Art history

Variety Show by German painter Max Beckmann is an unsettling painting depicting a chaotic cabaret scene – what does it mean, and did it foreshadow the rise of Nazism?

At first overlooked, Whistler's 1871 painting of his mother rose to fame over decades to become considered a national masterpiece, a maternal figurehead and a diverse meme.

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was met with horror, then revered. A century later, the piece was reinterpreted by US artist Henry Taylor, and Picasso's masterwork remains contentious – why?

From Heidi Klum as a veiled Vestal virgin to singer Ciara as a gold-encrusted bust of Nefertiti, here is the art behind the fashion at the Met Gala.

Overpainted images found hidden inside Raphael's mysterious Portrait of a Young Woman with a Unicorn show how the image of the ideal woman has been carefully controlled by men.

For centuries, The Triumph of Bacchus was misattributed then hidden – now it is at the centre of a major exhibition. Here are five groundbreaking artworks wrongly attributed to men.

From shop rails to gallery walls, the late New York artist's distinctive humanoid figures are ubiquitous these days – but some worry his work's real meaning is being lost.