Highlights
Art
How David Hockney became an accidental life coach
For all his masterpieces like A Bigger Splash, his greatest work may be teaching us to regard the everyday as a miracle
The artist who hid his best work under a desk
Vyacheslav Akhunov had to keep his subversive art secret from Soviet censors. Now, at 78, he has become an unlikely star of the Venice Biennale
Inside Marilyn Monroe’s image machine
A triumphant National Portrait Gallery exhibition shows how the star created her own myth
Quentin Blake’s marvellous museum
Now 93, the much-loved illustrator best known for his work on Roald Dahl books has realised a long-held dream – the world’s largest space dedicated to illustration
How Helen Frankenthaler became art’s greatest tribute act
Her homages to painters from Monet to Pollock only underline her own unique genius
How Giotto woke up art
In a Padua chapel that became a workshop, he brought tenderness and complexity to biblical figures – and painting would never be the same
Books
A history of Brexit in 256 disasters
A brilliant, forensic, sector-by-sector analysis of the damage done to our economy, our businesses and our daily lives by leaving the European Union
The Long Walk to Freedom of our times: Lucy Connolly publishes memoirs
The childminder jailed for a racist X post is to self-publish her autobiography, A Tweet Too Far? But who is the unlikely-named ghostwriter, Gen Nevis?
How to be an extrovert
Becoming more sociable isn’t about changing who you are, but taking a chance. It’s worth the risk
Angela’s autobiography not set to make millions
The former deputy prime minister has declared the advance for her memoirs – and it’s nowhere near the huge amount touted
The greatest country star you’ve never heard of
Gary Stewart was brilliant, briefly revered and doomed by drug addiction. Now a new biography finally gives him his due
This pro-populism book unwittingly exposes the emptiness at its heart
Frank Furedi’s wearying In Defence of Populism reveals it offers no coherent and workable policy agenda and relies on authoritarian ‘solutions’
Music
We are failing: Rod Stewart, Morrissey and the indescribable hell of the late gig cancellation
A dash from a scrapped concert to a Scotland match has piled on the disappointment for ticket-holders. What would Mark E Smith have made of it all?
How Elvis Costello predicted the rise of Farage
As the singer-songwriter tours his early material, it’s starting to sound like prophecy
The coming collapse of music streaming
The problem is that Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon and the others all offer the same thing. The infinite jukebox is useful and fun, but a change could be on the horizon and it could come from the musicians themselves
How Kylie Minogue remade Australia
Once derided as a ‘singing budgie’, the actor turned pop megastar has redefined what it means to be Australian, and made Britain happier too
The greatest country star you’ve never heard of
Gary Stewart was brilliant, briefly revered and doomed by drug addiction. Now a new biography finally gives him his due
The woman who’s solved the world music appropriation debate
Angélique Kidjo takes back the African sounds borrowed by western artists – and makes better records from them
Film
Disclosure Day is a thrilling finale to Spielberg’s lifelong UFO obsession
A helter-skelter adventure is full of pace and enchantment – with a religious twist
Spielberg’s Disclosure Day is willfully gullible guff for Trump wingnuts
The great director should have thought twice about promoting the conspiracy theories that are now a central plank of US government policy
How Trump explains Disclosure Day and America’s new UFO boom
Steven Spielberg’s new aliens movie arrives at the perfect moment for US conspiracy culture
This is the simple secret of Obsession and Backrooms’s success
They’ve captured a moment of IP fatigue. But more than anything else, they’re good
Nicole Kidman is great. But is she any good?
For every standout performance in The Hours, there’s a stinker like Scarpetta. Yet this is part of her unknowable mystique
The Four Seasons is a very funny taste of the America we miss
Season two’s gentle satire and mid-life angst is catnip for Gen Xers
Theatre
Gary Oldman’s Beckett masterclass
The Slow Horses star follows Gambon and Hurt in Krapp’s Last Tape – and outshines them both
Was Andy Kaufman the most creative comedian of all time?
The Taxi star revelled in creating chaos and confusion
What if Thatcher had been assassinated?
A stage adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s book about an killer and the Tory PM questions both violent rhetoric and violence itself
Has Jacob Rees-Mogg really been banned from ‘woke’ theatres?
The former cabinet minster moans theatres won’t stage his one-man show because they’re woke. Might it be because they’d struggle to sell tickets?
The chaotic magic of Rebecca Lucy Taylor
The singer also known as Self Esteem is phenomenal as she follows revival in a revival of David Hare’s Teeth ’n’ Smiles
Review: Summerfolk at the National turns Gorky sweary – it’s trying far too hard
Four-letter words and modern slang are meant to make this revival accessible, but something has been lost as a result
Great Lives
The tragedy of Majed Abu Maraheel, Palestine’s first Olympic hero
His message of peace brought hope to the world – then war in Gaza played a part in his death
The secrets of the Iron Sheik, the man America loved to hate
The cartoonish villain who turned to cocaine was once an Olympic-calibre wrestler who helped US athletes win gold
The childhood trauma that left Maya Angelou mute for five years
Violence silenced her, before she decided to tell the world about it
How Beyoncé inspired Tina Turner’s last stand
The singer had been living in quiet retirement – then one night changed everything
Was Andy Kaufman the most creative comedian of all time?
The Taxi star revelled in creating chaos and confusion
Tenzing Norgay and the Everest question that wouldn’t go away
Once the world’s tallest mountain had been scaled, they all wanted to know: Who stepped on the summit first?