Art News. Vasari Codex

article news schedule Oct 31, 2025 visibility 15 link 6 artists

talladega college hale woodruff murals partnership 1234759606

Talladega College, a historically Black college in Alabama, has partnered with the Toledo Museum of Art, Art Bridges, and the Terra Foundation for American Art to share six monumental murals by artist Hale A. Woodruff. Painted between 1939 and 1942, the murals depict key moments in African American history, including the Amistad uprising and the Underground Railroad. Under the agreement, the Toledo Museum of Art acquired *The Underground Railroad* (1942), while Art Bridges and the Terra Foundation jointly acquired the three Amistad murals; the remaining two murals stay at the college. All six works will be periodically reunited on campus, ensuring their continued connection to the institution that commissioned them.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 28, 2025 visibility 25 link 13 artists, 6 galleries

altman siegel closes gallery san francisco 1234757474

Altman Siegel, a key gallery in San Francisco's art scene, will close in November 2025 after 16 years. Founder Claudia Altman-Siegel attributed the closure to a challenging market for mid-size galleries, stating it became too difficult to scale in the current climate. The gallery's final show is a solo exhibition by Shinpei Kusanagi, ending November 22. Its roster included artists such as Simon Denny, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Trevor Paglen, and others. The closure follows a trend of galleries shutting down or scaling back, including Blum and LA Louver in Los Angeles, and Clearing and Venus Over Manhattan in New York.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 22, 2025 visibility 15 link 4 artists

joel shapiro ellen phelan lennox hill home sale 4 75 million 1234758379

The Manhattan duplex of the late sculptor Joel Shapiro and his wife, painter Ellen Phelan, has been listed for $4.75 million. Located in a 1907 Lenox Hill building on East 67th Street, the home was purchased in the early 2000s and renovated with beveled glass doors, brass hardware, and a sculptural staircase. The listing is held by Eileen Angelo and Max Collins of Sotheby’s International Realty. The couple also owned a lakeside estate in Westport, New York, called Kenjockety, which is also on the market, reduced from $5.49 million to $4.8 million.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 16, 2025 visibility 12 link 1 artist, 1 gallery

gagosian first to announce it sold out at frieze london 1234757231

Gagosian became the first exhibitor at Frieze London to announce a complete sellout of its booth, featuring a solo presentation of works by Los Angeles artist Lauren Halsey. The booth included pieces from Halsey's 2025 untitled series of polymer-modified gypsum and stain on wood, as well as a six-foot-tall plaza sign sculpture titled 'LODA PLAZA (2025)'. Gagosian director Antwaun Sargent confirmed that the works were placed with both institutions and serious long-term collectors in the U.S. and Europe.

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article news schedule Oct 15, 2025 visibility 24 link 7 artists

leading artists call for nationwide resistance against authoritarian forces 1234757308

Visual artist Dread Scott, playwright Lynn Nottage, and dozens of cultural figures have launched "Fall of Freedom," a nationwide weekend of creative demonstrations scheduled for November 21–22, 2025, to protest rising authoritarianism under the Trump administration. The project invites arts communities to organize independent actions—such as storefront readings, pop-up performances, exhibitions, and workshops—at museums, galleries, classrooms, comedy clubs, or any community gathering space. Participating institutions include the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, which will host a "Wear Your Rights" silk-screening workshop, and New York's Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, which will turn a gallery into a library of queer art activism books. Other notable participants include artists Marilyn Minter, Robert Longo, and Amy Sherald, who recently canceled a Smithsonian exhibition after concerns over her painting of a Black transgender Statue of Liberty.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 10, 2025 visibility 19 link 3 artists

frieze abu dhabi fair announced 1234756413

Frieze, the London-based art fair organizer, announced it will launch Frieze Abu Dhabi in November 2026, partnering with the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi). The new fair will replace the existing Abu Dhabi Art fair, which has run since 2007, and will take place at Manarat Al Saadiyat in the Saadiyat Cultural District. The announcement follows Frieze's recent acquisition by Mari, a company founded by Ari Emanuel, and comes amid a wave of international art fair expansions in the Gulf region, including Art Basel's new fair in Doha.

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article news schedule Sep 25, 2025 visibility 21 link 21 artists

aspen art museum redefining future 1234753597

The Aspen Art Museum is undergoing a strategic shift under director Nicola Lees, moving away from its reputation as a collector's clubhouse toward becoming a global institution. The museum's annual ArtCrush gala and fundraiser week, once centered on wealth-displaying collector home visits and glitzy parties, now emphasizes intellectual programming like the inaugural AIR festival, a $20 million artist-led interdisciplinary initiative featuring talks by Werner Herzog and Hans Ulrich Obrist. This change comes amid soaring local real estate prices, including a $108 million home co-purchased by Steve Wynn and Thomas Peterffy, and contrasts the area's deep pockets with the museum's free admission since 2008.

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trending_up market schedule Sep 16, 2025 visibility 12 link 4 artists

jean michel basquiat estate albino and preto collection 1234752068

Fashion brand Albino & Preto has collaborated with the Jean-Michel Basquiat estate on a new collection of jiujitsu sets and lifestyle apparel featuring the artist's paintings. The limited-edition collection, released on September 10 ahead of New York Fashion Week, incorporates martial arts motifs that Basquiat often used in his work, including a reference to the jiujitsu foot lock known as "Achilles." The Basquiat estate has a history of fashion collaborations, including a previous line with H&M tied to the 2022 exhibition "King Pleasure."

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trending_up market schedule Sep 9, 2025 visibility 17 link 15 artists

elaine wynn francis bacon lacma christies november auction 1234751189

The estate of Elaine Wynn, the late casino magnate and top art collector who died in April 2024, has announced plans for her renowned collection. Francis Bacon's triptych *Three Studies of Lucian Freud* (1969)—which Wynn purchased for a record $142.2 million at Christie's in 2013—will be donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), where she served as board cochair. The painting, the first Bacon to enter LACMA's collection, will debut in the museum's new David Geffen Galleries when they open next year. Separately, Christie's will auction 20 works from Wynn's collection across three sales in New York this November, with estimates totaling at least $75 million. Highlights include Richard Diebenkorn's *Ocean Park #40* (1971), Lucian Freud's *The Painter Surprised by a Naked Admirer* (2004–05), Joan Mitchell's *Sunflower V* (1969), and J.M.W. Turner's *Ehrenbreitstein* (1835).

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trending_up market schedule Sep 5, 2025 visibility 27 link 17 artists, 9 galleries

clearing gallery closes 1234749090

Clearing, a New York-based gallery known for launching the careers of artists like Korakrit Arunanondchai, Harold Ancart, and Marguerite Humeau, has permanently closed its spaces in New York and Los Angeles after 14 years. Founder Olivier Babin cited an unsustainable path forward, stating the gallery could no longer operate at its standards. The closure follows a wave of New York gallery shutdowns, including Blum, Venus Over Manhattan, and Kasmin, which is transitioning into a new entity called Olney Gleason. Clearing’s final exhibitions were solo shows by Coco Young in New York and Henry Curchod in Los Angeles.

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article culture schedule Aug 6, 2025 visibility 16 link 11 artists

the right influential art historian victoria coates project esther 1234748703

The article profiles Victoria Coates, an art historian and former Trump administration official, who is leading 'Project Esther,' a conservative initiative aimed at taking over US higher education and targeting progressive organizations. Named after the biblical queen, the project accuses critics of Israel of anti-Semitism and seeks to dismantle what it describes as a 'terrorist support network.' Coates, who previously served as Deputy National Security Advisor and worked on Rumsfeld's memoirs, has a long history of attacking academia from within, including as an anonymous blogger behind 'Elephants in Academia.'

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article news schedule Jul 25, 2025 visibility 17 link 4 artists

top art collector david geffen sued by estranged husband for breach of contract 1234748265

Entertainment mogul and top art collector David Geffen was sued on Tuesday by his estranged husband, model Donovan Michaels, for alleged breach of contract. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims Geffen promised Michaels lifelong financial support but cut him off after initiating divorce proceedings. The 33-page complaint describes their relationship as exploitative, comparing it to the plot of "Trading Places." Separately, Geffen is also entangled in a legal dispute with crypto billionaire Justin Sun over an Alberto Giacometti sculpture allegedly stolen and traded as part of a fraud scheme.

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article news schedule Jul 24, 2025 visibility 12 link 4 artists

med school class university alabama birmingham art 1890549

The University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine has launched a new course, "Prescribing Art: How Observation Enhances Medicine," in collaboration with the Abroms-Engel Institute for Visual Arts and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. The course tasks junior- and senior-level medical students with analyzing famous artworks by artists including Michelangelo, Paul van Somer, Sir Luke Fildes, Mary Cassatt, and David Levinthal to improve their observational skills and address biases in health care. Developed by associate professor Stephen Russell, the course is an updated version of a 2011 program based on a Yale seminar, expanded this year to focus on bias and tolerance of ambiguity amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

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article culture schedule Jul 24, 2025 visibility 9 link 4 artists

artful tom a memoir damn the originals 2592113

Thomas Hoving recounts his decision to pursue art history graduate school after military service, rejecting his father's demand that he join the family business and attend business school instead. He describes a cross-country road trip with his wife Nancy and their dog Whiskey, including a failed gambling attempt in Las Vegas and mechanical troubles in Missouri.

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article news schedule Jul 24, 2025 visibility 12 link 13 artists

berlin biennale evasive palestine paul klee angel histor 1234747787

The 13th Berlin Biennale opened amid controversy over its handling of the Gaza conflict. In a tense press conference, curator Zasha Colah faced questions about whether any invited artists had withdrawn in solidarity with the Strike Germany campaign, and whether she had experienced state repression for addressing the genocide in Gaza. Colah acknowledged one artist’s withdrawal but denied experiencing state repression, while the biennial’s title, “passing the fugitive on,” and its theme of “the fox” were criticized as evasive. The article describes the event as a case study in how German cultural institutions navigate political pressure and censorship.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 22, 2025 visibility 19 link 21 artists, 11 galleries

the summer group shows new york city 1234747129

New York galleries are rethinking the traditional summer group show, moving away from ambitious, canon-redefining exhibitions toward more pragmatic, relationship-driven presentations. Dealers and advisers note that these shows now serve primarily to maintain gallery visibility during the slow August season, test emerging artists, and foster networking. The article highlights examples like "Open Eyes" at A Hug from the Art World, curated by 14-year-old Luke Newsom, which balances playfulness with serious curation, featuring works by KAWS, Urs Fischer, and Raymond Pettibon.

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person people schedule Jul 10, 2025 visibility 22 link 7 artists

shamim m momin bronx museum director 1234747212

The Bronx Museum of the Arts has appointed Shamim M. Momin as its next director and chief curator, effective early September. Momin succeeds Klaudio Rodriguez, who left last September to lead the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida. Most recently director of curatorial affairs at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle (2018–2024), Momin curated the group exhibition “In Plain Sight” and oversaw commissions by artists including Tala Madani, Gary Simmons, and Hank Willis Thomas. She also cofounded LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division) in 2009, curating over 100 public art commissions, and previously served as an associate curator at the Whitney Museum and branch director of its now-closed Midtown outpost, where she organized more than 50 projects. She co-curated the 2004 and 2008 Whitney Biennials.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 9, 2025 visibility 17 link 10 artists, 5 galleries

art basel 2025 blue chip galleries sales trend 1234746767

ARTnews analyzed publicly reported sales from five blue-chip galleries—Hauser & Wirth, Pace, Thaddaeus Ropac, White Cube, and David Zwirner—at Art Basel 2025, finding a combined total over 35% lower than in 2024, around 8% below 2023, and just over 20% down from 2022. The high-water mark was $204 million in 2024, boosted by eight-figure works from Hauser & Wirth. Meanwhile, the number of artists sold by these galleries rose steadily from 109 in 2022 to 157 in 2025, indicating a shift toward broader, less concentrated inventory. Dealers reported mixed sentiments, though seven-figure deals still occurred, and some noted that market uncertainty has led to more scattershot presentations with wider price ranges.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 4, 2025 visibility 13 link 6 artists

fra angelico fresco restored 2629896

A long-forgotten fresco by the early Renaissance master Fra Angelico, believed to be his earliest known work, has been restored in the chapter house of San Domenico in Fiesole, Tuscany. The painting, a Crucifixion dating to around 1420, was hidden under whitewash for centuries and rediscovered by Bottega Belacqua, a group of Renaissance art enthusiasts. Funding from Friends of Florence enabled conservators Alessandra Popple and Cristiana Conti to revive the work, just in time for a landmark exhibition in Florence.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 3, 2025 visibility 19 link 6 artists, 4 galleries

marisa adesman magic anat ebgi 2662697

Marisa Adesman, a rising artist based in Chicago, is presenting her solo exhibition “Under the Rose” at Anat Ebgi in New York, featuring six new paintings that blend trompe l’oeil and surrealism to create nocturnal interior scenes of magic, eroticism, and domestic disobedience. The show follows her Los Angeles debut “Forklore” in 2021 and her first museum exhibition at KMAC Contemporary Art Museum in 2023, where her painting sold for $90,000 at Art Basel Miami.

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gavel restitution schedule Jun 30, 2025 visibility 17 link 6 artists

parthenon marbles update 2662028

Greece is building a cultural coalition with Italy to strengthen its campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum. Italy's culture minister Alessandro Giuli pledged support during a visit to Athens and announced the repatriation of 145 ancient coins. Greek culture minister Lina Mendoni is leading efforts to build international backing, and the two countries have devised joint cultural initiatives, including an exhibition of modern Greco-Italian metaphysical painters. Meanwhile, the U.K.'s Labour government has taken a neutral stance on the issue, departing from the previous Conservative government's opposition, and negotiations between Greece and the U.K. are described as "ongoing and constructive."

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 27, 2025 visibility 23 link 15 artists

guerrilla girls feminist collective why so important 1234745911

The feminist collective Guerrilla Girls began its activism in May 1985 by wheat-pasting posters in SoHo, New York, that listed prominent male artists and revealed that their galleries showed 10 percent or fewer women artists. The group formed after the 1984 MoMA exhibition 'An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture' included only 13 women out of 169 participants, sparking protests that failed to gain traction. For 40 years, the Guerrilla Girls have used statistics-driven, provocative posters to call out sexism and racism in galleries, museums, and the broader art world. This year, their anniversary is marked by retrospective exhibitions at the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, and the National Gallery of Bulgaria in Sofia.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 26, 2025 visibility 17 link 6 artists

cara romero photographer hood museum exhibition 1234746099

Cara Romero, an enrolled citizen of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, is the subject of her first institutional solo exhibition, "Panûpünüwügai," at Dartmouth's Hood Museum in New Hampshire. The show features her photography that fuses Indigenous ancestral memory with pop culture, depicting Native women as powerful agents reclaiming space against colonial stereotypes. Romero has also been featured in over 10 museum group exhibitions since last fall, including shows at the Hudson River Museum and Cantor Art Center.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 25, 2025 visibility 17 link 2 artists

ai weiwei new artwork ukraine russia 1234745896

Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei will debut a new site-specific work in Kyiv, Ukraine, this fall, responding to the country's ongoing war with Russia. Titled "Three Perfectly Proportioned Spheres and Camouflage Uniforms Painted White," the installation will be on view at Pavilion 13, a Soviet-era exhibition space, from September 14 to November 30. Commissioned by the nonprofit Ribbon International, the work reimagines Ai's "Divina Proportione" series (2004–12) using metal spheres encased in camouflage fabric painted white, symbolizing layered realities and the concealment of truth during conflict.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 19, 2025 visibility 16 link 11 artists

harriet tubman river raid exhibition 2658336

A new exhibition at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina, titled “Picturing Freedom,” highlights Harriet Tubman’s role in the Combahee River Raid of 1863, where she guided Union troops to free 756 enslaved people in a single night. The show features works by Jacob Lawrence, Aaron Douglas, Elizabeth Catlett, and Faith Ringgold, alongside contemporary artists, and includes multimedia elements such as audio interviews with descendants, a video reenactment, and landscape photographs by J. Henry Fair. Guest curated by Vanessa Thaxton-Ward of Hampton University Museum, the exhibition is based on Edda L. Fields-Black’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book "COMBEE."

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article policy schedule Jun 16, 2025 visibility 20 link 20 artists

new york mayoral candidates arts 2025 2655110

On June 24, New Yorkers will vote in the Democratic primary for mayor, with candidates including embattled incumbent Eric Adams, former governor Andrew Cuomo, and Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani, who is gaining support from artists and art dealers. The article outlines the arts-related positions of several candidates: City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams restored $53 million in cultural funding after proposed cuts; Eric Adams has an uneven record, having proposed cuts but later launching the 'NYC Create in Place' pilot program; and Andrew Cuomo's arts stance is mentioned but not detailed.

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article news schedule Jun 9, 2025 visibility 12 link 1 artist

klaus biesenbach american art scene political correctness 1234744529

Curator Klaus Biesenbach, now director of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, gave a lengthy interview to Der Spiegel in which he explained his decision to leave the American art scene, citing what he described as an oppressive climate of "political correctness." He claimed that DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) initiatives in U.S. museums had become "unbearable" quota requirements, and recounted a story about mandatory Zoom meetings after George Floyd's murder where he felt pressured to share personal experiences of discrimination. He also referenced the resignation of SFMOMA curator Gary Garrels over "reverse discrimination" comments and acknowledged his own controversial tenure at MOCA Los Angeles, which saw two high-profile resignations and a leadership restructuring.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 5, 2025 visibility 14 link 5 artists

ashmolean museum acquires fra angelico painting 2566049

The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford has raised $4.48 million ($5.8 million) to acquire Fra Angelico's early Renaissance painting "The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist, and the Magdalen" (1420s). The work had been in a private British collection for two centuries and was nearly sold to a foreign buyer until the U.K. government imposed an export deferral in January 2024, giving time for a domestic buyer to step in. The acquisition was completed via a private treaty sale at a discounted price, funded by over 50 donors including chairman Lord Lupton, the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund, and the Headley Trust.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 5, 2025 visibility 14 link 4 artists

the national portrait gallery getty museum jointly acquire joshua reynolds portrait of omai 2278884

The National Portrait Gallery in London and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles have jointly acquired Joshua Reynolds's 1776 painting *Portrait of Omai* for an estimated £50 million ($62 million). This marks the first time museums in the UK and US have partnered on a single acquisition, with each institution paying half and sharing ownership of the artwork, which will be displayed alternately in both countries. The painting depicts Mai (Omai), a young Tahitian man who visited Britain in 1774 with explorer James Cook, and had never before been held in a museum collection.

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article culture schedule Jun 4, 2025 visibility 16 link 11 artists

renaissance artists raphael and durer were kind of obsessed with each other 2632204

The article explores the artistic friendship between Renaissance masters Raphael and Albrecht Dürer, who never met but exchanged letters and artworks across 600 miles. Initiated when both were at the height of their careers, the correspondence began with Dürer sending Raphael a gouache self-portrait, to which Raphael responded with drawings, including "Two male nude studies" (1515) and "Three Standing Men" (1514-16). The friendship lasted only five years, ending with Raphael's death in 1520 at age 37. The exchange is documented by Giorgio Vasari in "The Lives of the Artists," and one surviving drawing bears an inscription by Dürer acknowledging Raphael's gift.

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