Unseen JRR Tolkien paintings, photographs and video clips released
Estate of Lord of the Rings author also publishes unseen draft manuscripts and letters on its website
The Guardian view on Jan Pieńkowski: funny, frightening, brilliant
Editorial: The artist understood that children can be scared by books – safely
Jan Pieńkowski obituary
Illustrator and creator of the Meg and Mog children’s books, who also used pop-up and paper cut-outs to thrilling effect
On my radar: Akala’s cultural highlights
The rapper, presenter and author on the album he’s listening to a lot, Idris Elba’s mean side, and the enduring power of Tupac
Kurt Schwitters’ unknown portrait sitter identified as wartime German spy
Historian finds that one of the subjects the artist painted while he was detained by the British alongside other refugees who had fled the Nazis was Ludwig Warschauer, who later confessed to espionage
A rainforest cries: music, art, books and more to help you deal with climate anxiety
From Noname’s new single to Bruegel’s vision of a lost world, our critics offer up culture for processing the impending crisis
‘Adults are banning books, but they’re not asking our opinions’: meet the teens of the Banned Book Club
Conservatives are pushing to ban books from school libraries. At a time of crisis, a group of Pennsylvania teenagers are fighting back
Well-dressed and distressed: why sad young women are the latest book cover trend
Their lives are tough. Their clothes are stylish. Their faces are hidden. The cover girls of today’s book have a lot in common – but are they here to stay?
Mystery artist’s sculptures from classic Scottish books raise £50,000
Money from auction of works left around country to be found by passersby will fund reading charity
Diego Rivera by Francisco de la Mora and José Luis Pescador review – rumbustious hymn to a radical artist
The eventful life of Frida Kahlo’s revolutionary husband makes for a rich, energetic graphic biography
Nicholas Thirkell obituary
Designer who shook up ideas of what a book cover should be and gave the Independent newspaper its distinctive look
Vote with your feet: film, music, art and more to engage you politically
From the heroic Mr Smith using political institutions to clear his name to Naomi Klein’s exposé of the sharp end of globalisation, our critics choose political cultural works that inspire
Bacon in Moscow by James Birch review – darkly funny account of art behind the iron curtain
Spats, KGB threats, dodgy Soviet plumbing… a London gallerist’s vivid memoir of organising a Francis Bacon show in the USSR really brings the artist to life
Mapping fiction: the complicated relationship between authors and literary maps
In a new exhibition, the long, difficult history of literary maps is explored, from James Joyce to Raymond Chandler
Ways of Seeing at 50: how John Berger’s radical TV series changed our view of art
It was an unlikely choice for BBC Two to schedule against Match of the Day. But Berger’s series and book now forms the bedrock of how we interpret art and advertising