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  • ✇The Guardian World news
  • Printmaking skills of Manet, Van Gogh and more celebrated in Bath show Steven Morris
    Exhibition explores how artists mainly known for their paintings helped revive a skill that had fallen out of fashionThey may be best known for their vibrant oil paintings but an exhibition opening in the English West Country is focusing instead on the subtle printmaking skills of artists such as Édouard Manet, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin.More than 50 prints created mainly by impressionists, post-impressionists and cubists are going on display at the Holburne Museum in Bath. Continue readi
     

Printmaking skills of Manet, Van Gogh and more celebrated in Bath show

17 May 2026 at 15:00

Exhibition explores how artists mainly known for their paintings helped revive a skill that had fallen out of fashion

They may be best known for their vibrant oil paintings but an exhibition opening in the English West Country is focusing instead on the subtle printmaking skills of artists such as Édouard Manet, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin.

More than 50 prints created mainly by impressionists, post-impressionists and cubists are going on display at the Holburne Museum in Bath.

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© Photograph: Karen Robinson/The Guardian

© Photograph: Karen Robinson/The Guardian

© Photograph: Karen Robinson/The Guardian

  • ✇The Guardian World news
  • Czech police find stolen skull of medieval saint encased in concrete Agence France-Presse in Prague
    Man arrested after admitting to taking relic from church and planning to throw it in river, say policeAn 800-year-old relic believed to be the skull of Saint Zdislava, stolen this week from a Czech church, has been recovered encased in concrete as experts work to extract it, police have said.A suspect has been arrested, who allegedly confessed to taking the skull of Saint Zdislava of Lemberk from a glass shrine in the basilica of St Lawrence and St Zdislava in the town of Jablonné v Podještědí o
     

Czech police find stolen skull of medieval saint encased in concrete

Man arrested after admitting to taking relic from church and planning to throw it in river, say police

An 800-year-old relic believed to be the skull of Saint Zdislava, stolen this week from a Czech church, has been recovered encased in concrete as experts work to extract it, police have said.

A suspect has been arrested, who allegedly confessed to taking the skull of Saint Zdislava of Lemberk from a glass shrine in the basilica of St Lawrence and St Zdislava in the town of Jablonné v Podještědí on Tuesday.

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© Photograph: CTK/Alamy

© Photograph: CTK/Alamy

© Photograph: CTK/Alamy

Renowned feminist artist and film-maker Valie Export dies aged 85

Export’s performances scandalised Austria in the 1960s, but are now recognised for exposing the objectification of the female body

Valie Export, the Austrian performance artist and film-maker who inverted the male gaze in ways that were provocative, shocking and often outrageously fun, has died aged 85.

The artist’s own foundation announced on Thursday evening that Export died in Vienna earlier the same day, three days before her 86th birthday.

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© Photograph: Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images

Arts and cultural engagement ‘linked to slower pace of biological ageing’

Research from UCL suggests visiting art galleries or museums, singing and painting can help improve health outcomes

Singing, painting or visiting a gallery or museum helps people age more slowly, according to the latest study to link taking an active interest in art and culture with improved health.

The findings are the first to show that both participating in arts activities and attending events, such as viewing an exhibition, lead to people staying biologically younger.

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© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

Soft armour, pert nipples: how London design team made Kim Kardashian’s Met Gala breastplate

Whitaker Malem worked with pop art sculptor Allen Jones, visual artist Nadia Lee Cohen and a car bodyshop in Kent

At Monday’s Met Gala, it inevitably fell to Kim Kardashian to deliver the evening’s biggest jolt. One of the few celebrities to straightforwardly interpret the “fashion is art” dress code – which focused on how the dressed and undressed human body is the through-line in most works of art – she decided to forgo her usual role as a walking billboard for a major fashion house and instead arrived in an orange fibreglass breastplate created by a small east London art duo and a car bodyshop in Kent.

“Good art should start conversation, and Kim did exactly that,” says 61-year-old Patrick Whitaker, half of the design practice Whitaker Malem, who made the breastplate just weeks before the gala. “She was very clear on wanting a breastplate, very clear on the car body finish. And I think she was nervous really. She understands the competition.”

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© Photograph: Aaron Idelson

© Photograph: Aaron Idelson

© Photograph: Aaron Idelson

  • ✇The Guardian World news
  • Story of enslaved boy featured in 1748 Joshua Reynolds portrait emerges in new study Steven Morris
    Exclusive: Until now nothing was known about ‘Jersey’, depicted with naval officer, but research raises hopes he may have won freedomFor hundreds of years, he was known only as “Jersey”, an enslaved boy of about 11 rendered in oil on canvas by the great 18th-century portrait painter Sir Joshua Reynolds.But now the life of the youngster, believed to be Reynolds’ earliest depiction of a person of colour, has begun to emerge, thanks to a research project. Continue reading...
     

Story of enslaved boy featured in 1748 Joshua Reynolds portrait emerges in new study

8 May 2026 at 04:00

Exclusive: Until now nothing was known about ‘Jersey’, depicted with naval officer, but research raises hopes he may have won freedom

For hundreds of years, he was known only as “Jersey”, an enslaved boy of about 11 rendered in oil on canvas by the great 18th-century portrait painter Sir Joshua Reynolds.

But now the life of the youngster, believed to be Reynolds’ earliest depiction of a person of colour, has begun to emerge, thanks to a research project.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Matthew Hollow/National Trust

© Photograph: Matthew Hollow/National Trust

© Photograph: Matthew Hollow/National Trust

  • ✇The Guardian World news
  • Archibald prize 2026: Richard Lewer’s portrait of artist Iluwanti Ken wins $100,000 Kelly Burke
    Australia’s most prominent portrait prize was announced on Friday at the Art Gallery of NSW, where the finalist exhibition will open on SaturdayArchibald prize 2026 finalists: Virginia Trioli, Jan Fran, Ahmed al-Ahmed and more – in picturesRichard Lewer has been awarded the 2026 Archibald prize for his portrait of Pitjantjatjara elder, traditional healer and senior artist Iluwanti Ken.The New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based artist – a six-time Archibald finalist – was announced as the winner of th
     

Archibald prize 2026: Richard Lewer’s portrait of artist Iluwanti Ken wins $100,000

8 May 2026 at 02:21

Australia’s most prominent portrait prize was announced on Friday at the Art Gallery of NSW, where the finalist exhibition will open on Saturday

Richard Lewer has been awarded the 2026 Archibald prize for his portrait of Pitjantjatjara elder, traditional healer and senior artist Iluwanti Ken.

The New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based artist – a six-time Archibald finalist – was announced as the winner of the $100,000 prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales on Friday. The judging panel, comprised of the gallery’s trustees, selected the work unanimously from a field of 59 finalists whittled down from 1,034 entries.

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© Photograph: Jenni Carter

© Photograph: Jenni Carter

© Photograph: Jenni Carter

  • ✇The Guardian World news
  • Pussy Riot protest at Venice Biennale forces Russian pavilion to briefly close Lanre Bakare in Venice
    Demonstrators, angered by Russia’s inclusion at arts festival, shouted ‘Curated by Putin, dead bodies included’The Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale was forced temporarily to shut its doors on the second day of the preview after the activist group Pussy Riot staged a chaotic protest against the country’s inclusion in the art festival.Wearing pink balaclavas, the protesters ran towards the Russian pavilion where they gathered outside and lit pink, blue and yellow flares while playing punk m
     

Pussy Riot protest at Venice Biennale forces Russian pavilion to briefly close

Demonstrators, angered by Russia’s inclusion at arts festival, shouted ‘Curated by Putin, dead bodies included’

The Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale was forced temporarily to shut its doors on the second day of the preview after the activist group Pussy Riot staged a chaotic protest against the country’s inclusion in the art festival.

Wearing pink balaclavas, the protesters ran towards the Russian pavilion where they gathered outside and lit pink, blue and yellow flares while playing punk music and shouting slogans, including “Blood is Russia’s Art”.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

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