The Phaidon guide to art speak - Performance Art

Decoding the language of art criticism - or, how to speak 'art'

Zang Huan, Square Metres (1994)

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry - first look at the film

Alison Klayman's movie opens this summer. Watch the trailer here and find out how to win tickets to the premiere

Ai Weiwei, self portrait from Never Sorry

The Jekyll and Hyde of furniture

Design brand La Change presents light and dark versions of each of its pieces at the Milan Furniture Fair

Note Design Studio, Bolt stool

Concrete - the rehabilitation starts here

Urban Architecture Office's concrete FKI House in Japan is part of a growing trend - Phaidon has it covered

FKI House by Urban Architecture Office, Tokyo, Japan. Image courtesy of Urban Architecture Office

Richard Weston’s crystal patterns

How an architecture professor became Vogue’s “most unexpected new design star”

Crystal Heart and Flame Agate by Weston

A very chilled out building

The Social Services Building by Dosmasuno architects in Spain takes green to a completely new level

Social Services building in Móstoles, Spain by Dosmasuno Arquitectos

The first step towards grow-your-own furniture?

Maarten De Ceulaer’s Mutations series At Milan Furniture Fair imagines what we might be sitting on in the future

Maarten De Ceulaer, Mutation, photo by Nico Neefs

J Mayer H's strangely shaped buildings

German architecture practice builds asymmetric police station and justice house in Georgian town

Police Station, Mestia, Georgia. Photo courtesy J Mayer H Archtiects

Vancouver tower channels spirit of the Flatiron

BIG architects' Beach & Howe building 'swerves' away from the noise and exhaust of the nearby Granville bridge

The Flatiron building in New York, BIG architects, Beach + Howe Tower, Vancouver

Pierre Dinand's incredible Salvador Dali stories

The legendary perfume bottle designer talks to Phaidon about his secret collaboration with the surrealist painter

Pierre Dinand by Damien Fry (2011), Salvador Dalí in 1954

Ben Rivers' Muse Music

The experimental filmmaker on the music that gets him in a creative mood

Ben Rivers, Gary Numan, Ben Rivers, My House

Better Buy Design - The SodaStream

Swiss designer Yves Béhar updates a Seventies household icon (that was actually designed in 1903)

Yves Béhar, Sodastream

Lauren Hillebrandt - 'boredom inspires me'

The Dutch photographer rebels against the repetitiveness of daily life in her new series The Day

Lauren Hillebrandt, The Day

John Pawson's stylish book launch

Calvin Klein's Madison Avenue store plays host to the architect's A Visual Inventory launch party

John Pawson at the Calvin Klein store on Madison Avenue in New York City for the launch of A Visual Inventory, Photo by Billy Farrell

Hirst and Turner - more alike than you'd think

Artistic showmanship didn't start with bisecting bovines - Turner too was criticised for his 'soapsuds and whitewash'

Damien Hirst, For The Love of God (2007)

Jack Kerouac by Elliott Erwitt

The Magnum photographer shot the On The Road author the year he joined the renowned photo agency

Elliott Erwitt, Jack Kerouac (1953), copyright Magnum

Wiener Schnitzel – the remake

Wiener Schnitzel’s new restaurant in the Austrian capital mixes modern and medieval – to great effect

Elaborately restored wainscoting at Plachuttas Gasthaus zur Oper, Vienna

Allison Cortson - the woman who paints with dust

Santa Monica artist photographs subjects at home then asks them for three months worth of vacuum cleaner bags

Allison Cortson, The Blood Arm (2011), oil, dust, glue, acrylic sealer on canvas, 18 x 24

The thought-provoking illustrations of Sara Fanelli

Her work hangs in the Tate and appears in the New Yorker - now she's created an innovative children’s book

Sara Fanelli, The Onion's Great Escape, overpowered by knives

How the art market became a luxury goods business

Artist Andrea Fraser highlights uncomfortable truths and shocking statistics in her essay L’1% C’est Moi

Andrea Fraser

A new architectural landmark for downtown LA

Diller Scofidio + Renfro's Broad Museum takes its place alongside buildings by Frank Gehry and Arata Isozaki


Everyday Icon #7 The banjo

In memory of Earl Scruggs we take a look at the design origins of the instrument he made famous


The 'Lynchian menace' of Anne Kathrin Greiner

The Berlin-based photographer on her fascination with how architectural spaces affect human behaviour

Anne Kathrin Greiner, Keimkasten

Anthony Lister off the streets

The street artist's fine art-influenced work gets a gallery showcase

Anthony Lister, Van Gogh Sunflowers

Why a chair is like a pop song

The Bouroullec Brothers have a theory why the chair keeps being reinvented - we think it's a good one


Mies van der Rohe star of the Google doodle

Crown Hall is featured on the Google doodle as we look at how Mies van der Rohe changed architecture teaching


The beauty of the golden ratio

Artist Jo Niemeyer's obsession with the magic number 1.61803399, that's influenced art for thousands of years

Jo Niemeyer, Untitled 414 (1986), acrylic on canvas on wood, 99 x 1290cm

Looking back at the future of architecture

Jean-Louis Cohen's The Future Of Architecture 'expands architectural history's perspective' says Hans Ibelings

Mies van der Rohe Lake Shore Drive / Fritz Hoger Chilehaus

Mark Ronson's musical architecture

Visitors will use architecture to remix the producer's Olympic music at London 2012 games

A night-time rendering of Coca-Cola's Beatbox pavilion at the Olympic Park

Tino Sehgal is coming to the Tate

The phrase "you really had to be there" will take on new meaning at the most unpredictable show of 2012

Tino Sehgal

Inside the mind of Katy Moran

Exploring the creative processes of artists featured in Vitamin P2

Katy Moran, Primal Cat (2011), acrylic and fabric on board, 53 x 43 cm / 20 7/8 x 16 7/8 ins

The perfectly designed world of Gary Card

The man who made Lady Gaga's bone mask ponders the fine line between art, design and commerce

Gary Card, Fashion vs Cakes set design for Pop magazine Spring/Summer 2012, shot by Daniel Sannwald

The Phaidon guide to art speak - Curator

Decoding the language of art criticism

Philippe Parreno and Rirkrit Tiravanija, Untitled (2005) - a set of puppets in the likeness of artists and artist-curators Liam Gillick, Pierre Huyghe, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Philippe Parreno and Rirkrit Tiravanija.

Nika Neelova's salvaged memories

The big hit of the Crisis Commission opens up on her Paris and Moscow childhood and how it still affects her work

Nika Neelova, Partings (2012), concrete casts from a Somerset House door, burnt timber, rope, 4m x 3m approx

Urbanus create high tech Marriage Center in China

Chinese architects add to the fun of the big day with floating pathways, elevated entrances and spiral hallways

Nanshan Marriage Center photo © Meng Yan & Wu Qiwei

Everyday Icon #6 The paperclip

11 billion were sold last year in America alone last year but controversy surrounds the origins of this everyday icon


Mad Men reunite at George Lois launch

Jerry della Femina, Tony Palladino and Massimo Vignelli join George Lois at New York Art Directors Club party

Massimo Vignelli addresses George Lois and wife 
Rosie, photo courtesy Shaun Mader/Patrick McMullen.com

Thomas Ruff’s Heavenly Bodies

"Helmut Newton's view on female bodies is so 19th century" photographer tells Phaidon at Gagosian opening

Thomas Ruffm nudes ro04, 2011, unique C-Print, 92 7/8 x 73 1/4 inches, 236 x 186 cm, © 2012, Thomas Ruff, courtesy Gagosian Gallery; Thomas Ruff portrait

John Chamberlain's Choices at the Guggenheim

Retrospective spanning sculptor's half-century career includes Plexiglas, urethane and colourful car part pieces

John Chamberlain in his studio, 2011, Photo by Robert McKeever, Image courtesy of Gagosian Gallery

The untold story of Jay DeFeo's The Rose

Designer sisters Rodarte present the incredible journey of a beat painter's seminal work

Jay DeFeo, The Rose (1965) , Image courtesy of ARS New York and Jay DeFeo foundation

Comic book legend Jean 'Moebius' Giraud 1938-2012

Artist responsible for the look of Tron and Alien and the inspiration behind Bladerunner dies after long illness

Moebius, Self Portrait (2000)

Ed Atkins' Muse Music

The multimedia artist on the music that gets him in a creative mood

Charles Mingus in 1976, Ed Atkins, Death Mask 3 (2011) HD video, Images Courtesy of Ed Atkins

Wulf Architekten make beautiful music

Architects add another storey to continue the story of a 1970s cube-shaped music school in Hamm, Germany

Music School, Hamm, by wulf architekten, photo courtesy of Christian Richters, Münster

Andrea Galvani’s Invisible Sculptures

The Italian artist explores the meaning of experience in his New York Meulensteen Gallery show

Andrea Galvani, A Few Invisible Sculptures #1 (2011/2012), C-print on aluminium dibond, edition of 49.2 x 68.9 inches, Courtesy of the  artist and Meulensteen, NY

Inside the mind of Carmen Herrera

Exploring the creative processes of artists featured in Vitamin P2

Portrait of the artist Carmen Herrera, photo by Adriana Lopez Sanfeliu

How to be a stylish audiophile

From the packaging to the design of its products Scandanavian company AIAIAI makes any audiophile look good


Wolfgang Tschapller's Viennese fancy

Wolfgang Tschapller wins the competition to transform the university where he studied architecture as a student

Wolfgang Tschapeller

Rui Grazina's Muse Music

The designer and architect on the music that gets him in a creative mood

Rui Grazina (left), a recently completed private house in Barcelos, Portugal (bottom right) and Laurie Anderson (top right)

Michael Heizer's rock begins to roll

Land artist Michael Heizer's Levitated Mass begins its slow journey to LACMA 42 years after he conceived the idea

Michael Heizer's 340-ton rock, Levitated Mass

How Buckminster Fuller inspired Mad Max

The Thunderdome is the evil twin of Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes according to Tom Morton

The Thunderdome from Mad Max 3

Architects :mlzd create perforated bronze museum

Switzerland-based :mlzd's striking museum slots into the 13th century fortified town of Rapperswil-Jona seamlessly

Rapperswil-Jona Museum, Switzerland by :mlzd

Martin Creed 'redesigns' London restaurant

Turner Prize winner creates zigzagging marble floorpiece to mark Sketch in Mayfair's tenth birthday

Martin Creed at Sketch, London (2012)

Inside the mind of Makiko Kudo

Exploring the creative processes of artists featured in Vitamin P2

Makiko Kudo, After a Typhoon (2011)

Craig Garrett's Muse Music

Phaidon's Commissioning Editor for Contemporary Art on the music that gets him in a creative mood

Aphex Twin (left), Phaidon's Commissioning Editor for Contemporary Art, Craig Garrett (top right) and Pawel Althamer's Common Task (2009)

Better Buy Design - The PH Artichoke

Poul Henningsen's 1958 design is not only a stunning statement but also a study in how to light a room correctly

Poul Henningsen's PH Artichoke pendant light

Anders Krisár's unusual body of work

Battered by drugs or maimed by acts of violence, the Swedish artist's heads and torsos evoke human frailty

Anders Krisár, Sonya (layers) (2008)

It was 25 years ago today

Andy Warhol died on February 22, 1987 but his influence on high art and popular culture is as strong as ever

David McCabe, Andy in a street of New York City (spring 1965)

Katie Scott's underwater world

Anatomical accuracy meets scientific fantasy in the illustrations for Fish: Recipes from the sea

Some of Katie Scott's illustrations for Fish: Recipes from the sea

Ministry of Design gets to the point

Singapore-based architects' beach-side gallery space in China seeks to question, disturb and redefine

Ministry of Design, Vanke Triple V Gallery

How Disasters Of War made Goya a 'modern' artist

The artist's 200-year-old macabre depiction of the effects of conflict on civilian and soldier is still relevant today

Goya, Disasters of War No. 72 (1810-1820)

All eyes turn to Australian architecture

Mark Loughnan, principle architect of HASSELL says now is a great time to be in the Southern Hemisphere

HASSELL's Giant Panda Forest at Adelaide Zoo

Edward Barber's Muse Music

Designer of the London 2012 Olympic torch on the music that gets him in a creative mood

BarberOsgerby's winning Olympic Torch 2012 design (left), portrait of Edward Barber (top right) and Cat Power (bottom right) who appears on his Muse Music playlist this week

Make yourself at home in Hollywood

XTen architects create a striking live-in sculpture

XTEN Architects' Nakahouse overlooks the Hollywood sign

Vivian Maier - the woman unknown

The phenomenon of the photographer's lifetime of work found in a Chicago warehouse continues

Vivian Maier takes one of her many blurry and distorted self-portraits, date unknown

Sharp new talent wins MoMA PS1 competition

HWKN's mist-blasting water-expelling design due to open this summer

HWKN (HollwichKushner) winner of the 2012 Young Architects Program (YAP) at MoMA PS1 in NY

Inside the mind of Nina Chanel Abney

Exploring the creative processes of artists featured in Vitamin P2

Portrait of the artist Nina Chanel Abney (left) and her work Randaleeza (2008), Acrylic on canvas, 228.5 x 233.5 cm (right)

John Pawson's Muse Music

The acclaimed minimalist architect on the music that gets him in a creative mood

Portrait of the Architect John Pawson who has chosen this week's Muse Music (top left), image from the interior of his Novy Dvur Monastery (2003) (right) and The Rolling Stones (bottom left) who feature on his playlist

Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art gets new look

Architect Sam Marshall on how the city itself inspired his dramatic MCA renovation

Sam Marshall's design for the new look Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney

Tallest residential building in Manhattan takes shape

Towering a thousand feet over Central Park, Christian de Portzamparc's One 57 is New York's newest des res


Marc Newson makes the compact camera cool again

The London-based Australian designer creates a camera you'll never forget to take with you

The Pentax K-01 designed by Marc Newson

Inside the mind of Stephen Bush

Exploring the creative process of an Australian artist featured in Vitamin P2

Portrait of the artist Stephen Bush (right) and his work Kapock (2010), Oil and enamel on linen, 200 x 310cm (left)

A closer look at the new Design Museum

Deyan Sudjic takes us through the building proposal by architect John Pawson

Maquette of the new Design Museum

Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei join forces again

Following the success of the Bird's Nest at the 2008 Beijing Olympics the trio will design the Serpentine Pavilion

Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei pictured whilst taking a moment off from working on the Bird's Nest Stadium for the Beijing Olympics

Kusama: 'I promised myself I'd conquer the world'

A rare video interview with Yayoi Kusama and part two of our chat with Tate Modern curator Frances Morris

Yayoi Kusama with Accumulation pieces at her studio in New York (c.1963-64)

The Australian beach house with a twist (or two)

McBride Charles Ryan's Klein House is based on 'the Klein bottle' - a structure with only one definable surface

Klein Bottle House by McBride Charles Ryan

United Visual Artists' Muse Music

The art and design collective on the music that gets them in a creative mood

Radiohead appear on this week's Muse Music playlist (top left), Matt Clark from UVA talks about the songs that inspire the practice (right) and UVA's responsive light and sound sculpture 'Volume' (2007) (bottom left)

How a Sydney gallery became a focus for Chinese art

The White Rabbit Gallery in Chippendale boasts a more comprehensive collection than any in China

Liao Chien-Chung Garbage Truck (2011) installation mixed media 238 x 208 x 230 cm (left), Cai Lijuan, Linear Space Series, (2011), No. 1 of five pieces 125 x 125 cm, mixed media (right)

Inside the mind of Glenn Sorensen

Exploring the creative process of an Australian artist featured in Vitamin P2

Glenn Sorensen, Behaviour (2009), Oil on canvas, 42.5 x 55.5 cm (left), portrait of the artist Glenn Sorensen (right)

Phaidon's focus on Australia

This month we're looking at all the things going on in art, architecture, photography and design down under

Phaidon is in Australia this February

Park Associati ascend new heights

New project from Milan architecture firm behind The Cube Restaurant boasts biggest climbing wall in Italy


José Luis López de Zubiria wins award for Mugaritz

Spanish photographer's pictures of chef Andoni Aduriz's dishes are awarded prestigious Lux de Oro

One of José Luis López de Zubiria's award winning photographs for Mugaritz restaurant in northern Spain

Gioni named Artistic Director of Venice Biennale

Curator of New Museum's record-breaking Carsten Höller show lands art world's biggest job

Massimiliano Gioni (left) will be the Artistic Director of 55th Venice Biennale and an installation from Rent Collection Courtyard at the Gwangu Biennale in Korea which Gioni curated last year (right)

Artists clown around in LA mansion

Flash mobs, light displays, plate spinning and a macabre twist bring a close to Pacific Standard Time party

Kathryn Andrews, Fork Hunt (2012)

Kate MccGwire's fine feathered friends

London artist aims to seduce and disgust with her pigeon feather sculptures

Kate MccGwire, 'Evacuate' (2010) Photo: Jonty Wilde

New 'invisible tower' evokes spirit of Louis Kahn

GDS Architects' Infinity Tower in Korea is an homage to Kahn's interest in absence

GDS Architects' design for 'Cheongna City Tower' in Incheon, South Korea

Jólan van der Wiel defies gravity

Gerrit Rietveld Academie graduate uses super strength magnet to make uniquely shaped furniture

Jólan van der Wiel's Gravity Stool defies the forces of nature as it is pulled by a

Simon Fujiwara's Muse Music

The installation and performance artist on the music that gets him in a creative mood

Simon Fujiwara's work 'Saint Simon' (2012) (top left) image courtesy the artist © Tate, portrait photograph of the artist Simon Fujiwara (right) and Fleet Foxes (bottom left) who appear on the artist's Muse Music playlist, photo Ali Bagheri

Daniel Libeskind's lighting design creates a Big Bang

Architect teams up with astrophysicist son Noam for chandelier that embodies the history of the universe

Daniel Libeskind and Zumtobel's lighting design 'eL Masterpiece'

Inside the mind of Serban Savu

Exploring the creative processes of artists featured in Vitamin P2

Serban Savu (right) and Weekend (2006)

Heri & Salli's ultimate garden fence

Viennese architectural duo design dramatic swirling structure around Austrian residence

'Landscape Fence' by Heri & Salli, Austria

Wolfe von Lenkiewicz at work on Somali pirate island

Beast And The Sovereign artist works on new paintings on Lamu, scene of a kidnap and gun battle

The artist Wolfe von Lenkiewicz amongst his large scale oil paintings

Gerrit Rietveld [The Remix]

Anonymous design collective D-W-A redesigns the Red Blue Chair using classical and dub music as inspiration

The DZA's RnB Extended Edition fom RnB [The reDesign Project] for D-W-A

John Pawson unveils plans for Design Museum

Before and after images reveal a stunning transformation

John Pawson's designs for the new location of the Design Museum in London have been released

Better Buy Design - 606 Universal Shelving System

Where else would you put your copy of Dieter Rams: As Little Design As Possible? (Even if it's on your iPad)

Dieter Rams' 606 Universal Shelving System which has been in production since the 1960s

Alastair Mackie's collision of culture and nature

Although incorporating mouse skulls, trees and mud, the artist's installations become wholly unnatural

Alastair Mackie (left), his piece 'Untitled (sphere)' (2000-9) (right), mouse skulls, glass, wood 26cm x 26cm x 26cm, image courtesy All Visual Arts, photography Tessa Angus

Your own pop up Carlo Mollino exhibition

Czech collective OKOLO celebrates the work and lifestyle of the hedonistic Italian designer

OKOLO has designed a set of paper models inspired by the life's work and passions of Italian furniture designer Carlo Mollino

The sad story behind Gunnel Wåhlstrand's paintings

Images of family members were inspired by a cataclysmic event in her childhood

The artist Gunnel Wåhlstrand (left) and her work By the Window (2003) (right)

SOM create new architectural magic

Architects reveal building with ingenious remote control, energy-saving 'eye' that aids light and airflow

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill's competition winning design for the Greenland Group Suzhou Center, Wujiang, China

Richard Meier & Partners build Aztec skyscraper

As the renowned architecture firm announces its third building in Mexico, we speak to the man in charge

Richard Meier & Partners announced this week that the Mitikah tower would be built in Mexico City

Samuel Wilkinson's Muse Music

The winner of the 2011 Design of the Year Award on the music that gets him in a creative mood

Massive Attack (left), the designer Samuel Wilkinson (right) and his energy efficient light bulb 'Plumen 001' which won him the Design of Year Award 2011