A hated portrait and a forged masterpiece: two new thrillers with paintings at their centre

Two new thrillers center on paintings: "The End of the Vodka" by an unnamed author, which fictionalizes the real story of Frida Kahlo's commissioned portrait of Dorothy Hale—a painting that horrified its patron Clare Boothe Luce—and weaves an imagined conversation between Luce and Wallis Simpson amid the backdrop of World War II. The second, "Sacrifice" by Lynda La Plante, follows Detective Jack Warr as he investigates a possible forgery of a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting, leading to murder and a missing art forger.

Malo Chapuy Reimagines Medieval Art on the Cover of our New Talent Issue

Malo Chapuy's painting *Virgin with Codex* (2025) appears on the cover of Art in America's new talent issue. In an interview from his Paris studio, Chapuy explains how he reinterprets medieval and early Renaissance Flemish painting by mixing its motifs with contemporary and sci-fi elements, such as gothic cathedral spaceships and QR codes designed to function like medieval manuscripts for future postapocalyptic monks. He describes his process as making "forgeries," using traditional techniques like oil on wood panels, homemade lead white, and self-carved frames to mimic aged Old Master works while addressing themes of ecological collapse, apocalyptic anxiety, and planetary exile.

Steven Soderbergh, the Colors of Money

Steven Soderbergh, les couleurs de l’argent

Steven Soderbergh's new film "The Christophers" (2025) is a sharp, chamber-piece drama about art, inheritance, and money. The story follows Julian Skar, a former art superstar from the 1970s now living in seclusion and earning a living by caricaturing himself on social media. His children, Barnaby and Sally, eager to maximize their future inheritance, hire a repentant forger named Lori Butler to secretly complete Julian's unfinished masterpiece, an eight-portrait series titled "The Christophers." The film explores the complex relationships that develop between the four characters in a labyrinthine London house, written in the style of a lively theatrical play.