The Faber/Observer/Comica graphic short story prize 2022 – enter now!
The annual award for aspiring cartoonists offers the chance to be published in the Observer and win £1,000, with past winners going on to land film and book deals
Swimming Home by Judy Cotton review – a mosaic memoir of a creative life
The Australian artist and journalist has written her first book at 80 – and the result is a confident and lean autobiography, recalling a mother who was ‘determined to be unhappy’
‘Surreal fable’ by Derek Jarman to be published for the first time
The 10,000-word story about a blind young king and his valet will be released this autumn along with an audio version read by Jarman
‘A visceral experience of psychosis’: why one artist spent three years painting bipolar disorder
Creativity has been Matt Ottley’s salvation – but for the artist, composer and children’s book author, it has come at a terrible price
The Queen in culture: how art puts a public face to a private life
She has appeared in plays, novels, paintings – even love songs. From Andy Warhol to Alan Bennett, artists, writers and musicians have changed our picture of the Queen we think we know
On my radar: Eva Rothschild’s cultural highlights
The Irish artist on a thrilling Mexican novel, a lovable comedy about two Cork misfits, and some devastating Mississippi blues
Shift your vibe! 60 quick ways to make yourself slightly happier
Things feeling a bit stale? These small tweaks to your routine will turn things around, boost your mood and could even make you a better person …
Percy Allum obituary
Academic whose bold analysis of Neapolitan politics and the Camorra sent shock waves through the city
My brother the superhero: how the death of comic book legend Steve Dillon inspired a creative awakening
Glyn Dillon designed costumes for Star Wars, while his brother Steve created the Preacher comic strip. When Steve died at 54, Glyn bought a ladder and some vast canvases - and poured his grief into painting
‘They are totally smashing it!’ Bernardine Evaristo on the artistic triumph of older Black women
Artists, novelists, actors, poets: from the Venice Biennale to Bridgerton, Black women in their 50s and 60s are finally getting the recognition they deserve, says the pioneering Booker winner
Lucian Freud exhibition held at Freud Museum for the first time
Exhibition in Sigmund Freud’s family home in Hampstead marks Lucian’s 100th anniversary
The art of resilience: how the museum has endured through crisis
In a new book, author Samuel Redman looks back on times of strife and how arts institutions have responded and survived
Snip it up and start again: the woman who’s reworking the photography canon
Photographer Justine Kurland has sliced and collaged images from 150 renowned books by white male photographers from Brassaï to Stephen Shore. She explains why
The idea of breathing: on being an artist in regional Australia
Painter Lucy Culliton, musician Michael Simic and writer Robyn Cadwallader reflect on the creative power of country NSW
‘A completely different language’: how Ukrainian writers and artists are responding to the war
Across the arts, creators are producing poignant, direct work at speed at the front line of Russia’s war of aggression