François Morellet, mathematics and humor as guides

François Morellet, les mathématiques et l’humour pour guides

The article reports on the national centenary celebration of French artist François Morellet (1926–2016), titled "100 x Morellet," which includes exhibitions, conferences, and symposia across France. The centerpiece is the exhibition "100 pour cent" at the Centre Pompidou-Metz, curated by Michel Gauthier, featuring 100 works spanning Morellet's entire career from 1941 to 2016. The show extends beyond the museum onto a wall of a nearby SNCF technical center, reflecting Morellet's affinity for public space. The exhibition is structured around the artist's dual nature—oscillating between the rigorous geometric order inherited from Piet Mondrian and the irrational, humorous spirit of Francis Picabia—showcasing his evolution from self-taught adolescent paintings to concrete art, Op Art, monochromes, and neon works.

Iris van Herpen’s Sculptural Couture Responds to Nature at the Brooklyn Museum

The article covers the exhibition "Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses" at the Brooklyn Museum, the Dutch couturier's first major American show. It features 140 haute couture creations alongside works from the museum's collection, fossils from the American Museum of Natural History, and specimens from the Yale Peabody Museum and Staten Island Museum. The exhibition is organized into eleven themed chapters, from water to cosmos, and includes new works like the aerial sculpture "Weightlessness of the Unknown" (2024) and the living algae piece "Living Algae look" (2025). Van Herpen pushed for close proximity between viewers and garments, emphasizing an immersive experience.

Il Ritratto di Maffeo Barberini acquistato dallo Stato per 30 milioni è esposto a Roma al Senato a ingresso gratuito

The Italian State has acquired Caravaggio's "Ritratto di Monsignor Maffeo Barberini" for €30 million, concluding a negotiation that lasted over a year. The painting, executed around 1600, will be on free public display from May 28 to June 21, 2026, in the Sala Capitolare of the Biblioteca del Senato in Rome, before its permanent transfer to the Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica at Palazzo Barberini. The exhibition also features a selection of documents from the Archivio di Stato di Roma, including judicial records that shed light on Caravaggio's legal troubles.

An exhibition in Prato where some soft sculptures set the rhythm between presence and absence

Una mostra a Prato dove alcune sculture morbide dettano il ritmo tra presenza e assenza

The exhibition "Puzzle" by Daniela De Lorenzo is on view at Lottozero Kunsthalle in Prato, curated by Alessandra Tempesti and supported by Toscanaincontemporanea 2025. The show features felt sculptures and photographic prints on cotton paper, exploring the fragmentation and recomposition of the subject-object relationship through soft sculpture. De Lorenzo creates felt casts of her own body, using the material's technological and mechanical properties to produce a segmented high-relief work that follows an irregular, uncertain musical rhythm. The pieces appear and disappear against a monochrome background, evoking classical friezes and challenging natural anatomical laws. A photographic series dedicated to Cosmè Tura's "Madonna dello Zodiaco" (1459-1463) further extends her investigation into perception and the gaze.

Dentro uno storico palazzo del centro di Roma ora si visita una nuova galleria d’arte. Gratis

A new free-admission art gallery, the Galleria Verticale, has opened inside Palazzo Marignoli, a historic 19th-century building in central Rome owned by the Allianz Group. The gallery presents a vertical exhibition route from top to bottom, showcasing part of Allianz Italia's corporate art collection, which spans the 19th and 20th centuries. Curated by Claudia Crosera and Aulo Guagnini, the temporary display (open until May 5, 2027) features works by artists such as Francesco Hayez, Alfredo Tomiz, Umberto Veruda, and Arturo Rietti, alongside restoration history and archival materials related to the insurance companies that merged into Allianz. The building also houses a flagship Apple store designed with Norman Foster's involvement and a panoramic restaurant, Quid.

Dans un champ près de Toulouse, l’artiste Almudena Romero signe la plus grande œuvre photographique jamais réalisée

Anglo-Spanish photographer Almudena Romero has created "Farming Photographs," a 11,000-square-meter photographic work in a field near Toulouse, France, making it the largest photograph ever made. Using the 19th-century anthotype process, the image—a giant eye composed of traits from various races, genders, and ages—was planted as a crop of wheat and winter grasses, with each pixel corresponding to a tractor-width plot. The work emerges in spring, is visible from May to June, transforms until harvest, and ultimately becomes edible flour. Romero collaborated with France's INRAE agricultural research institute, dividing the image into 1,350 pixels and assigning different plant varieties to each based on color and density.

Resonating with the past: 3 Macau artists on ‘Jacone’s Polyphony’ at Venice Biennale

Three Macau artists—Fok Hoi Seng, O Chi Wai, and Lei Fung Ieng—are presenting works in the exhibition “Jacone’s Polyphony” at the 61st Venice Biennale. The show, curated by Feng Yan and Ng Sio Ieng, draws inspiration from the 17th-century Jesuit painter Wu Li (known in Portuguese as Jacone), whose unfulfilled journey to Rome mirrors Macau’s complex cultural identity. Fok contributes a large-scale screen tracing Wu Li’s intended route; O offers a multimedia installation linking past and present spiritual seeking; and Lei creates a sculpture exploring migration and emotional texture.

Interview on the Great Exhibition at the Colosseum Dedicated to Troy: 'Aeneas Is the Bridge Between Our Cultures'

Intervista sulla grande mostra al Colosseo dedicata a Troia: “Enea è il ponte tra le nostre culture”

A major exhibition titled "Troia e Roma. Miti, leggende, storie del Mediterraneo antico" will open at the Parco Archeologico del Colosseo in Rome on June 12, 2026, featuring over 220 artifacts from 19 Turkish museums, including 50 works never before seen by the Italian public. The show is curated with Sinem Düzgören, the new director of the Museo di Troia in Çanakkale, who arranged the loan of 100 works from her museum. The exhibition includes a monumental replica of the Trojan Horse and highlights the mythological and historical ties between Troy and Rome, with key pieces such as the Head of Augustus and a marble copy of the Aphrodite of Cnidus.

Preview: Beppe Madaudo exhibition at Art Studio La Marina in Pietrasanta

A preview of an exhibition by artist Beppe Madaudo is set to take place at Art Studio La Marina in Pietrasanta, Italy. The article announces the upcoming show, though specific dates and details of the works to be displayed are not provided in the text.