Sagrada Família, Gaudi’s eccentric homage to Catalonia – archive, 1983

This archival article from The Guardian, originally published in 1983, examines Antoni Gaudí's Sagrada Família in Barcelona, highlighting the polarizing reactions it has provoked. George Orwell called it one of the world's most hideous buildings, while Salvador Dalí praised its 'supremely creative bad taste.' The article traces Gaudí's life, from his early dandyism to his later ascetic devotion to the cathedral, where he worked, ate, and slept for the last 12 years of his life. It notes that construction began in 1882 and was expected to take generations, with Gaudí leaving few drawings and constantly modifying his plans from models.

Faithful line streets for Pope Leo’s Sagrada Família blessing on centenary of Gaudí’s death

Pope Leo XIV will bless the Sagrada Família basilica in Barcelona on the centenary of Antoni Gaudí's death, marking the completion of the Jesus Christ tower—the tallest of 18 spires—which brings the church to its full height of 172.5 meters. Thousands of faithful lined the route hours ahead, and the pope's busy schedule also includes a visit to a high-security prison and a plea for Catalan unity.

‘It’s not about heroes and villains’: the triumphant return of long-lost indie I Shot Andy Warhol

Mary Harron's 1996 directorial debut, *I Shot Andy Warhol*, is returning to cinemas this summer in a new 4K restoration from Janus Films. The film chronicles the life of Valerie Solanas, who shot Andy Warhol in 1968, and has long been out of circulation due to bankrupt distributors, surviving mainly through a battered YouTube upload. Harron notes she had been trying for six or seven years to get the film back into theaters.

Twice a Week, David Haskell Leaves New York Magazine To Throw Clay

David Haskell, editor in chief of New York Magazine, is holding his first solo exhibition of sculptures titled "Boom Beach" at Donzella Ltd. in New York City. The show features 68 works, mostly ceramics, along with bronzes and glass sculptures, created over the past several years. Haskell, who works as a sculptor twice a week at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, began working with clay as a teenager and returned to it in 2013, evolving from making planters to abstract forms that he describes as a personal exploration of shape and balance.

Elfie Semotan, Austrian Fashion Photographer, Dies at 84

Elfie Semotan, an Austrian fashion photographer renowned for her long collaboration with designer Helmut Lang, died unexpectedly on Saturday at age 84 in Jennersdorf, Austria. Born in Wels in 1941, Semotan studied fashion in Vienna, worked as a model in Paris, and launched her photography career in the 1970s with provocative ad campaigns for Palmers lingerie and Römerquelle mineral water. She also shot portraits of art-world figures including Louise Bourgeois, Maria Lassnig, Daniel Richter, and Martin Kippenberger, to whom she was briefly married. Her work appeared in magazines such as the New Yorker, Vogue, and Esquire, and she taught at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and the International Summer Academy in Salzburg.

How David Hockney Taught Los Angeles to See Itself

The New York Times Art article examines how British artist David Hockney, through his iconic swimming pool paintings and vibrant depictions of Southern California light, hedonism, and gay liberation, became a defining symbol of Los Angeles culture. Hockney, an outsider who moved to LA, used his art to capture the city's stylish yet alienating essence, teaching audiences to see Los Angeles in a new way.

David Hockney and the Bliss of Not Standing Still

A memoirist reflects on David Hockney's life and work, emphasizing that beyond his iconic subjects of boys, pools, and light, the most crucial element was his relentless drive to keep moving forward. This obsession with progress and shifting focus into the future shaped his artistic evolution.

Framing David Hockney’s Greatest Art

This article examines the career of David Hockney, focusing on how his work—whether created in Los Angeles, his native England, or during his travels—consistently reinvented the world he observed through psychological insight. It highlights his ability to transform everyday scenes into profound artistic statements, emphasizing his unique perspective and technical innovation across decades.

David Hockney’s Sense of Style Never Wavered

The New York Times Art section published an article titled "David Hockney’s Sense of Style Never Wavered," which examines the distinctive and exuberant fashion choices of the renowned British painter David Hockney. The piece highlights how Hockney's clothing—characterized by bold colors, patterns, and a playful maximalism—has been a consistent and integral part of his public persona throughout his decades-long career.

David Hockney, Who Restored the Human Form to Art, Dies at 88

David Hockney, the British artist renowned for his vibrant figurative paintings and pioneering work in photography, has died at the age of 88. His career spanned more than six decades, during which he became one of the most recognizable and influential figures in contemporary art, known for works such as *A Bigger Splash* and his series of swimming pool scenes that captured the hedonism of 1960s California.

What I Learned From David Hockney

The article recounts curator Norman Rosenthal's six-decade friendship with artist David Hockney, culminating in their collaboration on a major final exhibition. Rosenthal reflects on the process of working with Hockney and the fresh insights he gained about the artist's work and personality even after knowing him for so long.

With iPhones and Faxes, David Hockney Embraced Tech

David Hockney, the renowned British artist, has embraced a wide range of technologies—including iPhones, faxes, Polaroids, and photocopiers—to create art that diverges sharply from his traditional paintings. The article explores how these tools have opened new creative possibilities for Hockney, allowing him to experiment with different forms and processes beyond his celebrated painterly practice.

For Painting’s Great Skeptic, Gerhard Richter, History Is a Blur

New York Times art critic Jason Farago examines Gerhard Richter's approach to landscape painting, arguing that the German artist, long regarded as a skeptic of painting's relevance, has developed a distinctive method that embraces blur and historical ambiguity. The article traces Richter's career from his early photorealist works through his abstract cycles, focusing on how his blurred landscapes—such as the "Seascape" series—engage with the legacy of Romanticism while acknowledging the impossibility of unmediated vision after photography and historical trauma.

‘Correctomundo: Selected Writings 2001–2026’ by Bruce Hainley, Reviewed

ArtReview publishes a review of Bruce Hainley's new essay collection 'Correctomundo: Selected Writings 2001–2026', a suite of 15 scattered essays spanning the last quarter-century. The book, published by a German gallery, showcases Hainley's aslant, rangy take on art criticism, with pieces ranging from a meditation on Rainer Werner Fassbinder's film to an epistle to sculptor Vincent Fecteau and a polemical essay on Andy Warhol's Oxidation paintings. Hainley, known for his big-brained, stylish and principled approach, has largely withdrawn from art writing in recent years, finding less art to like and the artworld increasingly dismal.

Elfie Semotan, fashion photographer, 1941–2026

Elfie Semotan, the Austrian fashion photographer known for her work with designer Helmut Lang, has died at age 85. She broke through in the mid-1970s with provocative ads for Austrian lingerie brand Palmers, later becoming renowned for her stripped-back portraiture in Lang's campaigns and runway shows over two decades. She also photographed art-world figures including Louise Bourgeois, Maria Lassnig, Daniel Richter, and Christopher Wool. Born in Wels, she studied fashion in Vienna, worked as a model in Paris, and was married to artists Kurt Kocherscheidt and Martin Kippenberger.

Paul’s Gallery of the Month: SLQS Gallery

SLQS Gallery, founded in 2024 by Sarah Le Quang Sang in Shoreditch, London, focuses on female and queer artists and challenges traditional career classifications like "emerging" and "mid-career." The gallery has hosted ten shows, including Hoa Dung Clerget's exploration of Vietnamese diaspora through nail art, Damaris Athena's "undercurrents," and Diana Taylor's blending of digital and analogue painting. The current exhibition features Beverley Duckworth, who uses an irrigation system to grow seeds in the gallery, creating evolving artworks about networking and resistance.

A Belated Presence of the Bomb That Fell on My Family's House

"Eine verspätete Präsenz der Bombe, die auf das Haus meiner Familie fiel"

Walid Raad, the Lebanese-born artist known for his archival project "The Atlas Group (1989–2004)," is currently showing installations at the Venice Biennale's main exhibition and at Galerie Thomas Schulte in Berlin. In Berlin, his exhibition features a wrecked Volkswagen Beetle lying on its roof, along with wall texts claiming to be "Love Notes" written by soldiers on bombs. In an interview, Raad discusses his creative process, which he describes as oscillating between receiving and creating, rather than between fiction and reality. He explains that he often starts with a found document or object, digitally manipulates it until it reveals "what it should be," and then writes a story about who made it and why it was sent to him.

À Boissy-le Châtel, les Moulins de la Galleria Continua fêtent leurs 20 ans autour de dialogues artistiques inattendus

The Galleria Continua's Les Moulins satellite in Boissy-le-Châtel, France, celebrates its 20th anniversary with a group exhibition running until December 20, 2026. Founded by Italian trio Mario Cristiani, Lorenzo Fiaschi, and Maurizio Rigillo, the sprawling 40,000-square-meter contemporary art space occupies a former paper mill in the Brie countryside. The anniversary show features over 50 voices—artists, collectors, journalists, and partners—each selecting a memorable work, creating unexpected dialogues between established figures like Michelangelo Pistoletto and Daniel Buren and emerging talents, with highlights including Silvio de Sislej Xhafa's sand bust of Berlusconi and Leandro Erlich's VR Pool.

Rising Artist Holly Lowen’s Hyperrealistic Paintings Tap into Raw Competitive Instinct

Rising artist Holly Lowen creates hyperrealistic paintings that explore the raw competitive instincts of animals, specifically focusing on chickens and roosters. In her Tribeca studio, she has produced works depicting roosters in mid-flight and tumbling, drawing on the long history of cockfighting and human-animal relationships dating back to 1500 B.C.E.

Rodney McMillian at Capitain Petzel

Rodney McMillian is the subject of a solo exhibition at Capitain Petzel gallery. The show presents a series of works by the artist, documented through 26 images on the Contemporary Art Daily platform, though no text descriptions accompany the visuals.

Phantasmic Figures Grapple with Their Doubles in Xie Lei’s Dreamy Oil Paintings

Paris-based artist Xie Lei presents a new body of work in a solo exhibition titled "Double" at Musée Denys-Puech in Rodez, France. The show features dreamy oil paintings of spectral figures grappling with doubles, twins, or reflections, rendered with feather-light brushstrokes and deep shadows. Works like "Resistance" and "Double I" evoke underwater or elemental realms, while disembodied hands reach out in suspended touches. The exhibition runs from June 12 to October 25, 2025.

RIP David Hockney: 5 places to see the legendary artist’s work in London

David Hockney, the legendary British artist known for his vibrant depictions of Los Angeles swimming pools and pioneering iPad drawings, has died at age 88. The article lists five London venues where his work can be seen: Tate Britain (featuring his 1967 masterpiece 'A Bigger Splash' and planning a major retrospective for October 2027), Serpentine North (hosting a free exhibition of his digital artworks including the 90-meter frieze 'A Year in Normandie'), the National Portrait Gallery (displaying his 2005 'Self-Portrait with Charlie'), Tate Modern (which will transform its Turbine Hall into an immersive tribute to his opera set designs in summer 2027), and Halcyon Gallery in Mayfair (offering etchings, lithographs, and iPad drawings for sale).

At Venice Biennale 2026, the Legacy of Koyo Kouoh Is Everywhere

The 2026 Venice Biennale, themed "In Minor Keys" by the late Cameroonian-Swiss curator Koyo Kouoh, features a record fourteen African national pavilions—including first-time participants like Somalia and Tanzania—spread across the city. The exhibition was completed by "Koyo's Team" after Kouoh's death in 2025, with curator Rory Tsapayi emphasizing a sensory, non-didactic approach that decenters traditional power structures.

A new Seattle art innovation lab aims to bring together tech and art

A new art innovation lab called xispa (pronounced “chee-spa”) is opening on June 18 in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, in the former MadArt Studio space. Founded by Lele Barnett and Doug Carmean, xispa combines a gallery, artist residency, and technology hub to foster collaboration between artists and tech workers. The first artist-in-residence is Portland-based Samantha Yun Wall, a 2024 Betty Bowen Award winner, who will explore nanoparticle ink during her six-month residency, working out of the University of Washington’s Molecular Information Systems Lab. The space is fiscally sponsored by local nonprofit Shunpike and aims to keep art at the forefront, with artists deciding how to integrate technology into their practice.

The free museum tucked away in a Houston park showcases masterpieces by Picasso, Warhol, and Magritte

The Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, is a free museum located on a 30-acre park-like campus in the Montrose neighborhood. Founded by French philanthropists John and Dominique de Menil and opened in 1987, it houses over 25,000 works spanning surrealist, contemporary, and modern art, including pieces by Picasso, Magritte, Ernst, and Warhol. The main building, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano, features galleries dedicated to African, Ancient, Pacific Islands, Medieval, and Byzantine art, alongside temporary exhibitions such as John Akomfrah's "The Hour of the Dog" and Cy Twombly's "The Gift of Drawing." The campus also includes the Cy Twombly Gallery, the Menil Drawing Institute, Dan Flavin's Richmond Hall installation, and the Rothko Chapel, which displays 14 Mark Rothko murals.

Wollongong Art Gallery presents trio of exhibitions for winter

Wollongong Art Gallery has launched three new winter exhibitions: 'Ballad of the Burbs' by Nicci Bedson, 'Transience Atlas' by Rob Howe, and 'Popular Versus Culture' by Georgia Banks. The exhibitions opened on June 5, 2026, with a well-attended event, showcasing diverse works that explore suburban life, seasonal change, and pop culture. The gallery's 2026 program also includes ongoing shows such as 'The Architecture of Feeling' and 'Tell Them Their Dreaming'.

SAM’s showcase exhibition, Facing Modernity: Degas to Picasso from Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, brings art royalty to regional Victoria

Shepparton Art Museum (SAM) in regional Victoria has opened "Facing Modernity: Degas to Picasso from Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki," a landmark exhibition featuring 37 paintings and sculptures by modernist masters including Picasso, Matisse, Dalí, Cézanne, and Hepworth. The show, which runs until 20 September 2026, is the only Australian venue for the exhibition, drawn from Auckland Art Gallery's collection and anchored by the significant Robertson gift. SAM will also host the Archibald Prize in September 2026, marking a major year for the institution.

The Sun and The Moon Exhibition at Saatchi Gallery | Art Inspired by Celestial Bodies - News and Statistics

The Saatchi Gallery has opened a major new exhibition titled 'The Sun and The Moon,' exploring humanity's fascination with celestial bodies. Curated by Katherine Benson, the show spans nine gallery spaces across two floors and features works from over 170 artists, structured as a 24-hour cycle from dawn through night. Highlights include Luke Jerram's six-metre illuminated sphere 'Helios,' made from 400,000 NASA photographs, and Margot Selby's textile 'Moon Landing,' which honors the Navajo women and Raytheon workers who contributed to the Apollo missions. The exhibition also includes works by Patrick Caulfield, Barbara Hepworth, Sinta Tantra, Kay Gasei, and Aina Petrova, alongside historical artifacts like a Sol Invictus Celtic Bust and a replica of the Nebra Sky Disc.

Barbie: The Exhibition at Kelvingrove - 70 years of an iconic doll’s design story

Barbie: The Exhibition, originally staged at London's Design Museum, will open at Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum on June 13, running for four months. Curated by Danielle Thom, the show explores the design history of the iconic doll, from her 1959 debut to her cultural impact, including the evolution of Barbie pink and the architectural trends reflected in Dreamhouses. The exhibition is produced in partnership with Mattel and the Design Museum, aiming to present Barbie as a significant piece of mainstream design.

How Agostino Bonalumi Turned Painting Into Space

Italian artist Agostino Bonalumi's monumental modular sculpture "Struttura modulare bianca" (1970), originally created for his solo room at the 35th Venice Biennale, will be presented at Art Basel Unlimited 2026 by Mazzoleni gallery. The rarely exhibited work, staged in collaboration with Archivio Bonalumi, marks a pivotal moment in Bonalumi's shift from painting into three-dimensional "object painting" and environmental art, as discussed by gallery directors Luigi and Davide Mazzoleni in an interview.