The Victoria & Albert Museum has launched the V&A Storehouse in East London, a massive open-storage facility housing over 250,000 objects, 1,000 archives, and a vast library. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Austin-Smith:Lord, the space eschews traditional curated narratives in favor of a dense, immersive environment where visitors navigate four stories of artifacts arranged by cataloging logic rather than art-historical themes.
New historical evidence suggests that Vincent van Gogh’s iconic 'Yellow House' in Arles underwent a dramatic color change before its destruction. While Van Gogh famously painted and cherished the building for its yellow facade in 1888, two recently highlighted paintings from the late 1930s by artists Willy Guggenheim (Varlin) and George Tomaziu depict the structure with a blue exterior. This discovery, brought to light by Ukrainian artist Yuri Pikul, indicates the building had been repainted while serving as a café-bar called the Civette Arlésienne.
The eighth edition of the Felix Art Fair returned to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in February 2026, featuring 57 galleries with a significant emphasis on Los Angeles-based talent. The fair maintained its signature intimate atmosphere, utilizing hotel rooms, cabanas, and the iconic David Hockney-designed pool area to showcase a diverse range of contemporary works. This year's iteration saw a high influx of new participants, with over 20 galleries making their debut at the event.
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has launched a new exhibition titled "Yellow: Beyond Van Gogh’s Colour," running until May 17. The show explores Vincent van Gogh’s profound obsession with the color yellow, featuring eight of his works alongside pieces by contemporaries like Paul Gauguin and Aubrey Beardsley. It highlights Van Gogh's technical use of chrome yellow pigments to capture the "high yellow note" of the Provencal sun and the symbolic association of the color with modernity and life-giving energy.
Newly released documents from the Jeffrey Epstein case reveal that billionaire investor and former Museum of Modern Art chairman Leon Black was a major private collector of works by Vincent van Gogh. The files detail his ownership of at least five significant Van Gogh pieces, including the painting 'Quarry near Saint-Rémy' and the drawing 'Garden with Flowers,' with a combined value exceeding $95 million by 2016.
Conservators at Rotterdam's Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum have discovered that Vincent van Gogh's painting *Poplars near Nuenen* (1885) conceals two earlier compositions: a moonlit view of a church tower and graveyard from July 1884, and a subsequent reworking in Paris in late 1886 that brightened the autumnal landscape. X-ray imaging revealed the original church scene, which Van Gogh painted over after his father's death. The final version, now restored after four years of conservation, goes on display on 7 February.
A roundup of current and upcoming exhibitions at San Francisco museums in January 2026 highlights several shows closing soon, including "Manet and Morisot" at the Legion of Honor and "Suzanne Jackson: What is Love" at SFMOMA, both ending March 1. New exhibitions opening include "The art of Cece Carpio" at SOMArts on Jan. 30, and "Trina Michelle Robinson: Open Your Eyes to Water" at 500 Capp Street and Root Division in February. The de Young Museum features "Boom and Bust: Photographing Northern California" and artist Rose B. Simpson's show "LEXICON," part of the newly opened galleries dedicated to Arts of Indigenous America. The Museum of the African Diaspora presents "Unbound: Art, Blackness and the Universe" and "Continuum: MoAD Over Time," while the Asian Art Museum hosts "Jitish Kallat: Covering Letter (Terranum Nuncius)."
The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) has set a new attendance record with its current exhibition, 'Amy Sherald: American Sublime,' which has drawn 52,597 visitors since opening on November 2. The previous record was held by the 'Matisse/Diebenkorn' show in 2016-2017 with about 45,700 visitors. The exhibition, a mid-career survey of Sherald's work, runs through April 5 and is projected to reach 70,000 attendees. It originated at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art before arriving in Baltimore, after Sherald canceled its planned stop at the National Portrait Gallery due to censorship concerns.
After a turbulent start marked by gallery closures and market contraction, the art market in 2025 rebounded decisively, driven by a secondary-market surge in high-quality consignments. Major auction houses reported strong year-end results: Sotheby's projects $7 billion in consolidated sales (up 17%), Christie's expects $6.2 billion (up 7%), and Phillips reported $927 million (up 10%). Key sales included the $272 million Leonard & Louise Riggio collection at Christie's, the $527.5 million Lauder collection at Sotheby's (led by a $236.4 million Gustav Klimt), and the $136 million Karpidas sales. The year began quietly but gained momentum after summer, with deep bidding and strategic pricing driving a 26% increase in Sotheby's auction revenue and an 11% overall rise in fine art sales across Old Masters, Impressionist, Modern, Post-War and Contemporary categories.
The art market experienced a turbulent 2025, beginning with a 12% decline in sales from 2024, following a 3% drop in 2023, as reported by the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report. Major auction houses Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips saw average sales fall 6% in the first half of the year. However, the market rebounded by autumn, with strong sales at London and Paris art fairs and a 15% year-on-year increase in auction sales at the three main houses by December, according to Pi-eX. Key events included Sotheby’s failed sale of Alberto Giacometti’s *Grand tête mince* in May, followed by a record-breaking $236 million sale of Gustav Klimt’s *Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer* in November, and a $31.4 million record for François-Xavier Lalanne’s *Hippopotame Bar*.
Irving Stone's 1934 novel *Lust for Life*, a fictionalized biography of Vincent van Gogh, was published as an Armed Services Edition during World War II for U.S. soldiers. These pocket-sized books, measuring 11cm by 17cm, were designed to fit in uniform pockets and withstand harsh conditions. Over 123 million copies of various titles were printed from 1943 to 1947, with distribution including parachute drops to troops on Pacific islands and handouts to soldiers before the Normandy Landings. The surviving copies are scarce and often damaged, with browned pages and covers marked as U.S. government property, not to be resold.
Hong Kong is hosting a vibrant array of must-see art exhibitions in December 2025, as highlighted in a curated guide. Key shows include 'Zao Wou-Ki: Master Printmaker' at M+, focusing on the artist's lithograph prints; 'Violet Veil' by Laura Zhang at The Extension, featuring meditative violet-hued works; 'Guan Yu vs. Wilson Shieh' at JPS Gallery, blending traditional gongbi painting with AI technology; and 'The Villepin House' at Villepin, celebrating the gallery's fifth anniversary with works by Zao Wou-Ki and Myo.
Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB) saw strong sales and a cautiously optimistic mood, with Pace gallery reporting nearly $5 million in sales including a $1.1 million Sam Gilliam painting. The fair debuted a new digital art section, Zero 10, where a Beeple installation of robotic dogs excreting NFTs sold out within five hours for $1 million total, and generative art from Larva Labs sold for up to $45,000 each. However, the opening day crowd was thinner than in past years, and about 20 galleries did not return, replaced by a record 48 new exhibitors. Dealers noted a slower, quieter pace, with buyers more cautious than during the indulgent pre-pandemic era.
A researcher at the Van Gogh Museum, Joost van der Hoeven, has revealed that Paul Gauguin's erotic ceramic, the Cleopatra Pot (winter 1887-88), was used as a flower vase by Vincent van Gogh's family. Gauguin brought the pot to Arles when he stayed with Van Gogh in 1888, and after Van Gogh's ear incident, Gauguin gave the pot to Vincent's brother Theo as a gift. The pot later remained with Theo's widow, Jo Bonger, and a photograph from 1925-26 shows it on her piano holding flowers, surrounded by still-life paintings.
This article highlights ten art shows to see in Los Angeles this November, featuring a diverse range of exhibitions. Key shows include Kathleen Ryan's bejeweled rotten fruit, Puppies Puppies's homage to freedom flags, and TJ Shin's bird songs. Historical perspectives are offered through a survey of prints by Robert Rauschenberg at Gemini G.E.L., rarely seen works by Mexican muralist Alfredo Ramos Martínez at Scripps College, and a tribute to the Brockman Gallery at the Vincent Price Art Museum. The two-venue exhibition 'Monuments' investigates how art reflects national narratives, while Puppies Puppies's dual shows use color and text to address contemporary liberation struggles.
Paris is hosting a busy week of art fairs, headlined by Art Basel Paris returning to the Grand Palais from October 24–26, 2025, under outgoing director Clément Delépine. The fair features 206 galleries across three sections, public programs at nine iconic venues including an inflatable Kermit the Frog by Alex Da Corte and a participatory installation by Harry Nuriev, and a talks series hosted by Edward Enninful. Satellite fairs include Design Miami Paris at L’Hôtel de Maisons, the dealer-run 7 Rue Froissart co-founded by Brigitte Mulholland and Sara Maria Salamone, and others like Paris Internationale and Asia Now.
The article examines the growing threat of censorship in the visual arts, focusing on two key incidents. In the US, the Trump administration pressured the Smithsonian Institution to review its holdings for content that contradicts "American exceptionalism," leading artist Amy Sherald to withdraw her entire solo exhibition from the National Portrait Gallery after the museum considered removing her painting *Trans Forming Liberty* (2024), which depicts a transgender person as the Statue of Liberty. Meanwhile, in France, Dutch street artist Judith de Leeuw unveiled a monumental mural in Roubaix showing the Statue of Liberty covering its eyes in shame, protesting global migrant injustice, which went viral online.
This article highlights eight museum exhibitions scheduled for fall 2025 that focus on historically overlooked women artists. Featured shows include "Nancy Elizabeth Prophet: I Will Not Bend an Inch" at Spelman College, "Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within" at the Chazen Museum of Art, and "Edmonia Lewis: Indelible Impressions" at the Cantor Arts Center, among others. Each exhibition aims to bring renewed attention to artists who faced racial and gender barriers, such as Afro-Indigenous sculptor Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, ceramicist Toshiko Takaezu, and 19th-century sculptor Edmonia Lewis.
Chiharu Shiota is staging her first solo museum show in New York, marking a significant milestone for the Japanese artist known for her immersive thread installations. The article also provides a comprehensive rundown of recent developments across Asia's art world, including gallery expansions, new exhibitions, art fairs, and institutional news. Highlights include Mire Lee's Los Angeles solo debut at Sprüth Magers, Bluerider Art's new U.S. outpost in Manhattan Beach, and Lisson Gallery's first show with Shanghai-based artist Ding Yi in London. Art fairs such as Frieze House Seoul, Tennoz Art Week, Art Busan, Tokyo Gendai, and Art SG are also covered, alongside the relaunch of New York's Art in General under curator Xiaoyu Weng.
Tracey Emin's largest-ever exhibition, titled 'A Second Life,' will open at Tate Modern in London in February 2026, featuring over 90 works spanning 40 years. The show includes her iconic installation 'My Bed' (1998), alongside neons, sculptures, paintings, videos, and textiles, tracing her career from her first solo show at White Cube in 1993 to recent works reflecting her recovery from bladder cancer. The exhibition draws heavily on her adolescence in Margate, addressing themes of love, trauma, abortion, and personal growth through an unflinchingly confessional lens.
Adventures with Van Gogh, a weekly blog launched in 2018, has published its 300th post. To mark the milestone, the blog compiled a list of its most-read posts since the 200th edition in February 2023, updated with new information. Topics range from the ten most expensive Van Gogh paintings at auction (led by *Orchard with Cypresses* at $117m) to a geological feature near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence that appears in *The Olive Trees*, a defense of the suicide theory over murder, the real-life view behind *Starry Night over the Rhône*, Picasso’s granddaughter Marina Picasso quietly buying and selling a Van Gogh watercolour, and the artist’s preference for simple wooden frames over ornate gold ones.
The article previews ten major art exhibitions opening in September 2025, highlighting the 36th Bienal de São Paulo curated by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, which takes inspiration from estuaries and rivers and features artists like Frank Bowling and Huguette Caland. It also covers the Okayama Art Summit 2025, directed by Philippe Parreno, which reimagines the city as a site of balance between nature and construction, and Hayv Kahraman's solo show 'Ghost Fires' at Jack Shainman Gallery in New York, reflecting her experience as a refugee from the Gulf War.
The Armory Show returns to New York City's Javits Center from September 5–7, 2025, with a VIP preview on September 4. Under new director Kyla McMillan, the fair features over 230 galleries from more than 30 countries, including curated sections such as Solo, Presents, Platform (titled "My Art Is the Evidence of My Freedom," curated by Raina Lampkins-Fielder), and a new Function section exploring art and design, curated by Ebony L. Haynes. Highlights include presentations by Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, Thornton Dial from Souls Grown Deep Foundation, and a monumental sculpture by Kennedy Yanko at James Cohan.
Gagosian London will present 'Rearview Mirror: Liverpool–London–Paris' from August 28 to October 4, showcasing behind-the-scenes photographs taken by Paul McCartney between December 1963 and February 1964. The images, remastered from long-lost negatives and contact sheets, capture pivotal moments in the Beatles' early fame, including their Paris residency at the Olympia Theatre and their appearance on BBC's Juke Box Jury. The prints are signed by McCartney, available in editions of six to ten, and priced between $20,000 and $85,000. The exhibition follows a larger presentation at Gagosian Beverly Hills earlier this year.
The article explores the history and conservation of Vincent van Gogh's "The Red Vineyard," the only painting he is certain to have sold during his lifetime. Sold for 400 francs at a Brussels exhibition in March 1890, the work now resides at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. A recent conservation project used modern scientific techniques to uncover new details about the painting's creation, including Van Gogh's use of paint straight from the tube, compositional changes, and the fading of chrome yellow pigments. The article also recounts the painting's origin during Van Gogh's time in Arles with Paul Gauguin and its journey to Russia.
The article provides a roundup of current and upcoming exhibitions at San Francisco museums and galleries in July 2025. Highlights include 'People Make This Place: SFAI Stories' opening July 26 at SFMOMA, 'Jess Young: Return' at 500 Capp Street, and 'Ferlinghetti for San Francisco' at the Legion of Honor. Shows closing soon include 'Yuan Goang-Ming: Everyday War' at the Asian Art Museum and 'Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art' at the Legion of Honor. The gallery scene is covered with mentions of Voss Gallery, Incline Gallery, and Hosfelt Gallery, along with ongoing exhibitions like 'Kunié Sugiura: Photopainting' and 'Ruth Asawa: Retrospective' at SFMOMA.
This article from Mission Local provides a roundup of current and upcoming exhibitions at San Francisco museums and galleries in June 2025. Highlights include the reopening of 500 Capp Street with "Mildred Howard Collaborating with the Muses Part 2" and a forthcoming show celebrating the 50th anniversary of Ant Farm's "Media Burn." At the de Young Museum, Henri Matisse's "Jazz Unbound" closes July 6, Isaac Julien's first U.S. retrospective runs until July 13, and Paul McCartney's photography exhibition has been extended to October. SFMOMA's "Around Group f.64" closes July 13, and the Asian Art Museum features "Yuan Goang-Ming: Everyday War" through August 4. The piece also notes Ashley Voss's local gallery guide and a Q&A with Isaac Julien.
The May 2025 roundup of Black art news reports the deaths of two influential figures: international curator Koyo Kouoh and artist-curator Evangeline J. Montgomery, who died at 94. Montgomery's career spanned metalwork, fiber art, and photography, and she was a key advocate and mentor in the African American art community, later working at the U.S. Information Agency. Other highlights include historian Edda L. Fields-Black winning a Pulitzer Prize for her book on Harriet Tubman, the acquisition of Adam Pendleton's entire "Who is Queen" installation by MoMA, and Kapwani Kiwanga winning the Joan Miró Prize. The Met Gala also featured Black dandy style inspired by the Costume Institute's exhibition "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style."
Photo London's tenth edition, under new director Sophie Parker, opened at Somerset House with a deliberate shift away from its traditional focus on established male photographers and celebrity subjects like Kate Moss. The fair eliminated its 'Master of Photography' award and revived the Positions section for unrepresented artists, featuring Palestinian-American Adam Rouhana and British Indian photographer Kavi Pujara. While the main pavilion still showcased familiar names like Sebastião Salgado, newer galleries reported strong early sales, including a £10,000–£15,000 portrait by Chou Ching Hui sold to a Norwegian museum via Taipei's Chini Gallery, and multiple sales at Amsterdam's Hungry Eye Gallery and Paris's Galerie XII.
New York City is hosting an unprecedented concentration of art fairs this week, with over nine fairs running simultaneously, including Independent, Esther, and Future Fair. Independent, held at Spring Place in Tribeca, opened on May 8 and is positioning itself as a boutique, hyper-curated alternative to mega-fairs like Frieze, featuring mostly solo presentations. Early sales were reported by several galleries: Europa sold works by Suyi Xu ($9,000–$20,000), Long Story Short sold six works by Keita Morimoto (up to $26,000), Charles Moffett nearly sold out his booth of Julia Jo ($10,000–$45,000), The Approach sold four works by John Maclean ($13,500 or less), and Copperfield presented works by Ada Patterson ($8,000–$23,000).