The golden ratio: an ancient Greek formula could be responsible for most hit musicals
“What’s the secret to your success?” A simple question asked frequently of those who have achieved greatness in their field. Sometimes, that secret is so well disguised even the successful individual is unaware of its influence. When it comes to…
Much more than music: 10 Eurovision costumes that stole the show
From its humble beginnings in 1956, when just seven nations participated, Eurovision has grown to epic proportions. Known for its kitschy mix of Euro-pop, bizarre choreography and hammy performances, an estimated 182 million viewers tuned in to watch the competition…
The Hekking Mona Lisa – where the value of a painting, even a very good copy, lies
The Mona Lisa, housed in the Louvre in Paris, has been copied many times. The most famous of those copies has to be the Hekking Mona Lisa, named after its previous owner, the antiquarian Raymond Hekking (1886-1977). It’s set to…
Why this Rodin scholar would gladly see the back of The Thinker
I’m a Rodin scholar with a secret: I don’t like The Thinker. I’ve always been vexed by the fame of this sculpture by French artist Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) of a hyper-muscular man lost in thought. It wears a red “Make…
Bringing art into public spaces can improve the social fabric of a city
You don’t need to look far to see the impact of art in public spaces. Art can connect us to place and record history as it unfolds. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, stories on the importance of public art are being…
How photography can build peace and justice in war-torn communities
It’s not easy for most people to think about what peace and justice mean to them, or how to express it. But that’s what we ask people in war-torn communities to do, all around the world. One place we did…
We discovered the earliest prehistoric art is hand prints made by children
Fossilised footprints, and more rarely, hand prints, can be found around the world; left as people went about their daily business, preserved by freak acts of geological preservation. In new research our international team have discovered ancient hand and footprints…
What this collaboration between artists and health-care leaders teaches us about living through COVID-19
A new project that spotlights the strain from COVID-19 on our health systems and the people who work in them has invited health-care leaders and artists to create artworks that illuminate what it has been like leading, working and living…
French Dispatch: four artists whose work was shaped by mental illness
Wes Anderson’s new film The French Dispatch is about the final issue of a magazine that specialises in long-form articles about the goings-on in the fictional town of Ennui-sur-Blasé. The film is an anthology of shorts representing three of the…
How AI is hijacking art history
People tend to rejoice in the disclosure of a secret. Or, at the very least, media outlets have come to realize that news of “mysteries solved” and “hidden treasures revealed” generate traffic and clicks. So I’m never surprised when I…
