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Art and design, photography and architecture

Dying of Covid, my 93-year-old artist father was given hours to live. Surely he couldn’t paint himself out of this one?
Nigel Featherstone
During his latest brush with death, Jack was determined to defy the odds and face another season, paintbrush in hand
JMW Turner and sex: exhibition offers insight into private life of artist
Rarely seen erotic drawings offer glimpse into the painter’s private life and relationship with women
5 out of 5 stars.
In the Black Fantastic review – spectacular from first to last
5 out of 5 stars.
Wild imagination unites 11 artists from the African diaspora, including Nick Cave and Kara Walker, as they address racial injustice through myth and fantasy in this never less than magnificent show

4 out of 5 stars.
Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War review – fascinating portrait of the great British artist
4 out of 5 stars.
With contributions from family, friends and fans including Grayson Perry, this vivid documentary argues that Ravilious should be as famous as Turner and Constable
Britain’s Notre Dame? Why MPs need to solve the Houses of Parliament problem
The renovation of the Palace of Westminster has foundered amid soaring cost projections, infighting and safety fears. Can anyone find a way forward?
Letters show how Boris Johnson backed return of Parthenon marbles
PM offered strong support to Greek campaign during time as Oxford Union president
Simone Lia: First time for everything – cartoon
From a first hop to a first fall…

5 out of 5 stars.
PaintingHowardena Pindell review – from sheer painterly bliss to depictions of appalling racial terror
5 out of 5 stars.

The big picture: the persistence of normality in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Finbarr O’Reilly’s shot of a hair salon in Ituri province documents the continuation of everyday life in one of the world’s most fractured communities
Fiftieth anniversary of the first London Pride march – in pictures
50 years on from the first Gay Pride march in 1972 revellers take to London’s streets for biggest ever parade and first since the pandemic struck
Gallery
Original Observer Photography
From maître d’ Fred Sirieix’s best places to eat in Paris to kangaroos at Glastonbury, the best original photographs from the Observer commissioned in June 2022
Gallery

Home tweet home: birdhouses designed by artists – in pictures
A multidisciplinary initiative aims to highlight the lost habitats of our feathered friends
Gallery
‘We want it to come alive’: architect’s plan to transform Notre Dame area
Bas Smets’ project, featuring trees and a cooling system, aims to create a more pedestrian-friendly space around Paris landmark
‘Better than we dared imagine’: Sydney Opera House unveils its ‘miracle’ new concert hall
After two years of renovations, a room once blighted by poor acoustics and outdated machinery can now accommodate musicians previously turned away, with a push of a button
Behold London’s ‘landscraper’! Google’s new UK HQ – as long as the Shard is tall
Tech giant’s King’s Cross HQ replete with pool, nap pods and rooftop exercise track marks its topping out phase

The commercialisation of art and pseudo art, 1967
Everyone was on the bandwagon, not all of them were gifted. By Chris Hall
Art of diplomacy: 300 years of Japanese art in Britain’s royal collection
A Queen’s Gallery exhibition tells the story of centuries of artistic and cultural exchange between east and west
Are NFTs really art?
Collectible and cartoonish, these digital multiples, traded in cryptocurrency, confer membership of an exclusive club – sometimes literally. But do they have any aesthetic value? A critic weighs in