Simon Houfe obituary
Other lives: Writer dedicated to Avenue House, the remarkable home of his grandfather Professor Sir Albert Richardson, and its art collection
‘All the watering places are crammed with hot people’: on holiday with Dickens
Exhibition at Charles Dickens Museum in London looks at writer’s holiday pursuits, from Kent to the Isle of Wight
Iris Murdoch artworks from secret room go on display – including self-portrait
Second world war paintings and sketches show novelist ‘engaging with her world in a new light’
The Beverly Hills Housewife by James Cahill review – a trip inside Hockney’s world
Muse Betty Freeman sits at the centre of this sun-drenched book about art, eccentricity, and the spirit of Los Angeles
Love me, love my bruised ego: what the narcissist-artist film tells us about the fear of ageing
Bitter Christmas, Late Fame and The Christophers all depict geniuses aware of their waning acclaim and terrified it will end
Sphinxes, movie stars and 3m books: inside Los Angeles’s beloved art deco library
The showcase library’s centenary was celebrated by thousands who filled the still-relevant public institution
‘People are picking the dumbest fights’: the tortured history of America’s culture wars
In a new book, Isaac Butler goes back to the 1980s to trace how battles started against the arts, from Piss Christ to Mapplethorpe, and looks at what we can learn for today
Beth McKillop obituary
Museum curator and scholar with a special focus on Korean art
Depraved by Daisy Dixon review – a history of dark and dangerous art
From classical painting to video games, this survey of the taboo and the twisted won’t let you look away
Game of stones: how paintings of marble reveal a world of magical medieval mysticism
From trippy swirls to blood-soaked slabs, a new book mines gothic and renaissance art for the supernatural significance of the precious rock
Pass the sick bag! Why I published a book on the art of the airline essential
One evoked a hellish trip from Delhi after passengers had drunk unsanitary water. Another conjoured up an era when planes were thick with cigarette smoke. And one man collected them all …
From a Shakespeare First Folio to Bowie’s handwriting: inside Mona’s new $100m library of 30,000 books
After 10 years of planning, four years of construction and a budget that blew out almost 10 times over, Phrontisterion is finally open in Hobart
The Lonely City by Olivia Laing audiobook review – solitude and creativity in Manhattan
Tilda Swinton narrates this landmark study of how New York artists from Edward Hopper to Andy Warhol have lived with loneliness
From Bloomsbury to Whitehall: new play reimagines life of John Maynard Keynes
The Standard of Living by James Graham traces economist’s influence on British politics and culture
Photographer Don McCullin to focus on Vietnam for his final book
Exclusive: The work will feature some of the photographer’s most powerful images from his 70-year career