Comment | In worrying times for politics and the environment, art can still provide hope

In a reflective essay for 2026, the author draws on conversations with artists Luc Tuymans and Olafur Eliasson from the "A brush with…" podcast to explore art's capacity to offer hope amid political and environmental crises. Eliasson discusses his climate-focused works like the glacier melt series "1999/2019" and his despair after COP30, emphasizing action over hope, while Tuymans addresses political trauma through his exhibition at David Zwirner, including a riff on Géricault's "The Raft of the Medusa" that compares the United States to a fruit basket.

Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ will head to Japan this summer in rare loan

The Mauritshuis museum in The Hague has announced it will lend Johannes Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" (around 1665) to the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka, Japan, this summer. The rare loan is made possible because the Mauritshuis will close from August 24 to September 20 for building alterations. The painting last traveled internationally in 2012-14 for a world tour, and its only recent trip was a short loan to the Rijksmuseum in 2023 for a Vermeer survey exhibition. The exhibition in Osaka will be organized by the Asahi Shimbun, a major Japanese media organization that also sponsored the earlier tour, and will help fund the Mauritshuis's renovations and a new education center.

The Big Review | Jacques-Louis David at the Musée du Louvre, Paris ★★★★★

The Musée du Louvre in Paris has opened a major retrospective of Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), the greatest Neoclassical artist, marking his biggest survey in nearly four decades. The exhibition, mounted for the 200th anniversary of his death, comprises just over 100 works, including strategic loans from France and eight other countries, and complements the Louvre's own holdings. The show aims to redefine David beyond the Neoclassical label, presenting him instead as both a "realist" and an "idealist," and is compared to blockbusters like the Rijksmuseum's Vermeer show.

Trump administration puts renewed pressure on Smithsonian to turn over materials for review

The Trump administration has given the Smithsonian Institution a deadline of January 13 to turn over materials related to a review of programming at eight of its museums, as outlined in a December 18 letter from White House officials Vince Haley and Russell Vought. The review stems from a March 2025 executive order titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," which accused the Smithsonian of promoting a "divisive, race-centered ideology." Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch noted that some requested materials are not readily available and will require significant effort to compile, while the American Alliance of Museums and the Association of Art Museum Directors have expressed confidence in the Smithsonian's commitment to professional standards.

Blockbuster Frida Kahlo exhibit and 8 more new Houston art openings

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston unveils a monumental Frida Kahlo exhibition, alongside eight other new art openings across Houston museums and galleries. Shows include Cynthia Isakson's "Anachronous" at Holocaust Museum Houston, "norMAL and unreMARKable" at Throughline, "The Uncanny In-Between" at Blaffer Art Museum, "End Cash Bail" at Lawndale Art Center, and "Magic Mirrors" at Art League Houston, among others, spanning photography, ceramics, multimedia, and social justice themes.

Georgia Museum of Art reaches for the stars with new exhibition

The Georgia Museum of Art has opened a new exhibition titled "We, Too, Are Made of Wonders," on view from January 24 to June 28, 2026. Inspired by Ada Limón's poem "In Praise of Mystery," the show brings together poetry, astronomy, science, and visual art to explore humanity's fascination with the cosmos. It features historic, modern, and contemporary works from the museum's permanent collection, including pieces by Dorothy Hood, Mildred Thompson, Lamar Dodd, Robert McCall, and others. Poems guide visitors through themes of wonder, science, mythology, and space exploration, with several works on view for the first time.

Cincinnati Art Museum Exhibit Explores the Artistry of Iconic Satire Publication MAD Magazine

The Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM) has opened "What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine," an exhibition exploring the seven-decade history and artistic impact of the iconic satirical publication. Originating from the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, the show features over 150 pieces, including original artwork from MAD artists, process drawings, and a spoof of Norman Rockwell's "Triple Self-Portrait" by Richard Williams placed alongside the original. The exhibition, curated by Stephanie Haboush Plunkett and Steve Brodner, runs through March 1 and was brought to CAM after director Cameron Kitchin visited the Rockwell Museum. Emily Agricola Holtrop, CAM's director of learning & interpretation, served as onsite curator.

The best art exhibitions in Europe in 2026

A major exhibition tracing the evolution of the European art market from Greco-Roman antiquity to the 19th century is on view, featuring loans from institutions such as the Rubenshuis and the Princely Collections of Liechtenstein, including works by Titian, Rembrandt, Klimt, and Monet. Additionally, a show by Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos at PM23 presents her monumental, participatory fabric sculpture *Valkyrie Venus*, created with over 200 contributors from Lisbon and Rome. A dedicated Cézanne exhibition at Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland highlights the artist's posthumous reputation, with early collectors like Rudolf Staechelin and Oskar Reinhart. Other notable exhibitions across Europe include Brancusi in Berlin, Brassaï in Stockholm, Canaletto and Bellotto in Vienna, and Hammershøi in Madrid.

An expert’s guide to the Gothic: five must-read books on the topic

Annabelle Ténèze, director of the Louvre-Lens, recommends five recently published books that explore the Gothic period and its enduring influence. The books range from the official history of Notre-Dame's restoration after the 2019 fire to an anthology linking Gothic aesthetics to contemporary art, a catalogue for the 'Gothic Modern' exhibition at Vienna's Albertina Museum, a study of 19th-century medieval forgeries tied to the Musée de Cluny, and a Batman comic set in Barcelona's Gothic architecture. These recommendations accompany the Louvre-Lens exhibition 'Gothicisms,' which argues that Gothic art never truly disappeared.

Remembering Erik Bulatov, the Soviet artist who reframed propaganda

Erik Bulatov, the Soviet-born artist known for overlaying Communist Party slogans onto luminous landscapes, died in Paris on 9 November. A key figure in the underground art movement of the 1970s and 80s, he was part of the Sretensky Group alongside Ilya Kabakov and others, navigating state censorship by illustrating children's books. His most famous work, *Glory to the CPSU* (1975), sold for $2.1m in 2008, and in 2025 he was ranked the most expensive living Russian artist by The Art Newspaper Russia.

How much should art cost? The pitfalls and paradoxes of pricing works

The article examines the current state of the art market, which is in its third consecutive year of contraction. It traces how low interest rates fueled speculative price inflation, leading to a boom in ultra-contemporary art that has now burst, with collectors shifting toward Old Masters. Dealers like Larry Gagosian are now advocating for lowering primary market prices, while private sales stall due to sellers' 'anchoring' to peak valuations. The piece highlights the disconnect between high prices and long-term value, using examples such as auction records being manipulated (e.g., Patrick Drahi's anonymous bidding on a Francis Bacon triptych) and the reality that most artworks in even celebrated collections depreciate.

The eight hotly awaited art-venue openings we are most looking forward to in 2026

The article previews eight major art-venue openings expected in 2026, including the long-awaited Guggenheim Abu Dhabi on Saadiyat Island, Cardiff's first contemporary art museum (AMOCA), the V&A East Museum in London, the revived Palais de Danse studio of Barbara Hepworth in St Ives, and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles. It also notes the uncertain status of the Museum of West African Art in Benin City amid political disputes. These projects range from vast new museums and subterranean expansions to restored artist studios, many delayed by funding, planning, or construction challenges.

New York City Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Exhibition Now on View at The Met

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the nonprofit Alliance for Young Artists & Writers have opened the seventh annual Scholastic Art & Writing Awards: New York City Regional Exhibition at The Met’s Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center for Education. Running through May 21, 2021, the free exhibition features over 200 works of art and writing by New York City-based Gold Key recipients in grades 7–12, selected from more than 10,000 submissions across 28 categories. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the works are displayed as framed prints to ensure equitable access.

3 national art exhibits draw on Tweed collection

Three major U.S. museums—the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, and the Denver Art Museum—are simultaneously exhibiting works loaned from the Tweed Museum of Art at the University of Minnesota Duluth. The loans include pieces by Ojibwe artist George Morrison (1919-2000) for "The Magical City: George Morrison's New York" at the Met; works by Sičáŋǧu Lakota artist Dyani White Hawk for "Dyani White Hawk: Love Language" at the Walker; and a work by Andrea Carlson for "Andrea Carlson: A Constant Sky" at the Denver Art Museum. Tweed director Julie Delliquanti and Duluth Art Institute executive director Christina Woods highlight the significance of sharing the Tweed's collection with national audiences.

10 New York Museum Shows Worth Slowing Down for Over the Holidays

Late December offers a rare slowdown in New York's commercial art world, with most galleries closing around December 20, but museums remaining open. This creates an opportunity for visitors to spend quality time with exhibitions that often get lost in the city's relentless cultural calendar. The article highlights ten must-see museum shows in New York City, including "Wifredo Lam: When I Don't Sleep, I Dream" at MoMA—the first major U.S. survey of the Cuban artist's surreal, decolonial paintings—and "Anish Kapoor: Early Works" at the Jewish Museum, showcasing his pigment sculptures and Vantablack works.

'Savannah Figurative' exhibit to showcase process studies of eight artists

Arts Southeast has named Isaac McCaslin as its 2025 Incubator Artist, providing him with a studio, exhibition opportunities, and mentorship. In response to the lack of affordable live-model drawing in Savannah, McCaslin founded the Savannah Open Model Sessions. An upcoming exhibition, "Savannah Figurative," opening January 9, 2026, at Cute Tomatoes Gallery, will showcase completed works and process studies by eight artists, including McCaslin, Phil Musen, and Astoria Jellett, highlighting the importance of figure study in their practices.

wes anderson rebuilds joseph cornell's legendary studio inside gagosian paris

Wes Anderson has recreated Joseph Cornell's legendary studio inside Gagosian Paris for an exhibition titled 'The House on Utopia Parkway: Joseph Cornell’s Studio Re-Created by Wes Anderson.' The show, curated by Jasper Sharp and running from December 16, 2025, to March 14, 2026, reconstructs the artist's basement workspace in Queens, New York, complete with over three hundred objects from Cornell's own collection, alongside iconic box constructions such as 'Pharmacy' (1943) and 'A Dressing Room for Gille' (1939). Exhibition design is by Cécile Degos.

Malba acquires collection of more than 1,200 Latin American works

The Argentine real-estate developer and collector Eduardo F. Costantini has acquired the entire Daros Latinamerica Collection, adding 1,233 works by 117 artists to his Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Malba). Previously housed in Zurich, the collection includes key pieces by artists such as Ana Mendieta, Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Clark, and Cildo Meireles. The acquisition brings 75 new artists to Malba's holdings, including Doris Salcedo and Jesús Rafael Soto, and strengthens existing ones like Guillermo Kuitca and León Ferrari. Plans for a museum expansion to accommodate the works are already underway.

McNay Art Museum’s new exhibition celebrates parks, plazas and the joy of being together

The McNay Art Museum in San Antonio has opened a new exhibition titled “Ferias, Parques y Plazas: A Celebration of Public Space,” running from January 8 to April 12, 2026. Featuring over 15 works, the show highlights how parks, plazas, and markets bring people together through art and culture, with pieces by Diego Rivera, Elizabeth Catlett, Howard Cook, and local San Antonio artist Adriana M. Garcia.

MoMA explores how African studio portraits offered a new vision of freedom

The Museum of Modern Art in New York has opened a new exhibition, 'Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination,' surveying West and Central African studio portrait photography from the 1950s and 60s. The show features works by photographers including James Barnor, Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé, Jean Depara, Sanlé Sory, Kwame Brathwaite, Samuel Fosso, Silvia Rosi, and the collective Air Afrique, alongside a reading room exploring print culture. Curated by Oluremi C. Onabanjo, the exhibition presents these portraits not as documentary records but as imaginative acts of self-definition and political expression.

Cleveland Museum of Art unveils exhibition schedule for 2026

The Cleveland Museum of Art has announced its full 2026 exhibition schedule, featuring four major shows: 'Manet & Morisot,' the first major exhibition dedicated to the artistic exchange between Édouard Manet and Berthe Morisot; 'Nexus,' showcasing works by American sculptor Martin Puryear; 'Spectacular Freedom,' exploring Andrew Wyeth's watercolors with over 100 works from his estate, most never before exhibited; and a Goryeo dynasty exhibition in partnership with the National Museum of Korea, centered on the reunification of ten 14th-century hanging scrolls depicting the 10 Kings of Hell. Additional exhibitions include 'still/emerging: Native American Works on Paper,' 'Epic of the Northwest Himalayas' featuring Pahari Ramayana paintings, and a photography show contextualizing Manet and Morisot's era.

Review: Shows on view at Akron Art Museum reveal creative soul of a 200-year-old city

The Akron Art Museum is hosting a series of exhibitions that explore the identity and creative spirit of Akron, Ohio, as the city celebrates its 2025 bicentennial. The centerpiece is a large-scale retrospective of Alfred McMoore (1950-2009), a self-trained outsider artist from Akron who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent much of his life in psychiatric institutions. McMoore created massive pencil and crayon drawings focused on funerals and death rituals, and his work attracted a circle of supporters including the late antiques dealer Chuck Auerbach and journalist Jim Carney, whose sons Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney later founded the Grammy-winning band The Black Keys, named after McMoore's cryptic phrase.

New York Galleries: Openings and Closings of the Week (12/15—12/21)

Noah Davis's exhibition

The Philadelphia Museum of Art announces a landmark survey of the late American artist Noah Davis (1983–2015), bringing together over 60 works across painting, sculpture, works on paper, and curating. The exhibition marks the final stop of an international tour organized with DAS MINSK in Potsdam, the Barbican in London, and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Highlights include "40 acres and a unicorn" (2007), "Isis" (2009), "Savage wilds" (2012), and the "Pueblo del rio" series (2014). Curated by Eleanor Nairne and Wells Fray-Smith, the show is accompanied by a catalog co-published by Prestel with contributions from Tina M. Campt, Claudia Rankine, and others.

Frank Gehry remembered, Serpentine and FLAG Art Foundation prize, Joan Semmel—podcast

Ben Luke hosts an episode of The Art Newspaper's podcast 'The Week in Art' covering three major stories. First, architect Frank Gehry, known for the Guggenheim Bilbao and Fondation Louis Vuitton, died at age 96; Luke discusses his legacy with architecture critic and Gehry biographer Paul Goldberger. Second, London's Serpentine and New York's FLAG Art Foundation announced a new £1 million prize for artists, awarding £200,000 each to five recipients over ten years—the largest contemporary art prize in the UK for a single artist. Third, the episode features Joan Semmel's painting 'Sunlight' (1978), which is part of a new exhibition at the Jewish Museum in New York, with curator Rebecca Shaykin.

Cosmos: The Art of Observing Space Art and Science Symposium

A symposium titled "Cosmos: The Art of Observing Space Art and Science Symposium" will take place at the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) headquarters in Burlington House, London, celebrating the major exhibition "Cosmos: The Art of Observing Space" at the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) in Bristol (24 January–19 April 2026). Curated by visual artist Ione Parkin RWA, the exhibition features over 30 contemporary artists alongside loan items from public collections, all inspired by astronomy, cosmology, astrophysics, and space exploration. The symposium includes talks by astronomers, archivists, and exhibiting artists, with a catalogue published by Sansom & Company featuring contributions from Professor Chris Lintott, Professor Amaury Triaud, Dr Sian Prosser, and Ione Parkin RWA.

12 exhibitions to see in France over the Christmas holidays

Numéro magazine presents a curated guide to 12 contemporary art exhibitions across France during the 2025 Christmas holidays. Featured artists include Josèfa Ntjam at the IAC Villeurbanne, Alison Knowles (posthumous retrospective) at MAMC+ Saint-Étienne, Korakrit Arunanondchai at the Consortium in Dijon, Sylvie Fleury at Mrac Occitanie in Sérignan, and Clément Cogitore at Mucem in Marseille, among others. The article provides details on dates, locations, and thematic highlights for each show.

Renovated Whitsell Auditorium reopens as a destination for PAM CUT programming in film, new media, and visual storytelling

The renovated Whitsell Auditorium at the Portland Art Museum will reopen on January 10, 2026, as PAM CUT @ The Whitsell, marking the final phase of the museum's $116 million campus transformation. The 293-seat auditorium features upgraded seating, cinema projection, sound, and streaming capabilities, and is paired with the new Blair Family Gallery, which opens with Marco Brambilla's exhibition "Maximalist Dreamscapes." The space will host weekly screenings curated by Amy Dotson and Joanna Sokolowski, with guest curators including Carrie Brownstein and Lance Bangs, and partnerships with Criterion.

Collection of 61 Matisse works—mostly portraying his daughter Marguerite—donated to Paris museum

Barbara Dauphin Duthuit, the wife of Henri Matisse’s late grandson Claude Duthuit, has donated 61 works by Matisse to the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris. The donation includes seven paintings, one sculpture, 28 drawings, and eight etchings, most of which depict Matisse’s eldest daughter Marguerite. Many of the works were featured earlier this year in the museum’s exhibition *Matisse and Marguerite: Through Her Father’s Eyes*. The pieces span the first half of the 20th century, from early childhood portraits to moving works created in 1945 after Marguerite survived deportation for her role in the French Resistance.

Crocker’s new leader secures famous art for Sacramento: ‘Everyone’s looking for Frida’

Agustín Arteaga has become the new CEO of the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, taking over the role on July 1 after a global career leading museums in Mexico, Argentina, and Texas. In a major early achievement, he secured Frida Kahlo's 1947 painting "Self-Portrait with Loose Hair" for the museum's exhibition "Making Moves: A Collection of Feminisms"—the first time a Kahlo original has ever been displayed at the Crocker. The painting is on loan from a private collection through May 3, 2026, and has drawn record crowds to the museum.