Vasari Art Codex

article policy schedule Aug 25, 2025 visibility 7 link 5 artists, 2 galleries

amy sherald speaks out government censorship at the smithsonian 1234749864

Amy Sherald, the painter who canceled her exhibition “American Sublime” at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in July due to censorship issues, has broken her silence in a MSNBC article. Sherald canceled her September show after the museum considered removing her painting *Trans Forming Liberty* (2024), depicting model and performance artist Arewà Basit as a Black transgender Statue of Liberty. In her op-ed, Sherald explains that institutional fear shaped by political hostility toward trans lives played a role, and she cannot comply with a culture of censorship targeting vulnerable communities.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

article policy schedule Feb 23, 2026 visibility 7 link 3 artists

high vat rates art sales spain protest reina sofia 1234774135

Hundreds of artists, gallery owners, and collectors staged coordinated sit-ins at major Spanish museums, including the Museo Reina Sofía, to protest the country's 21 percent Value Added Tax (VAT) on art sales. Demonstrators gathered around Richard Serra’s 'Equal-Parallel/Guernica-Bengasi'—a replica of a work that famously vanished from storage—to symbolize the potential disappearance of the Spanish art sector under current fiscal pressures. The protests included demands for the resignation of the culture and finance ministers and calls for tax parity with European neighbors.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

article policy schedule Apr 16, 2026 visibility 12 link 10 artists, 2 galleries

Prominent German Art Foundation Accuses Top Culture Official of ‘Attempted Intimidation’

Jurors from the Kunstfonds Foundation, a major German contemporary art funding body, have accused Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer of attempted intimidation and political interference. The conflict erupted after Weimer requested the names of the independent jury members, a move the foundation views as a threat to artistic freedom. This follows a separate controversy where Weimer reportedly consulted domestic intelligence to exclude bookstores with left-wing leanings from a national award.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

article policy schedule Apr 14, 2026 visibility 13 link 45 artists

An open letter to La Biennale di Venezia calls out inaction in the face of global atrocities

A group of 74 artists and curators invited to the 61st Venice Biennale have issued an open letter to the institution's president, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco. The signatories are protesting the decision to relocate the Israeli Pavilion to the Arsenale, placing it in close proximity to the central exhibition 'In Minor Keys' curated by the late Koyo Kouoh. The letter demands the exclusion of official delegations from countries accused of war crimes—specifically Israel, Russia, and the United States—and accuses the Biennale of complicity through its silence on global atrocities.

newspaper STIRworld open_in_new Read original

article policy schedule Aug 27, 2025 visibility 7 link 1 artist, 1 gallery

Museums Are Under Fire. Silence Isn’t an Option

James Steward, director of the Princeton University Art Museum, argues that museums are under coordinated attack in a polarized political climate. He cites threats including scrutiny of the Smithsonian Institution for its narratives, pressure on directors who uphold diversity and inclusion principles, and immigration agents targeting museums serving communities of color. Steward calls on museum leaders to resist the impulse to remain silent and instead double down on their role as spaces for dialogue, debate, and the holding of contradictory ideas.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

article policy schedule Oct 13, 2025 visibility 4 link 6 artists, 1 gallery

Political censorship of art exhibition at California’s Pepperdine University

Pepperdine University, a private Christian institution in Malibu, California, censored and closed an art exhibition titled "Hold My Hand in Yours" at its Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art. The exhibition, curated by museum director Andrea Gyorody, featured works centered on hands as symbols of labor, identity, care, and connection. On October 1, administrators Lauren Cosentino and Nicole Singer visited the museum, leading to the shutdown of artist Elena Mann's video "Call to Arms 2015-2022," which included references to Donald Trump's policies, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, and the George Floyd protests. Another work, "Con Nuestras Manos Construimos Deidades" by Natalie Godinez and the nonprofit AMBOS, was also censored after officials objected to text reading "Save the Children" and "Abolish ICE."

newspaper World Socialist Web Site open_in_new Read original

article policy schedule Jul 3, 2025 visibility 4 link 1 artist, 1 gallery

Trump seeks to defund Institute of American Indian Arts

President Donald Trump's proposed 2026 federal budget seeks to eliminate all federal funding for the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), the only four-year school dedicated to contemporary Indigenous arts. IAIA relies on federal funding for 75% of its operational costs and received $13 million in the prior two fiscal years; the budget also cuts over $500 million from the Bureau of Indian Education, which supports 37 tribal colleges including IAIA.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

article policy schedule May 14, 2025 visibility 7 link 4 artists

How Javier Milei’s war on history is threatening art spaces in Argentina

Argentina's President Javier Milei has escalated his campaign to rewrite the history of the country's 1976-1983 dictatorship by closing art and human-rights spaces on the grounds of the ESMA Museum and Site of Memory in Buenos Aires, a former clandestine prison turned memorial and UNESCO World Heritage Site. In January, the Haroldo Conti Cultural Centre was shuttered for 'internal restructuring,' with 50 of its 87 employees fired; in early April, the government halted operations at Espacio Memoria, suspending salary payments and funding pending an audit. Both centres are public institutions managed by the Human Rights Secretariat, which has undergone mass layoffs and changes under Milei's administration.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

article policy schedule Feb 17, 2026 visibility 7 link 1 artist

UNT art students protest exhibit’s removal with a funeral for freedom of speech

Students at the University of North Texas (UNT) staged a protest in the form of a funeral for freedom of speech at their College of Visual Arts and Design gallery. They were responding to the unexplained removal of the exhibition "Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá" by street artist Victor Quiñonez (Marka27). The students, dressed in black, laid flowers on a Mexican flag and wrote messages to administrators, delivering eulogies for the silenced artwork and expression.

newspaper KERA News open_in_new Read original