Art history

A hummingbird, a spider monkey, a black cat and dragonflies – what the animal imagery in an iconic 1940 painting tells us about the artist's trauma, resilience and defiant desire.

A Roman soldier who was killed for his Christian beliefs, Saint Sebastian has been a hero for gay men over the centuries – from Oscar Wilde to Keith Haring. Here's why.

With his first "starry night" painting in Arles in 1888, Vincent van Gogh transformed an ordinary city square into something extraordinary – here's how he did it, and what it means.

In the wake of legendary British artist David Hockney's death, aged 88, his famous meditation on presence and absence, A Bigger Splash, takes on a new meaning.

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?