Yesterday
Hidden painting discovered after 95 years in the dark
When an auction house took the back off a family hand-me-down, it revealed a colourful work by Australia’s second-most-traded female artist.
July
The pain behind the Archibald people’s favourite
Loribelle Spirovski suffered an injury that made holding a brush painful. Painting didgeridoo virtuoso William Barton delivered a solution.
Are we seeing the decline and fall of Australian Impressionists?
This auction will point to whether the artists whose values were so high for so long have lost their lustre.
From the Gibson Desert, big-name artists at small prices
After years working with remote Aboriginal communities, Ben Danks is selling a collection that includes works by some of the biggest names in Indigenous art.
Vince Frost: ‘When everything is digital, print is premium’
The design guru, who started designing in the same year as the launch of AFR Magazine, has added his creative flair to our special anniversary edition.
When Rich Listers want an architect, there’s one man they turn to
William Smart designs houses for those without budget constraints. Designing his own presented a unique challenge.
Three decades of PMs, fashion icons and the odd person headed for jail
The Financial Review’s monthly glossy changed the format for magazines when it arrived in 1995. We look back on its greatest hits, and the occasional near miss.
Not enough distress: Japanese whisky sale tanks
The SMSF seller of rare whiskies could have put off buyers, but interest in Escher and Turner proves almost infinite.
$15m nude is proof that women are the future of the art world
Pretty much the only good news in a disappointing London sale season was the results for female artists.
Meet the woman with NSW’s biggest (and hardest) arts job
Maud Page is the first female to run the Art Gallery Of NSW, but its immediate survival as the costs of a new building bite is what she is dwelling on.
David Rowe cartoons for July 2025
David Rowe is a multiple Walkley award-winning cartoonist. He draws a daily political cartoon and one for the Chanticleer column.
Rare Japanese whisky could be yours for $100,000
The 41-year-old single malt, one of only 82 bottles from the Karuizawa Distillery’s Noh series of 2013, is among 34 bottles being sold from a collector’s super fund.
Dumped Venice artist reinstated in stunning backflip
Decision to cancel Khaled Sabsabi based on old artworks depicting terrorism was marred by “missteps, assumptions and missed opportunities”.
From pumpkins to punk: Melbourne’s next blockbuster art show revealed
How does the National Gallery Of Victoria follow last summer’s record-breaking Yayoi Kusama show? With one of fashion’s biggest names.
June
David Rowe cartoons for June 2025
David Rowe is a multiple Walkley award-winning cartoonist. He draws a daily political cartoon and one for the Chanticleer column.
Why this publisher chucked it in after 35 years to become an artist
Mark Gowing was a well-paid service provider for art heavyweights like Roslyn Oxley and Gene Sherman, but in his early 50s, the muse came calling.
Simon Mordant’s biggest gift of artwork is to an unexpected place
One ambitious regional gallery will be a surprise recipient when the veteran banker and wife Catriona gift more than 300 works from storage to world galleries.
The shows, concerts, exhibitions and festivals lighting up your July
A violin veteran as you’ve rarely seen him, Adelaide lit up and a dancey alternative to school holiday screentime: all the best shows around the nation this month.
A painting Alan Bond made in prison just sold at auction
The late fraudster’s lawyer put up a painting of the yacht Australia II and was expecting about $300, but it secured a lot more than that.