Gillian Slovo, novelist: 'Tolstoy was equally at home describing a frock horse galloping or a battle scene'

Culture news in pictures

• 1/30 15 March 2016

  A view of one of the rooms, which is part of the exhibition Light Morals X Red Light District of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. This exhibition shows the prostitution in the nineteenth century

• 2/30 14 March 2016

  Jose Sabas Gomez works on a statue of El Jesus Nazareno in his workshop in Apastepeque, El Salvador. Sabas is one of a small number of artists still working on traditional religious art in El Salvador

• 3/30 13 March 2016

  Carter Brey on principal cello plays the "Messiaen in the Temple: Quartet for the End of Time" from French composer Olivier Messiaen at The Temple of Dendur inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

• 4/30 12 March 2016

  Dancers perform in the inaugural parade marking the 15th Iberoamerican Festival of Theater, FITB, in Bogota. The Columbian festival celebrates the performing arts, including circus, cabaret, musicals, live bands, dance, and theater

• 5/30 11 March 2016

  Members of the public walk past works of art on display in gallery spaces at the 'Affordable Art Fair' in Battersea Park in London. The Spring Fair takes place over four days from March 10-13 and features a diverse range of contemporary art, priced between £100 - £5,000 GBP by established and emerging artists

• 6/30 10 March 2016

  A Lyon & Turnbull employee holds a painting by David Bowie at Lyon & Turnbull auctioneers in Edinburgh ahead of their Contemporary Paintings Sale. The late pop icon donated the self-portrait DHEAD for the fundraising ARTAID 98 exhibition in the city in 1998

• 7/30 9 March 2016

  To highlight the plight of female DJs globally, Smirnoff hosted an event to mark the launch of its new documentary in London with Radio One DJ B Traits shining light on the fact that only 10.8% of major festival line ups included women in 2015

• 8/30 8 March 2016

  A colourful tribute to Battersea Power Station has been installed in Battersea Park to launch the Affordable Art Fair Battersea, opening this week. The iconic Power Station itself can be seen behind the eye-catching installation through the trees of the leafy park. The Power Station installation, made up of five separate structures and covered in striking images of artwork from the fair, will sit in the heart of the local area until the fair finishes on 13 March

• 9/30 7 March 2016

  Commuters walk through the Oculus of the partially opened World Trade Center Transportation Hub after nearly 12 years of construction in New York City. The grand structure was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava at a cost of $4 billion in public money, almost $2 billion over budget. The hub offers connections to the PATH train connecting New York City and New Jersey

• 10/30 6 March 2016

  Israeli pregnant women show their bellies painted by Israeli body artist Tal Bracha in Zippori, northen Israel. Tal Bracha specialized in belly painting that became very popular in Israel, as women want to keep a memory from their pregnancy period. Many women invite the artist for a 'pregnancy evening' that includes painting and sharing their experiences

• 11/30 5 March 2016

  Burkina Faso's contemporary dancers of "Les clameurs des arenes" (Arenas' Clamours) company, perform during the 9th edition of the MASA festival (Market For African Performing Arts) at the French Institute in Abidjan

• 12/30 4 March 2016

  Panda sculptures are seen in front of Grand Palace during an exhibition by French artist Paulo Grangeon in Bangkok, Thailand

• 13/30 3 March 2016

  True-to-life replicas of renowned Lascaux's Stone Age cave paintings are stored, in Montignac, prior to their transport to the future international cave arts museum Lascaux IV. The cave of Lascaux is one of the largest decorated caves of the Paleolithic. The age of the paintings and engravings is estimated between about 18.000 and 17.000 years. The cave of Lascaux is reproduced identically to be mounted in the International Centre of the parietal art of Montignac-Lascaux

• 14/30 1 March 2016

  Visitors looking at artworks by German artist Sigmar Polke, at the Staedel Museum in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The artworks, which will be on show at the exhibition hall of the Graphische Sammlung will be displayed until 22 May 2016

• 15/30 29 February 2016

  A woman looks the at painting 'Cat racoon of Maine' by Jaime Wyeth during the exhibition 'Wyeth: Andrew and Jamie in the Studio' held at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, Spain. The exhibition, which runs from 1 March to 19 June, is the first retrospective in Europe on Andrew and Jamie Wyeth, leading figures of 20th-century American realism

• 16/30 28 February 2016

  (L-R) Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, actor Leonardo DiCaprio and director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, all winners for 'The Revenant,' pose onstage during the 88th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood

• 17/30 27 February 2016

  Actor Micheal Douglas reacts on stage after he received an Honorary Cesar award at the ceremony of 41th Cesar Film Awards at Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, France. This annual ceremony is presented by the French Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques

• 18/30 26 February 2016

  Visitors look at works of German artist Anselm Kiefer from the series 'Die Welt - Ein Buch' (lit. The world - a book) in the museum for visual arts in Leipzig, Germany. The show presents the works of the painter and sculptor from 27 February

• 19/30 25 February 2016

  A visitor looks at the installation of Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist 'Pixelwald' (Pixel Forest) during the press preview of her exhibition at the Kunsthaus in Zurich, Switzerland. The event runs from 26 February to 8 May

• 20/30 24 February 2016

  Between performing at the Grammy’s and being nominated for a BRIT Award, singer-songwriter, Ellie Goulding found time to delight two of her biggest fans when she surprised them on stage and joined the duo for a performance of her latest single, Army. As part of MasterCard’s Priceless Surprises campaign, Goulding chose superfan Martha and her best friend Lucy for their unique cover of Army on YouTube

• 21/30 23 February 2016

  A sculpture called 'The New World' by Georgia artist Travis Somerville is displayed at the ARCO International Arts Fair in Madrid, Spain. ARCO opens on 24 February and runs through to 28 February 2016

• 22/30 22 February 2016

  Chinese traditional folk performer spray the molten iron against a cold stone city wall to create sparks imitated as the fireworks to celebrate the upcoming Chinese traditional Lantern Festival in Nuanquan Town, rural Zhangjiakou city, China's Hebei province

• 23/30 20 February 2016

  A slow shutter image of a Russian dancer spinning as she performs during the Chingay Parade in Singapore. Chingay, which means 'the art of costume and masquerade' in the Hokkien dialect features local and international performances and marks the tail end of the Lunar New Year festive period

• 24/30 19 February 2016

  A view of the exhibition 'PIGS' during its presentation at the Artium Museum in Vitoria, Spain. 'PIGS' is a pejorative acronym that refers to the economies of Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain

• 25/30 18 February 2016

  Puppets of (left) rebels Billy Byrne and Thomas McDonagh on the set of A Terrible Hullabaloo, a new animated film telling the story of Vinny Byrne being a 14-year-old boy soldier in the Easter Rising. Film-makers created foot tall puppets and miniature sets of the GPO and St Stephen's Green in Dublin to depict Vinny's role alongside 1916 rebel leader Thomas MacDonagh in the Jacob's biscuit factory

• 26/30 17 February 2016

  A visitor looks at an artwork by Swiss graffiti artist 'Puber' during the opening party of the exhibition 'Staatsfeind Nr.1' (Public Enemy No.1) at Ho Gallery in Vienna, Austria. The anonymous street artist became famous for his 'Puber' graffiti tag on Vienna's house walls. The exhibiton runs from 18 February to mid April

• 27/30 16 February 2016

  Lady Gaga performs a tribute to the late David Bowie at the Grammys

• 28/30 15 February 2016

  Anna Wintour attends the Costume Institute's "Manus x Machina" exhibition press presentation at Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City

• 29/30 14 February 2016

  Members of the public watch a light show projected onto the Senate House in Cambridge, which is one of the light installations during the e-Luminate Cambridge festival

• 30/30 13 February 2016

  Workers attach life jackets used and discarded by refugees to the facade of the 'Konzerthaus' (Concert Hall) as part of an art installation by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in Berlin, Germany. Ai Weiwei's new art project aims to remember the fate of the many refugees who died trying to reach Europe