Art News. Vasari Codex

candle obituary schedule Apr 30, 2026 visibility 20 link 2 artists

Timm Ulrichs, Pioneering Conceptual Artist, is Dead at 86

German conceptual artist Timm Ulrichs has died at age 86. His death on April 29 in Berlin was announced by the Kunstverein Hannover, where he was the oldest member. Ulrichs studied architecture before declaring himself a “total artist” in 1961, inspired by Kurt Schwitters. His provocative works included displaying himself as a living artwork in a glass case, running naked with a lightning rod, and spending hours inside a hollowed boulder. He also created concrete poetry, computer art, and copy art, and taught sculpture at the Kunstakademie Münster from 1972 to 2005. His work appeared in Documenta 6 and solo exhibitions at the Sprengel Museum Hannover and Kunstverein Hannover.

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person people schedule Apr 30, 2026 visibility 46 link 18 artists

Montclair Art Museum Hires Esteemed Curator Kate Kraczon After Layoffs at Brown University

The Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey has appointed Kate Kraczon as its new chief curator, effective June 15. Kraczon previously served as director of exhibitions and chief curator at the David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University, where she was laid off in late 2024 amid a wave of cuts. She succeeds Gail Stavitsky, who held the post since 1994. The museum also recently hired Todd Caissie, an enrolled member of the Osage Nation and former director of Canada’s New Brunswick Internment Camp Museum, as its director.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 30, 2026 visibility 22 link 11 artists

Lucas Museum Reveals First Set of Exhibitions Curated by Founder George Lucas

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles has announced its inaugural exhibitions, curated by founder George Lucas, ahead of its September opening. The initial hang will feature around 12,000 objects from the museum's collection of over 40,000, displayed across 30 galleries in the 300,000-square-foot building. Thematic galleries will highlight specific artists such as Thomas Hart Benton, Norman Rockwell, and N.C. Wyeth, as well as mediums like cinema, photography, muralism, and comics. Broader themes include "Everyday Life," "Narrative Forms," and "Western Stories."

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 30, 2026 visibility 31 link 13 artists

The curator awakens: Lucas Museum of Narrative Art reveals inaugural exhibition lineup

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, founded by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, will open in Los Angeles on 22 September with 18 inaugural exhibitions featuring over 1,200 objects. Curated by Lucas himself, the shows span media like photography, architecture, and cinema, as well as genres such as manga, anime, comics, and children's stories. Six solo exhibitions will highlight American artists including Thomas Hart Benton, Frank Frazetta, and Norman Rockwell. The museum's collection now exceeds 40,000 works, including the Separate Cinema Archive and Lucas Archives of film memorabilia.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 30, 2026 visibility 57 link 15 artists

British billionaire's £200m art collection most expensive ever offered in UK

British billionaire Joe Lewis will sell a tranche of his art collection in a standalone sale at Sotheby’s in London this June, estimated at £150m–£200m. This makes it the most valuable single-owner collection ever offered in the UK, surpassing the Pauline Karpidas collection which totalled £101m. Highlights include Gustav Klimt’s *Bildnis Gertrud Loew* (est £20m–£30m), Amedeo Modigliani’s *Homme à la pipe* (est £12m–£18m), and Francis Bacon’s *Two Studies for Self-Portrait* (est £8m–£12m). The sale follows a smaller March auction of four works from the Lewis collection that focused on School of London artists.

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article culture schedule Apr 29, 2026 visibility 27 link 11 artists

7 Books We’re Looking Forward to in May

ARTnews has published a list of seven art books to look forward to in May 2026, covering a wide range of topics from contemporary theory and AI imagery to historical biographies and the Venice Biennale. Featured titles include Dena Yago's collected writings 'That Figures,' Victoria Johnson's biography of Frederic Church 'Glorious Country,' Trevor Paglen's 'How to See Like a Machine,' Nicholas Fox Weber's 'Anni Albers: A Life,' Massimiliano Gioni's 'High Waters: An Oral History of the Venice Biennale,' Rennie McDougall's 'Nonstop Bodies: How Dance Shaped New York City,' and Paul Elie's 'Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex and Controversy in the 1980s.'

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article news schedule Apr 29, 2026 visibility 21 link 8 artists

Whistleblower Complaint Alleges Misconduct at Palm Springs Art Museum, Where an Ex-Trustee Describes a ‘Shattered Moral Compass’

An anonymous whistleblower has filed a complaint alleging misconduct by leadership at the Palm Springs Art Museum, including improper movement of funds between accounts to address cash shortages, the forced resignation of a former director based on fabricated staff complaints, and a failure to properly interview external candidates for the director position. The complaint, forwarded to ARTnews, also references a $3 million discrepancy in the reported endowment value and the departure of several trustees, leaving the board below its required size. The museum has formed a special committee to investigate the allegations, which were first reported by the Los Angeles Times in November 2025.

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article news schedule Apr 28, 2026 visibility 32 link 2 artists

Saudi Arabia Museum of Contemporary Art Gets $490 M. from Powerful Real Estate Firm

The forthcoming Saudi Arabia Museum of Contemporary Art has received a $490 million construction grant from Diriyah Company, a real estate firm chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Designed by Dubai-based Godwin Austen Johnson, the museum will span 883,000 square feet—larger than the Louvre in Paris—and will be located in Diriyah, with additional exhibitions in Riyadh. The grant supports Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 plan to diversify the economy away from oil.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 28, 2026 visibility 17 link 2 artists

Tefaf restoration award goes to 500-year-old Medici tapestry

Tefaf has awarded its Museum Restoration Fund prize to the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA) for the restoration of a 500-year-old Medici tapestry, "The Meeting of Dante and Virgil" (circa 1547-49). The €25,000 grant will support cleaning, consolidation, and lining of the 5.3-meter-high work, which has not been displayed in over 60 years due to severe damage including silk weft loss and open slits. The conservation will be carried out by the Midwest Art Conservation Center, and the tapestry is expected to go on public view at MIA this summer.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 28, 2026 visibility 24 link 7 artists

Two Brazilian curators selected to organise 2027 Bienal de São Paulo

The Fundação Bienal de São Paulo has appointed Brazilian curators Amanda Carneiro and Raphael Fonseca as chief curators for the 2027 Bienal de São Paulo, Latin America's largest and longest-running visual arts event. Carneiro, a curator at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) since 2018, also organized the main exhibition at the 2024 Venice Biennale. Fonseca, based in Lisbon, works at Culturgest, serves as curator-at-large for Latin American art at the Denver Art Museum, and is curating the Taiwan Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale. The event will take place at the Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo in Ibirapuera Park, with further details expected in coming months.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 28, 2026 visibility 27 link 9 artists, 3 galleries

Rare Roy Lichtenstein Work Could Net $60 Million at Auction

A long-lost Roy Lichtenstein painting from his iconic 'Girl' series, *Anxious Girl* (1964), has resurfaced after more than 30 years in a private collection and will be offered at Christie’s 20th Century Evening Sale in New York on May 18. The work, one of only 10 comic-inspired female portraits Lichtenstein produced during his breakthrough period between 1963 and 1965, carries an estimate of $40–60 million. The consignor acquired it from legendary Pop art patrons Horace and Holly Solomon over three decades ago.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 28, 2026 visibility 31 link 11 artists

$60 M. Lichtenstein Comes to the Block at Christie’s, Potentially Joining His Priciest Works at Auction

Christie’s will offer Roy Lichtenstein’s 1964 painting *Anxious Girl* from the collection of legendary New York collector-dealer Holly Solomon and her husband Horace, with an estimate of $40–60 million. If it reaches its high estimate, it will become the artist’s second-priciest work at auction, trailing only *Nurse* (1964), which sold for $95.4 million in 2015. The work leads Christie’s 20th-century evening sale on May 18, amid a flurry of high-value consignments as both Christie’s and Sotheby’s aim to sustain momentum after posting improved 2025 results.

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person people schedule Apr 28, 2026 visibility 28 link 10 artists

Book uncovers the life of Barnett Newman, an artist who ran for New York mayor

A new biography titled "Barnett Newman: Here" by Amy Newman (no relation) explores the life of Abstract Expressionist painter Barnett Newman, revealing his little-known 1933 run for mayor of New York City at age 28 under a platform of cultural and environmental reforms. The book details his upbringing as the son of Jewish immigrants in the Bronx, his philosophical studies, and his eventual reinvention as a painter who pioneered the 'zip' painting style with works like Onement I, while also chronicling his combative personality and lifelong battles against political machines and critics.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 28, 2026 visibility 21 link 8 artists

From monumental glass sculptures to a lagoon in the sky: what to see beyond the Venice Biennale pavilions

The article highlights several must-see exhibitions and installations beyond the main Venice Biennale pavilions. Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo's redevelopment of the island of San Giacomo opens on 7 May, transforming abandoned Napoleonic-era powder magazines into exhibition spaces with a solo show by British artist Matt Copson and a group show from her collection. American artist Melissa McGill presents 'Marea', a street-spanning installation of 100 paintings created with local residents and students, addressing climate change and rising sea levels. Dale Chihuly returns to Venice with 'Chihuly: Venice 2026', featuring monumental glass installations along the Grand Canal, including 'Gold Tower' (2025). Wallace Chan unveils titanium sculptures at the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietà, with a parallel exhibition at the Long Museum in Shanghai.

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article culture schedule Apr 28, 2026 visibility 23 link 7 artists, 1 gallery

Harnessing the winds of societal change: how art dealers have been able to shape taste for centuries

Valentina Castellani, a former Gagosian director, has authored a new book titled *Trading Beauty: Art Market Histories from the Altar to the Gallery* (out 1 May). The book traces how art dealers have historically leveraged societal changes—political, economic, and social—to reshape taste and market structures. Castellani begins in the Middle Ages, when art was made only on commission for patrons like the Catholic church and monarchies, and moves through key shifts such as the Dutch Republic's first open art market in the 17th century, which gave rise to the professional art dealer. She highlights dealers like Paul Durand-Ruel, Joseph Duveen, and Leo Castelli who capitalized on anti-establishment energy, new wealth, and post-war consumer culture to bring avant-garde art to the forefront.

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article news schedule Apr 27, 2026 visibility 27 link 3 artists, 2 galleries

A Long-Running Case Centering on Alleged Robert Indiana Forgeries Is Resolved with a $102 M. Settlement

A New York jury has awarded $102.2 million in damages to the Morgan Art Foundation in a long-running copyright and forgery case against art publisher Michael McKenzie. The jury found that McKenzie created unauthorized and altered versions of works by Pop artist Robert Indiana, including multiple iterations of Indiana's iconic LOVE prints and sculptures, as well as works such as *The Ninth American Dream* (2001), *USA FUN* (1965), and a sculpture titled *BRAT*. The lawsuit, which began in 2018 shortly before Indiana's death at age 89, alleged that McKenzie and others sought to isolate the artist and profit from selling forged works. McKenzie's lawyer indicated he may appeal.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 27, 2026 visibility 29 link 15 artists

Artists Sell More Than $1 M. in Art at Sotheby’s in Support of a Debt-Free Yale MFA Program

A group of artists including Mickalene Thomas, Tammy Nguyen, and Richard Prince are donating works to a Sotheby’s contemporary art day sale next month, with proceeds expected to exceed $1 million. All funds will go toward making Yale University’s MFA art program tuition-free. The sale features works by Yale alumni both historical—Walker Evans, Josef Albers—and contemporary, such as Dominic Chambers and Do Ho Suh, whose $200,000–$300,000 piece is among the lots. The highest-estimated work is a Richard Prince photograph from his “Spiritual America” series, valued at $500,000–$700,000.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 24, 2026 visibility 29 link 12 artists

Pittsburgh’s new $31m Arts Landing combines public art with civic engagement

Pittsburgh's new $31 million public space, Arts Landing, opened on 17 April, just before the NFL Draft and the 59th Carnegie International. Developed by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, the project features public artworks by vanessa german, Darian Johnson, Lenka Clayton, Phillip Andrew Lewis, Sharmistha Ray, Mikael Owunna, Marques Redd, John Peña, Shikeith, and the late Thaddeus Mosley. Highlights include Shikeith's neon sculpture *Hold*, part of his *Project Blue Space*, and Mosley's *Touching the Earth* series, originally commissioned by New York's Public Art Fund. The space also includes a playground, bandshell, and artist-designed pickleball courts.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 24, 2026 visibility 35 link 16 artists

The Multibillion-Dollar Maneuvers Behind the Met’s Raphael Show

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has opened “Raphael: Sublime Poetry,” the largest survey dedicated to the Renaissance master in the U.S., featuring 33 paintings and 142 works on paper. The exhibition includes loans from 60 public institutions across 11 countries, as well as private loans from billionaire Leon Black, and the estimated aggregate value of the art on view is in the billions of dollars. Curated by Carmen Bambach, the show took eight years to organize and follows her previous triumphs on Leonardo and Michelangelo.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 23, 2026 visibility 30 link 10 artists, 3 galleries

Gladstone Gallery to Relocate in Seoul, Doubling Exhibition Space

Gladstone Gallery is relocating its Seoul location to the Hannam-dong neighborhood later this year, doubling its exhibition space. Designed by architect Minsuk Cho of Mass Studies, the new outpost will occupy two floors of the 739-28 Hannam Building, across from Pace Gallery and near the Leeum Museum of Art. The space is set to open in late summer ahead of Frieze Seoul in September, with a solo exhibition by Ed Atkins—his first in the city—inaugurating the gallery. Gladstone first opened in Seoul's Gangnam district in 2022, joining a wave of Western galleries entering the Korean market.

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person people schedule Apr 22, 2026 visibility 37 link 7 artists

Top Collector John Phelan Fired as Navy Secretary, After Reports of Pentagon Infighting

John Phelan, a prominent figure on ARTnews's Top 200 Collectors list, has been fired from his position as Secretary of the Navy. His departure follows reported disagreements with senior Pentagon officials over a shipbuilding initiative, including a proposal for a "Trump-class" of battleships. Undersecretary Hung Cao will serve as acting secretary.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 22, 2026 visibility 17 link 2 artists

An Auction Without Bidding: Loïc Gouzer’s Latest Bet on How to Sell Art

Loïc Gouzer's auction app Fair Warning is launching a new sales format called "No Warning." The system eliminates bidding wars; a work is listed with a price, and buyers can either purchase it immediately or submit a single, binding offer. The highest offer is presented to the seller, who decides to accept or reject it, with no public record of the sale unless disclosed by the parties. The first test of the format is a 1999 Elizabeth Peyton watercolor priced at $400,000.

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article local schedule Apr 22, 2026 visibility 28 link 22 artists

From the World Cup and the Olympics to two new museums: upcoming cultural attractions in Los Angeles

Los Angeles is preparing for a major influx of cultural and sporting events, including hosting matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup at SoFi Stadium and the 2028 Summer Olympics. The city is also enhancing its cultural infrastructure with new Metro stations featuring site-specific art commissions and the imminent openings of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and the David Geffen Galleries at LACMA.

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rate_review review schedule Apr 22, 2026 visibility 19 link 8 artists

New biography of Chaïm Soutine pieces together illusive artist's life and works

A new biography of Chaïm Soutine, the early 20th-century painter, has been published. The book, written by Celeste Marcus, attempts to piece together the life of the notoriously private and illusive artist, examining his journey from a Belarusian shtetl to the studios of Montparnasse, his complex relationships, and the myths that have grown around his work and persona.

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article culture schedule Apr 21, 2026 visibility 32 link 25 artists, 2 galleries

13 Nudes That Changed Western Art History

The article presents a curated list of 13 seminal Western artworks featuring the nude form, highlighting how each piece shifted artistic conventions and cultural perceptions. It begins with the Paleolithic Venus of Willendorf and moves chronologically through works by artists including Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Lavinia Fontana, and Édouard Manet, analyzing their groundbreaking approaches to depicting the human body.

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rate_review review schedule May 20, 2026 visibility 2 link 4 artists

Fantastic visions and cosmic rhythms: how Whistler is making me see – and hear – differently

The article explores how the James McNeill Whistler exhibition at Tate in London prompts a reconsideration of the relationship between music and visual art. Whistler titled his works using musical terms like "Arrangement," "Symphony," and "Nocturne," arguing that painting should be abstract and independent of narrative, much like instrumental music. The exhibition, reviewed by Jonathan Jones, highlights Whistler's radical art-for-art's-sake philosophy, which influenced composer Claude Debussy, whose orchestral Nocturnes were directly inspired by Whistler's paintings of light and atmosphere.

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rate_review review schedule May 19, 2026 visibility 3 link 9 artists

James McNeill Whistler review – a luscious, seductive blockbuster for the painter who scandalised Britain

Tate Britain has opened a major retrospective dedicated to James McNeill Whistler, the American painter who scandalized Victorian Britain. The exhibition centers on his iconic work *Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1* (commonly known as *Whistler's Mother*), lent by the Musée d'Orsay, and traces his evolution from raw realist scenes of London's docks to radical, abstract celebrations of color and pattern. It includes a reconstruction of *The Peacock Room* and highlights his rivalry with critic John Ruskin, who accused him of 'flinging a pot of paint in the public's face.'

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article culture schedule May 18, 2026 visibility 5 link 7 artists

Let’s dress like a Mark Rothko! How gen Z fell for the king of colour field paintings

Mark Rothko, the abstract expressionist known for his color field paintings, is experiencing a cultural resurgence among Generation Z on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Videos inspired by his work amass hundreds of thousands of views, with creators styling outfits based on his canvases, assigning his paintings to personality archetypes, and comparing his palettes to dream pop bands like the Cocteau Twins. The Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas, has also seen a wave of curious young visitors drawn to the meditative, confrontational experience of his art.

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article culture schedule May 18, 2026 visibility 6 link 15 artists

‘Depraved in all the right ways’: why forgotten no wave visionary Gordon Stevenson is about to take off

The article profiles Gordon Stevenson, a forgotten visionary of the no wave movement in late-1970s New York, who was an artist, jewelry designer, musician, and filmmaker best known for the notorious film *Ecstatic Stigmatic*. Decades after his death from AIDS, a storage unit full of his lost work has been discovered, including jewelry, mail-art collaborations with Ray Johnson, and clues to a surviving print of his film. His family has also recovered hundreds of letters he wrote to his parents, chronicling his life in downtown New York and his experiences as one of the city's first AIDS patients. The piece traces his journey from a small town in Georgia, where he met his wife Mirielle Cervenka (who later renamed Exene Cervenka), to their punk-era jewelry brand LHOOQ and his lasting influence on gothic fashion.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 12, 2026 visibility 22 link 10 artists, 5 galleries

‘I shared a single bed with my mother for three years’: Sung Tieu on her monument to immigrant workers in Venice

Artist Sung Tieu has clad the German pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale with a mosaic replica of the Gehrenseestrasse complex, a now-abandoned housing estate in Berlin where she lived as a child. The work, titled "Human Dignity Shall Be Inviolable," uses three million mosaic stones to recreate the facade of the prefabricated blocks that housed Vertragsarbeiter—contract workers from Vietnam, Mozambique, Angola, and Cuba who bolstered East Germany's economy. Tieu, who shared a single bed with her mother in the complex for three years, conceived the pavilion alongside the late artist Henrike Naumann.

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