David Hockney’s 1972 painting Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) was sold at Christie’s for $90.3m. Photograph: David Hockney/APDavid Hockney’s 1972 painting Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) was sold at Christie’s for $90.3m. Photograph: David Hockney/APOpinionDavid Hockney This article is more than 5 years oldDavid Hockney’s $90.3m painting reminds us what great art looks likeThis article is more than 5 years oldJonathan JonesThe record-breaking Portrait of an Artist, painted in 1972, speaks from the heart.

Observer New Review Q&AThalidomideInterviewMikey Argy: ‘I don’t blame the parents who rejected babies with thalidomide’Interview by Kate KellawayThe thalidomide activist on family, frustration and a powerful new documentary, Attacking the DevilWhat is the main message of new documentary Attacking the Devil, about Harold Evans’s Sunday Times campaign to win compensation for thalidomide families? It is that one person can make a difference – I get goosebumps thinking about it. When you meet Harold Evans, you can’t believe he’s 87.

MusicReview(Pias)Instrumental post-rock has become a tedious cul-de-sac populated by listless bands who think that noodling guitar lines, a scrape of cello and a handful of sombre chords convey crushing import. Mogwai's painfully marvellous 2001 LP, Rock Action, proved that the lairy Scots were head and shoulders above their peers, co-opting deceptively sweet melodies, corralling guest vocalists and confining the whole thing to a perfectly judged 39 minutes. If anything, Happy Songs For Happy People is even sweeter, a trove of tunefulness that sometimes lulls and sometimes overwhelms.

The ObserverHistory booksReviewThis history of (American) psychiatry by a high-ranking insider is ultimately too partial and limited in scope Journeying through the history of psychiatry with Jeffrey A Lieberman is not unlike being led by Voltaire’s indomitable optimist, Professor Pangloss, through the seven years’ war and the Lisbon earthquake. Psychiatry’s past may have been blinded by mesmerists and fast-talking snake-oil sellers. There may have been brutal incarceration of the “mad”, terror, torture by insulin coma, surgery and electricity, and too many Freudian years of rooting around in buried familial sites.

The model Shari Siadat proudly shows off her natural brows. Photograph: Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan/Getty ImagesThe model Shari Siadat proudly shows off her natural brows. Photograph: Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan/Getty ImagesBeautyWomen are reclaiming their natural facial hair – and dismantling Eurocentric beauty standards at the same time With more than 90,000 posts to its name, the #unibrow movement on Instagram focuses on the women who choose to sport their natural brows. These women are dismantling societal norms of femininity – an act of defiance in an industry built around Eurocentric beauty standards.