How was 2014 for Zhang Xiaogang?
The major Chinese artist looks back at last year’s Korean show, and forward to his Prague retrospective

How was 2014 for Danny Lyon?
The year the legendary photographer and activist turned his attention towards climate change

How was 2014 for Laura Carlin?
The author of our new book for younger readers made a tile wall in East London and prepared for her solo show

How was 2014 for Gerry Badger?
The co-author of The Photobook: A History enjoyed Italian documentary photographers and met Josef Koudelka

How was 2014 for Joe Warwick?
He worked on an expanded Where Chefs Eat, readied himself for a stint at Noma Japan and stuck up for Soho

How was 2014 for Yin Xiuzhen?
Environmental change, bewilderment at human greed and a new art language all played a part in her work

How was 2014 for Hans Eijkelboom?
The Dutch photographer found enlightenment in Portuguese poetry and British shopping centres

Gombrich Explains Christian Iconography
The art historian charts the primitive and sophisticated methods that created Christian imagery

How was 2014 for Joel Meyerowitz?
Late period Matisse proved an inspiration, and working with film maker Ralph Goertz helped him find himself

How was 2014 for Steve McCurry?
He focused his lens on Syrian refugee camps, the plight of domestic servants and the lives of coffee growers

How was 2014 for Roger Ballen?
Dreams, nature, and hearing the word 'Ballenesque' used to describe another piece of art all made it a great year

Jane Hornby’s quick and easy Christmas cake recipe
Did you forget to bake one? Don't panic! With this recipe you can have your cake and eat it in just a few hours

How was 2014 for Massimo Bottura?
Pretty spectacular as you'd expect! Our skinny Italian chef recalls the highpoints of a year that saw him become a household name and looks forward to a 2015 that will see him cooking all over the world - for a great cause

How was 2014 for JR?
He choreographed a ballet, created an installation at Ellis Island and hung out with Spielberg, Lucas and De Niro

How Kandinsky helped create abstract art
On his birth date we look at how in trying to reconcile music and painting the artist invented a new form

Gombrich Explains Katsushika Hokusai
Some good reasons to catch the Grand Palais show - the last time many prints will be seen outside Japan

Think you know about Nobuyoshi Araki?
There's more to the photographer than bondage and sex says Zippora Elders, curator of a new show

How was 2014 for Bob Nickas?
The great New York critic and curator delighted in the Optical Unconscious but despaired in Cooper Union

Gombrich Explains Edvard Munch
The Norwegian painter, born today, 12 December, in 1863, detached fine art from its conventions, to great effect

How was 2014 for Alex Katz?
How wraparound landscapes, billboards and regular gallery going all inspired the New York painter this year

Is this the smartest railway ticket office ever?
Designed to look like a jewel, the greenest building in Sweden breaks ground in the new year

Reviewers love Phaidon's Christmas crackers
In the run up to the festive season, we’d like to share some of the praise our titles have garnered across the world

How was 2014 for Martin Parr?
A beach in Benidorm, the film Leviathan and the City of London all inspired the photographer and Phaidon author

Gary Nader's Latin American Art Museum unveiled
FR-EE's irregularly stacked floor plates will each accommodate around 25 of the collector's sculptures

How was 2014 for Stephen Shore?
The legendary New York photographer on Instagram, Anselm Kiefer and what's coming next

One thing not to miss in Berlin
The city is finding fresh, refined ways to engage with its past according to our new Wallpaper* City Guide app

Photographer commissions 'Dracula castle' in Seoul
Does Seoul's SangSang Museum capture the spirit of the famous vampire, as Moon Hoon architects intended?

How was 2014 for Tomi Ungerer?
The octogenarian artist, illustrator and author takes a look back at this and reveals what's happening next

What did Éric Kayser bake for Cambodia?
When he opened his Phnom Penh branch, the baker and Phaidon author added a hot, local surprise to menu

Jockum Nordström's Muse Music
The Swedish artist on the punk, classical, gypsy and blues music that inspired his new David Zwirner show

John Pawson’s pared-back furniture range
It might look modern, but the noted British designer says his new table and bench collection is, in a sense, medieval

Oh Ettore, put it away!
What drove Sottsass to create a vase shaped like this, and why has BD reissued a gold version of it?

The 2015 Serpentine Pavilion architects in 3 works
Want to know about SelgasCano, who'll be doing next year's Serpentine Pavilion? Let the Phaidon Atlas guide you

How Danny Lyon spent New Year's Eve 1966
Great photos, all shot on one night, go on show at Atlantic Avenue subway station later this week

What else is happening at Art Basel Miami Beach?
Leo DiCaprio, Miley Cyrus, $3 billion-worth of art, and a pop-up sanitarium: it's looking like a vintage year. . .

Dive into Warhol in Miami
Your chance to buy an Andy Warhol that's only had one previous owner - Andy himself!

Would you live in this Japanese underwater city?
The Shimizu Corporation believes its Ocean Spiral proposal could overcome key urban challenges

Memo to art forgers - don’t flaunt it in a submarine
John Re could face 20 years in jail after allegedly pimping out his sub on forged Pollocks and de Koonings

How Renoir captured the countryside in the city
The painter, who died 95 years ago today, used new paint technology to depict Paris as it changed

How to understand this year’s Turner Prize winner
Duncan Campbell’s film essay It for Others is complex, but you can get your head round it via these Phaidon books

Martin Parr's Italian roadtrip
What happened when the Magnum and Phaidon photographer visited the Amalfi coast?

Gombrich Explains the Death of Marat
Lady Gaga recreates the French Revolution work at Art Basel, what does our legendary art historian think of it?

Olga Chernysheva's spheres of influence
Contemporary Russia as seen through the eyes of one of the last generation of artists to grow up in the Soviet Union

Andean volcano gets high tech viewing platform
Smart architectural intervention gives viewers the sensation of flight

Have you seen Cornell's bright new Gates Hall?
Take a look at this - another beautiful academic building from Morphosis, the firm behind 41 Cooper Square

Phaidon Outtakes #4 Massimo Bottura and poetry
Spend a little time in contemplation, and “the 25 cent glass can become a piece of art" says our skinny Italian chef

Gratuitous sex, death and Guy Bourdin
Why did the photographer only find true fame after his death? Our iBook author Alison Gingeras has the answer

Gombrich Explains Michelangelo
As the V&A prepares its cast of David for display, we look at why the human form held no secrets for the sculptor

Three things not to miss at Design Miami
A virtual coral reef, a celebration of Sottsass and Le Corbusier’s student digs all feature at next month’s fair

Jane Hornby’s failsafe Pumpkin Pie recipe
Our What To Bake expert offers a Brit view of Thanksgiving and remembers previous celebrations

Phaidon Outtakes #3 Massimo and the mozzarella
Our Skinny Chef has reinvented Italian cuisine, but he still delights in the arrival of some simple produce

War's effect on peace is examined in new Tate show
Tate Modern curator Shoair Mavlian talks us through the new exhibition Conflict, Time, Photography

Luisa Lambri opens a window into her soul
Shooting Space photographer makes herself comfortable in other people's homes - then photographs the results

The quiet rise of the photo fair photographer
The Photography Book author Ian Jeffrey on the artists who get ahead by working the circuit

One thing not to miss in Amsterdam
Set in a 20's greenhouse De Kas is one of many highlights in our newly released Wallpaper* City Guide app

How Toulouse-Lautrec mixed high art and low life
On the painter's birthday, learn how he made cabaret girls and prostitutes a worthy subject for fine art

Desert Modern Style celebrated in Palm Springs
New Architecture and Design Center housed in Marmol Radziner-restored E. Stewart Williams building

Gombrich Explains René Magritte
The surrealist, born on this day in 1898, didn’t break with artistic techniques, he employed them on his dreams

More than one Margarita at the ambassador's house
We launched Mexico The Cookbook at a select food and drinks party last night, here's what happened

Like clear answers? Then don't look at abstract art
A new Italian study suggests that a desire for ‘cognitive closure’ might limit our appreciation of abstract works

Rem Koolhaas building remade as a wardrobe
Naihan Li recreates iconic Beijing CCTV building as 1:100-scale rosewood cupboard - peak irony reached

Baz Luhrmann’s Art Basel Miami Beach booth
Why has the director teamed up with British music producer Nellee Hooper to host a stand at next month’s art fair?

Baby it's (really) cold outside!
How Emilio Pucci, born 100 years ago today, brought style to the slopes - and the city

Phaidon Outtakes #2 Bottura and the beautiful game
Could our skinny Italian chef have found fame on the football pitch, rather than in the 50 Best Restaurants list?

The Anatomy of an Album
Graphic designer Duane Dalton's pet project sees him reducing over 75 albums to their core elements

Ed Ruscha's road rage
Does this new set of paintings signal the end of the great American painter's love of the open road?

An Athens Modernist icon is reborn
Having languished for years, Greece's Doxiadis Building gets a sympathetic makeover and a new name

Phaidon Outtakes #1 Massimo Bottura on Picasso
Our Skinny Italian Chef tells a strange tale involving the painter, hare blood and Gertrude Stein

Photos that changed the world #8 Louis-Jacques Mandé Daguerre's Boulevard du Temple, Paris
On the anniversary of his birth, a look at how Daguerre took the first picture to feature a human

The coolest architectural drawings are in The Atlas
Online architectural resource focuses on architectural drawings changing the nature of building today

Dexter Dalwood's Muse Music
How artists as diverse as Lou Reed, Kanye West and Bach influence and inspire the painter's work

One thing not to miss in Riga
The National Library of Latvia is one of many highlights in our newly released Wallpaper* City Guide app

How Noguchi put eastern beauty into western design
On the anniversary of his birth, learn how the designer introduced Zen-like simplicity to western living rooms

Claude Monet and the birth of Impressionism
On the anniversary of his birth a reassessment of the public reaction to impressionism and the artist's role in it

Tadao Ando's thatched art retreat
The Pritzker laureate pairs Mexican vernacular building techniques with his signature concrete castings

The FT’s new font is on the money
New Zealand’s Klim Type Foundry overcomes traditional newsprint typography problems with new font Financier

Who to catch where at Paris Photo
The fair previews today, here's where to see Joel Meyerowitz, Stephen Shore, Roger Ballen, Martin Parr, et al

Watch Ferran Adrià at the FT dinner in New York
Last month Ferran hosted an FT dinner at Daniel Hum's Eleven Madison Park, here are the highlights

Introducing the new breed of photo manipulators
Our Photography Book author Ian Jeffrey on why he admires those who do more than just release the shutter

Our Design Classics App is back!
And to celebrate we focus on one of the 1000 timeless designs in it - Dieter Rams' 606 Universal Shelving System

Auguste Rodin’s battle with Balzac
On the anniversary of the sculptor’s birth we look at the botched commission that became a great work

Massimo Bottura drops the lemon tart on the BBC
For his Saturday Kitchen appearance the chef and Phaidon author prepared his infamous, deconstructed dessert

Ice cube refuge proposed for Slovak mountains
Atelier 8000 joins the likes of Hadid, Zumthor and Fantastic Norway in proposing eye-popping mountain retreat

What happened when Brazil took on Modernism
How a naïve, colourful, art movement created a counterpoint to the prevailing style of the military dictatorship

Photos that changed the world #7 Telephone Booth
Lee Friedlander's 1963 photo characterised the present as a mere staging point thus capturing the flux of the 1960s

Herzog & de Meuron design Israel’s national library
Sweeping curve of stone above four subterranean floors will nestle alongside the 1960s Knesset building

Can Dagarslani's search for identity
Istanbul-based architect says latest photo series is not about the people but the architectural spaces they're in

One Thing Not To Miss In Manila
The tetrahedral Church of the Gesù is one of many highlights in our Wallpaper* City Guide app released today

Piet Oudolf on The High Line and restoring prairies
The New Perennial Movement cultivator and discerning gallerist's go to gardener talks us through his life and times

Gombrich Explains Hogarth
On the anniversary of his birth we find out about the 'A Rake’s Progress' creator's appeal to Puritans

Massimo Bottura takes over Shake Shack London
Famous chefs, food critics and a rescue dog named Ginger brave a chilly Covent Garden to try The Emilia Burger

Paris Photo's Thomas Zander on this year's fair
The gallerist and committee member on picking the right edition and why everyone's mad for Garry Winogrand

5 young UK architects adapting to their environment
A Phaidon Atlas Focus on a group of projects that use local features to develop a subtle, contemporary language

Libeskind's cement chair for Marina Abramović
Not sure for how long the artist will be present if she has to sit on this - but we do admire the design

René Redzepi scoops another award!
And it's another big one. He's just been named WSJ Magazine Food Innovator at a star-studded MoMA ceremony

Gombrich Explains Manet
As the Getty buys Le Printemps for $65 million Gombrich explains why we still value this French master

What to expect from Art Basel Miami Beach
A ballet about The Internet, extra VIP days and a new art-historical strand are all part of the fun of the 2014 fair

World's tallest twin towers will go up in Dubai
But the architect for the The Dubai Creek Harbour at The Lagoons remains a mystery. Could it be SOM?

'I always go for places no one’s been before' Alex Katz
'You want to go there and see whether it’s possible, and adjust the technique to your ideas,' he tells Phaidon
