Steve McQueen’s provocative art project reaches its final stage in London this weekend, featuring 160 postage stamp-size portraits of UK soldiers killed in Iraq

The artist says: Thanks for reading my contemporary art blog! If you are involved in the art and culture industry in any way, and would like …

Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist who will soon take over Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, on why he wants to tell people that it’s OK to speak out
Dan Chung
Tania Branigan

The artist says: Thanks for reading my contemporary art blog! If you are involved in the art and culture industry in …

From clashes of pop culture to doodles, sculpture to collage, the ambiguity of Hofer’s work frees us from history as it drags us in
It seems that anything goes in Andreas Hofer’s artistic universe. You’re as likely to encounter dinosaurs as comic-book heroes, Nazis, Sigmund Freud, John Wayne, Veronica Lake or …

The stuckists have retaliated to a post in which I called them enemies of art by naming their new show after it. Um, thanks
It’s lovely to see your own portrait in an exhibition – especially when it has been painted by Raphael. The Renaissance master is no slouch when it …

A new V&A exhibition traces the history of British quilting, showcasing elegant bedspreads from the 1700s as well as contemporary designs by Tracey Emin and Grayson Perry

The artist says: Thanks for reading my contemporary art blog! If you are involved in the art and culture industry in any way, …

Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist who will soon take over Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, on why he wants to tell people that it’s OK to speak out
Dan Chung
Tania Branigan

The artist says: Thanks for reading my contemporary art blog! If you are involved in the art and culture industry in …

Jules George, 41, has just returned from being embedded with British troops in Afghanistan
The simple objective for a war artist is to record a particular war. You could ask why film and photography is not enough. I think that due to the very nature of painting or drawing, one can …

The V&A’s new quilts show is already causing a stir, with international enthusiasts block-booking hotels in west London. Viv Groskop finds out what all the fuss is about
As you step through the heavy wooden doors into the V&A’s new quilts exhibition, the first thing you see is a four-poster bed, draped with …

Landscape and portrait artist often described as the father of Jamaican painting

Albert Huie, who has died aged 89, was often described as the father of Jamaican painting. Although he produced folkloric genre pieces, his main concern was with his island’s rich landscape and the physical beauty of its people.
His appreciation …

Theatre composer to sell Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto, which is predicted to fetch between £30m-£40m at auction

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s charitable foundation is to make a second attempt to sell one of its most valuable possessions: a Picasso blue period portrait which Christie’s today said would have the largest …