Today’s highlights
Art
Defender of the faith: Picasso’s grandson assesses the troubled legacy of a legend
An anniversary year has featured as many scorching takedowns of Picasso’s character as it has paeans to his genius
Britain is importing European colour into its culture
Southend’s adoption of European culture cannot fix all its problems but it is having shocking social impacts
Harriet Backer’s music of light
Celebrating a rediscovery of the Norwegian realist who used colour combinations ‘like chords sounding in perfect harmony’
True artist or con artist? The story of Take the Money and Run
Jens Haaning’s fans call the stunt a daring conceptual piece of satire. However, a Danish court says it’s a crime
Radical acts of resistance: women in the Paris Avantgarde
A new exhibition in Basel aims to put women at the centre of the previously male-dominated Fauvism movement
Henri Matisse: The secular artist whose masterpiece was a chapel
Never a religious man, at the end of his life converting a damp garage into a chapel became an unlikely obsession
Books
The clot thickens: Nadine Dorries’ caffeine-fuelled torrent of words
The former Tory culture secretary and Boris Johnson superfan has written an astoundingly bad book
Alastair Campbell’s Diary: Imagine if Boris Johnson had backed Remain…
Instead he chose the path to No 10 and we are all paying the price
Shakespeare conquered the world elsewhere
The first recorded purchase of Shakespeare’s collected works came 400 years ago – and the compendium soon crossed into Europe
The real plot that’s hidden in Nadine Dorries’ potboiler
A top BBC boss tried to fix who chaired its regulator, Ofcom. Now the corporation won’t set the record straight
Anne Michaels and the past that’s closer than we imagine
The Canadian author only writes one book each decade. But her latest novel, Held, shows why it’s worth the wait
The greatest European autobiography of all?
He wrote three operas with Mozart and ended up working at a grocers in New York City: meet Lorenzo da Ponte
Music
Stéphane Grappelli: The violinist who changed the face of jazz in Europe
There was no other with his extraordinary improvising in the medium
Sounds of isolation – why musicians flock to Iceland
Vast, desolate and magically odd – what is it about Iceland that makes musicians so desperate to record there?
Barbra Streisand tells us her truth
She is a one-off and her memoir reads as such
Where Are We Now? Looking for Bowie in Berlin
A new book by photographer Kevin Cummins captures the ghost of the Thin White Duke in the German city he once called home
America is looking for a Swift political change
Joe Biden is too old and Donald Trump is too divisive – is a Taylor-made change on the horizon?
Theatre Review: Mandy Patinkin, the Broadway legend going it alone in the West End
The American actor’s solo show is eloquent – if sometimes self-indulgent
Film
The joy of revolution: the enduring power of Man with a Movie Camera
Dziga Vertov’s film changed cinema and outlasted the USSR – now it’s raising awareness of Ukraine’s fight
What do the French make of Napoleon?
Ridley Scott’s epic didn’t exactly win over viewers in France
Barbra Streisand tells us her truth
She is a one-off and her memoir reads as such
Lots of hat but little heart in Ridley Scott’s Napoleon
This Joaquin Phoenix epic fails to nail its big idea, or the motivation of its subject
The great divide by the seaside
A German’s documentary about an end-of-the-pier show in Norfolk might be the best movie yet about Brexit
Legends of a fall: Justine Triet’s courtroom victory
Why twisty French thriller Anatomy of a Fall is tipped to win the Best Picture Oscar
Theatre
Theatre Review: Mandy Patinkin, the Broadway legend going it alone in the West End
The American actor’s solo show is eloquent – if sometimes self-indulgent
Theatre Review: The Queen Mother’s champagne-loving servant is the subject of the funniest West End play in years
Backstairs Billy captures the charm of an eccentric keeper of royal secrets
Marina Abramovic, Willem Dafoe and the killer opera that’s dividing audiences
The 7 Deaths of Maria Callas is framed around a catalogue of operatic demises
Theatre Review: No more Lloyd Webber revivals, please
The latest reboot of Sunset Boulevard veers into self-indulgence
Viveca Lindfors: The Hollywood outsider with a second act on stage
The Swedish actress’s unhappy Hollywood experience prompted a lifelong questioning of what being herself actually meant
Theatre Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane feeds the imagination
An adaptation of a Neil Gaiman novel makes for a startling production
Great European Lives
Stéphane Grappelli: The violinist who changed the face of jazz in Europe
There was no other with his extraordinary improvising in the medium
Louis Malle: The French director who was a cinematic maverick
Malle’s unique approach to cinema meant he was always on the hunt for ways to freshen things up, no matter the risk
Franz Joseph I: The Emperor who ushered in the end of the Habsburg Empire
The blame for the end of a glorious imperial story cannot be laid solely at his feet, but the longer he lived the more anachronistic his rule became
Robert Enke: The goalkeeper taunted by the cruelty of depression
For all the cod philosophy attached to the art, being a goalkeeper did not cause the Germany international to end his life
Henri Matisse: The secular artist whose masterpiece was a chapel
Never a religious man, at the end of his life converting a damp garage into a chapel became an unlikely obsession
Viveca Lindfors: The Hollywood outsider with a second act on stage
The Swedish actress’s unhappy Hollywood experience prompted a lifelong questioning of what being herself actually meant