american civil liberties union of texas artists in residence

The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas (ACLU of Texas) has named Houston-based painter Vincent Valdez and Austin-based author KB Brookins as the recipients of its artists-in-residence program for 2025–26. Each artist will receive $30,000 to fund individual projects and will collaborate with the ACLU of Texas and community leaders to advocate for civil rights. Valdez plans to paint portraits of local community leaders and create poster packets combining Know Your Rights information with archival research for statewide distribution. Brookins will address pretrial detention in Texas jails through original compositions, workshops, and public presentations, focusing on mass incarceration issues in Harris County. The pair were selected from roughly 200 applicants following a statewide open call, succeeding artist Kill Joy, who led an immigrants' rights tour with large puppets.

wes anderson london design museum highlights

The Design Museum in London will host the first institutional exhibition dedicated to filmmaker Wes Anderson, opening this fall. Titled "Wes Anderson: The Archives," the show features over 600 items from Anderson's personal archives, including costumes, props, paintings, sketches, and models from films such as *The Grand Budapest Hotel* (2014), *Moonrise Kingdom* (2012), *Fantastic Mr Fox* (2009), and *Isle of Dogs* (2018). Highlights include the original model of the Grand Budapest Hotel, the painting *Boy with Apple* by Michael Taylor, and costumes worn by actors like Gwyneth Paltrow and Tilda Swinton. The exhibition will also screen Anderson's first short film *Bottle Rocket* (1993) and trace his career chronologically.

kevin beasley storm king acoustic mirror

Kevin Beasley has created a large-scale acoustic mirror for Storm King Art Center, opening May 7. The 11-foot-tall, 100-foot-wide four-part sculpture is inspired by World War I–era concrete acoustic mirrors used for detecting enemy aircraft. Unlike those obsolete relics, Beasley's work is made from recycled clothes cast in resin and will amplify visitors' voices and outdoor sounds. The piece engages with the history of the Hudson River School painters and themes of colonialism, Manifest Destiny, and contested land, while also celebrating agricultural cycles through its seasonal titles: Proscenium| Rebirth, Growth, Harvest, and Dormancy.

texas police new york spree sally mann

Texas police officers traveled to New York museums in February as part of a failed child pornography investigation against photographer Sally Mann and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The investigation stemmed from Mann's photographs of her nude underage children, displayed in the exhibition "Diaries of Home," which some local viewers and officials deemed harmful. The officers visited the Guggenheim, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, and Whitney Museum, spending nearly $7,000 on the trip. A grand jury declined to take action in March, and the photos were returned. Museums reported no recent communication with the police and stated Mann's works had not been on view for years.

child scratches mark rothko dutch museum

A child made small scratches on Mark Rothko's painting *Grey, Orange on Maroon, No. 8* (1960) at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. The incident occurred in the museum's Depot, a publicly accessible storage facility, during an unguarded moment. The work sustained superficial but visible damage to its unvarnished paint layer, and the museum is consulting conservators within and outside the Netherlands for treatment.

caraggio rome barberini review rare

A major exhibition titled "Caravaggio 2025" at Rome's Palazzo Barberini brings together two dozen of the artist's roughly sixty known works, drawn from Italian and international collections. The show spans Caravaggio's career from his arrival in Rome in 1595 to his death in 1610, and includes rediscovered paintings such as *Ecce Homo* (c. 1606–1607), which resurfaced at a Spanish auction in 2021, and a newly attributed portrait of Maffeo Barberini (c. 1595). Visitors can now see nearly two-thirds of Caravaggio's surviving oeuvre in a single trip to Rome, with the exhibition running through July 6.

fort worth police spent 7 k visiting new york for sally mann investigation

The Fort Worth Police Department spent nearly $7,000 to send five officers to New York City to investigate child pornography allegations against photographer Sally Mann. The officers visited four major museums—the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art—to examine Mann's photographs in their collections and speak with curators. The trip, which cost $6,988.77, came after Mann's works were seized from a group exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth following complaints from locals and elected officials who deemed the images "grossly inappropriate." The investigation was later dropped and the photographs returned.

kent monkman interview

Kent Monkman, a contemporary artist from the Fisher River Cree Nation, is preparing for his first major U.S. museum exhibition, “Kent Monkman: History is Painted by the Victors,” at the Denver Art Museum. In an interview, Monkman discusses his career-long practice of reimagining Western art history from an Indigenous perspective, using beauty, humor, and theatricality to expose colonial violence and systemic injustices. The exhibition, which began planning in 2018 and was delayed by the pandemic, will later travel to Canada, and Monkman reflects on the rare opportunity to see his dispersed works reunited and the liberating experience of trusting curators with the presentation.

museums of tomorrow roundtable 2025

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) will host the 2025 Museums of Tomorrow Roundtable (MTR) from May 11-17, bringing together 14 global museum leaders and technology firms including Adobe, Anthropic, Bloomberg, and Salesforce. Participants include directors such as Marion Ackermann (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz), Stephanie Rosenthal (Guggenheim Abu Dhabi), Eike Schmidt (Museo di Capodimonte), Mami Kataoka (Mori Art Museum), and others, alongside Bay Area museum heads and AI artist Refik Anadol, who will speak in a free public program at the de Young Museum. The forum aims to bridge the museum and technology communities, exploring how advanced technologies can enrich operations and visitor experiences while supporting artists working with technology.

fort worth police return photographs seized from sally mann exhibition

Fort Worth police have returned photographs by Sally Mann that were seized from the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in January. The artworks were taken from the group exhibition “Diaries of Home” following complaints from locals and elected officials who characterized Mann’s work as “grossly inappropriate” and “child porn.” The seizure sparked national condemnation, with the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), and the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas (ACLU of Texas) intervening to demand the works’ return. Charges against the museum were dropped, and the photographs have now been returned, bringing closure to the investigation.

art institute of chicago nazi looted schiele drawing return

A New York judge has ordered the Art Institute of Chicago to return Egon Schiele's 1916 drawing to the heirs of Fritz Grünbaum, an Austrian Jewish art collector persecuted during the Holocaust. The ruling, issued by Judge Althea Drysdale, determined that the work was looted by the Nazis and that the museum failed to properly scrutinize its provenance, relying on discredited records from Swiss dealer Eberhard Kornfeld. The drawing had been in the museum's collection since 1966 and was seized in 2023; the museum plans to appeal.

re air how textiles took over the art world

This episode of Artnet News's podcast "The Art Angle" re-airs an interview between host Ben Davis and curator and writer Elissa Auther, author of "String Felt, Thread: The Hierarchy of Art and Craft in American Art." They discuss the recent surge in interest in fiber art, from textile-based works at the Venice Biennale to the major traveling exhibition "Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction," which has just opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Auther, chief curator at the Museum of Arts and Design, provides historical context on how tapestry was once as revered as painting and explains the factors driving the current boom.

rachel ruysch toledo museum

The Toledo Museum of Art has opened "Rachel Ruysch: Nature Into Art," the first monographic exhibition dedicated to the 17th-century Dutch still-life painter Rachel Ruysch. Curated by Robert Schindler, the show brings together dozens of her paintings from public and private collections across Europe and America, including her only known work on paper, alongside manuscripts and works by contemporary women botanical artists. The exhibition originated at the Alte Pinakothek Munich and will travel to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston later this year.

lawrence watson oasis paul weller photographer print sale

Lawrence Watson, a British music photographer who has captured icons like David Bowie, Morrissey, Oasis, and Run-D.M.C. over four decades, is releasing exclusive signed prints through the platform Print Matters. The collection includes previously unseen images of David Bowie, Pulp, the Clash, and Oasis, with prices starting at £575 ($762). Twenty percent of net sales will benefit the mental health charity Rethink Mental Illness. Watson's career began in 1988 when Paul Weller chose his black-and-white photos for the Style Council's album 'Confessions of a Pop Group,' leading to a long collaboration.

bloomsbury group wild child dora carrington

The article examines the life and work of Dora Carrington, a painter associated with the Bloomsbury Group, whose bohemian lifestyle and complex relationships—particularly with writer Lytton Strachey—have long overshadowed her artistic output. A new exhibition at Pallant House Gallery, the first dedicated to Carrington in three decades, aims to refocus attention on her paintings, including early pencil studies and academic female nudes, which impressed her peers but received little critical acclaim during her lifetime.

mexico francisco toledo dobel tequila

Francisco Toledo, the renowned Mexican artist, collaborated with Maestro Dobel Tequila on a limited-edition luxury tequila vessel before his death. The Dobel Tequila Grandes Maestros Collection: The Francisco Toledo Edition features the world's first extra añejo tequila finished in mezcal barrels, housed in a hand-engraved bottle with a sculptural wooden cube display. Only 15 of the 281 editions are available in the U.S. market, each priced at $5,000, and are now being auctioned via Artnet.

in london sadie coles expands amid stark drop in profits

Sadie Coles, a prominent London contemporary art gallery, announced plans to open a new 6,000-square-foot location in Mayfair this fall, despite reporting a steep 46 percent drop in revenue for 2024, from £52.3 million to £28.3 million. Pre-tax profits plunged 93 percent to £400,000, down from £5.5 million the prior year. Coles attributed the downturn to a slowdown at the high end of the art market, but noted the gallery carries no debt and has seen a 20 percent increase in total assets over five years, growing from £23.9 million to £28.8 million.

man indicted stolen andy warhol print vladimir putin fbi

An owner of a pawn shop in Los Angeles, Glenn Steven Bednarsh, has been indicted on federal charges of conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen goods for allegedly conspiring to sell a stolen Andy Warhol trial proof print of Vladimir Lenin. The print, a unique 1987 screenprint from an edition of 46, was purchased by Bednarsh for $6,000 in February 2021. He then enlisted co-conspirator Brian Alec Light to help sell it through Heritage Auctions. The scheme unraveled when a gallerist identified the work as stolen, leading to FBI involvement. Light has already pleaded guilty, and Bednarsh faces arraignment in the coming weeks.

mauritshuis museum rembrandt paintings copies

The Mauritshuis museum in The Hague has reclassified three paintings previously attributed to Rembrandt as copies or studio works: *Portrait of Rembrandt with a Gorget* (ca. 1629), *Study of an Old Man* (ca. 1655–60), and *‘Tronie’ of an Old Man* (ca. 1630). The first was identified as a copy in 1999, the second was found to be by a student despite a genuine signature, and the third may have been painted by a student or Rembrandt himself. The museum now lists 11 works as authentic Rembrandts, including *The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp* (1632), and seven works whose authenticity has been questioned.

kehinde wiley new sexual assault complaint

Artist Ogechi Chieke has filed a legal complaint against Kehinde Wiley, accusing him of sexual assault stemming from an incident in 2007. Chieke alleges that after a New York exhibition she was included in, Wiley groped her and made unwanted sexual advances, causing her to leave New York and abandon her art career. Wiley denies the allegations, calling them a "blatant money-grab" and stating he has never met Chieke. The suit was filed under New York City's Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law just before the statute of limitations window closed on March 1, 2025.

brutalist adrien brody architect

Adrien Brody won the Best Actor Oscar at the 97th Academy Awards for his role in *The Brutalist*, a film directed by Brady Corbet that premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, where it won the Silver Lion for best director. The epic, three-and-a-half-hour film follows Bauhaus-trained Hungarian Jewish architect László Toth, a Holocaust survivor who emigrates to America and struggles to rebuild his career, drawing on the lives of real architects like Louis Kahn, Mies van der Rohe, and Marcel Breuer. Shot in Budapest on celluloid for under $10 million, the film was acquired by A24 after a 12-minute ovation at Venice.

kehinde wiley sexual assault ogechi chieke lawsuit

Artist Kehinde Wiley has been accused of sexual assault by fellow artist Ogechi Chieke in a lawsuit filed in New York Supreme Court on February 28, just before the expiration of an amendment to New York’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law. Chieke alleges that Wiley assaulted her at a New York restaurant in 2007, including grabbing her buttocks and vagina and making a lewd comment. Wiley denies the allegations, stating he has never met Chieke and calling the lawsuit a "blatant money-grab." This is the first legal filing among multiple sexual assault allegations against Wiley, which previously surfaced on Instagram from several men, including Joseph Awuah-Darko and Terrell Armistead.

climate protestors pardoned raphael sistine madonna dresden

Two climate activists from the German group Letzte Generation (Last Generation) have received pardons after being convicted for gluing their hands to the frame of Raphael's *Sistine Madonna* at the Dresden Old Masters Picture Gallery in August 2022. The protest left superglue residue on the frame, causing €2,300 in property damage. The activists initially faced fines of €1,500 each, later reduced to €600 by the Dresden District Court, and ultimately halved to €300 on appeal after the court considered their ongoing restitution efforts as a mitigating factor. They have since paid over €2,000 in damages to the Dresden State Art Collections and agreed to a separate settlement of €5,500 with the Free State of Saxony.

rashid johnson guggenheim museum retrospective review

Rashid Johnson's mid-career retrospective, "Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers," has opened at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, filling the rotunda with paintings, sculptures, photographs, and films. Curated by Naomi Beckwith and Andrea Karnes, with Faith Hunter, the exhibition includes Johnson's well-known "Anxious Men" works alongside lesser-seen films like *Threeness* (2005), which challenge viewers' expectations. The show features recurring target motifs, as seen in the outdoor sculpture *Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos* (2008), and explores themes of looking, being looked at, and the fluidity of Black identity.

egon schiele secret niece revealed

A group of Egon Schiele scholars and curators recently discovered that the artist had a secret niece, Gertrude "Gerti" Peschka, born to his sister Gertrude and fellow artist Anton Peschka before their marriage. The revelation came from a previously unexamined box of documents in the archives of Rudolf Leopold at the Leopold Museum in Vienna, including letters from Schiele's mother about the pregnancy and a note from Schiele congratulating his sister. Gerti died tragically of starvation in a Nazi-run psychiatric hospital. The discovery was made by Verena Gamper, then head of the Egon Schiele Documentation Center, and has been incorporated into the exhibition "Egon Schiele: Last Years" at the Leopold Museum.

Eine andere Schönheit, die bleibt

Elfie Semotan, the internationally renowned Austrian photographer who began her career as a model, has died at the age of 84. The article recounts her life and work, including a 2024 visit to her exhibition "Inspiration Comes from Everyday Life" at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, where her photographs were shown alongside designs by Nina Hollein. Semotan was born in Wels in 1941, studied at the Modeschule Hetzendorf in Vienna, and worked as a model in Paris before turning to photography in the late 1960s. Her images appeared in magazines such as Vogue, Elle, Esquire, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, and The New Yorker. She was married to artist Martin Kippenberger and moved between New York, Vienna, and a farmhouse in Jennersdorf, Austria.

The Third Space

Der dritte Raum

The article reports on a new exhibition at the Georg Kolbe Museum in Berlin dedicated to British Constructivist artist Marlow Moss (1889–1958). Moss, who inspired Piet Mondrian and was part of the Parisian avant-garde, developed the 'double line' as a compositional element before Mondrian, yet her work remained largely unknown for decades. Curated by Lucy Howard and Elisa Tamaschke, the exhibition takes a thoughtful approach, presenting Moss's fragmented oeuvre alongside works by contemporary artists Leonor Antunes, Tacita Dean, Florette Dijkstra, and Ro Robertson to open up dialogues across time and space. The show highlights Moss's life marked by persecution, exile, and queer identity, as well as the loss of much of her early work in World War II and the mysterious disappearance of her late work after a 1994 posthumous exhibition in Arnheim.

9 Art Films Worth Watching in June

9 Kunstfilme, die sich im Juni lohnen

This article from Monopol presents nine art films and streaming recommendations for June, including theater recordings from the Berliner Theatertreffen, Ulrike Ottinger's "Berlin-Trilogie," a film about architect Eileen Gray, and the series "Etty" about Holocaust diarist Etty Hillesum. Other highlights include "Peter Hujar's Day" and series for art-crime and fashion enthusiasts, all available on platforms like 3sat, Arte, and Mubi.

Already 250,000 Visitors in Cologne Kusama Exhibition

Bereits 250.000 Besucher in Kölner Kusama-Ausstellung

The Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne has attracted 250,000 visitors since its opening, with June weekends already sold out. The show, which runs until August 2, features 300 works from the 97-year-old Japanese artist, spanning from early childhood drawings to contemporary pieces, including a spectacular room filled with dotted octopus tentacles. Tickets are only available online, and the museum reports that the exhibition is among the most successful in its history.

Come, let's play human

Komm, wir spielen Mensch

The Kunsthaus Zürich is presenting a retrospective of Venezuelan-American artist Marisol (1930–2016), whose playful yet formally sophisticated sculptures blend abstraction, figuration, and everyday objects. The exhibition traces her career from early shows at Leo Castelli's gallery through her participation in the 1961 and 1963 Museum of Modern Art group exhibitions, her 1968 'European year' representing Venezuela at the Venice Biennale and featuring on the 4th documenta, to her subsequent decades-long disappearance from the European art scene.