At 6ft tall, the package was tubular in shape and large enough to contain a shark - crushing my mother's hopes for a diamond skull. Without a van to drive us back to my studio the only clear option was a ride on the 73 bus, with the Damien Hirst reclining on the seat beside me.

I am pleased to say there are some artists who are taking the notion of 'activist art' to a whole new level.

Damien Hirst's solo show, complete with a rotting cow's head and a shark suspended in formaldehyde, helped Tate Modern attract a record-breaking 5.3 m...

A man has been jailed for two years for defacing a painting by artist Mark Rothko. Wlodzimierz Umaniec, 26, also known as Vladimir Umanets, defaced...

Electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk are to play eight nights at London's Tate Modern, their first UK dates since 2004. The German band whose career...

British towns and cities would be more enriched if the love of "Wetherspoon's and Walkabout pubs and Mario Balotelli and John Terry" was replaced with...

The art world, and particularly how we foster and develop it in Britain, is in a period of crisis. And if you haven't noticed that, then it's a worrying testament to the way we debate and celebrate the creative processes in this country.

There are only about three paintings on this planet that I am able to say that I 'like', but last week Vladimir Umanets, the Yellowist, decided that one of them wasn't quite good enough. So he decided to improve it, with the addition of some half-legible scribbling in one of its corners.

Art throughout history has proven itself to be thought-provoking and beautiful but how far can we go in trusting and ingesting it as a source of truth?

Vandalised paintings, of course, leads us down only one path: tighter security measures at galleries, lenders being more reluctant to send works to Britain, and art becoming less accessible for you, me and generations to come.

As much as I loved the artworks, I don't find myself angry at the act of vandalism per se. The thing which bothers me is the knock on effects of vandalism - the fact that there will be people who are furious and that fury could end up limiting the physical enjoyment of Rothko's work.

In 2010, the philosopher Roger Scruton, together with the BBC, made a documentary titled Why Beauty Matters, in which he gave an eloquent and impassioned plea for a return to the beautiful aesthetic, pointing towards the unifying and spiritually uplifting qualities of beauty.

Sir Nicholas Serota, the director of the Tate, today urged the Government to keep the arts as a key part of the curriculum in any exams shake-up. H...

Tate Modern's Damien Hirst exhibition smashed records to become the most popular solo show in the gallery's history, it announced today. The exhibi...

I thought I knew Damien Hirst. The one who puts dead animals in formaldehyde. Made a skull of diamonds. Did some things with coloured dots. Made me think: "Modern art? Rubbish. Anyone could do that." Well, turns out I was wrong. The current Tate Modern retrospective has changed my mind - and made me something of a fan in the process.

A team of people who walk among visitors chatting, chanting and running was revealed on Monday as the latest artwork in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall. ...

Tate Modern's underground oil tanks open as an arts space this week with an hour-long minimalist dance. The 98ft-wide structures, which were decomm...