Vasari Art Codex

article news schedule Mar 9, 2026 visibility 10 link 2 artists

michael govan lacma zumthor building vanity fair interview 1234776032

Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), has broken his silence regarding the museum’s controversial new David Geffen Galleries in an interview with Vanity Fair. The $720 million structure, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor, is scheduled to open next month following years of heated debate over its unconventional design, the demolition of previous museum buildings, and escalating costs. Govan defended the project’s horizontal, single-floor layout as a necessary evolution for the 21st-century museum, moving away from traditional geographic and chronological hierarchies.

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article policy schedule Feb 7, 2026 visibility 4 link 2 artists

white house trump display smithsonian portrait gallery 1234772720

In mid-December, Abby Jones, acting chief of protocol at the State Department, suggested during a tour of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery that the museum create a dedicated gallery featuring multiple images of President Donald Trump, in addition to his official portrait. The White House later noted it regularly receives artworks depicting Trump from supporters and proposed displaying some at the museum, though no formal request has been made. The discussion follows the gallery’s recent replacement of Trump’s official photograph with a more flattering image and the removal of wall text referencing his two impeachments, which the museum described as part of a broader exhibition update.

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article news schedule Feb 3, 2026 visibility 7 link 2 artists

portrait albrecht durer father national gallery authentic 1234772012

A new catalogue raisonné by scholar Christof Metzger argues that a painting in London's National Gallery, long considered a copy, is an authentic work by Albrecht Dürer. Metzger, a curator at Vienna's Albertina Museum, contends that the 1497 portrait of Dürer's father shows masterful technique that distinguishes it from known copies.

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trending_up market schedule Jan 23, 2026 visibility 5 link 3 artists

long lost henry raeburn painting found scottish portraitist 1234770714

A long-lost portrait of Scottish poet Robert Burns by Sir Henry Raeburn has been rediscovered and is now on display at the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh. The painting was found at a London house sale last year, consigned to Wimbledon Auctions with a low estimate of £300–£500, but sold for £68,000 after intense bidding. It was purchased by Edinburgh-based art collector William Zachs, who had it restored and brought to Scotland, where experts confirmed it as an authentic Raeburn. The work is a copy Raeburn made in 1803 of a 1787 portrait by Alexander Nasmyth, commissioned by London publishers Cadell & Davies but lost shortly after completion.

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article policy schedule Jul 30, 2025 visibility 1 link 2 artists

trump big beautiful bill space shuttle discovery museum houston 1234748545

President Donald Trump signed the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" on July 4, which includes a provision requiring the Smithsonian Institution to transfer a space vehicle—widely understood to be the space shuttle Discovery—to NASA. The shuttle has been displayed at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, since 2012. The move must be completed by January 4, 2027, and $85 million has been allocated for planning, transportation, and a new exhibition facility in Houston. The provision originated from the "Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act" introduced by Texas senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, after their state lost the original competition to host Discovery.

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article news schedule May 30, 2025 visibility 4 link 5 artists

japanese sculptor kunimasa aoki wins 2025 loewe craft prize 1234743920

Japanese sculptor Kunimasa Aoki won the 2025 Loewe Craft Prize on Thursday evening in Madrid, receiving a €50,000 cash prize. His anamorphic terracotta sculpture “Realm of Living Things 19” was selected by a 12-member jury from 30 shortlisted works on display at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum. The jury praised the work's honest expression of the ancestral coil process and the raw, unfinished form of the material. Two special mentions were awarded: Nigerian artist Nifemi Marcus-Bello for “TM Bench with Bowl” and Studio Sumakshi Singh from India for “Monument.”

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trending_up market schedule May 1, 2025 link 9 artists

national gallery acquires curious altarpiece by unknown artist for 20 m 1234740393

London's National Gallery has acquired a $20 million altarpiece, *The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret and Two Angels* (1500-10), by an unknown artist. The purchase, funded by the American Friends of the National Gallery of London and brokered by Sotheby's, was made from a private collection to celebrate the museum's bicentenary. The painting, first documented in 1602 in Ghent, Belgium, features iconographical oddities including a unique dragon and a bawdy scene, and is painted on Baltic oak, suggesting a Netherlandish origin despite French elements like the fleur-de-lis.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 15, 2026 visibility 9 link 2 artists

Historic Tiffany Window, Once Hidden in Texas Church, Reemerges at Crystal Bridges

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has unveiled a monumental Tiffany Studios window, "Mountain Landscape (Root Memorial Window)," which was previously housed in a San Antonio church. The 1917 stained-glass masterpiece, designed by Agnes Northrup, had been roped off for a decade due to insurance liabilities before the church sought a public institution to ensure its preservation and display. Following a meticulous conservation process, the nine-foot-tall window is now a centerpiece of the museum’s Visions of America Galleries.

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article news schedule Apr 6, 2026 visibility 5 link 1 artist

the hunt edmonia lewis death of cleopatra statue 2564366

Edmonia Lewis’s monumental marble sculpture, 'The Death of Cleopatra', debuted to massive acclaim at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia before vanishing into a bizarre century-long obscurity. After failing to sell, the two-ton masterpiece transitioned from Chicago saloons to a racetrack—where it served as a grave marker for a horse—and eventually sat neglected at a shopping mall construction site, exposed to vandalism and the elements.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Mar 6, 2026 visibility 6 link 2 artists

versailles marie antoinette sofia coppola exhibition 2751595

The Palace of Versailles has announced a major retrospective dedicated to Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film, Marie Antoinette, to mark the movie's 20th anniversary. Set to open in September 2026, the exhibition will be staged within the Petit Trianon, the Queen’s private estate where Coppola was famously granted unprecedented filming access. The show will feature Academy Award-winning costumes by Milena Canonero, alongside never-before-seen storyboards, scripts, and set photography.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

article policy schedule Feb 9, 2026 visibility 4 link 3 artists

trump wants his own smithsonian npg display 2744110

The White House is pushing for a dedicated display of fan-created portraits of President Donald Trump at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. Administration officials, following a December tour, suggested installing a selection of artwork sent to the president by supporters, a move that would break with the museum's tradition of reserving multiple depictions for former presidents.

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article news schedule Dec 26, 2025 visibility 7 link 4 artists

pointing fingers in old master paintings study 2733869

A new study published in *Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts* by French researcher Temenuzhka Dimova uses eye-tracking technology to examine how pointing fingers in Old Master paintings affect viewer attention. Conducted through the University of Vienna’s Laboratory for Cognitive Research in Art History (CReA), the study compared participants' eye movements when viewing original paintings—such as Theodor Rombouts's *The Card Players*—and digitally altered versions where the pointing gestures were removed. Results showed that viewers focused more on the faces of pointing figures and the narrative context, not just the target of the gesture, and that removing the finger fundamentally changed how the story was perceived.

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article news schedule Dec 9, 2025 visibility 5 link 3 artists

professor terminated art history paintings muhammad 2238922

An adjunct professor at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, Erika López Prater, lost her job after showing her art history class two Medieval paintings depicting the Prophet Muhammad during an online lecture on October 6, 2022. She issued a content warning before displaying the images, which came from a 14th-century manuscript by Rashīd al-Dīn and a 16th-century work by Mustafa ibn Vali. A student, Aram Wedatalla, complained, and the university's administration, including associate vice president David Everett, decided not to renew her contract, calling the incident Islamophobic. The decision has sparked widespread debate, with a Change.org petition signed by over 2,500 scholars and a condemnation from PEN America.

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trending_up market schedule May 5, 2025 visibility 1 link 6 artists

national gallery mysterious altarpiece 20 million 2639437

London's National Gallery has acquired a mysterious altarpiece painted by an unknown artist around 1510, paying £16.4 million ($21.8 million) for the work titled *The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret*. The painting, arranged via a private sale by Sotheby's and funded by the American Friends of the National Gallery London, features unusual details including a uniquely expressive dragon beneath baby Jesus's feet, playful angels, and subtle symbolic references. The acquisition marks the museum's bicentennial and will go on public display on May 10 in the rehung Sainsbury Wing.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Apr 6, 2026 visibility 9 link 1 artist

Monumental 37ft-long Indian scroll goes on public view for the first time at Yale Center for British Art

The Yale Center for British Art has unveiled the 'Lucknow scroll,' a monumental 37-foot-long early 19th-century watercolor, following an extensive two-year conservation project. Part of the exhibition 'Painters, Ports and Profits,' the scroll offers a panoramic view of Lucknow, India, during the reign of Ghazi-ud-Din Haidar Shah. Due to its immense size and fragility, the museum is displaying the work in two stages, unrolling different sections over the course of the exhibition to manage light exposure and space constraints.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Apr 16, 2026 visibility 7 link 2 artists

Pooh in pencil: sketches for original Winnie-the-Pooh book shared for first time

Two previously unseen preliminary pencil sketches of Winnie-the-Pooh by illustrator E.H. Shepard have been revealed to the public for the first time. Shared by the artist’s family to mark the centenary of A.A. Milne’s classic stories, the drawings depict scenes from the "expotition" to the North Pole and the hunt for a "Woozle" that were never included in the final 1926 publication. These rare works are set to go on display at Peter Harrington Rare Books in London starting April 17.

newspaper The Guardian open_in_new Read original

gavel restitution schedule Mar 18, 2026 visibility 9 link 2 artists

Open Letter on the Imminent Departure of the Gelman Collection from Mexico

An open letter signed by hundreds of Mexican artists and cultural figures warns that the core of the renowned Gelman Collection, including eleven Frida Kahlo paintings declared national monuments, is at risk of permanent export from Mexico. The letter alleges that Banco Santander's new Faro Santander museum, through an agreement with collector Marcelo Zambrano, is misinterpreting Mexico's strict heritage laws to justify a "dynamic" but effectively permanent display abroad, which would violate the legal prohibition on the permanent export of Kahlo's work.

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museum exhibitions schedule Oct 21, 2025 source 2 sources visibility 7 link 16 artists, 1 gallery

Fondation Cartier’s Latest Museum Invents New Ways of Displaying Art

The Fondation Cartier for Contemporary Art has opened a new building in Paris, designed by architect Jean Nouvel, after ten years of planning and construction. Located near the Louvre in the former Grand Hotel du Louvre, the 8,500-square-meter space features transformable architecture with movable walls and floors, conceived as a "machine" for flexible exhibitions. The opening show, "Exposition Générale," curated by Grazia Quaroni and Béatrice Grenier and designed by Formafantasma, highlights the building's structural innovations and features works from the foundation's permanent collection, including pieces by Cai Guo-Qiang, Joan Mitchell, James Turrell, and Malick Sidibé.

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museum exhibitions schedule Oct 20, 2025 source 2 sources visibility 10 link 10 artists, 3 galleries

At a Los Angeles exhibition, contemporary artists face off with decommissioned Confederate statues

The exhibition "Monuments" opens on 23 October in Los Angeles, co-curated by Hamza Walker, Bennett Simpson, and artist Kara Walker, and staged at both the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) and the Brick. It features nearly 20 decommissioned Confederate statues—including the melted-down Robert E. Lee monument from Charlottesville—displayed alongside contemporary works by artists such as Leonardo Drew, Martin Puryear, Nona Faustine, Kahlil Robert Irving, Bethany Collins, and Walter Price. The show was inspired by the 2017 Unite the Right rally and the subsequent removal of dozens of monuments across the US.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Oct 7, 2025 source 2 sources visibility 6 link 8 artists, 1 gallery

Venture Forward gifts name Wilmerding Pavilion and Anschutz Galleries in Princeton University Art Museum

Two major gifts from Louisa Stude Sarofim and The Anschutz Foundation, part of Princeton University's Venture Forward campaign, will name the Wilmerding Pavilion and the Anschutz Galleries in the new Princeton University Art Museum. The pavilion honors the late John Wilmerding, a pioneering American art historian and professor at Princeton, while the galleries within it will showcase the museum's American art collections. The museum opens on October 31, 2025, and the new space will allow a nearly five-fold increase in displayed works, including a broader definition of American art encompassing Spanish Colonial and Native American art.

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museum exhibitions schedule Aug 28, 2025 visibility 4 link 3 artists

banksy piranhas london museum 1234750418

A Banksy mural featuring a fish tank full of piranhas, installed overnight on a police sentry box in London's financial district in August 2024, has been acquired by the London Museum. The work was one of nine animal-themed pieces the artist created across the capital over nine consecutive days. After being removed by the City of London Corporation, the booth was displayed at Guildhall Yard and then placed in storage; it will go on permanent view in 2026 at the London Museum's new Smithfield location, part of a $280 million relocation project.

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article news schedule Jul 24, 2025 visibility 2 link 1 artist

banksys migrant child removed from venice 1234748164

A fading Banksy mural titled *Migrant Child*, painted on a palazzo in Venice during the 2019 Venice Biennale, was removed from its wall late Wednesday night by a conservation team led by Federico Borgogni. The piece, which shows a child in a lifejacket holding a pink smoke flare, had suffered water damage and salt exposure. The restoration is financed by Banca Ifis, a Venice-based bank, which plans to display the work at free cultural events after conservation. The removal proceeded despite earlier criticism from artists and activists who argued that the work's decay was integral to its meaning.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 19, 2025 visibility 4 link 14 artists

quantel paintbox digital art exhibition and documentary 2214653

An exhibition titled “How Quantel’s Paintbox Changed Our World” at the Phoenix Cinema and Arts Centre in Leicester, U.K., showcases 20 long-lost digital artworks made with the Quantel Paintbox, a pioneering 1980s computer graphics machine. The works, created by artists including David Hockney, Keith Haring, Larry Rivers, and Jennifer Bartlett, were tracked down by graffiti artist and photographer Adrian Wilson, an early Paintbox user. The exhibition is organized by the Computer Arts Society and marks the first public display of these pieces.

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trending_up market schedule May 23, 2025 visibility 2 link 7 artists, 1 gallery

work of the week pablo picasso tete dhomme a la pipe 2645263

Loïc Gouzer, founder of the auction app Fair Warning, partnered with Christie's to sell Pablo Picasso's drawing *Tête d'homme à la pipe* (1971) in a hybrid in-person and digital auction on May 15. The work, estimated at $6–8 million, hammered for $6.6 million ($7.79 million with fees) to a phone bidder at Coco's at Colette in New York's GM Building, with Jussi Pylkkänen officiating. Notable attendees included collectors Alberto Mugrabi and David Mugrabi, and dealer Joseph Nahmad. The drawing, executed two years before Picasso's death, depicts a musketeer inspired by *The Three Musketeers* and had never been auctioned before.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 3, 2026 visibility 6 link 13 artists, 1 gallery

Beyond Body-Con: In the the Met’s Spectacular New Exhibition, “Costume Art,” the Human Form Connects Fashion and Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has opened a new fashion exhibition titled "Costume Art" in its newly established Condé M. Nast Galleries. Curated by Andrew Bolton, the show features faceless mannequin heads by sculptor Samar Hejazi that reflect visitors' own images, encouraging self-reflection and empathy. The exhibition is structured around a typology of bodies, using mannequins of diverse body types modeled after named individuals to challenge traditional beauty standards. It explores the connection between fashion and the human form, positioning the dressed body as a unifying thread across the museum's collections.

newspaper Vogue open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule May 3, 2026 visibility 3 link 3 artists, 1 gallery

Eat Frida food off a Frida plate: Kahlo kitsch raises eye...

A major Tate Modern exhibition dedicated to Frida Kahlo and her circle opens next month in London, accompanied by a wave of commercial spin-offs including a Kahlo-inspired menu, dinner plates, a Netflix documentary, a clothing line, and an opera premiering in New York. The show, titled "Frida: The Making of an Icon," will also display over 200 souvenir objects and knick-knacks, examining Kahlo's transformation into a global brand. A new whodunnit novel by Oscar de Muriel reimagines Kahlo as a detective, and a culinary collaboration with Mexican chef Santiago Lastra will run at the Tate Modern restaurant.

newspaper The Observer open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule May 1, 2026 visibility 6 link 8 artists, 1 gallery

This Y/Project Suit Defines The Met’s “Costume Art” Exhibition

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced its 2026 exhibition "Costume Art," which will inaugurate the new Condé M. Nast Galleries. Curator Andrew Bolton explains the show will focus on the dressed body's connection to art history, emphasizing materiality and corporeality over visuality. A key preview piece is a Y/Project suit from FW22, designed by Glenn Martens and Jean Paul Gaultier, featuring a trompe-l'oeil nude male figure that will be displayed alongside a 1st–2nd century CE marble statue of Diadoumenos. Other sections include "The Naked Body," "The Aging Body," and "The Anatomical Body."

newspaper Hypebeast open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Apr 29, 2026 visibility 10 link 6 artists, 5 galleries

Exhibitions in May: our selection of Parisian outings

This article, published by La Rédac with photos by Audrey de Sortiraparis, presents a curated selection of exhibitions opening in Paris and the Île-de-France region in May 2026. Highlights include a Giovanni Segantini retrospective at the Marmottan Monet Museum, a porcelain exhibition titled "Sèvres, a Rothschild Passion" at the Mobilier National, a comparative show of Michelangelo and Rodin at the Louvre Museum, the return of the Colors Festival with a street-art exhibition called Colors Light, a historical tribute to Madame de Sévigné at the Carnavalet Museum, a major Lee Miller retrospective at the Musée d'Art Moderne, a family-friendly Lego brick exhibition by Dirk Denoyelle at Espace Champerret, and a video game music exhibition at the Philharmonie de Paris.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 27, 2026 visibility 9 link 8 artists, 1 gallery

Some of DAM’s never-before-exhibited photos on display in new show

The Denver Art Museum (DAM) has opened a new photography exhibition titled "What We’ve Been Up to: People," featuring 60 never-before-exhibited photographs from its collection. The show includes works by renowned artists such as Andy Warhol, Richard Avedon, Graciela Iturbide, Dorothea Lange, Tina Modotti, and Andrea Modica, with images spanning from 1929 to 1999. The exhibition aims to highlight the behind-the-scenes work of curators—acquisitions, research, conservation—while offering the public a chance to see fresh acquisitions and overlooked treasures.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 22, 2026 visibility 9 link 5 artists, 1 gallery

Lake Flato Shapes a Stunning New Art Space in Texas Hill Country

A new art space called Arthouse is opening on April 25, 2026, in Marble Falls, Texas. Designed by the architecture firm Lake Flato, the 2,000-square-foot white building will display works from the personal collection of philanthropists Mickey and Jeanne Klein, including pieces by Mary C. Sloane, Kenturah Davis, Faith Ringgold, Ed Ruscha, James Turrell, and Teresita Fernández. The debut exhibition, "Words Matter," curated by Mickey Klein, explores text and narrative and coincides with the town's Paint the Town Art Festival. The building also features a courtyard designed by landscape designer Sada Uchiyama.

newspaper Galerie Magazine open_in_new Read original