Culture to cheer you up during the second lockdown: part one
As parts of the UK enters another month – at least – of being stuck indoors, our critics pick out top music, games, books, TV, dance and art fixes to lift your spirits
From Art Basel to live theater: your guide to fall’s top digital cultural events
With arts festivals forced to go digital, the best in theater, dance and art are available to a wider audience than ever before
On my radar: Elizabeth Strout’s cultural highlights
The novelist on the comfort of Edward Hopper, visiting a ghost town in Maine, and singing while scrubbing the bathtub
‘A roadmap to redemption’: how a photographer helped a prisoner see beyond his cage
After a Minnesota inmate wrote to Alec Soth on impulse this year, the two began a freewheeling exchange of ideas on culture and isolation that developed into an astonishing new book
Shalom Schotten obituary
Other lives: Graphic designer for Thames & Hudson who worked closely with artists such as David Hockney
On my radar: John Cooper Clarke’s cultural highlights
The poet on vintage TV, elegant writing about architecture and Dylan’s endearing take on the Great American Songbook
Not all doom and gloom: UK cultural highlights for autumn
From books to ballet, from big to small screen, from art to theatre, there is much to enjoy despite the pandemic
Chris Killip, hard-hitting photographer of Britain’s working class, dies aged 74
Influential artist, hailed by Martin Parr as a ‘key player’ in British photography, captured human dignity amid industrial decline in England’s north-east
On my radar: Russell Tovey’s cultural highlights
The actor on David Byrne’s kooky show, the joy of mountain walks and a moving memoir by a gay Muslim
Brian Adams’ best photograph: Robert, William and John in an Inuit steam house
‘Many Inuit villages don’t have running water so most homes have a steam house. They go in and just sweat it out’
Michelle Wolf to Melania’s roses: the arts and pop culture that sum up the Trump era
CocoRosie’s call to arms, the rage of Sweat, Arthur Jafa’s white supremacy montage and the first lady’s grand designs … Guardian writers pick the works that encapsulate Trump’s reign
Stuart Durant obituary
Other lives: Lecturer and author of books on design and architectural history
Kissing cowboys: the queer rodeo stars bucking a macho American tradition
Photographer Luke Gilford couldn’t believe his eyes when he first stumbled across a gay rodeo. He set out to capture the joyous, tender, authentic world he saw there
Blood splatters, soul soda and a giant George Michael: inside Brent’s biennial
From a pandemic memorial to stackable cubes and an epic mural of the Wham! star, small and inviting exhibitions keep the focus local in this inaugural festival
The Lives of Lucian Freud: Fame 1968-2011 by William Feaver – review
The second volume of Feaver’s compelling biography reveals the ruthlessness behind the artist’s brilliance