The Museum of Modern Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art have co-organized a major exhibition and catalogue exploring Marcel Duchamp’s complex relationship with art institutions. Despite his reputation as a skeptical iconoclast who famously claimed to avoid the Louvre, Duchamp spent decades actively reshaping how museums function through his "portable museum" projects, curatorial collaborations, and the strategic placement of his legacy within permanent collections.
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has launched a comprehensive retrospective of Marcel Duchamp, marking the first major American survey of the artist's work in five decades. The exhibition follows a chronological path through Duchamp’s radical career, featuring early pen-and-ink drawings, his transition through Cubism and Dadaism, and his revolutionary "readymades" like the urinal titled Fountain. Highlights include the rare gathering of all three versions of Nude Descending a Staircase and documentation of his final, secretive installation, Étant donnés.
The global art calendar for 2026 is set to feature a series of high-profile retrospectives and monumental installations across Europe's major cultural hubs. Highlights include a career-spanning reckoning of Tracey Emin’s work and a deep dive into Frida Kahlo’s iconicity at Tate Modern, a rare dialogue of Henri Matisse’s late-period works in Paris, and the historic loan of the Bayeux Tapestry to the British Museum. Additionally, site-specific experiences such as Mark Rothko’s canvases in a Florentine palazzo and James Turrell’s largest museum 'Skyspace' in Denmark offer immersive encounters designed to draw international travelers.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is hosting "Raphael: Sublime Poetry," the first comprehensive exhibition of the High Renaissance master in the United States. Running through June 28, 2026, the landmark show features over 170 works, including major loans like "The Alba Madonna" and the "Portrait of Baldassarre Castiglione," alongside preparatory sketches that reveal the artist's technical process.
The Venice Biennale has officially announced the list of invited artists for its 61st edition in 2026. The selection features a diverse global cohort including established figures like Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave, and Carsten Höller, alongside influential collectives such as fierce pussy and blaxTARLINES KUMASI. The list also includes significant posthumous inclusions like Marcel Duchamp and Beverly Buchanan, signaling a curatorial approach that bridges contemporary practice with historical legacies.
The Venice Biennale has officially announced the 111 artists, duos, and collectives selected for the 61st International Art Exhibition, titled "In Minor Keys." The exhibition follows the vision of the late Cameroonian curator Koyo Kouoh, who passed away in May 2024 after conceptualizing the show and selecting the majority of its participants. The roster features a diverse global lineup including Wangechi Mutu, Kader Attia, Khaled Sabsabi, and Laurie Anderson, with a curatorial focus on quiet resistance, poetic improvisation, and the "lower frequencies" of social and psychic life.
Major American art institutions are undergoing a significant shift in perspective, prioritizing themes of diversity, selfhood, and renewal in their programming. This evolution is evidenced by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s total re-evaluation of its permanent collection display in anticipation of its new building, alongside a wave of exhibitions featuring contemporary voices like Derrick Adams and Nick Cave, and retrospectives for historical figures such as Edmonia Lewis and Isamu Noguchi.
The shortlist for the Prix Marcel Duchamp, France's most prestigious art prize, has been announced. The five nominees are Joël Andrianomearisoa, David Brognon and Stéphanie Rollin, Laura Henno, and Josèfa Ntjam. The winner receives €35,000 from a total prize fund of €90,000. Due to the closure of the Centre Pompidou for renovations, the accompanying exhibition will be held at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris from 2 October 2026 to 14 February 2027. The winner will be announced on 22 October.
A preview of ten major art exhibitions opening across the United States in 2026, curated by art historian Emily Snow. Highlights include 'Frida: The Making of an Icon' at the Museum of Fine Art in Houston, a Mary Cassatt centenary show at the National Gallery of Art, a focused presentation of Matisse's 'Jazz' at the Art Institute of Chicago, the 82nd Whitney Biennial, and the first comprehensive Raphael exhibition ever staged in the U.S. at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Other featured shows include 'America 250: Common Threads' at Crystal Bridges Museum and 'Manet & Morisot' at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
In the first episode of 2026, Ben Luke, Jane Morris, and Gareth Harris preview the year's major art events, including museum openings, biennials, and exhibitions. Highlights include the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, V&A East, and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, along with the Venice Biennale, Whitney Biennial, and shows dedicated to artists like Gainsborough, Raphael, Zurbarán, and Matisse.
A block of Great Jones Street in downtown Manhattan, between Bowery and Lafayette Street, has been officially renamed Jean-Michel Basquiat Way in honor of the late Neo-Expressionist artist. Basquiat lived and worked at 57 Great Jones Street from 1983 until his death from a heroin overdose at age 27 in 1988, renting the space from his friend Andy Warhol. On October 21, New York city council members and Basquiat's family, including his sister Lisane Basquiat, unveiled the street signs. The building now features a commemorative plaque and has been rented by actress Angelina Jolie as a showroom and curatorial space for her fashion brand Jolie Atelier.
The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York is presenting "High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100," a centennial exhibition celebrating Alexander Calder's iconic work "Calder’s Circus" (1926-31). The show brings together the miniature circus figures, wire sculptures, drawings, archival materials, and early abstract works, exploring how the circus inspired Calder's lifelong exploration of balance and movement, leading to his invention of the mobile. The exhibition runs from October 18, 2025, to March 9, 2026, and is co-curated by Jennie Goldstein and Roxanne Smith.
Petr Pudil, a Czech businessman and co-founder of BPD partners, discusses his journey as an art collector and the opening of Kunsthalle Praha in Prague with his wife Pavlína. The museum, housed in a former 1930s electricity substation, opened in 2022 and features temporary thematic exhibitions from their collection of over 2,000 works, including pieces by Max Ernst, Alicja Kwade, and William Kentridge. Pudil reflects on his acquisition strategy, regrets, and favorite London spots during Frieze week.
An exhibition titled 'LOOK HERE' opens at Haverford College's Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, featuring six neurodivergent artists from Greater Philadelphia who are connected with the Center for Creative Works (CCW). Curated by Jennifer Gilbert alongside CCW artists Paige Donavan and Mary T. Bevlock, the show highlights diverse works including mixed-media sculptures by blind artist Cindy Gosselin, textured ceramics by Clyde Henry, marker drawings by Allen Yu, and contributions from Kelly Brown, Tim Quinn, and Brandon Spicer-Crawley. The gallery is designed for accessibility, with lowered paintings, sensory backpacks, braille booklets, ASL-embedded videos, and custom seating by artists.
The article presents a curated list of ten essential artworks at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, coinciding with the departure of longtime director Glenn Lowry after 30 years and the appointment of Christophe Cherix as his successor. It highlights iconic pieces such as Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" (1907) and Matisse's "The Red Studio" (1911), while reflecting on MoMA's history, its founding vision by Alfred Barr, and its evolution through expansions including the incorporation of PS1 and the $450 million renovation of its 53rd Street building.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has received a promised gift of 188 Dada and Surrealist works from collector and trustee John Pritzker, known as the Bluff Collection. The gift includes pieces by Man Ray, Max Ernst, Marcel and Suzanne Duchamp, Jean Arp, Lee Miller, and others, with 35 works debuting in the upcoming exhibition "Man Ray: When Objects Dream" (14 September 2025 – 1 February 2026). Pritzker is also donating over 100 books and ephemera, and funding a new research initiative, the Bluff Collaborative for Research on Dada and Surrealism, through his family fund.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is opening a major exhibition titled "Man Ray: When Objects Dream" on September 14, 2025, featuring 64 rayographs and about 100 other works by the artist from his most productive period in the late 1910s and 1920s. Curators Stephanie D'Alessandro and Stephen C. Pinson aim to separate fact from the artist's own mythology, while the exhibition's centerpiece is "Le Violon d'Ingres" (1924), the most expensive photograph ever sold at auction, purchased by museum trustee John Pritzker for $12.4 million at Christie's in 2022. The show also includes a previously unannounced promised gift of 188 artworks by Man Ray and his Dada and Surrealist cohort from Pritzker.
The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) team faced an extraordinary challenge installing the retrospective “Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei,” which required handling eight tractor-trailers of artwork—far more than the usual two—within just three weeks. The exhibition features 130 complex works, including a giant tree sculpture, a life-size jail cell replica, and a Lego rendition of the Mueller report, many arriving without instruction manuals and requiring creative assembly by a 12-person crew led by lead preparator Joshua Gosovich.
The Saint Louis Art Museum is presenting "Roaring: Art, Fashion, and the Automobile in France, 1918–1939," a major exhibition on view from April 12 to July 27, 2025. Curated by Genevieve Cortinovis, the show brings together automobiles, haute couture, painting, sculpture, photography, film, and decorative arts to explore the intertwined evolution of fashion and car design in early 20th-century France. Highlights include a 1917 painting by Henri Matisse depicting the view from his Renault, juxtapositions of Alfa Romeo and Citroën logos with works by Piet Mondrian and Charles Loupot, and a c. 1927 dress by Suzanne Talbot inspired by Tutankhamun's funerary mask. The exhibition draws heavily from local and midwestern collections, including the Missouri Historical Society.
Berlin's Meyer Riegger and Parisian Galerie Jocelyn Wolff will open a joint gallery in Seoul's Hannam-dong district on 2 September 2025, marking their first permanent Asian outpost. The new space, named Meyer Riegger Wolff and led by director Gaia Musi, will represent artists from both galleries including Clemens von Wedemeyer, Miriam Cahn, and Marcel Duchamp. The inaugural exhibition, "Heute Nacht geträumt (Dreamed Last Night)" (2 September–7 November 2025), will explore drawing across four centuries in a salon-style format.
The Art Institute of Chicago is presenting "Frida Kahlo’s Month in Paris: A Friendship with Mary Reynolds," an exhibition running from March 29 to July 13, 2025. It focuses on Kahlo's first and only trip to Europe in 1939, where she fell ill and convalesced at the home of American avant-garde bookbinder Mary Reynolds. The show features approximately 100 objects, including paintings, book bindings, and letters, drawn from the Art Institute's Mary Reynolds Collection and loans from the US, Mexico, and Europe.
The Seattle Art Museum has opened "Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei," the largest-ever U.S. survey of the Chinese artist and activist. Featuring over 130 works spanning performance, photography, sculpture, video, and installation from the 1980s to the present, the exhibition includes iconic pieces like *Sunflower Seeds* (2010) and *Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads (Gold)* (2010), as well as international debuts such as a LEGO recreation of the Mueller Report. The show runs through September 7, 2025.
The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth has opened “Alex Da Corte, The Whale,” a solo exhibition dedicated to the painting practice of artist Alex Da Corte (b. 1980). Featuring more than forty paintings, the show highlights Da Corte’s lesser-known work in two dimensions, as he is more widely recognized for his installations and video pieces. The exhibition includes works such as *Siren (After E K Charter)* (2015) and *Electronic Renaissance* (2021), and places Da Corte’s paintings alongside those of Robert Mapplethorpe and Vija Celmins to explore themes of self-representation and perception.
A new exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Basel, titled 'Beyond Surrealism,' explores the multifaceted career of Meret Oppenheim, best known for her fur-covered teacup 'Object' (1936). The show presents a range of her work, including melancholic wartime oil paintings, elegant abstract sculptures, and later witty pieces like 'Eichhörnchen' (1970) and 'Das Auge der Mona Lisa' (1967), highlighting her refusal to be confined to any single style or movement.
Digital artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, is expanding his practice beyond the record-breaking NFT sale of *Everydays: The First 5,000 Days* (2021) into interactive video sculptures and public art. His latest works, *The Tree of Knowledge* (2024) and *Diffuse Control* (2025), debut this month at SXSW London and The Shed in New York, respectively. These generative pieces allow ongoing collaboration between artist, owner, and public, building on his earlier kinetic sculpture *Human One* (2021), which has toured globally. Beeple continues his daily social media posts (Everydays) as a form of satire and commentary on technology and media noise.
The Art Institute of Chicago has opened "Frida Kahlo’s Month in Paris: A Friendship With Mary Reynolds," its first dedicated exhibition to the Mexican artist. The show explores Kahlo’s 1939 stay in Paris, where she lived with American bookbinder Mary Reynolds and artist Marcel Duchamp after being hospitalized with a kidney infection. Featuring 100 objects—including seven self-portraits, letters, photographs, and book bindings—the exhibition draws on the Art Institute’s own Mary Reynolds Collection and loans from public and private collections across the U.S., Mexico, and Europe. Curated by Caitlin Haskell, Tamar Kharatishvili, and Alivé Piliado, the display reveals new details about Kahlo’s recovery and creative re-inspiration in the avant-garde hub of Reynolds and Duchamp’s home.
Veteran American artist Peter Saul has debuted a solo exhibition at Gladstone Gallery in New York, marking his first show since joining the gallery last year. Titled "Peter Saul’s Art History," the exhibition features 20 works—both new and historic—that reinterpret iconic masterpieces by 20th-century titans such as Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, and Willem de Kooning. A centerpiece of the show is the 1973 painting "Little Guernica ‘Liddul Guernica’," which is being publicly displayed for the first time in four decades.
Cork Street in London's Mayfair district, a historic hub for commercial art, is celebrating its centenary with a collaborative group show involving 15 galleries. The exhibition is inspired by a controversial 1938 Jean Cocteau work, "La peur donnant des ailes au courage," which was deemed obscene by British authorities and only shown in a back office at Peggy Guggenheim's gallery, Guggenheim Jeune, after her petitions. Participating galleries include Stephen Friedman Gallery, Alon Zakaim Fine Art, and Goodman Gallery, with works by artists like Caroline Coon, Shirin Neshat, and others, curated by Tarini Malik.
Die Biennale der leisen Töne
The 61st Venice Biennale's main exhibition, titled "Gardens, Processions, Art as Expression of Lived Realities," places humanity at its center. Curators revealed minimal biographical details for the 111 participating artists, only noting the oldest (Marcel Duchamp, born 1887) and youngest (Mohammed Z Rahman, born 1997), signaling a deliberate shift away from individual fame toward collective experience.
Pour la 61e Biennale de Venise, une quête de beauté malgré un monde troublé
Koyo Kouoh, the Swiss-Cameroonian curator who was set to become the first African woman to direct the Venice Biennale, died suddenly on May 10, 2025, at age 57, just weeks before the opening of the 61st edition she had conceived. Titled "In Minor Keys," the exhibition at the Giardini and Arsenale will proceed posthumously based on her detailed directives, featuring 111 artists including Laurie Anderson, Wangechi Mutu, and Kader Attia, with a focus on beauty, resilience, and radical emotional connection amid global turmoil.