Our top arts events this week: photos of the Soviet brave new world and more

Plus: the evolution of Beirut from Ottoman town to Lebanese capital.

Our 2015 year in Review magazine out next week

It has been, as the cliché goes, a year to remember. 2015 has been dominated by the ongoing migration crisis. At home, the UAE was hit by the news that more than 50 servicemen had died in Yemen. Three days of mourning followed and the first Commemoration Day to honour all UAE soldiers who have fallen in action took place in November. In our 60-page magazine, we take a closer look at these and other important stories of the year. Other pieces look at the faces who made the news, the images that caught our attention and our predictions across technology, business and politics for 2016. The magazine will be free with your paper on December 26 and The Review will return on January 2 . Also visit www.national.ae

Beirut exhibition looks at evolution of a city

This exhibition in Beirut traces the evolution of a small provincial Ottoman town to Lebanese capital. On show in the newly reopened Sursock Museum, the city's transformation is examined from different aspects of its geography, such as the port, coast, provinces and surrounding hillsides. Highlights of the exhibition include David Hockney's Place des Canons, a painting from 1966 depicting the modernist façade of the Rivoli Cinema, and Saadi Sinévi's 1952 painting of the long-gone Souk Ayass. About 200 rarely seen works are on display. Regards sur Beyrouth: 160 ans d'images 1800-1960 runs at the Sursock Museum in Lebanon until January 11. For more information visit www.sursock.museum

Photographs from Communism’s brave new world

This exhibition in Moscow looks at the work of one of the leading Soviet architectural photographers. Images that Naum Granovsky took on his travels across the Soviet Union are on display, but his favourite subject was always Moscow. As a reporter with a top news agency, he was able to photograph the city from its highest points, areas which were inaccessible to ordinary citizens. His shots portray the ideal city of imperial monumentality. More than 100 photographs are on display, including many never seen before by the public. Naum Granovsky's Grand Style runs at the The Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography in Moscow until January 24. For more information visit www.lumiere.ru.