This page contains a selection of the best of the Observer Review's recent arts coverage. Please send comments and suggestions to Observer site editor Sunder Katwala at observer@guardianunlimited.co.uk or get in touch with the Observer Review team at review@observer.co.uk
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The longest goodbye
It's time Luciano Pavarotti retired. The great tenor, weighed down by legend and hype, is now more likely, it seems, to throw a tantrum than actually sing, says Peter Conrad.
Modernism's twin peaks
Picasso would have been the first to say that he and Matisse were polar opposites but Tate Modern's inspired juxtapositions reveal how much they also had in common.
Genius vs genius
In 1906, an august French painter was suddenly challenged by a precocious Spanish brat 12 years his junior. So began a lifelong dialogue between Matisse and Picasso - the subject of a stunning new show at Tate Modern. Review by Laura Cumming
That's no lady, that's...
... the earliest known portrait of the third Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare's patron and possible lover. Its dramatic discovery will ignite a new debate about the playwright's sexuality.
Why we must stop treating children as children
Kathyrn Flett: Kids can cope with the 'right' kind of being scared. And kids know that the scary stuff on TV may force them to squeal, but that it's also make-believe.
The comfort of joysticks
Video games may be the most fun you can have on your own. But, asks Gaby Wood should they be in an art gallery?
Goodbye Cats... hello Kabul
Decades of middle-class angst and musicals have banished big ideas from the stage. But does the London opening of Tony Kushner's arresting new play about the Taliban mark the return of political theatre?
The play's still the thing
Neil LaBute has a formidable reputation for writing and directing screen hits such as In the Company of Men. So what's he doing writing a succession of plays for the Almeida? Because, he says, theatre is best (21 April 2002).
The thriller on the river
Norman Foster's new London City Hall is in danger of achieving the impossible says Deyan Sudjic - making municipal politics look fresh and exciting (5 May 2002).
The man who styled la dolce vita
Design: Deyan Sudjic on the Design Museum's first major show of architect Gio Ponti's work in Britain (28 April 2002).
This is not an art gallery
Where once was the Whitechapel, conceptual prankster Liam Gillick has built a bland new world of pine planks, bright Plexiglass and (optional) yoga classes (5 May 2002)..
He's got that thinking feeling
Opera should be as emotionless as science, says Michael Nyman, ensconced in the Abbey Road studio. And he explains why musical theft is good - and the Proms are pathetic (12 May 2002).
Last rites for magic realism
Robert McCrum: Has magic realism had its day?
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