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Artnet News editors and journalists compiled their annual roundup of the best artworks seen in 2025, highlighting standout pieces from around the world. Among the featured works are Richard Serra's monumental steel sculpture "East-West/West-East" (2014) in the Qatari desert, Emma Ferrer's painting "You Will Return the Evil to Its Steppe (Homage to Josefa de Óbidos)" (2024) shown at New York's Sapar Contemporary, and Kerry James Marshall's "The White Queens of Africa: Colette" (2025) from his retrospective at the Royal Academy of Art. Each artwork is accompanied by a personal reflection from the journalist who encountered it.

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An ancient bronze artifact at China's Luoyang Museum has gone viral for its striking resemblance to Labubu, a wildly popular collectible toy created by Hong Kong artist Kasing Lung in 2015. The artifact, an Eastern Zhou Dynasty ceremonial danglu used as horse armor, dates to the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 B.C.E.) and is on display until August. Meanwhile, some internet users have drawn comparisons between Labubu and the Mesopotamian demon Pazuzu, sparking baseless conspiracy theories and TikTok warnings from overly devout Christians.

Monet and Van Gogh Masterpieces Hit the Shampoo Aisle

Beauty brand Dove has launched a limited-edition haircare collection called "The Art of Repair" featuring iconic artworks by Claude Monet, Mary Cassatt, and Vincent van Gogh on its product packaging. The shampoo, conditioner, and serum bottles display images of Monet's *The Japanese Footbridge*, Cassatt's *The Loge*, and Van Gogh's *Roses*, drawing a parallel between art conservation and hair repair. The collection is exclusively available at Walmart.

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A 12-foot-tall bronze statue of a Black woman by British sculptor Thomas J. Price, titled *Grounded in the Stars* (2023), has been installed in Times Square, sparking a polarized public reaction. Online, conservative commentators and social media users have labeled the work a sign of a "very sick society" and a "death of civilization," with racist AI-generated and Photoshopped images circulating. In person, the sculpture has drawn both affirming responses—such as a Black woman mimicking its defiant pose—and disrespectful acts, including a white man groping the statue's buttocks for a photo. The work, which stands near permanent monuments to white male figures, will be on view until June 17.

Beer With a Painter: Keith Mayerson

Hyperallergic interviews Los Angeles-based painter Keith Mayerson, who discusses his ongoing 'My American Dream' series—a cosmology of paintings blending American identity, activism, and popular culture. The conversation covers his early influences from comics, the Muppets, and Hunter S. Thompson, his transition from cartooning to painting, and his vibratory, swirling brushwork. Mayerson's work has been featured in the 2014 Whitney Biennial and is currently on view at the Aspen Art Museum and the Pollock-Krasner House.

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Rachel Harrison's recent exhibition "The Friedmann Equations" at Greene Naftali in New York was a highlight of 2025, featuring her signature brainy, oblique, and funny sculptures and drawings. The show included works alluding to Marcel Duchamp and his alter-ego Rrose Sélavy, as well as drawings riffing on Hans Holbein's portraits of Henry VIII and his court. During a visit to the gallery, Harrison's dealer Carol Greene handed the author a copy of Harrison's new children's book, "Hold Still, Henry!", which reproduces those Holbein-inspired drawings in a board-book format for young readers. The book is published by Rookie Books, a small press founded in 2022 by artist Camillo Paravicini of Basel, Switzerland, who has previously worked with artists like Monster Chetwynd, Martin Parr, and Nathalie Du Pasquier.

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera are given a voice by New York's Metropolitan Opera

New York is experiencing a wave of Frida Kahlo-related events this spring, including a new book from Rizzoli about her childhood home museum in Mexico City and a small exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) featuring works by Kahlo and Diego Rivera. The centerpiece is the Metropolitan Opera's new production of *El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego*, with music by Gabriela Lena Frank and libretto by Nilo Cruz, both Pulitzer Prize winners. The opera, which premiered in San Diego in 2022, opens on 14 May and features set and costume design by Jon Bausor, who also co-curated the MoMA exhibition alongside curator Beverly Adams. The production imagines Kahlo's spirit rising from the underworld on the Day of the Dead to reunite with Rivera, blending Mexican musical elements with a dreamlike, visually rich aesthetic.

allison rose dan rose aspen ranch

Allison Rose, a restaurateur and investor, and her husband Dan Rose, a tech venture capitalist, have purchased a working cattle ranch on Rose Spur Road in Snowmass, Colorado, near Aspen. The couple, who were drawn to the area after multiple visits following their 25th wedding anniversary in 2021, are restoring the property with a menagerie of miniature Highland cows, donkeys, and a mini horse named Pop Tart, while planning a greenhouse and future cattle raising. Allison Rose, who also owns a ranch in Hawaii and serves on the boards of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and the Aspen Art Museum, shares her vision for the ranch and her thoughts on Aspen's culinary scene in an interview with Cultured.

Giant Golden Toilet Sculpture Appears Near Lincoln Memorial in D.C.: ‘A Throne Fit for a King’

An anonymous artist collective known as the Secret Handshake has installed a 10-foot-tall golden toilet sculpture titled 'A Throne Fit for a King' near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The work is a satirical monument to former President Donald Trump's controversial renovation of the White House's Lincoln Bathroom, which he outfitted with gold fixtures during a government shutdown.

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The article provides a comprehensive guide to essential acronyms used in the art world, explaining what each abbreviation stands for and its significance. It covers organizations like AAM (American Alliance of Museums), AAMD (Association of Art Museum Directors), and ADAA (Art Dealers Association of America), as well as art fairs such as ABMB (Art Basel Miami Beach) and ARCO (Arte Contemporáneo in Madrid). It also includes advisories like AIG (Art Intelligence Global), historical galleries like AIR (Artists in Residence), and defunct fairs like FIAC (Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain), offering context on their origins and current relevance.

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American Pop artist Robert Rauschenberg created his controversial work *Erased de Kooning Drawing* (1953) by taking a drawing from Abstract Expressionist legend Willem de Kooning and erasing almost all of its marks. Rauschenberg, then 28, had recently returned to New York after studies at Black Mountain College and the Art Students League. He convinced de Kooning to donate a drawing for the project with a bottle of Jack Daniels, and de Kooning insisted it be a work he would miss. The erasing took about a month and wore down roughly 40 erasers. The finished piece, framed in a traditional gilded frame and inscribed by Jasper Johns, is now held by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), which used infrared technology in 2010 to reveal traces of de Kooning's original charcoal-and-pencil figures.

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Estonian rapper and provocateur Tommy Cash sparked controversy at the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, with lyrics that parodied Italian stereotypes, leading Italy to call for his disqualification. Despite finishing third, the incident has drawn renewed global attention to Cash, who has long been a boundary-pushing figure in European art and music. Artnet News resurfaced a 2022 interview with Cash, born Tomas Tammemets in 1991, who describes himself as an artist working across music, fashion, and installation projects, blending post-Soviet visual language with high and low culture references.

Meet the Woman Who Curated the Art on Miranda Priestly’s Walls

Fanny Pereire, an art advisor specializing in film and television, curates the art seen on the walls of fictional characters like Miranda Priestly in *The Devil Wears Prada 2*, Logan Roy in *Succession*, and Bobby Axelrod in *Billions*. She works as a fine art coordinator, sourcing reproductions and original works to match character personalities and socioeconomic status, often overseeing the destruction of replicas after filming. Her role, created by producer Scott Rudin in 1999, involves clearing copyrights for every artwork shown on screen, from children's drawings to high-end pieces by artists like Wayne Thiebaud and Alex Katz.

art how to start art collection advice

Cultured magazine profiles 10 art collectors, sharing the stories of their first acquisitions. The article features collectors such as Miami real estate developer Craig Robins, hotelier Steve Wilson, Allison Sarofim, Brandon John Harrington, James Frey, and Rodrigo Padilla, recounting how they began their collections—from a Dalí sketch and a Matisse drawing to an Andy Warhol portrait and a late-night Instagram purchase. Each narrative highlights the personal, often serendipitous moments that sparked a lifelong passion for art.

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A new book titled *Hidden Portraits: The Untold Stories of Six Women Who Loved Picasso* by Sue Roe (published by Faber and W.W. Norton) examines the lives of Picasso's six most significant partners: Fernande Olivier, Olga Khokhlova, Marie-Thérèse Walter, Dora Maar, Françoise Gilot, and Jacqueline Roque. The book challenges the narrative that these women were passive muses, instead revealing their personal ambitions and reasons for entering relationships with the artist, drawing on journals and historical context to present their perspectives.

the critics table best art books of the year

Johanna Fateman and Blakey Bessire share their picks for the best art books of the year. Fateman highlights a new edition of Claude Cahun's anti-memoir "Cancelled Confessions or Disavowals" from Siglio Press, featuring photomontages by Cahun and Marcel Moore, and the first monograph on Greer Lankton, "Could It Be Love," edited by Francis Schichtel, Jordan Weitzman, and Nan Goldin with an essay by Hilton Als. Bessire selects "Voice of Space: UFOs and Paranormal Phenomena," a catalog from the Drawing Center exhibition exploring UFOs and altered states, and "Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal," a Hammer Museum catalog edited by Erin Christovale that examines Coltrane's sonic and spiritual work.

travel guide joshua tree robert goff art food

Robert Goff, a journalist-turned-art dealer and current Deputy Chairman and President of Private Sales at Gurr Johns, launches a new column for CULTURED titled "Out of Office" that explores destinations through the lens of local artists and creatives. The inaugural edition focuses on Joshua Tree and the Yucca Valley, highlighting off-the-beaten-path art experiences such as Rachel Whiteread's concrete casts of 1950s homesteader cabins on Jerry Sohn's private property, the outdoor sculptures of Noah Purifoy, and a memorable outdoor dinner at Andrea Zittel's A-Z West compound organized by sculptor Dan John Anderson, complete with a meal from the acclaimed High Desert restaurant La Copine.

collectors queer art pride month

CULTURED revisits four collector questionnaires from Pride Month, featuring Rob and Eric Thomas-Suwall (the Icy Gays), Chad Leat, and Ilan Cohen. Each collector shares their personal journey, motivations, and the LGBTQ+ artists they champion, including Salman Toor, Dominique Fung, Anna Weyant, Roni Horn, John Giorno, Wolfgang Tillmans, Doron Langberg, Louis Fratino, and TM Davy. The article offers intimate glimpses into their homes and collections, highlighting how they discovered art, built relationships with dealers, and navigated collecting from remote or non-traditional locations.

Trevor Paglen’s New Book Says AI Is Rewriting What Images Do

Artist Trevor Paglen has published a new book, *How to See Like a Machine: Images After AI*, which argues that generative AI and computer vision are fundamentally changing how images function in culture. Drawing on his decade-long practice, Paglen contends that images are no longer merely representations for human interpretation but have become operational tools—'activations' that trigger automated responses and shape reality. He cites examples such as surveillance cameras at grocery stores, the Samsara navigation system in trucks, and the ImageNet database to illustrate how machine vision systems normalize surveillance in service of capital, a phenomenon he terms 'machine realism.'

How Wayne McGregor’s epic ballets draw on help from his artistic friends

Choreographer Wayne McGregor’s upcoming production at the Royal Opera House, 'Alchemies', highlights his career-long commitment to cross-disciplinary collaboration with visual artists and designers. The program features a world premiere with costumes by fashion designer Saul Nash, alongside revivals of 'Yugen' and 'Untitled, 2023'. These works incorporate significant contributions from the art world, including set designs by ceramicist Edmund de Waal and previous collaborations with figures like Tacita Dean and Olafur Eliasson.

It's Time to Give Annibale Carracci Some of Rembrandt's Spotlight

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This article advocates for a critical re-evaluation of the Italian Baroque painter Annibale Carracci, arguing that his historical significance and artistic influence rival that of the more widely celebrated Rembrandt van Rijn. While Rembrandt has dominated recent museum headlines and auction records, the author highlights Carracci’s foundational role in establishing the Accademia degli Incamminati in Bologna, which revolutionized art education by prioritizing life drawing and elevating the social status of artists from mere craftsmen to intellectual creators.

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The article explores how Emily Brontë's novel *Wuthering Heights* has inspired visual artists across different eras. It details specific works by English artist Edna Clarke Hall, who created hundreds of sketches and watercolors reflecting her personal connection to the story's themes of isolation and turmoil, and by Polish-French modernist Balthus, who produced a series of ink illustrations focusing on the childhood trauma of the protagonists.

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Taschen has released a monumental two-volume monograph titled "Art Sin Fin" (2026) dedicated to the 96-year-old Chilean filmmaker and polymath Alejandro Jodorowsky. The book, priced at $1,500 and packaged in a Plexiglass box, spans over 2,000 pages and includes film stills, collages, drawings, photographs, comic strips, and performance images curated by Jodorowsky himself in collaboration with Donatien Grau, head of contemporary programs at the Louvre Museum. It covers his entire career, from his surrealist films "El Topo" (1970) and "The Holy Mountain" (1973) to his failed "Dune" adaptation, his comic series like "The Incal" and "The Metabarons," his psychomagic therapy practice, and recent collaborations with his wife Pascale Montandon.

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Frank Lloyd Wright, the renowned architect of New York's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, underwent bizarre medical treatments at the urging of Hilla Rebay, the artist and curator who commissioned him to design the museum. Rebay, a Prussian-born baroness and advisor to Solomon R. Guggenheim, convinced Wright to have all his teeth pulled and replaced with dentures within six weeks of their meeting, and also subjected him and his wife to leech bloodletting to drain 'old' blood. The Wrights stopped following her advice when she eyed their daughter's teeth.

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Kelly Reichardt's new film *The Mastermind*, starring Josh O'Connor, depicts a low-stakes art heist at the fictional Framingham Museum of Art, inspired by a real 1972 theft at the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts. In the actual heist, two robbers stole four paintings by Rembrandt, Picasso, and Gauguin, worth about $7.72 million today, and shot an unarmed guard. The film, set in the early '70s, draws on details like two schoolgirls who witnessed the crime, but Reichardt deliberately makes the cinematic version less thrilling than the real event.

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Issy Wood, a rising British artist known for her figurative paintings of luxury objects and body parts, created the cover for Vanity Fair's first art-themed issue in nearly two decades. The cover features a portrait of pop star Charli XCX titled *Charli 2* (2025), painted in oil on velvet with gauzy stars and white forms. Wood cited their shared Britishness and the singer's career longevity as inspiration, while the article draws parallels between Wood's subject matter and the 'Brat universe.'

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Fashion designer Jason Wu has collaborated with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation to create a Spring 2026 collection titled "COLLAGE," inspired by the late artist's work and presented during New York Fashion Week. The collection draws on ten works from the foundation's holdings, including pieces from Rauschenberg's "Hoarfrost" series (1974–76) and "Airport Suite" (1974), with Wu granted rare access to study the artist's use of fabric and collage. The collection will be shown alongside a major Rauschenberg piece on September 14, 2025, and will be available for purchase in February 2026.

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Shana Moulton, an artist and chair of the art department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, discusses her exhibition "Meta/Physical Therapy" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and her retrospective at the Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art. The article centers on Moulton's semi-autobiographical alter ego, Cynthia, a hypochondriac navigating New Age wellness culture through video installations, performances, and a collection of eccentric objects. Moulton explores themes of hypochondria, hospital art, and the absurdity of wellness consumerism, drawing from her upbringing in a California mobile home park and her long-running video series "Whispering Pines" (2002–18).

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The article explores the artistic friendship between Renaissance masters Raphael and Albrecht Dürer, who never met but exchanged letters and artworks across 600 miles. Initiated when both were at the height of their careers, the correspondence began with Dürer sending Raphael a gouache self-portrait, to which Raphael responded with drawings, including "Two male nude studies" (1515) and "Three Standing Men" (1514-16). The friendship lasted only five years, ending with Raphael's death in 1520 at age 37. The exchange is documented by Giorgio Vasari in "The Lives of the Artists," and one surviving drawing bears an inscription by Dürer acknowledging Raphael's gift.

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Lorde's new single "Man of the Year" from her upcoming album *Virgin* (released June 27) features a music video that visually references Walter De Maria's *New York Earth Room* (1977), a minimalist installation of 280,000 pounds of soil filling a SoHo loft. The video shows Lorde stripping, taping her breasts, and rolling in dirt, while the song's lyrics explore her fluid gender identity. Lorde also cites Italian artist Lucio Fontana and includes an X-ray cover image by photographer Heji Shin.