Art News. Vasari Codex

article culture schedule Apr 28, 2026 visibility 23 link 7 artists, 1 gallery

Harnessing the winds of societal change: how art dealers have been able to shape taste for centuries

Valentina Castellani, a former Gagosian director, has authored a new book titled *Trading Beauty: Art Market Histories from the Altar to the Gallery* (out 1 May). The book traces how art dealers have historically leveraged societal changes—political, economic, and social—to reshape taste and market structures. Castellani begins in the Middle Ages, when art was made only on commission for patrons like the Catholic church and monarchies, and moves through key shifts such as the Dutch Republic's first open art market in the 17th century, which gave rise to the professional art dealer. She highlights dealers like Paul Durand-Ruel, Joseph Duveen, and Leo Castelli who capitalized on anti-establishment energy, new wealth, and post-war consumer culture to bring avant-garde art to the forefront.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

article culture schedule May 11, 2026 visibility 14 link 3 artists, 2 galleries

On Paranoid Time

Film Notes has published Qingyuan Deng's essay exploring the intersection of Lacan's concept of retroactive meaning and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's distinction between paranoid and reparative reading, as applied to recent artists' films and moving-image installations. The essay examines how works like Alison Nguyen's installation "Perforation, Ellipse" at New York's Storefront for Art and Architecture use cinematic techniques—such as perforations, splices, and missing scenes—to hold the temporal gap between an event and its belated political comprehension, focusing on the censorship of Vietnamese bolero songs after the American War.

newspaper e-flux open_in_new Read original

article culture schedule May 5, 2026 visibility 23 link 5 artists

WHEN FASHION MEETS ART QUOTES BODIES AND POWER AT THE MET GALA

The 2026 Met Gala took place on the first Monday of May, opening the Costume Institute's spring exhibition 'Costume Art' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The dress code 'Fashion is Art' prompted celebrities to treat the body as a canvas, with attendees like Hunter Schafer, Madonna, Rachel Zegler, Angela Bassett, Kendall Jenner, Troye Sivan, and Emma Chamberlain referencing specific artworks—from Gustav Klimt's *Mada Primavesi* to the *Winged Victory of Samothrace*—and historical fashion pieces.

newspaper Arte al Día open_in_new Read original

article culture schedule May 4, 2026 visibility 12 link 4 artists

In new play, Norval Morrisseau forgery scandal prompts questions about authenticity and Indigenous identity

A new play by Ojibway playwright Drew Hayden Taylor, *The Undeniable Accusations of Red Cadmium Light*, dramatizes the massive Norval Morrisseau art forgery scandal in Canada. The story follows an Indigenous art expert named Nazhi, her adopted daughter Beverly, and a journalist whose investigation into Morrisseau forgeries unravels Nazhi’s own identity and status. The play uses Morrisseau’s iconic imagery and the forensic analysis of paint colors to explore the blurred lines between authentic and fake, both in art and in personal identity. It concluded its run at Vancouver’s Firehall Arts Centre on 3 May.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

article culture schedule May 15, 2026 visibility 8 link 4 artists

From men on dog leads to public breast-fondling, Valie Export’s art demanded a total feminist revolution

Valie Export, the pioneering Austrian feminist artist known for her provocative and confrontational performances from the 1960s onward, is the subject of a reflective essay by writer and academic Hettie Judah. The article revisits Export's radical works such as *Hyperbulia* (1973), where she crawled naked through electrified wires; *From the Portfolio of Doggedness* (1968), in which she led a man on a dog lead through Vienna; and *Action Pants: Genital Panic* (1969), where she walked through a cinema with exposed genitals. Judah draws on her own interviews with Export, who died in 2023, and discusses the artist's manifesto demanding that women use art to reshape consciousness and achieve liberation.

newspaper The Guardian open_in_new Read original

article culture schedule Apr 26, 2026 visibility 16 link 2 artists

“Yellow Letters”: arte e politica, libertà e censura nel nuovo film di İlker Çatak

Ilker Çatak's fifth film, "Yellow Letters," premieres on April 30, 2026, distributed by Lucky Red. The story follows Derya and Aziz, a Turkish artist couple whose lives unravel after Aziz, a professor at Ankara University, receives a "yellow letter" terminating his employment. The film, inspired by post-2016 coup purges in Turkey, shifts to Berlin and Hamburg, where the director deliberately avoids mimicking Turkish locations, instead using explicit captions like "Berlin as Ankara" to create a Brechtian alienation effect. Çatak explores how arbitrary state repression fractures personal relationships and moral boundaries, drawing on interviews with artists who faced unjust dismissals.

newspaper Artribune open_in_new Read original

article culture schedule May 14, 2026 visibility 5

A Primer on Buddhist Monuments

The New York Times Art section published a primer on three architecturally significant Buddhist stupas (reliquary mounds) located in Nepal, Thailand, and Taiwan. The article highlights the distinct design and cultural importance of each monument, serving as an educational overview for readers interested in Buddhist architecture.

newspaper New York Times Art open_in_new Read original

article culture schedule May 10, 2026 visibility 10 link 1 artist

Il Padiglione della Natura alla Biennale di Venezia. Ovvero due gabbiani che mettono in crisi il patriarcato

At the 2026 Venice Biennale, two seagulls built a nest in front of the Polish Pavilion in the Giardini. Organizers chose to protect the nest with a small fence and a sign, turning it into an unofficial "Nature Pavilion." The birds share incubation duties equally, drawing large crowds who pause to watch their cooperative behavior amid the Biennale's intense geopolitical tensions, including protests against the Russian Pavilion, pro-Palestinian actions, and debates over Israel's cultural role.

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article culture schedule Apr 25, 2026 visibility 10

“La preistoria non è stata solo violenza, ma anche cura”. Intervista all’archeologa femminista Marga Sánchez Romero

Marga Sánchez Romero, a professor of Prehistory at the University of Granada and a leading voice in feminist archaeology in Spain, argues in an interview that prehistory has been misrepresented as a sequence of violence and hierarchies. She emphasizes that new questions are reshaping our understanding of the past, highlighting that care, cooperation, and solidarity were as crucial as conflict in human evolution. The conversation covers biases in archaeological interpretation, the famous Viking tomb of Birka, the origins of inequality, and the role of museums in creating more inclusive narratives.

newspaper Artribune open_in_new Read original