There used to be a habit, among ladies who didn’t wear hats very often, of putting the said number too far back on their heads. Wedding parties could be recognised by the number of coloured acrylic wide brims teetering backwards.

Loved up

For transcendence with an on-and-off switch, there's nothing like neon.

An exhibition uses readymade objects to question the excesses of the contemporary art market

Chess has featured, famously, in the work  of artists for centuries.

Tip off

'My strategy was simple. I never said no to anything'

Forget highbrow galleries, auction houses and polite wine-sipping private views, today Britain's leading artists will be flogging their wares from their car boots.

A thousand artists were asked to name the work best expressing national identity. Their choice was surprising

The Whitechapel Gallery in east London is holding the first major retrospective of Gillian Wearing. Adrian Hamilton is moved by her deeply affecting films and photographs

A leading ceramics hoard, destined for sale to fill a pensions gap, may be rescued

The Crisis Commission exhibition sees some of the most celebrated artists unite to bring major new works to Somerset House.

'There was something on the menu that sounded rude, so of course she had to order it'

The master of whimsy wears his art-school credentials on his sleeve, but his ideas feel derivative and the jokes wear thin