Arts news

• Kenneth Williams and racist attitudes | Brief letters

  23-02-2026 19:15
  Calling out racism | Cognitive shuffling | Free art | Party of rejects | Arresting event | Andrew and the mediaWhile appreciating Kenneth Williams’ humour, I felt uneasy that your article (‘He loved showing his bum. Loved it’: the subversive genius of Kenneth Williams, 20 February) didn’t simply state he had racist attitudes. Referring to a dislike of Sid James and people of colour seems to water down unacceptable views.
  Catherine Utley
  London• When I can’t sle
  
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• My rookie era: I wasn’t immediately good at oil painting, but it taught me to find pleasure in struggle

  23-02-2026 15:00
  One week I spent three miserable hours trying to paint a satin ribbon, and went home in a filthy moodRead more summer essentialsAs a five-year-old, I loved fairies, Spice Girls and Vincent van Gogh. It wasn’t the famous ear incident or the existential despair that I found fascinating, but a picture book. For the Love of Vincent, by Brenda V Northeast, told the story of Van Gogh’s life but with one minor change: Vincent was a teddy bear, not a depressed Dutchman. It was this book that
  
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• ‘We’ve scratched the surface’: mission to digitise UK public art reaches 1m entries

  23-02-2026 11:00
  New Art UK chair Ben Terrett appointed as charity marks 10 years of building online databaseFrom a bronze Rodin sculpture of the naked Eve outside a Nando’s in Harlow to more than 6,000 artworks by JMW Turner, to a crumpled-up piece of A4 paper owned by Manchester Art Gallery, the UK’s public art collection is a wonderful and varied thing.It is huge, as demonstrated by the charity Art UK, which has announced it has reached a million artworks on its database and appointed a new chair
  
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