lights of the Cologne courtroom where he is standing trial, 60-year-old Wolfgang Beltracchi looks like a bizarre cross between Frank Zappa and King Charles the First.

Fright at the museum as strike halts £17m unveiling

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 00:00:01 +0100

The grand re-opening of the world's finest collection of Impressionist paintings has been blocked by striking staff at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

Eyes on the Turner Prize

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:00:01 +0100

A dog dirt bin, a pile of crumpled paper and scattered chalk... it's the Turner Prize again. The modern art award fights each year to make headlines. This time around one of the four shortlisted artists has presented a self-deprecating front, naming a landscape of a ruinous urban scene The Same Old Crap, an apparent reference to the repetitive nature of both his art and the prize itself.

Brandy maker unveils Damien Hirst label

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 10:17:16 +0100

A new work of art by the controversial artist Damien Hirst has been unveiled - the label of a bottle of brandy.