From Kanye West to Chris Pratt, the celebrity approach to housing is more out of touch than ever Looking for a bargain beach house? Then you’re in luck. Kanye West has just lowered the price on his minimalist mansion in Malibu, California, to a mere $39m (£31.5m) – a $14m discount on its original listing price. There is a catch though: the house has no windows, doors, electricity, plumbing or interior finishes. It’s completely uninhabitable, unless you happen to be a gull. The sparseness isn’t a deliberate design choice – though you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. West, who also goes ..read more

Tate Modern, London Tate Modern’s survey of Kandinsky, Münter and the rest of the avant garde Blue Rider group is an exhilarating riot of colour – but also abounds with anxieties about the coming conflicts of the 20th century Within the bright colours of this exhilarating survey of the Blue Rider group of avant garde artists, who worked in Munich and the Bavarian Alps in the years before the first world war, horror lurks. Look at Wassily Kandinsky’s paintings of the medieval Bavarian town Murnau, and you might wonder if there’s any connection with the film director FW Murnau who made the silen ..read more

From the thrice-daily Swan Lake to a tragedy in an asbestos factory, Guardian photographer David Levene went behind the scenes at the ‘Art Olympics ..read more

From an alligator ride across Asia to an escape to outer space, the Venice Biennale’s ‘foreigners everywhere’ theme leaves our critic beguiled, tantalised – and frequently appalled Venice. Terrible. Foreigners everywhere, and it is even worse during the biennale, where the exhibition opened to the public on Saturday. Marked by unrest and protests, the 60th Venice Biennale leaves us uncertain of art’s ability to draw us together in a world in crisis. It is filled with the clamour of conflicting voices and doubtful purpose. On posters and on the sides of the water buses, written in neon and hung ..read more

A new group exhibition brings together the work of 28 artists from America and beyond who use their work to cover how difficult times have inspired them Abraham Lincoln seated in a monumental chair. Thomas Jefferson standing tall surrounded by excerpts from the Declaration of Independence. Andrew Jackson raising his hat as his horse rises on its rear legs. Washington’s statues tell a heroic story, usually with a white male face. But the newest arrival, while carved from Carrara marble like a classical sculpture, is different. Intra-Venus is a nude self-portrait by Marina Vargas, candidly depic ..read more

Stephen Giddings gives a committed performance as a recovering alcoholic who’s started betting again in this often tense experimental docudrama The line between fact and fiction is thin to vanishing in this Liverpool-set experimental docudrama, a study of addiction and how it rumbles down through generations. It’s directed by visual artist Melanie Manchot and is being shown as a multiscreen installation in Cornwall as well as screening in cinemas. Manchot worked with a Liverpool recovery group, hiring members, with lived experience, as actors. At its worst the result has a bit of a workshop fe ..read more

As retirement approached, Nancy Beiman wanted to do something creative. Before long she was sketching out the story of a very unusual blended family When Nancy Beiman was 65 and contemplating retirement from her job as a professor of animation, she had no clue as to how she would fill her days. “Many people take up an artistic hobby. But what was I, a professional artist, supposed to do? Take up accounting?” Before she could embark on a crash course in spreadsheets, she woke up one morning with the idea for a comic strip. Beiman had been doing much of her drawing on computer but for this new i ..read more

The 12th annual Kyotographie photography festival features 13 exhibitions staged in striking locations across the Japanese city of Kyoto. Photographers from around the world submitted pictures on the theme of ‘source’ The Kyotographie international photography festival runs until 12 May Spring in Kyoto ushers in cherry blossom season, but it also marks the return of one of the biggest photo festivals in Asia. Kyotographie, now in its 12th year, fuses the past and present with its striking images and unique locations. The 13 exhibitions are staged in temples, galleries and traditional private ..read more

Collective of Māori artists wins Golden Lion at Venice Biennale for Takapau, a large-scale installation inspired by woven mats A Māori artist collective’s dazzling, intricate canopy woven from reflective trucking straps has been awarded a prestigious global art prize – the first time a New Zealand artwork has won the award. On Saturday, the jury of the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale awarded New Zealand’s Mataaho Collective the Golden Lion for best international participation for its work Takapau – a large-scale installation inspired by Māori takapau, finely woven mats ..read more

He joined rebel convoys in Africa and turned his time with GIs in Afghanistan into an Oscar-nominated film. But his subject wasn’t war – it was people. Ahead of a major show, our writer remembers his former colleague Tim Hetherington used to get so hung up about time. This was his issue on every photography assignment, his main bone of contention: how much time did he have? He could never understand why a writer was allowed a full hour with a subject while the photographer had to shoot around the edges, grabbing 10 minutes here and there. “Hold on, hold on,” he would say, whenever I dared hurr ..read more