The article reports that the contemporary art gallery at the Cathedral of Angers has been well received. It highlights the cathedral's new exhibition space dedicated to contemporary works, marking a notable integration of modern art within a historic religious site.
The Louvre Museum in Paris is undertaking an ambitious restoration of Peter Paul Rubens's monumental cycle of 24 paintings depicting the life of Marie de Médicis. The project, which will take four years and cost €4 million funded by the Société des Amis du Louvre, begins this autumn with the paintings being restored in situ in the Médicis Gallery. The gallery will close in May to prepare the space as a restoration workshop, where two teams of 10–15 restorers will work simultaneously on cleaning, relining, and filling gaps. The last major restoration of the cycle dates to the 1950s, and recent diagnostics revealed yellowed varnish, discordant repaints, and flaking paint layers that risk irreversible loss.
L’ouverture du Berlin Modern repoussée à 2030
The opening of the Berlin Modern museum has been delayed to 2030 due to construction setbacks and cost overruns. According to German media outlet Monopol, the project has been plagued by humidity issues, including mold, algae, and bacteria on new surfaces, caused by winter dampness, concrete sensitivity, and faulty ventilation. Originally launched in 2019 with a planned opening in mid-2020, the museum's completion has been repeatedly pushed back, with costs soaring from an initial €200 million to over €500 million, making it the most expensive museum ever built in Germany. The building, designed by Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron, is located at the Kulturforum and will house 20th-century art collections from the Nationalgalerie, the Marx Collection, the Pietzsch Collection, and holdings from the Kupferstichkabinett and the Kunstbibliothek.
Frida Kahlo et Diego Rivera au MoMA de New York dans un dialogue théâtral plein d’ardeur
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York has opened a theatrical exhibition titled "Frida and Diego: The Last Dream," curated by Beverly Adams, the museum's curator of Latin American art. The show features around twenty paintings and drawings by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera from MoMA's collection, alongside photographic portraits. The exhibition's dramatic staging, designed by British set designer Jon Bausor—who also worked on the Metropolitan Opera's concurrent production of "El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego"—creates a tense dialogue between the artists' contrasting styles: Rivera's political murals and Kahlo's intimate, colorful self-portraits. Highlights include Kahlo's "Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair" (1940) and Rivera's "Zapata, Agricultural Leader" (1931).
Au musée du Louvre, ORLAN donnera ce vendredi un cours d’histoire de l’art (gratuit)
French artist ORLAN will deliver a free art history lecture at the Musée du Louvre on Friday, May 22, 2026, as part of the fourth edition of the museum's "Leçons d'artiste" lecture series. Titled "Le musée et l'histoire de l'art cellules souches de nos nouvelles images," the talk will examine how museums like the Louvre shape art history—with its omissions, censures, and rewritings—and how new technologies, including artificial intelligence, feed on existing imagery. Two additional lectures will follow on June 12 (on body representation) and September 25 (on artists' responsibility in times of war and oppression).
Sofiane Pamart : « Avec mon piano, je sculpte la matière sonore »
French pianist Sofiane Pamart discusses his creative process in an interview with Beaux Arts Magazine, explaining how his music is inspired by contemplative cinema, particularly the films of Takeshi Kitano and Wong Kar-wai. He describes his approach to composition as sculpting sound, drawing parallels to impressionist painting and the works of sculptors Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel. Pamart also expresses a preference for art that interacts with nature, citing the open-air museum of sculptor Anachar Basbous in Lebanon as an example.
Le meilleur et le pire des stars au Met Gala 2026 inspiré par l’histoire de l’art
On May 4, 2026, the Met Gala brought together 450 guests at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York under the theme "Fashion is Art," tied to the exhibition "Costume Art." Attendees were asked to draw inspiration from specific artworks, resulting in standout looks: Madonna channeled Leonora Carrington's "The Temptation of Saint Anthony" (1945) in a Saint Laurent gown, Kim Kardashian wore a custom piece by Allen Jones extending his "Cover Story 4/4" (2021), Hunter Schafer embodied Gustav Klimt's portrait "Mäda Primavesi" (1912-1913) in Prada, and Tessa Thompson referenced Yves Klein's "Anthropométries" in Valentino. Gracie Abrams also paid homage to Klimt's "The Kiss."
Des plages de Valence aux jardins andalous, le virtuose Joaquín Sorolla célébré par une exposition lumineuse à Toulouse
The article announces a luminous exhibition in Toulouse celebrating the Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla (1863–1923), known for his radiant beach scenes and masterful use of light. Co-curated by Ana Debenedetti of the Bemberg collection and Enrique Varela Agüí, director of the Museo Sorolla in Madrid, the show features iconic works such as *Contre-jour, Maria à Biarritz* (1906) and *Sur le sable, plage de Zarautz* (1910), alongside a reconstruction of Sorolla’s studio. The exhibition highlights his unique style blending realism, impressionism, and luminism, with energetic brushwork, bold compositions, and photographic framing.
The Musée Sainte-Croix in Poitiers, France, is hosting a new exhibition reviving the legacy of Sarah Lipska, a Polish-born artist who thrived in 1920s Paris as a costume designer, decorator, and fashion creator. Once a celebrated figure with her own boutique on the Champs-Élysées, Lipska collaborated with Léon Bakst and designed for the theater, including the operetta 'Annabella' (1922), before falling into obscurity. The museum, which holds the world's largest collection of her work, has built this through decades of acquisitions and a major donation from Lipska's daughter.
French artist JR has begun installing a monumental trompe-l’oeil work titled *La Caverne du Pont Neuf* (2026) on Paris’s Pont Neuf, transforming the city’s oldest bridge into an immersive cave. The project reimagines the bridge as a limestone quarry cave, referencing the stone from which the bridge and many Parisian buildings were constructed. The work pays homage to Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s iconic *The Pont Neuf Wrapped* (1985) and will be visible both day and night throughout the summer.
The Chicago Cultural Center is presenting 'Ornament & Information,' an exhibition featuring 62 images and no videos, as documented by Contemporary Art Daily. The show explores the interplay between decorative ornamentation and informational content in contemporary art, though specific artists, dates, and curatorial details are not provided in the available text.
The article reviews Raque Ford's exhibition "The only one willing to do the hard part" at Fridericianum in Kassel. Ford, born in 1986 in Columbia, Maryland, and based in New York, presents works that blend artistically formed shapes with bold color contrasts and slogan-like text. Using plastic and industrial materials, she creates an aesthetic that oscillates between abstraction and simple visual codes, with layered compositions that challenge conventional boundaries.
Eric N. Mack has created a site-responsive installation titled "A Whole New Thing" for the lobby commission at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus. The work continues his exploration of abstraction, foregrounding fabric as an expressive, atmospheric, structural, and social medium that reveals a painterly sensibility.
Jack Goldstein (1945–2003), a Canadian-born artist and CalArts graduate, is the subject of the exhibition "Pictures, Sounds and Movies" at Kunst Museum Winterthur. The show highlights his role in the Pictures Generation, a group that in the 1970s rejected traditional art forms by appropriating images from advertising, television, and popular culture, while Goldstein also explored the autonomy of Minimal Art objects.
Chiara Camoni presents "Con te con tutto" (With You, With Everything), the Italian Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale. In a conversation with curator Cecilia Canziani and Alessandro Rabottini, Camoni discusses how the project emerged organically from years of friendship, collaboration, and shared thinking, rather than being a staged event.
The Brooklyn Museum is opening a new edition of 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses,' building on a 2023 retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. The exhibition features over 140 haute couture designs by Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen, known for merging high-tech materials like laser-cut Plexiglas with biological elements such as glowing algae and plastic bubbles. It includes recent collections like 'Sympoiesis' and works by artists including Kenny Nguyen, Wim Delvoye, and Tara Donovan, alongside a soundscape by Salvador Breed. The show runs from May 16 to December 6.
Art Basel Qatar has appointed Iraqi curator Wassan Al-Khudhairi as artistic director for its second edition, scheduled for January 28–30, 2027, in Doha. The fair will be themed “between / بين,” exploring states of betweenness and fluid cultural encounters, and will feature a scaled-up Special Projects sector with large-scale, site-specific works, alongside solo gallery presentations. Al-Khudhairi, a specialist in modern and contemporary Arab art, previously served as founding director of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha and held curatorial roles at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.
Curator and writer Reuben Keehan has been appointed artistic director of the forthcoming Kontempo – Center for Contemporary Art in Manila, a new institution developed by the Ayala Foundation. Keehan will relocate from Australia, ending his 15-year tenure as curator of contemporary art at Brisbane’s Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. In other career moves, Manuel Rabaté has become CEO and director of New Delhi’s Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, bringing over 25 years of museum leadership including his previous role as inaugural director of Louvre Abu Dhabi. Additionally, the Kochi Biennale Foundation has named board member and Mumbai-based artist Jitish Kallat as president of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, succeeding Bose Krishnamachari who resigned in January.
A rediscovered portrait of Prince Rupert, long attributed to the studio of Anthony van Dyck and later to Jacob Huysmans, sold for CA$217,250 ($153,000) at Heffel Fine Art Auction House’s Spring Sale on May 21, more than double its low estimate. New research identified the work as by Peter Lely, court painter to King Charles II. The painting had belonged to the Hudson Bay Company for centuries and was part of a court-approved sale of the company’s collection following its 2024 bankruptcy. The 80-lot sale also saw a record for E.J. Hughes’s "Coastal Boats Near Sidney, BC" (1948), which sold for CA$5.7 million ($4.1 million), and strong results for Group of Seven artists Arthur Lismer, A.J. Casson, and Lawren Harris.
Muriel Hasbun, a multidisciplinary artist known for exploring themes of memory, migration, and the Salvadoran diaspora through photography, video, and installation, died on May 13 from ovarian cancer in Silver Springs, Maryland, at age 64. Born in El Salvador in 1961, she left during the country's civil war in 1979 and settled in Washington, D.C. Her work, including series like "Santos y sombras / Saints and Shadows" (1990–97) and the 2023 survey "Tracing Terruño" at the International Center of Photography, poignantly combined archival family photos with new imagery to examine loss, exile, and the complexities of identity.
The UK government is exploring a proposal to charge admission fees for foreign tourists at national museums in England, sparking widespread opposition from cultural institutions. The idea was raised in a review of Arts Council England by Labour peer Margaret Hodge, who suggested digital ID checks could enable such a system, though she noted it would bring in less than £10 million and may not be worth the hassle. Museums like the Royal Armouries have condemned the plan as undermining universal access and projecting a lack of generosity, while the Cultural Policy Unit warns it would be logistically complex and ideologically problematic given the colonial origins of many collections.
A collateral exhibition at the 2024 Venice Biennale, titled "Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990) Emballage Cricotage and Madame Jarema," brings together two towering figures of the Polish avant-garde: Tadeusz Kantor and Maria Jarema. Organized by the Starak Family Foundation at the Procuratie Vecchie, the show features over 60 works spanning paintings, monotypes, sculptures, theatre props, and costumes, culminating in a room dedicated to Kantor's seminal theatre piece "The Dead Class" (1975). Jarema's work was shown at the 1958 Venice Biennale, and Kantor exhibited in the Polish pavilion in 1960; the exhibition highlights their intertwined, interdisciplinary practice and their foundational role in post-war Polish avant-garde art.
A rare 5.5-carat blue-green diamond ring, named Ocean Dream, sold for over $17 million at Christie’s Magnificent Jewels auction in Zurich on May 13, 2026. The triangular-cut stone, estimated at $9–12 million, is set in an 18-karat white gold band with pink and white diamonds. The buyer was an unnamed private client, and the ring took 20 minutes to sell. It had previously fetched nearly $10 million at Christie’s Geneva in 2014.
Art historian James Hamilton has published a paper in the JMW Turner Society’s magazine arguing that a famous portrait long believed to be a self-portrait by JMW Turner was actually painted by John Opie, a British portrait artist 14 years Turner’s senior. Hamilton notes that the work is an anomaly in Turner’s oeuvre, which is dominated by landscapes and seascapes, and that its dramatic lighting closely resembles Opie’s style. He suggests Opie may have given the painting to Turner, and that its authorship became misattributed after Turner’s death when his vast bequest of artworks was transferred to the nation and eventually housed at the Tate.
The 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair has returned to the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea, New York, featuring over 20 galleries from Africa and the diaspora, with a special focus on Brazil and Afro-Brazilian perspectives. The fair, running through Sunday, includes first-time participants from Lagos, São Paulo, Nassau, and New York, and highlights five standout booths: Sulette van der Merwe's surrealist paintings at Blond Contemporary, Modou Dieng Yacine's Senegalese wrestler-inspired works at 193 Gallery, Ekene Ijeoma's Black Forest Library community project, Rommulo Vieira Conceição's aluminum works at Aura, and the curated section "Brazil Beyond Brazil" featuring 10 artists selected by Igor Simões.
Artist Es Devlin has created a new installation at the National Portrait Gallery in London titled 'A National Portrait for the National Portrait Gallery,' made in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture Lab. The work invites people across the UK to upload selfies, which are transformed into charcoal-and-chalk-style portraits using an AI model trained on Devlin's own hand-drawn works. These portraits then appear on a constantly evolving projected carousel, blending and dissolving into one another. Devlin, known for designing visual worlds for Beyoncé, Adele, and the London Olympics closing ceremony, describes the piece as a non-verbal space for coexistence amid national division.
Dr James Hamilton, a leading Turner expert, has claimed that the most famous portrait of JMW Turner—long believed to be a self-portrait and featured on the UK £20 banknote—is actually by the painter John Opie. Hamilton argues that the work, dated around 1799, was mistakenly included in the Turner Bequest after the artist's death in 1851, when his studio was in disarray and the attribution was never properly verified. He points to stylistic evidence, including Opie's characteristic use of dramatic light and shadow, and calls on Tate Britain to reattribute the painting.
London-based artist Anouska Samms has accused the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute and curator Andrew Bolton of displaying a garment in the spring 2026 exhibition "Costume Art" that she claims is a counterfeit of her collaborative work. Samms says the piece, titled Corpus Nervina 0.0, was inspired by a 2023 hair dress she co-created with fashion designer Yoav Hadari for his label Psycheangelic. Despite a contract giving Samms sole ownership of the hair-based textile's intellectual property, the museum's wall label credits only Hadari and states Samms's textile was not used. Samms's lawyer, Jon Sharples, says the museum initially expressed interest in acquiring the original dress but later shifted to a remake after Hadari reported water damage, then stalled entirely before the exhibition opened.
An artwork looted by the Nazis from the renowned Goudstikker collection has resurfaced in the home of descendants of Hendrik Seyffardt, a notorious Dutch SS collaborator. The painting, *Portrait of a Young Girl* by Toon Kelder, was discovered by art detective Arthur Brand after a family member contacted him, revealing that the piece had hung for decades in the home of Seyffardt’s granddaughter. Brand traced the painting to a 1940 auction where part of the looted Goudstikker collection was sold, and lawyers for the Goudstikker heirs have confirmed the work was stolen and called for its return.
Richard Lewer has won the 2026 Archibald Prize, Australia's most prestigious portraiture award, for his portrait of Pitjantjatjara elder, traditional healer, and senior artist Iluwanti Ken. The $100,000 prize was announced at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, with the judging panel selecting the work unanimously from 59 finalists. Lewer, a six-time Archibald finalist, painted Ken life-size against a yellow ochre background, capturing her quiet authority and role as a working artist. The Wynne Prize for landscape painting was also awarded to Gaypalani Waṉambi for *The Waṉambi tree*.