Jack White, the musician best known as the frontman of The White Stripes, has begun showing his visual art, which he has been creating since his teenage years. The article offers a glimpse into his vibrant, technicolour artistic practice, marking his debut as a visual artist in the public eye.
The 2026 Met Gala, held on May 4 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, featured a dress code titled 'Costume Art' that explicitly frames fashion as an embodied art form. Celebrities including Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, and Venus Williams ascended the museum's steps wearing archival fashion pieces and custom creations, with references to artistic collaborations such as Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dalí's lobster dress, Yves Saint Laurent's Mondrian-inspired designs, and Marc Jacobs' work with Takashi Murakami. The event raises funds for the museum's Costume Institute, whose spring exhibition 'Costume Art' examines the centrality of the dressed body.
The Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis is marking its 25th anniversary with the exhibition 'Dialogues & Conversations,' organized by its founder and chair, Emily Rauh Pulitzer. The show features over 85 works by more than 30 artists, including Edgar Degas, Willem de Kooning, and David Hammons, drawn from Pulitzer's personal collection, institutional loans, and works featured in past Pulitzer exhibitions.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is set to open the Condé M. Nast Galleries, a new permanent home for the Costume Institute located in prime real estate adjacent to the Great Hall. The inaugural exhibition, "Costume Art," will integrate fashion with artworks from 19 of the museum’s collecting areas, featuring pieces by designers like Tory Burch and Michael Kors alongside works by artists such as Jean Arp. This move transitions the Costume Institute from its traditional basement location to the center of the museum's physical and narrative layout.
Christie’s has announced its first-ever auction dedicated to the intersection of anime, manga, and traditional Japanese art. Titled "Anime Starts Here: Japanese Subculture Imagines Tradition," the online sale will debut during Asia Week New York in March, featuring a curated selection that ranges from 19th-century Katsushika Hokusai woodblock prints to original production drawings from iconic series like Sailor Moon and Doraemon. Key highlights include a rare 1953 drawing by the "God of Manga" Tezuka Osamu and a print of Hokusai’s legendary "The Great Wave."
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is preparing to open its new David Geffen Galleries in April, marking a major milestone in a two-decade transformation led by CEO and director Michael Govan. The opening coincides with the 20th anniversary of Govan's hiring and features Jeff Koons's outdoor sculpture 'Split-Rocker' as an anchor piece.
Art Basel is launching a new fair in Qatar, marking its first foray into the Middle East. This expansion occurs within a landscape already heavily shaped by decades of strategic, state-led cultural investment spearheaded by Qatar Museums and its chairperson, Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani.
The Pulitzer Arts Foundation is celebrating its 25th anniversary with the exhibition "Dialogues & Conversations," which explores artistic exchange through the lens of curator and collector Emily Rauh Pulitzer. Featuring over 35 artists—including Edgar Degas, Willem de Kooning, Dan Flavin, Alberto Giacometti, David Hammons, Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Bruce Nauman, Medardo Rosso, and Doris Salcedo—the show presents around 90 works spanning the late 19th century to the present. These pieces come from Mrs. Pulitzer's personal collection, assembled with her late husband Joseph Pulitzer Jr., as well as from her curatorial work at Harvard Art Museums and Saint Louis Art Museum, and loans from The Museum of Modern Art and private lenders.
British artist David Hockney has publicly criticized plans to loan the Bayeux Tapestry from France to the British Museum in London, calling the move “madness.” Writing in The Independent, Hockney argues that the 11th-century embroidery, which depicts the Norman invasion of England, could be damaged during transport across the English Channel, citing risks to its aged linen backing and wool threads. The tapestry is set to be displayed at the British Museum’s Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery from September 2026 to July 2027 while its home in Normandy undergoes renovations. In response, British Museum director Nicholas Cullinan defended the loan, citing the museum’s expertise in handling ancient artifacts. The UK Treasury will insure the tapestry for an estimated £800 million, and in exchange, British treasures including the Lewis chessmen and Sutton Hoo helmet will travel to Normandy.
Tokyo's museums have announced their 2026 exhibition schedules, featuring a diverse lineup of international and domestic shows. Highlights include 'YBA & Beyond: British Art in the 90s from the Tate Collection' at the National Art Center, a major retrospective of Hajime Sorayama at the Creative Museum Tokyo, and a solo exhibition of Lithuanian artist M. K. Čiurlionis, alongside shows by Picasso, Ron Mueck, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Minami Tada.
The Flemish ministry of culture has ordered the closure of M HKA, the museum of contemporary art in Antwerp, Belgium, and the transfer of its collection to S.M.A.K. in Ghent. A planned €130m new building for M HKA, ready to break ground, has been cancelled. In response, artists and cultural workers have launched a "Museum at Risk" campaign, occupying the museum's entrance and pressuring city councillors, while international artists like Emilia Kabakov and the estate of Christian Boltanski are demanding the return of their works.
Art Basel Paris is underway, and this article highlights 17 must-see museum shows across the city. Key exhibitions include a joint tribute to Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, and Pontus Hultén at the Grand Palais; a Rick Owens fashion retrospective at Palais Galliera; the first French monographic show of John Singer Sargent at the Musée d'Orsay, featuring his scandalous 'Portrait of Madame X'; a Bridget Riley exhibition exploring her debt to Georges Seurat; a Minimalism survey at the Bourse de Commerce; and a major Jacques-Louis David retrospective at the Louvre marking the bicentenary of his death.
Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) has announced the artists for its first juried crop art exhibition, "Cream of the Crop," opening September 6, 2025. The exhibition features winners and honorable mentions selected from crop art entries at the Minnesota State Fair. Jeanne Morales won best interpretation of a Minnesota landmark, story or tradition with "My Chagall Dream," while Amy and Steve Saupe won best interpretation of an artwork at Mia with "The Treachery of a Pronto Pup." The selections were made by Mia director Katie Luber, associate curator Galina Olmsted, and associate curator Leslie Ureña. Honorable mentions include works by Jill Osiecki, Jill Moe, Amanda Cashman, and Ursula Murray Husted.
Allen Rosenbaum, the former director of the Princeton University Art Museum who led the institution from 1980 to 1999, died on August 3, 2025, at Calvary Hospital in New York City at age 88. Rosenbaum joined Princeton in 1974 as assistant director under Peter Bunnell, and during his 25-year tenure as director, he significantly expanded the museum's collections, adding major works such as Giulio Cesare Procaccini's "The Martyrdom of Saint Justina," Pinturicchio's "Saint Bartholomew," and Pietro da Cortona's "Saint Martina Refuses to Adore the Idols." He also oversaw the 1989 opening of the Mitchell Wolfson Jr. Wing, which added 27,000 square feet of exhibition space.
The legendary Surrealist collection of the late Pauline Karpidas, a renowned art patron and collector, will be auctioned at Sotheby's London in September 2025. The sale spans approximately 250 lots from her eccentric London home, featuring masterworks by René Magritte, Leonora Carrington, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, and Les Lalannes. The collection is expected to fetch over £60 million ($81 million), the highest estimate ever placed on a single collection at Sotheby's Europe. Highlights include Magritte's 'La Statue volante' (1940–41), estimated at £9–12 million, and works acquired directly from the estates of Surrealist figures like André Breton and Paul Éluard.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced its MetLiveArts fall and winter 2025–26 season, featuring world premiere performances and commissions created specifically for the museum's galleries, as well as concerts in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. The season highlights a significant number of new works by female artists, including composers and musicians Gabriela Ortiz, Wu Man, Hanzhi Wang, Emily Wells, Layale Chaker, and Leilehua Lanzilotti. Performances will draw inspiration from the Met's collection and special exhibitions like 'Man Ray: When Objects Dream,' with events beginning September 9, 2025, featuring Wu Man and The Knights. The season also includes the JACK Quartet as the museum's 2025–26 Quartet in Residence and the appointment of Sarah Jones as Head of Live Arts.
Marina Abramović and Peter Doig have been awarded the 2025 Praemium Imperiale prizes for sculpture and painting, respectively, each receiving a 15 million yen (£77,000) honorarium. The awards, presented by the Japan Art Association under honorary patron Prince Hitachi, also recognized Belgian filmmaker Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (theatre/film), Hungarian pianist András Schiff (music), and Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto De Moura (architecture). The National Youth Theatre received the 2025 Grant for Young Artists.
The Cleveland Museum of Art has opened a sprawling retrospective exhibition of Takashi Murakami, one of Japan's leading contemporary artists, showcasing his signature "Superflat" style that blends fine art with pop culture. The show features vast wallpaper designs, sculptures with plastic-like smoothness, and immense mural-sized paintings that combine cartoon characters, acid-hued colors, and traditional Japanese ink-and-brush techniques. The exhibition runs through September 7 and costs $30 for adult non-member tickets.
The National Gallery in London, home to over 2,300 paintings spanning Western European art from Giotto to Cézanne and including early modernism by Picasso, has recently completed a comprehensive rehang of its collection at its Trafalgar Square site. This coincides with the reopening of the Sainsbury Wing after a two-year renovation. The article highlights ten essential works to see, including Jan van Eyck's *The Arnolfini Portrait* (1434), Leonardo da Vinci's *The Burlington House Cartoon* (around 1506-08), and Paolo Veronese's *The Adoration of the Kings* (1573), emphasizing the gallery's free admission and its role as a cultural treasure.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma) has acquired Jeff Koons's monumental floral sculpture *Split-Rocker* (2000), a 37-foot-tall work featuring two halves of children's rocking toys embedded with over 50,000 flowering plants. Donated by collectors Lynda and Stewart Resnick through their foundation, the sculpture will be installed outdoors later this year, ahead of the museum's $715 million David Geffen Galleries opening in 2025. The work has previously been displayed at the Palais des Papes in Avignon, Château de Versailles, Fondation Beyeler, Glenstone, and Rockefeller Center.
Art Basel has announced the launch of Art Basel Qatar, a new international art fair set to debut in Doha. The fair will be held under the patronage of Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, chairperson of Qatar Museums, and is expected to bring together leading galleries from around the world. The announcement marks a significant expansion of the Art Basel brand into the Middle East, following its existing fairs in Basel, Miami Beach, Hong Kong, and Paris.
The Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery in London has reopened after a three-year refurbishment, inaugurated by King Charles III and Queen Camilla. The wing now serves as the main entrance, featuring large windows that flood the foyer with natural light, a high-tech screen showcasing masterpieces, and a rehang of the collection that groups early Renaissance and early Christian art together in rooms 51-66. Notable highlights include Sir Richard Long's 'Mud Sun', Paula Rego's 'Crivelli's Garden', a new unsigned Netherlandish altarpiece, and the temporary display of the Coronation portraits of the King and Queen until June 5th.
CBS News Sunday Morning anchor Jane Pauley previews major museum exhibitions opening in summer 2025. The article highlights Amy Sherald's mid-career survey "American Sublime" at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, featuring her iconic portrait of Michelle Obama and exploring her signature grisaille technique and confident Black subjects. Other featured shows include "Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits" at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; "Monet's Floating Worlds at Giverny" at the Portland Art Museum; "KAWS: FAMILY" at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville; and "Jeffrey Gibson: the space in which to place me" at The Broad in Los Angeles.
A new auction record has been set, with a significant artwork selling for a high price at a major auction house. The sale took place recently, drawing attention from collectors and the art market.
CULTURED magazine hosted its second annual CULT100 party at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, in exclusive partnership with Valentino and Valentino Beauty. The event celebrated the magazine's spring issue, a 400-page edition honoring 100 luminaries and rising talents across food, film, art, fashion, and more. Guests including Keke Palmer, Lena Dunham, Naomi Watts, Adam Scott, and Anne Imhof gathered in the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed rotunda for cocktails, a Valentino Beauty lounge, and a program that coincided with artist Carol Bove's ongoing museum survey exhibition at the Guggenheim.
El Greco Painting Found Hidden Beneath a Forgery in the Vatican
A painting by El Greco, titled 'The Redeemer' (c. 1590–95), was discovered in the Vatican after restorers removed a later forgery that had been painted over it. Scientific analysis confirmed the authenticity of the original work, which had been donated in 1967 and hung in the Apostolic Palace without prior study. The restored painting is now part of a two-work exhibition at the Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo.
Artist Alejandro Valencia's MFA thesis installation at Columbia University, titled "DYNAMO (RATM01)" (2026), confronts the institution's response to the Gaza genocide. The multipart work, on view at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, includes a keffiyeh worn by fellow student Ridwana Rahman—who was banned from campus and denied her MFA degree after a protest—along with sundials, pencils, and a broken microphone referencing Palestinian scholar Edward Said. The piece critiques Columbia's crackdown on pro-Palestinian student activism and the suppression of dissenting voices.
The Korean Cultural Center New York (KCCNY) presents the major exhibition "Lee Kang So: A Field of Becoming," on view from May 13 to June 20, 2026. The show features the work of pioneering Korean contemporary artist Lee Kang So (b. 1943), who since the 1970s has worked across photography, painting, sculpture, installation, and performance, resisting fixed forms to explore how art emerges through process, material, and context. The exhibition includes key works from his 1970s performances and installations, as well as later sculptures and paintings that foreground gravity, chance, and bodily gesture. Lee, who was active in New York in the 1980s and participated in MoMA PS1's Studio Artist Program, returns to the city with this exhibition at KCCNY's expanded venue.
Le Louvre has selected a joint proposal by Studios Architecture Paris and Selldorf Architects for its new entrance via the Perrault colonnade, part of the 'Louvre Nouvelle Renaissance' plan. The project, announced by Emmanuel Macron on January 28, 2025, aims to create a new eastern access to relieve overcrowding at the Pyramid, with two underground entrances, vegetated moats, new services, and a dedicated space for the Mona Lisa. The selection was announced by Culture Minister Catherine Pégard on May 18, despite controversies over funding, heritage constraints, a theft in the Galerie d'Apollon on October 19, 2025, and the departure of museum president Laurence des Cars.
L’artiste Fabien Verschaere, auteur de joyeux capharnaüms, s’est éteint à l’âge de 50 ans
The French contemporary artist Fabien Verschaere has passed away suddenly at the age of 50. Known for his dense, colorful, and highly personal visual language, Verschaere was scheduled to receive the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres distinction just days after his death. His work, which drew heavily from childhood imagery and his own experiences with chronic illness, created a bridge between dreams and nightmares through a cast of recurring characters like ghosts, superheroes, and hybrid creatures.