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100 Masterpieces to See at the Art Institute of Chicago

The Art Institute of Chicago has released a curated guide to 100 essential masterpieces within its massive one-million-square-foot campus. The selection spans global art history, ranging from ancient Egyptian mummies and Greek statues to iconic American sculptures like Edward Kemeys’s bronze lions and Narcissa Niblack Thorne’s intricate miniature rooms. The list is designed to help visitors navigate the museum's vast collection by grouping works by their physical location within the galleries.

vet sothebys gagosian book history art market 1234777759

Valentina Castellani, a veteran of Sotheby’s and Gagosian, is releasing a new book titled 'Trading Beauty: Art Market Histories from the Altar to the Gallery'. The publication aims to fill a pedagogical gap Castellani discovered while teaching at New York University, providing a comprehensive chronological overview of the art market from the Renaissance to the post-pandemic era. Published by Gagosian and distributed by Rizzoli, the book features a cover by Maurizio Cattelan and an introduction by Massimiliano Gioni.

gagosian jasper johns crosshatch survey 2026 1234766114

Gagosian Gallery, in collaboration with Castelli Gallery, will present a landmark survey of Jasper Johns's crosshatched paintings at its 980 Madison Avenue flagship from January 22 to March 14, 2026. The exhibition marks the 50th anniversary of the series' debut in 1976 and includes rarely seen works from 1973 to 1983, lent by major museums such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Broad, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, as well as from Johns's personal collection. Key works include pieces from the "Corpse and Mirror" series, "Weeping Women" (1975), "Dancers on a Plane" (1980–81), and all six "Between the Clock and the Bed" paintings (1981–83).

kerry james marshall frieze london royal academy 1234757330

Kerry James Marshall's paintings are being offered at Frieze London, with two major works on view at different galleries. Alexander Gray Associates presents Marshall's 1992 painting *A Woman with a Heart of Gold* for $2.9 million, a collage-like work that critiques racial fantasies in mass-market romance. David Zwirner shows the 1990 painting *A Little Romance* priced at $3.2 million, depicting a dreamy reclining figure. Meanwhile, the Royal Academy's exhibition “Kerry James Marshall: The Histories” has drawn enthusiastic repeat visits from dealers and auction-house figures, generating significant buzz during Frieze week.

dan nadel sixties surreal whitney robert crumb interview 1234753195

Dan Nadel, a curator recently hired by the Whitney Museum as curator of prints and drawings, is opening a new exhibition titled "Sixties Surreal" that aims to rewrite the history of 1960s art. The show, co-curated with Laura Phipps, Scott Rothkopf, and Elisabeth Sussman, features a wide range of artists from Luis Jimenez to Shigeko Kubota, alongside canonical figures like Andy Warhol and Yayoi Kusama. Nadel, known for championing marginalized and alternative figures in American art, previously curated "What Nerve! Alternative Figures in American Art, 1960 to the Present" at the Rhode Island School of Design and a Gertrude Abercrombie exhibition at Karma gallery. He is also the author of a recent biography of Robert Crumb.

florida art history professor suspended over charlie kirk comments controversial bayeux tapestry transfer is delayed and more morning links for september 18 2025 1234752605

An art history professor at Florida Atlantic University, Karen Leader, has been placed on administrative leave following social media posts about Charlie Kirk, a murdered activist. The suspension has sparked debate over free speech, with Leader stating her comments addressed Kirk's past statements rather than his killing. Separately, the Bayeux Tapestry's planned transfer for restoration ahead of its loan to the British Museum has been delayed due to national strikes in France, with authorities citing security concerns. Other news includes the evacuation of artifacts from Gaza City, the disappearance of a 3,000-year-old gold bracelet from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and Christie's upcoming sale of a David Hockney double portrait expected to fetch over $50 million.

7 New Art Books to Step Into Spring

Artnet News has curated a selection of seven significant new art book releases for the spring season, highlighting diverse subjects from historical archives to contemporary memoirs. Featured titles include a deep dive into Frida Kahlo’s private sanctuary, 'Casa Roja,' authored by her descendants; a curatorial history of Hong Kong’s avant-garde art scene by Oscar Ho Hing-kay; and a vibrant exploration of color in contemporary art featuring works by Yayoi Kusama and Tomás Saraceno.

jasper johns crosshatch gagosian 2727233

Gagosian will host a survey of Jasper Johns's "Crosshatch" paintings at its Madison Avenue gallery in New York from January 22 to March 14, 2026. Titled "Between The Clock and The Bed," the exhibition is organized in partnership with Castelli Gallery and marks the 50th anniversary of the series, focusing on works from 1973 to 1983. It includes loans from major museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Broad, and the National Gallery of Art, as well as works from Johns's own collection. Highlights include pieces from his "Corpse and Mirror" series, "Weeping Women," and all six "Between the Clock and the Bed" paintings.

want one of bob thompsons enigmatic paintings the best time to buy was yesterday 2707960

Artnet News reports on the rising market for African American painter Bob Thompson, who died at 28 in 1966 but produced thousands of works in a five-year span. His vibrant, narrative paintings—inspired by Old Masters, Greek mythology, and Modernism—have long influenced artists and curators, yet only recently commanded high auction prices. In 2024, all 16 lots offered sold, totaling $4 million, with a record $1.26 million for *Music Lesson* (1962) at Christie’s. The article traces his career from Louisville to Europe, his estate history with dealer Michael Rosenfeld, and current interest from collectors and institutions like the Whitney Museum and Smithsonian American Art Museum.

sam gilliam foundation sued over disputed drape painting and more art industry news 2669000

The Sam Gilliam Foundation has been sued over a disputed Drape painting, while the Art Dealers Association of America announced it will not hold its annual New York fair, The Art Show, in 2025, citing a strategic pause. Christie's reported $2.1 billion in auction sales for the first half of 2025, matching last year's figure but down 22% from 2023, and a juvenile Ceratosaurus fossil sold for $30.5 million at Sotheby's. Galleries are seeing movement: Nicole Wittenberg joins Acquavella Galleries, Harper Levine plans a Bangkok space, and Felix Rödder will open Rodder on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Yale University Art Gallery withdrew federal grant applications over anti-DEI language, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum named Mary Savig curator-in-charge of the Renwick Gallery.

bob rennie national gallery of canada donation 24 artworks 1234777302

Vancouver-based collector Bob Rennie and his family have donated 24 significant contemporary artworks to the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. The gift features a major installation by Kerry James Marshall titled 'Wake' (2003–25), alongside works by Brian Jungen, Jin-me Yoon, and 17 pieces by Christopher Williams, marking the latter's debut in the museum's permanent collection.

israeli artist doron langberg addresses atrocities gaza 1234775691

Israeli artist Doron Langberg is launching his first New York exhibition in seven years at Jeffrey Deitch’s Tribeca gallery, marking a significant shift in his practice. Known primarily for "New Queer Intimism" and domestic portraits, Langberg’s new body of work pivots toward monumental landscapes that grapple with his Jewish identity and the destruction in Gaza. The exhibition features works inspired by his family’s Holocaust history in Ukraine, used as a lens to process current geopolitical violence.

art world acronyms 1234764800

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.

alma allen us venice biennale pavilion non political artist 1234761631

Alma Allen, a sculptor known for sleek, abstract works, has been selected to represent the United States at the 2026 Venice Biennale, marking the country's 250th anniversary. The selection process, run by the US State Department and funded by the newly formed American Arts Conservancy—which the article notes is stocked with Trump allies—has drawn criticism for favoring politically neutral art. Allen's sculptures, often made of marble and wood with digital technology, are described as aesthetically inoffensive and reminiscent of Constantin Brâncuși, with no apparent commentary on current US issues.

princeton university art museum reopening 1234759500

The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) reopened after nearly six years, replacing its 1969 building with a 146,000-square-foot complex designed by Adjaye Associates. The new structure features nine interlocking modernist pavilions, a 40-foot mosaic by Nick Cave, and flexible spaces like a central hall convertible into a lecture hall. The museum's collection of 117,000 objects is installed with ahistorical juxtapositions, pairing works such as Andy Warhol's Blue Marilyn (1962) with a 14th-century Virgin and Child, and Titus Kaphar's To Be Sold (2018) with a George Washington portrait. The reopening follows controversy: David Adjaye stepped back from the project in 2023 after allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denied.

ripleys buys maurizio cattelan gold toilet sothebys 1234762386

Ripley’s Believe It or Not! has been revealed as the buyer of Maurizio Cattelan’s 18-karat gold toilet sculpture “America” (2016), which sold for $12.1 million at Sotheby’s “Now & Contemporary” auction on November 18, 2025. The work, consigned by billionaire collector and Mets owner Steve Cohen, hammered at $10 million after a single bid, just above the value of its raw gold. Sotheby’s had previously only identified the buyer as a “Famous American Brand.” Ripley’s announced the acquisition on Instagram, calling it the most valuable object in its collection and noting plans for public display, possibly allowing visitors to sit on the fully functional toilet.

maurizio cattelan america sothebys sale toilet 12 million 1234762122

Maurizio Cattelan's 18-karat gold toilet, titled *America* (2016), sold for $12.1 million at Sotheby's “The Now & Contemporary” sale on Tuesday evening, falling short of the artist's auction record. The work, owned by New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, hammered at $10 million—just above the value of its gold content—after a single bid. It was installed in a bathroom at Sotheby's Breuer Building for viewing but not use. The consignor was revealed to be Cohen, who acquired the piece from Marian Goodman Gallery in 2017. The sale accepted cryptocurrency, and the work did not carry a guarantee.

steve cohen consignor maurizio cattelan golden toilet sothebys 1234760545

Top 200 Collector Steven A. Cohen has been revealed as the consignor of Maurizio Cattelan's golden toilet sculpture, *America* (2016), which will be auctioned at Sotheby's on November 18. The work, made of 18-karat gold and weighing over 100 kilograms, was purchased from Marian Goodman Gallery in 2017. It will be displayed in a bathroom at Sotheby's Breuer Building before the sale, with a starting bid expected around $10 million based on the price of its weight in gold. The piece has a notable history: one version was exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum, offered to the Trump White House as a loan alternative to a van Gogh painting, and another was stolen from Blenheim Palace in 2019, making Cohen's the only extant version.

maurizio cattelan golden toilet sothebys auction 1234759561

Sotheby's is auctioning Maurizio Cattelan's solid gold toilet, titled "America" (2016), during its November evening sale at the Breuer Building in New York. The 18-karat, 100-kilogram functional toilet will be on view from November 8, though visitors will not be allowed to use it. The starting bid will be determined by the work's weight in gold, estimated around $10 million. The piece was previously exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in 2016, where over 100,000 visitors used it, and at Blenheim Palace in the UK, where it was infamously stolen in a smash-and-grab heist and never recovered. Sotheby's will accept cryptocurrency for the sale, following the precedent set by Cattelan's banana artwork last year.

ruth asawa moma smithsonian closes morning links 1234756779

The Smithsonian Institution, a government-funded museum network in Washington, D.C., was forced to close this weekend due to the ongoing government shutdown, marking another blow after repeated attacks by the Trump administration. The National Gallery of Art had already closed the previous weekend, while the Smithsonian had used its own funds to stay open until now. Separately, a traveling Ruth Asawa retrospective opening at New York's Museum of Modern Art on October 19 is reportedly the museum's largest show ever dedicated to a woman artist, featuring 376 works across 16,000 square feet, though MoMA has not officially confirmed this record. Other news includes a forgotten Paul Gauguin painting heading to auction at Artcurial, Sotheby's seeking third-party guarantees for three Klimt paintings from the Leonard Lauder collection, a reattributed Liotard portrait, and Chilean artist Cecilia Vicuña winning the 2025 Roswitha Haftmann Prize.

7 must see museum shows on view across asia in 2026 2723845

Artnet News highlights seven must-see museum exhibitions across Asia in 2026, with a focus on women artists and diverse themes. Key shows include a retrospective of Korean sculptor Kim Yun Shin at the Hoam Museum of Art in Yongin, a posthumous exhibition of Japanese painter Rey Camoy at the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, a manga and fantasy art survey at M+ in Hong Kong, and a solo show by Belgian artist Carsten Höller at the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing.

who was andrew crispo 2720889

Artnet News reports that David Hockney's 1968 double portrait *Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy* sold for $44.3 million at Christie's on November 17, becoming the artist's third-most expensive work at auction. The painting had previously failed to sell at Sotheby's in 1985, bought in at $570,000. Artnet's reporting revealed that the Christie's catalogue omitted the name of Andrew Crispo, a once-prominent New York dealer, from the painting's provenance. The article details Crispo's meteoric rise from a troubled youth in Philadelphia to a savvy art dealer who championed American Modernism, his important clients including Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, and his dramatic fall due to tax fraud, a prison sentence, and the IRS seizure of his inventory.

records fall during 706 million night at sothebys turbocharged by blue chip lauder trove 2714943

Sotheby's achieved a record-breaking $706 million auction night at its new global headquarters in the Breuer Building, New York, the highest total in the auction house's 281-year history. The sale was propelled by the collection of late art patron Leonard A. Lauder, whose 24 pieces sold for $527.5 million, led by Gustav Klimt's *Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer* (1914–16) which fetched $236.4 million, becoming the second-priciest artwork ever sold at auction. A subsequent contemporary and ultra-contemporary art sale added $178.5 million.

how did van gogh influence matisse 2654811

The Van Gogh Museum has acquired Henri Matisse's 1905 painting *Olive Grove in Collioure* to illustrate Vincent van Gogh's influence on modern art. The work, painted 15 years after Van Gogh's death, shows Matisse's adoption of van Gogh's expressive, anti-naturalistic color and brushwork. The museum pairs it with van Gogh's *Trees in the Garden of the Asylum* (1889) to highlight how Matisse transformed van Gogh's reed-pen drawing techniques into his own Fauvist style. Matisse first encountered van Gogh's work in 1897 through Australian painter John Russell, who gave him a van Gogh drawing that Matisse hung in his Paris apartment alongside works by Cézanne and Gauguin.

leonard lauder cubist obituary 2657181

Leonard A. Lauder, the billionaire art collector, philanthropist, and cosmetics magnate, has died at age 92. Lauder helped grow his mother Estée Lauder's namesake business into a global cosmetics empire, serving as president, CEO, and chairman. He was also one of the most significant art philanthropists of his era, donating a Cubist art collection valued at over $1 billion—including 78 works by Picasso, Braque, Léger, and Gris—to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2014, later expanded with additional works and funding for the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art. He also made the largest gift in Whitney Museum history in 2008, worth $131 million, and amassed a collection of 130,000 historic postcards promised to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

pauline karpidas collection sothebys 2655090

The private collection of legendary collector and patron Pauline Karpidas, featuring masterworks by Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, and Les Lalannes, will be auctioned at Sotheby’s London this September. Spanning 250 lots from her eccentric London home, the collection is expected to fetch over £60 million ($81 million), the highest estimate ever placed on a single collection at Sotheby’s Europe. Karpidas, who has collected for 50 years and supported artists like Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin, sees herself as a temporary custodian and is passing the works to a new generation.

met gala 2025 looks artworks 2640024

The 2025 Met Gala, officially the Costume Institute Benefit, was held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, launching the exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” The event drew a star-studded guest list, with celebrities channeling the theme of Black dandyism through tailored silhouettes, bold patterns, and luxurious fabrics. Several attendees, including Cardi B, Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz, Colman Domingo, and Janelle Monáe, wore outfits that directly referenced specific artworks, such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s *Veronica Veronese*, Frank Stella’s *Rectangular Orange Painting with Diagonal Pattern*, and Hyacinthe Rigaud’s portrait of Louis XIV.

Turner prize shortlist announced

The Turner Prize shortlist for 2026 has been announced, featuring four artists: Simeon Barclay, nominated for his spoken-word performance 'The Ruin'; Tanoa Sasraku, recognized for her solo exhibition 'Morale Patch' exploring the political history of oil; Kira Freije, shortlisted for her first major solo show 'Unspeak the Chorus'; and Marguerite Humeau, nominated for her exhibition 'Torches'. The shortlist was selected by a jury chaired by Alex Farquharson, director of Tate Britain, who praised the diverse range of work spanning installation, performance, and sculpture. An exhibition of the shortlisted artists will be held at Teesside University's Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (Mima) from September 2026 to March 2027, with the winner announced on December 10, 2026, receiving £25,000.

Agosto Machado, Artist and Activist Whose Shrine Sculptures Kept Queer History Alive, Has Died

Agosto Machado, an artist and activist central to New York's Downtown scene and a participant in the 1969 Stonewall uprising, has died following a brief illness. His gallery, Gordon Robichaux, announced his passing but, respecting his wishes, did not disclose his age. Machado was known for creating intricate shrine sculptures from collected ephemera to honor figures from his community, and one of these altars is currently featured in the 2024 Whitney Biennial.

Melvin Edwards, pioneer of Black abstraction, 1937–2026

Melvin Edwards, a pioneering sculptor known for his steel assemblages that explored Black history and experience, has died. He was the first African-American artist to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 1970. His signature series, Lynch Fragments, began in the 1960s as a response to the civil rights movement and evolved over his lifetime to incorporate references to the Vietnam War and African cultural practices.