Zhang Xiaogang on money, art and China

Why does one of the the world's most important artists say the Chinese art market is 'like a parasite'?

Zhang Xiaogang. Photo by Fu Chun Lai

Stories from the Secession - The effects of war

How the optimistic, hedonistic artists of the Viennese Secession responded to the horrors of World War One

The Nameless Ones (1914-16) by Albin Egger-Lienz

James Irvine honoured at Salon del Mobile

The late, great product designer’s monograph gets a custom-made display unit, and its on show in Milan

Our James Irvine book on show in Milan

Phaidon’s Frieze NY interviews – Aki Sasamoto

The Japanese-born New York-based artist on why she is installing a 3D personality test inside the NYC art fair

Aki Sasamoto self portrait

How Leonardo da Vinci used science to elevate art

On the anniversary of his birth, how the Renaissance Master used learning to raise the status of painting

 Leonardo da Vinci's illustrations for a giant crossbow, 1488–1489.

Roger Ballen goes back to Outland #3

How the photographer feared for his life getting this shot in an abandoned house full of criminals and drug addicts

Show Off 2000 - Roger Ballen from his newly updated book Outland

Richard Rogers’s parents house is going to Harvard

The architect’s late sixties creation will serve as a London base for the university’s Graduate School of Design

The Rogers House, 1968, by Richard Rogers

“There are too many police in America”- Danny Lyon

The photographer and veteran civil-rights campaigner offers his take on the recent spate of US police shootings

The Police, Clarksdale, Mississippi 1962 - Danny Lyon from The Seventh Dog

Are you fit for Carsten Höller’s new thrill ride?

The Belgian artist will insist on certain physical and mental criteria from the riders on his forthcoming UK installation

Carsten Höller's Isometric Slides, which will open at the Hayward Gallery in London this June

Rich Torrisi’s Parm is a hit at Yankee Stadium

As the New York baseball ground opens for a new season, one food outlet has already won plaudits

One of Parm's sandwiches

Gastón Acurio's global plan for Peruvian cuisine

Our author hopes his international internship programme will broaden Peru's palate - and the world's

Chef and Phaidon author Gastón Acurio

Stories from the Secession - Art or porn?

Art in Vienna examines how the erotic charge of the Secessionists pushed Viennese society to its limits

Woman with Green Stockings (1917) by Egon Schiele

Dancing on Warhol's Silver Clouds

A new NYC production of Merce Cunningham's 1968 work RainForest brings back Warhol's Mylar balloons

Warhol and his Silver Clouds as photographed by the young Stephen Shore

Why forgery was a good move for Michelangelo

Author Noah Charney explains how a bit of cunning deception helped launched the master artist's career

Statue of Eros Sleeping c. 3rd Century BC – early 1st Century AD, bronze, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Michelangelo’s marble Sleeping Eros sculpture, 1496, now lost, would have taken inspiration from this Hellenistic tradition

Phaidon’s Frieze NY interviews – Samara Golden

The LA artist hopes to reveal hidden depths at this year’s New York art fair, via her Frieze Projects commission

Samara Golden. The Flat Side of the Knife, MOMA/PS1, New York, 2014 Installation shot looking down from the 2nd floor and into a mirrored floor reflecting a surgical bed. Stairways, sofas, beds, tables, lamps, fans and instruments made of reflective foam insulation coated in resin. Video projection, Live video feed, Video mixer, CRT Monitor, 3 soundtracks. Photo courtesy of the artist

Cameron, Milliband and Clegg as Mexican wrestlers

Design agencies Pentagram, Applied Wayfinding and Handsome visualise Britain's main parties as pictograms

Party political designs courtesy of (from left) Applied Wayfinding, B&B Studio, Handsome Brands and Household. Image courtesy of Blueprint magazine.

Modern stadium draws on ancient motifs

Can you spot the medieval architectural influences in this Anatolian soccer facility, currently under construction?

 Konya City Stadium by Bahadir Kul

Bjarke Ingels goes to the bathroom

Acclaimed architect’s design team creates faucets for high-end American fixtures firm Kallista

Bjarke Ingel's Taper collection for Kallista

Stories from the Secession - Otto Wagner's revolt

How the inspired Austrian architect came to rebel against his own work, as revealed in our book Art in Vienna

Otto Wagner Main counter hall of the Postparkasse as depicted in Art in Vienna 1898-1918

Phaidon’s Frieze NY interviews – Pia Camil

We speak to 2015's Frieze Projects participants, including Pia Camil, the artist giving away clothes at the fair

Documentation photograph of frieze projects process, 2015. Courtesy of the artist.

Massimo and Magnus serve up secrets in new show

Chef’s Table, a new Netflix series, goes inside the lives and kitchens of six of the world’s most famous chefs

Massimo Bottura in Chef's Table

'Even modernists like Mies loved bricks. . .'

From Bavarian viaducts to Mesopotamian zigurats, Brick author William Hall also loves them - we ask him why

Technical Administration Building of Hoechst AG Frankfurt, Germany, 1924 Peter Behrens

The Store Detective: Carturesti Carusel, Bucharest

Books provide a happy ending to this cavernous 19th century bank building in Bucharest’s old town

Carturesti Carusel by Square One. Photograph by Cosmin Dragomir

Zhang Xiaogang explained in 5 paintings

How Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo and Richter all inform the work of China's most important contemporary painter

Bloodline - Big Family No 3 (1995) by Zhang Xiaogang

Noma's new locally sourced soundtrack

Danish band Efterklang have recorded a 67-minute work especially for the Copenhagen restaurant's restrooms

Sourcing field recordings for Efterklang's Stream of Noma. Courtesy of efterklang.net.

Stories from the Secession - Radical music and art

The Viennese Secessionist artists didn't just limit their influence to painting, as Art In Vienna explains

Alfred Roller's set design sketch for Elektra by Richard Strauss, 1909

Le Corbusier's art goes on show in Paris

The architect's paintings and collages are the subject of a joint show at two Parisian galleries

Corde et Verres (1954) by Le Corbusier

Roger Ballen goes back to Outland #2

The photographer revisits his 1995 photo, Woman, man and dog from his seminal book Outland


A stainless steel tribute to Jean Prouvé

Anne Démians' Quai Quest in Nancy, France, draws on Prouvé’s mid-century work to reinvigorate his home city

Quai Quest by Anne Démians

The LA landmark set to become a design museum

Is this contemporary art and design museum just the kind of investment Los Angeles’ Old Bank District needs?

The Old Bank District Museum by Tom Wiscombe Architecture. Image courtesy of Tom Wiscombe Architecture.

Spend a day in London with Wallpaper* City Guides

Follow Instagram icon Joe Pickard as he 'works' his way through Wallpaper* City Guides' 24 hour guide

Bourne & Hollingsworth Buildings photo by Michael Franke

The man who linked Rodin to Stephen Shore

Edward Steichen, born on this day in 1879, linked 19th Century European artists to 20th century NYC innovators

Edward Steichen and Ellen Erwitt (1953), New York, by Elliott Erwitt; as reproduced in the great Elliott Erwitt book, Snaps

Want to swap a good book for a great one?

Bring your old art books to MoMA tomorrow and you could get some fabulous Phaidon ones - and meet an artist!


Stories from the Secession - Klimt's The Kiss

Extravagant and ecstatic this masterpiece is as much a celebration of colour and texture as the act of love


Anish Kapoor 'I want to write a grand opera...'

'... and deal with the big human issues.' But, he tells us, 'One would kid oneself to believe one could do all that'

Installation view: Anish Kapoor Lisson Gallery 25 March - 9 May 2015 Courtesy the artist and Lisson Gallery

Doug Fishbone’s Biennale Golf Course

The American artist brings his mini-golf course to Venice in time for the 2015 Biennale this May

Doug Fishbone's Venetian mini-golf course

The designs Alessi declined

A new exhibition shows the products by Zaha Hadid, Ettore Sottsass and co that never made it into production

Coffee maker, 1982, by Denis Santachiara for Alessi. From Alessi - In-Possible

If you've got it - flaunt it!

Fashioning the Body is a great show examining ways in which we've 'enhanced our offering' over the years

Langtry bustle “strapontin”. France, 1887. Satin, braid, cotton lacing, crocheted lace, metal armature, fasteners, eyelets. Les Arts Décoratifs, collection Union française des arts du costume. Photography by Patricia Canino

Why would an architect burn a wooden building?

The Phaidon Atlas focuses on an ancient Japanese preservation technique employed by contemporary architects

Ring House by Makoto Takei and Chie Nabeshima/TNA

Seeing LA through Rauschenberg’s eyes

Do Rauschenberg’s Los Angeles photos suggest he could have been a great documentary photographer?

Los Angeles, 1981, from “Photos In + Out City Limits”. Art © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, N.Y.

Anish Kapoor ‘An artist’s job is to say I’m lost’

We catch up with the sculptor and painter at the launch of a show of new work at the Lisson Gallery

Anish Kapoor at the Lisson Gallery 24 March 2015 - photo courtesy film maker Laura Bushell

Stories from the Secession - how Vienna led the world

Our book Art in Vienna looks back at the radical developments that took place in the Austrian capital a century ago

Gustav Klimt, The Virgin, 1912–13, oil on canvas, 190 x 200 cm (74¾ x 78¾ in) (National Gallery, Prague)

'Bruce Nauman cares about the human condition'

Grazia Quaroni, curator at the Fondation Cartier in Paris, explains a puzzling new Bruce Nauman show

Portrait of Bruce Nauman, 2009

What do you think of Spotify's new look?

It's goodbye to the green as designers Collins give music streaming service a great new 60's inspired identity

Pharrell Williams and Collins' new visual identity for Spotify

Shoshanna's off to Japan and she's got a great guide!

The series four finale of Girls last night had a host of surprises - not least the inclusion of our Wallpaper* City Guide

Our Wallpaper* City Guide to Tokyo as featured on HBO's Girls last night

The amazing life story of Tancred Borenius

The author of our Rembrandt classic spied for Britain, hung with the Bloomsbury Group, was an art advisor to earls, spoke nine languages fluently and, most importantly, may even have helped the allies win World War II

Tancred Borenius, author of our Rembrandt book

Alex Atala gets two Michelin Stars!

D.O.M.'s founder becomes the first and only Brazilian chef to score two stars in the inaugural guide to his country

Alex Atala, head chef and founder of the double Michelin-starred D.O.M. restaurant, São Paulo

Hiroshi Sugimoto creates his own museum

After his criticism of museums by OMA and Libeskind the photographer is designing his own coastal art complex

The Odawara Art Foundation's Enoura complex, by Hiroshi Sugimoto

One thing not to miss in Paris

Spring has sprung and with it comes a new Wallpaper* City Guide, packed with cool things to see and do

Department of Islamic Art, The Louvre, Paris - as featured in the Wallpaper* City Guide

Who will save Michael Heizer's City?

Why does this storied work of land art need to be protected, before it is even finished?

City by Michael Heizer. Photos: Tom Vinetz/© Triple Aught Foundation

Why Heatherwick's hub is made for modern learning

The British designer hopes this towering new university facility in Singapore will encourage impromptu exchanges

The Learning Hub, Singapore by Heatherwick Studiok. Photograph by Hufton and Crow

Is this New Orleans’ answer to the London Eye?

A local firm hopes to build this double-helix gondola-lift tower in time to celebrate the city's 300th anniversary

The New Orleans Tricentennial Tower

What's William Eggleston doing in Brazil?

The 75-year-old photographer insisted on a car and a knowledgeable driver when he visited Rio this month...


The amazing life story of Wilhelm Uhde

The author of our Van Gogh classic was an early champion of Braque and naïve art, sat for Picasso, was sheltered by the French Resistance and became the subject of an award winning film - he was a pretty fine writer too!

Wilhelm Uhde - Art collector and Van Gogh author

What was Louis Kahn working on, the day he died?

The architect died at Penn Station on this day in 1974, when his briefcase was opened it contained these sketches

The plans for the Four Freedoms Park - Louis I Kahn

JR is coming to the Tribeca Film Festival!

The brilliant French artist premiers his short film at the New York City festival next month

De Niro, JR and happy friends pictured earlier this month

Jerry Saltz on medieval art, censorship and Facebook

The New York magazine critic discusses his love for Dark Ages art, and how it got him kicked off social media

Jerry Saltz - about to get medieval on your ass?

Arne Glimcher loves our Zhang Xiaogang book!

The influential Pace Gallery founder, speaking at Art Basel HK, says it's 'unique in the lexicon of monographs'

Zhang Xiaogang with Arne Glimcher at Art Basel Hong Kong, March 2015

Roger Ballen goes back to Outland

In the first of a new series, the photographer revisits the characters in his seminal photographic book Outland

Puppy Between Feet (1999) - Roger Ballen photograph taken from Outland

A Google Doodle for the author of the first photobook

How the botanist Anna Atkins, born today in 1799, created the first photography book over 170 years ago

Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843-53) by Anna Atkins

Michael Graves RIP

One of the influential 'New York Five' architects and designer of the postmodern Blue Bird Kettle dies at 80

Michael Graves

Alex Prager’s knee-high perspective

The Californian photographer’s new Hong Kong show offers a childlike view of her idiosyncratic vision


Okwui Enwezor invites Karl Marx to Venice!

The curator themes this year's Biennale around All The World's Futures with a marathon reading of Das Kapital

Okwui Enwezor in Venice, 2015. Photograph by Giorgio Zucchiatti

Rising Star - Éric Kayser enters Best Bakers Top 10

French baker and Phaidon author is in Dessert Professional's 2015 hit list of US talent

Master baker and Phaidon author Éric Kayser

What's Bjarke Ingels done to the skyscraper?

Danish firm's wedge-shaped blocks fit into modest city plot and boast plenty of room at the top

The Kuala Lumpur Signature Tower by Bjarke Ingels Group

This year's Pritzker Prize winner on last year's

Shortly before his death this week, Frei Otto outlined his admiration for Shigeru Ban - this is what he told us

Otto Frei pictured in his Stuttgart home office photo courtesy Pritzer Prize

Paul McCarthy joins the skateboard economy

Baldessari, Ballen, Warhol and Wool all have trucks on their designs - now the Phaidon artist does too

Paul McCarthy with his new skateboard series at the MoMA store in New York City. Image courtesy of theskateroom.com

Dismantling Shiro Kuramata's sushi bar

The painstaking work Hong Kong's M+ museum put into preserving his classic interior is revealed in new video

The Kiyotomo sushi bar, by Shiro Kuramata

Bricks are beautiful at this boutique hotel

Bangkok firm Onion creates remarkably modern hotel from remarkably ancient man-made building material

Sala Ayutthaya by Onion

One thing not to miss in Hong Kong

In town for Art Basel HK? Take time off at the highest bar in the world, as featured in our Wallpaper* City Guide app

Ozone. Photography by Marcel Lam

Wolfgang Tillmans wins the 2015 Hasselblad Award

Swedish photographic institution cites and celebrates the artist's skill for expressing 'the fragility of images'

Silver Installation VII, 2009, 26 colour photographs, 306 x 843 cm, installation view at the Venice Biennale, 2009

Photos that changed the world #10 Derrick Cross

On the anniversary of his untimely death we look at how Robert Mapplethorpe's astonishing 1983 photograph mixed potent sexual and political imagery - proving that photography could appeal to both the mind and the senses

Derrick Cross, 1983 by Robert Mapplethorpe

Sacred Stories: The Buddhist Meditation Centre

How a group of Dutch Buddhists came to meditate in a thirteen-bedroom mansard barn in rural Europe

The Buddhist Meditation Centre Metta Vihara, by Bureau SLA, Hengstdijk, The Netherlands, 2012. Photo by Jeroen Musch

Yin Xiuzhen on China, smoking and freedom

The contemporary Chinese artist tells us about her early life, some key influences and new work

Yin Xiuzhen inside her installation Heterotopic Cavity, 2009

Massimo Bottura is baking bones on CNN tonight

The chef and Phaidon author travels to London to take part in the channel's gastronomy show, Culinary Journeys

Massimo and St John's Fergus Henderson in London. Image courtesy of Massimo's Instagram

Richard Prince, fashion photographer

The American artist's appropriated fashion-magazine photography goes on show in New York this week

untitled (fashion) (1982-84) by Richard Prince. Image courtesy of Richard Prince Studio, Rensselaerville, NY

Heatherwick and BIG design Google’s moveable HQ

The European architects have designed a complex that can be reconfigured to suit the firm's changing needs

Google's North Bayshore campus proposal, by Bjarke Ingels and Thomas Heatherwick. Courtesy of Google

What to look out for at this week's Armory Show

Don't miss new work by Phaidon artists Wolfgang Tillmans, Isa Genzken, Yayoi Kusama and Monica Bonvicini

The Armory's Pier 94. Image courtesy of Roberto Chamorro for The Armory Show

Would you back the Warhol family movie?

Warhol’s great niece, Abby Warhola, and her relatives are making a film about their take on the pop artist

Andy Warhol with niece Mary Lou and nephew Jamie, circa 1964. Photo courtesy of the Warhola Family.

Paris gets a concrete wave right beside Euro Disney

Paris architect Jean-Philippe Pargade uses bridge-building technology to create undulating academic facility

The Paris Est Scientific and Technical Centre by Pargade Architectes. Photo by Luc Boegly.

Five buildings bringing brick back

How one of the oldest materials is being worked into contemporary architecture in some very surprising ways

Pinar House - MO+G Taller de Arquitectura

Isa Genzken shows us the money

Why has the German artist worked coins and notes into her latest series of paintings?

Isa Genzken, Geldbild IX (2014). © Isa Genzken. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth London

Jeff Koons' Piglet is bound for California

Koons' 18-1/2 foot high rendering of the Winnie the Pooh character will stand beside the new Sacramento stadium

A rendering of the Sacramento Kings stadium, with Koons' Coloring Book sculpture in the foreground

When John Cage met Robert Rauschenberg

How the artist’s seemingly simple paintings inspired one of the most challenging compositions of the 20th century

White Painting (seven panel) (1951) by Robert Rauschenberg

The latest example of the Guggenheim effect?

Arquipélago - Contemporary Arts Centre in the Azores hopes to draw in an international art and architecture crowd

Arquipélago - Contemporary Arts Centre, São Miguel island, the Azores. Photo by José Campos.

Want to know what's inspiring Magnus Nilsson?

The colour blue, monastery life and lupin beans will inform the Swedish chef's menu next season

Fäviken Magasinet

Ancient river inspires Taipei's stunning new museum

KRIS YAO|ARTECH says its New Taipei City Museum of Art draws inspiration from the site's natural environment

The New Taipei City Museum of Art by KRIS YAO|ARTECH

A Movement in a Moment: Minimalism

How a band of NYC artists rejected the ideas of an earlier generation, reducing art to its essentials

The Marriage of Reason and Squalor II (1959) by Frank Stella

Is Steve McCurry's Afghan Girl on the run again?

Reports today suggest the woman in McCurry's photo has been living illegally in Pakistan under an assumed name

Afghan Girl, Peshawar, Pakistan, 1984, by Steve McCurry

Have you heard about the boutique inside Noma?

While René and co are away, Club Monaco has set up store inside the Copenhagen restaurant

Club Monaco's pop-up inside Noma, Copenhagen. Image courtesy of Club Monaco

Want to know a bit more about JR?

The globe-trotting French contemporary artist is the subject of a great career retrospective in Hong Kong

28 Millimètres: Women are Heroes; swimming pool, Intercontintental Hotel, Monrovia, Liberia, 2008, 2008©JR-­‐ART.NET, Courtesy Galerie Perrotin

Winslow Homer and American Realism

How the artist, born this day in 1836, turned European sensibilities on 19th Century American subjects

Breezing Up (A Fair Wind) 1873-6 by Winslow Homer

Who fancies a bit of African Modernism?

The Vitra Design Museum's new exhibition examines the striking buildings that arose after African independence

Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Nairobi (Kenya), von/by Karl Henrik Nostvik, 1967-1973, Foto/photo: © Iwan Baan

'I can’t get rid of my trashiness' – John Currin

The painter, subject of the Gagosian's Oscars weekend exhibition, considers the problems of high art in a pop age

John Currin, Fortune Teller (detail), 2014. Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian Gallery. (c) John Currin.

Watch Richard Wentworth describe artistic skill

Why does the British sculptor and photographer feel that artists reach their goals by ‘walking backwards’?

Richard Wentworth, as drawn by Phaidon's Creative Director Julia Hasting for AKADAMIE X

Martin Parr's Bad Weather goes to Switzerland

The rainy, snowy and foggy images from Martin Parr's first photo book go on show at a Geneva gallery next month


Scholten & Baijings are in Designs of the Year 2015

The Dutch duo and Phaidon authors’ Strap Chair will feature alongside works by Frank Gehry and Raf Simons

Strap Chair by Schotlen & Baijings

Playmobil create a Bauhaus-inspired 'mansion'

Is the German toy firm trying to court big kids with a play house inspired by another great Teutonic institution?

Playmobil's Modern Luxury Mansion

‘I’m a nutcase when I get to the studio!’

Legendary Pop artist Peter Saul is working on a picture of Donald Duck versus Mondrian. What’s that about?

Superman in the Electric Chair (1967) by Peter Saul

Magnus Nilsson to collect the White Guide award

The Fäviken chef is chosen for the 2015 ‘Nobel of gastronomy’, in part for his innovative use of microbiology

Magnus Nilsson foraging for the Fäviken kitchen