Grey days in empty places

A show at the Fitzwilliam Museum featuring the work of contemporary British artists Michael Landy and George Shaw explores the places in between town and country where nature takes a hold on no man's land and weeds find niches in the concrete.

There but not there: the meaning of absence

A lecture tomorrow by Professor Hung Wu is a rare opportunity to hear an eminent Chinese scholar talk about the ways in which the country's artists have responded to huge social and political change over the last 40 years.

Credit: ©The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Egg Cetera #4: Mayonnaise and the making of masterpieces

In the fourth report of our Egg Cetera series on egg-related research, conservator Spike Bucklow describes how far the simple egg has extended the richness and splendour of paintings.

The dark side of the art world

Looting of antiquities from archaeological sites is a serious crime. A fully-booked talk at Cambridge Science Festival on Thursday will unearth some of the dirty secrets of the illicit trade in precious objects and ask tricky questions about the relationships between looters, dealers and museums.

The carriers of memory

Almost 100 years after the outbreak of World War I, public opinion about war in many of the countries that fought appears to have shifted completely. Historian Jay Winter explains how poetry, art and film have been crucial to that process of transformation.

Life extinguished, life rekindled

This year's Darwin Lectures address the theme of life. Tonight's speaker, Cambridge academic Dr Robert Macfarlane, will discuss “Life in Ruins” in art and literature. He will begin with a thought experiment, described below, and go on to explore the roles that ruins play in our hopes and fears.