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Kim Sajet, the former director of the Smithsonian-run National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., resigned after President Donald Trump claimed he fired her via social media. Despite Trump's demand, Sajet continued reporting to work until formally quitting. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution, intervened to block internal board suggestions to follow Trump's orders, leading the board to issue a resolution affirming its sole authority to fire museum directors. The controversy followed Trump's executive order accusing the Smithsonian of promoting a "divisive, race-centered ideology" and his post calling Sajet a "highly partisan person" and "strong supporter of DEI." Separately, artist Amy Sherald withdrew her mid-career survey from the National Portrait Gallery after being asked to remove a portrait of a trans woman posing as the Statue of Liberty.

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Marcia Resnick, a photographer renowned for capturing Manhattan's downtown art and punk scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s, has died at age 74 from lung cancer. Her sister Janice Hahn confirmed the cause of death. Resnick began with conceptual photography before shifting to portraiture, documenting figures such as Mick Jagger, Klaus Nomi, Joseph Beuys, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ed Koch, and John Belushi. She was briefly married to MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer and taught at New York University and Cooper Union. Her work was featured in the SoHo Weekly News, and a retrospective of her photography opened at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in 2022.

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The June 18, 2025 edition of ARTnews' Morning Links reports that Iran and Israel have taken protective measures for artworks and heritage sites amid escalating missile strikes. Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization moved artifacts to secure storage and closed museums, while Israeli museums transferred artworks to protected storage, with Suzanne Landau, director of the Israel Museum, noting the country's familiarity with such crises. Other headlines include a government watchdog finding that President Donald Trump illegally slashed funding to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, an interview with Pussy Riot co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova about her performance at MOCA Los Angeles, earthquake damage to monasteries in northern Greece, and details about the Studio Museum in Harlem's inaugural exhibitions. The digest also covers TEFAF's cameo in the TV show 'And Just Like That', a Jenny Saville drawing heading to auction at Sotheby's, and a profile of previously unknown Surrealist painter Henry Orlik.

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The Texas Historical Commission announced that buildings repurposed by minimalist artist Donald Judd in Marfa, Texas, have been added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Approved by the National Park Service in May 2025, the designation expands the existing Fort D.A. Russell Historic District to include 15 buildings and a large-scale installation, all altered or created by Judd between 1973 and his death in 1994. The properties are managed by the Chinati Foundation and the Judd Foundation, which operate as separate entities. This is the second Judd-linked historic district in Marfa, following the Central Marfa Historic District’s designation in 2022.

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On Monday, Whitney Museum director Scott Rothkopf announced via email that the museum would "pause" the 2025–26 academic year of its Independent Study Program (ISP), citing a lack of a director and strained operations. The announcement coincided with an open letter from high-profile ISP alumni—including artists Emily Jacir, Andrea Fraser, Mark Dion, and others—denouncing the museum's cancellation of a pro-Palestine performance titled "No Aesthetics Outside My Freedom: Mourning, Militancy, and Performance" by artists Fadl Fakhouri, Noel Maghathe, and Fargo Tbakhi. The performance was canceled two days before it was to be part of an ISP curatorial exhibition, after the museum accused the artists of "valorizing specific acts of violence" and singling out community members based on belief systems. The letter also referenced the earlier demotion of ISP director Gregg Bordowitz in February.

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Koyo Kouoh, the celebrated Cameroonian-born curator known for championing African contemporary art, has died unexpectedly at age 57. She passed away in a hospital in Basel, Switzerland, due to cancer, just months after being appointed curator of the 2026 Venice Biennale—making her only the second African-born curator to lead the prestigious exhibition, following Okwui Enwezor in 2015. Kouoh was executive director and chief curator of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town since 2019, where she organized landmark shows like "When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting" (2022), and founded RAW Material Company in Dakar in 2008, an independent art center now considered a top space in West Africa.

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At the 2025 Met Gala, K-Pop star Lisa of Blackpink faced backlash after social media users claimed her Louis Vuitton outfit, designed by Pharrell Williams, featured Rosa Parks's face embroidered on her underwear. A representative for artist Henry Taylor clarified that the pattern actually depicts Taylor's neighbor, not Parks, and that all faces on the garments come from Taylor's personal life and existing artworks, which he provided to LVMH for Williams's debut collection in 2023.

Alex Heilbron at as-is

Artist Alex Heilbron presents a solo exhibition at the Los Angeles gallery as-is. The show is featured as a lead review in the February 2026 issue of Contemporary Art Review LA, highlighting Heilbron's continued exploration of painting and visual language within the Southern California art scene.

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Following the cancellation of Art Basel Miami Beach 2020 due to the pandemic, the Miami Design District has announced plans to host a physical art and design event. Approximately 25 to 30 top-tier galleries will occupy storefronts for a ten-day period starting November 27, while the historic Moore Building will house 'Design Miami/ Podium,' a curated selling exhibition titled 'America(s)' led by Aric Chen.

An Intimate Portrait of Basquiat’s Early Life Returns to Brooklyn

The exhibition “Our Friend, Jean” returns to Brooklyn this May at The Bishop Gallery, coinciding with Frieze Week. The show features twenty artworks alongside personal ephemera and photographs from Jean-Michel Basquiat’s formative years between 1979 and 1980, primarily sourced from the collection of his former roommate Alexis Adler. This iteration includes previously unseen items from Adler’s trove, such as hand-painted garments and postcards, and will be activated by panels featuring Basquiat’s early collaborators.

The art of technology jostles for position in venues both new and historic

Canyon, a new 40,000-square-foot institution dedicated to moving image, sound, and performance art, is set to open this autumn on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Founded by entrepreneur Robert Rosenkranz and led by former Mass MoCA director Joe Thompson, the space aims to bypass the slow curatorial cycles of traditional museums by hosting international media-rich exhibitions with a faster 18-to-24-month turnaround. Unlike traditional collecting institutions, Canyon will focus on public accessibility and domestic-style hospitality rather than building its own permanent archive.

The Prints Market Is Having a Moment—Driven by New Collectors and a Taste for the Historic

The prints and multiples market is experiencing a significant transformation, driven by an influx of new collectors and a shift in taste toward historically significant works. Artnet Auctions data shows that 50% of prints and multiples lots sold between 2020 and 2025 went to first-time buyers on their platform. This surge in demand is coinciding with major events like the IFPDA Print Fair and Artnet's own Premier Prints and Multiples sale, which features works from modern masters like Frank Stella and Jeff Koons.

A brush with… Karen Archey, head of curatorial at Düsseldorf's K20 and K21 museums

Karen Archey, the head of curatorial at Düsseldorf's K20 and K21 museums, shares personal insights in an interview format. She reveals her obsession with painter Alice Neel, discusses a formative 2007 summer touring major European art events, and lists the poetry and audio currently occupying her attention.

German artist Anne Imhof to be subject of ‘ambitious’ Hong Kong solo exhibition

German artist Anne Imhof will present her first solo exhibition in Asia at the Tai Kwun culture complex in Hong Kong from September 26, 2025, to January 3, 2027. The ambitious show will feature a survey of key works and a new commission, converging performance, image, sound, and architecture to create immersive encounters.

Keeping up with the Kleins: exhibition brings together Yves’s talented artist family

The Stedelijk Museum Schiedam in the Netherlands has opened an exhibition titled 'Yves Klein and His Artist Family,' which presents the work of the iconic French artist Yves Klein alongside that of his father Fred Klein, his mother Marie Raymond, and his widow Rotraut Klein-Moquay. The show features 30 works by Yves and over 40 pieces by his family members, highlighting their distinct artistic contributions within 20th-century Modernism.

Marina Abramović Is the Unlikely Star of the New Balloon Museum

Marina Abramović Is the Unlikely Star of the New Balloon Museum

Performance artist Marina Abramović has created a large-scale inflatable installation for the new permanent New York outpost of the Balloon Museum. Titled *Snowy/Windy/Spring On The Planet Z*, the immersive work transforms the Tin Building into an imagined extraterrestrial meadow filled with balloon sculptures, light, and air currents, opening in July 2026.

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The 2014 Whitney Biennial has debuted with a controversial three-curator structure, tasking Michelle Grabner, Stuart Comer, and Anthony Elms with organizing separate floors of the museum. This meta-review aggregates the initial critical reception from major publications, noting that the fragmented format has forced critics to evaluate the exhibition as three distinct shows rather than a unified vision.

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The 2026 Whitney Biennial has opened to an early critical consensus of being "above average," though critics suggest the exhibition requires significant time to process. Curated by Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer, the show emphasizes a subtle atmospheric mood rather than overt spectacle, featuring a diverse array of installations, sculptures, and multimedia works that span multiple floors of the museum and its exterior.

Trump Arts Impact 2025

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The Trump administration has initiated a sweeping overhaul of the American cultural landscape, marked by aggressive oversight of the Smithsonian Institution and the termination of numerous National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grants. Key actions include the disbanding of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the removal of leadership at the National Portrait Gallery, and the implementation of content audits to remove references to Trump's impeachments and information regarding slavery from federal sites. These moves are part of a broader effort to eliminate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives and enforce 'American values' in cultural programming ahead of the nation's 250th anniversary.

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The Gulf region is rapidly transforming into a primary axis for the international art trade, marked by the upcoming debut of Art Basel Qatar and the rebranding of Abu Dhabi Art as a Frieze event. While state-led museum projects have long dominated headlines, a surge of commercial activity is now taking hold as blue-chip galleries like Pace and David Zwirner join local stalwarts. This expansion comes at a strategic time as traditional markets in the U.S., U.K., and China face contraction.

Art Market Minute February 2026

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The art market is witnessing a significant shift in the commercial viability and valuation of performance art. While the medium has been sold in various forms for years, its increasing presence at major art fairs and galleries suggests a new era where collectors are beginning to prioritize the documentation and rights to live works as legitimate assets.

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The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia has opened a major exhibition, 'Henri Rousseau: A Painter's Secrets,' featuring around sixty works, including the institution's own iconic Rousseau paintings. The survey, co-curated by Nancy Ireson and Christopher Green, aims to present a cohesive look at the self-taught artist's career.

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Theater director Łukasz Twarkowski's new multimedia production, "ROHTKO," is set to open at London's Barbican Centre on October 2. The four-hour performance, which premiered in Riga in 2022, uses onstage action, video screens, and a techno soundtrack to explore the nature of authenticity in art, taking the Knoedler & Co. forgery scandal—which involved fake Rothko, Pollock, and Motherwell paintings—as a central narrative thread.

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Artnet News is searching for a permanent writer for its Wet Paint gossip column, with guest writers like Janelle Zara filling in temporarily. The column focuses on speculating about the identity of the anonymous Instagram account @artnotnet, which posts humorous, all-caps commentary on art world headlines, and notes the rise of art sales on platforms like Facebook Marketplace.

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The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has secured a major loan of the ancient marble sculpture *Sleeping Hermaphroditus* from the Louvre in Paris. The work will be a centerpiece of the museum's upcoming exhibition "Metamorphoses," which opens on February 6, 2026, and explores themes of transformation drawn from Ovid's epic poem.

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New York's Metropolitan Opera announced it may sell its two iconic Marc Chagall murals, *The Sources of Music* and *The Triumphs of Music*, which have adorned the building's Grand Tier since 1966. The proposal includes a caveat that the paintings must remain in place at the opera, with the owner recognized on a plaque. Sotheby's valued the artworks at a total of $55 million within the past year. The financially beleaguered institution has drawn $120 million from its endowment and reduced its performance schedule since the pandemic, and previously used the Chagalls as collateral for a $35 million loan from J.P. Morgan in 2009.

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Taschen has released a monumental two-volume monograph titled "Art Sin Fin" (2026) dedicated to the 96-year-old Chilean filmmaker and polymath Alejandro Jodorowsky. The book, priced at $1,500 and packaged in a Plexiglass box, spans over 2,000 pages and includes film stills, collages, drawings, photographs, comic strips, and performance images curated by Jodorowsky himself in collaboration with Donatien Grau, head of contemporary programs at the Louvre Museum. It covers his entire career, from his surrealist films "El Topo" (1970) and "The Holy Mountain" (1973) to his failed "Dune" adaptation, his comic series like "The Incal" and "The Metabarons," his psychomagic therapy practice, and recent collaborations with his wife Pascale Montandon.

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Museums and cultural institutions are participating in a viral social media trend where staff, often older guides or curators, deliver marketing scripts written entirely in Gen Z slang. The trend, which began with a video from England's Hever Castle in early September, has spread across TikTok and Instagram, with hundreds of organizations creating their own versions. Typical phrases include "no cap," "ate and left no crumbs," and "menty b," often accompanied by the "Millennial Pause" for comedic effect. The article highlights several examples, including the Poe Museum in Virginia and the New York Historical Society, and notes that the trend has expanded beyond the art world to include accountancy firms, donkey sanctuaries, and even the NYC Ferry.

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Christie's and Sotheby's have released their projected 2025 sales results, signaling a potential recovery after three years of market contraction. Sotheby's reported total sales of $7 billion, a 17% increase over 2024, with fine art up 15% to $4.3 billion. Christie's posted $6.2 billion, a 6% rise from $5.8 billion in 2024, bolstered by $234 million from its Gooding acquisition. Notable sales include Canaletto's Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day for £31.9 million at Christie's and a Gustav Klimt painting that sold for $236 million at Sotheby's.

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Artist Cai Guo-Qiang sparked a major controversy on Chinese social media after staging a fireworks display titled "Rising Dragon" in the Himalayas near Shigatse, Tibet, on September 19, 2025. The event, co-organized with outdoor brand Arc'teryx, drew dozens of art insiders and influencers but was quickly condemned by netizens, environmental scientists, and activists for threatening the fragile Tibetan plateau ecosystem and showing cultural insensitivity toward sacred Buddhist mountains. Both Cai and Arc'teryx issued apologies, and state media outlets like CCTV and Xinhua condemned the performance, leading to an investigation by local authorities.