Vasari Art Codex

rate_review review schedule Jun 24, 2025 visibility 9 link 7 artists

the mastermind film review kelly reichardt josh oconnor 1234746055

Kelly Reichardt's new film *The Mastermind*, starring Josh O'Connor as a carpenter and family man who turns art thief, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and will be released by Mubi. The film follows O'Connor's character, J.B., as he plots a heist inspired by a real 1972 robbery of the Worcester Art Museum, targeting paintings by American modernist Arthur Dove. The movie blends suspense, humor, and meticulous visual storytelling, with Reichardt drawing on the aesthetic of 1970s America and the work of photographers Stephen Shore and William Eggleston.

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article policy schedule Jun 10, 2025 visibility 3 link 1 artist

donald judd foundation marfa national historic sites 1234744801

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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article news schedule Jun 3, 2025 visibility 8 link 14 artists

isp alumni open letter whitney museum palestine performance 1234744083

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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article culture schedule May 30, 2025 visibility 4 link 1 artist

lorde man of the year new york earth room 1234743926

Lorde released a music video for her song "Man Of The Year," the second single from her upcoming album *Virgin*. The video features the singer in a room filled with dirt, which fans quickly noted resembles Walter De Maria's iconic installation *New York Earth Room*. Lorde has acknowledged the homage, describing the work as an inspiration for the song's sound and her personal rebirth. The video was not filmed in the actual installation, which is permanently housed in SoHo and managed by the Dia Art Foundation.

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article news schedule May 29, 2025 visibility 2 link 1 artist

development of rice noodle like glue for historical paintings puts art conservators fears to rest 1234743772

Art conservators faced a crisis after two key ingredients for Beva 371, a glue used to line historical canvases, were discontinued—first the resin Laropal K-80 in 2005 and then the tackifier Cellolyn 21E in 2020. Researchers from the University of Akron and New York University's Conservation Center, funded by a Getty Foundation grant, developed a new version called Beva 371 Akron. The adhesive is less toxic, less vulnerable to supply-chain issues, and available in three forms: a pre-mixed heat-seal variant, solid spaghetti-like pellets for easy transport, and a solvent-free pure adhesive.

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candle obituary schedule May 23, 2025 visibility 4 link 4 artists

sebastiao salgado photographer dead 1234743518

Sebastião Salgado, the acclaimed Brazilian photographer known for his powerful black-and-white images documenting worker exploitation, environmental destruction, and human rights abuses, has died at age 81. His death was announced by Instituto Terra, the organization he co-founded with his wife Lélia Wanick Salgado. Salgado had been in declining health since contracting malaria in the 1990s. His work spanned decades and continents, from the Sahel desert to the Amazon rainforest, and he was widely regarded as one of the most beloved photographers of his generation.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 22, 2025 visibility 2 link 2 artists

calder gardens philadelphia opening date 1234742794

Calder Gardens, a new museum in Philadelphia dedicated to Alexander Calder, has announced it will open on September 21, 2025. The institution, located on Benjamin Franklin Parkway, features a building designed by Herzog & de Meuron and a sculpture garden by Piet Oudolf, with rotating works curated by the Calder Foundation. It will be administered in partnership with the Barnes Foundation, and memberships offering unlimited admission to both institutions start at $98 annually.

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article news schedule May 13, 2025 visibility 1 link 5 artists, 1 gallery

kenneth griffin lends us constitution to the national constitution center 1234742071

Billionaire Citadel CEO and art collector Ken Griffin has announced he will lend his rare copy of the U.S. Constitution to the National Constitution Center (NCC) in Philadelphia for public display through 2026. The loan is accompanied by a $15 million gift—the largest single donation in the NCC’s history—which will fund two new galleries focused on America’s founding principles and the separation of powers, both slated to open in 2026. Griffin will also loan a first printing of the 17 proposed constitutional amendments from 1789, ten of which became the Bill of Rights. In recognition, the NCC will rename its central hall the Kenneth C. Griffin Great Hall.

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candle obituary schedule May 12, 2025 visibility 5 link 10 artists

koyo kouoh dead zeitz mocaa venice biennale 1234741860

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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museum exhibitions schedule May 12, 2025 visibility 2 link 5 artists

moma curator jodi hoptman hilma af klint botanical drawings 1234741702

MoMA has acquired a rare portfolio of 46 botanical drawings by Hilma af Klint, created between 1919 and 1920, and will present them in an exhibition titled “What Stands Behind the Flowers” from May 11 to September 27. Curator Jodi Hauptman discusses how the drawings reveal af Klint’s dual approach—traditional figuration alongside abstract diagrams—and her deep engagement with the natural world, including newly discovered evidence that she worked as a professional scientific illustrator for a mushroom specialist.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 10, 2025 visibility 3 link 23 artists

national gallery sainsburg wing reopening gabriele finaldi 1234741454

London's National Gallery has reopened its Sainsbury Wing after a three-year, $113 million renovation, timed to the museum's 200th anniversary. Director Gabriele Finaldi, who was knighted this year, oversaw the project, which was designed by architect Annabelle Selldorf and faced criticism from original architect Denise Scott Brown. The revamped wing features a light-filled foyer, 17 galleries with no prescribed route, and a rehang titled “The Wonder of Art.” The museum also acquired a mysterious painting by an unknown artist, The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret and Two Angels (1500–10), for $20 million through Sotheby's.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 8, 2025 visibility 1 link 2 artists

aia new talent event 2025 1234740932

Art in America hosted a launch event for its 2025 "New Talent" issue at PMC's headquarters in New York, bringing together 20 emerging artists and two established luminaries—Carroll Dunham and Rochelle Feinstein—for a panel discussion moderated by senior editor Emily Watlington. The conversation explored the art world's current shift from figuration to abstraction, with Dunham and Feinstein reflecting on their own careers and the evolving dynamics of painting.

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gavel restitution schedule May 7, 2025 visibility 1 link 3 artists

aic appeals return of egon schiele drawing 1234741054

The Art Institute of Chicago is appealing a New York court order to return Egon Schiele's drawing *Russian War Prisoner* (1916) to the heirs of its original owner, Fritz Grünbaum, a Jewish art collector who died in a Nazi concentration camp. The museum secured a temporary stay while it pursues the appeal, following an April ruling by Justice Althea Drysdale that found credible evidence the 1956 sale to Swiss dealer Eberhard Kornfeld was illegitimate. The drawing was seized from the museum in September 2023 and remains off view.

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article news schedule May 1, 2025 visibility 1 link 5 artists

american civil liberties union of texas artists in residence 1234740261

The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas (ACLU of Texas) has named Houston-based painter Vincent Valdez and Austin-based author KB Brookins as the recipients of its artists-in-residence program for 2025–26. Each artist will receive $30,000 to fund individual projects and will collaborate with the ACLU of Texas and community leaders to advocate for civil rights. Valdez plans to paint portraits of local community leaders and create poster packets combining Know Your Rights information with archival research for statewide distribution. Brookins will address pretrial detention in Texas jails through original compositions, workshops, and public presentations, focusing on mass incarceration issues in Harris County. The pair were selected from roughly 200 applicants following a statewide open call, succeeding artist Kill Joy, who led an immigrants' rights tour with large puppets.

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article news schedule May 5, 2026 link 5 artists

Filippo Lippi painting—once the centrepiece of Florence's Palazzo Medici Chapel—to undergo two-year restoration

The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin has announced a two-year restoration of Filippo Lippi’s 1459 painting *The Adoration in the Forest*, funded by the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung and the Schoof’schen Stiftung. The tempera-on-panel work, a centerpiece of the Palazzo Medici chapel in Florence, is now in the Gemäldegalerie’s collection. Conservators discovered that a 19th-century varnish layer is degrading the paint, causing it to lift off the panel, particularly affecting the Virgin’s blue cloak, skin, and gold leaf areas. The treatment aims to remove the varnish while stabilizing the paint layer, and may also reveal Lippi’s use of oil paint alongside egg tempera.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 5, 2026 link 7 artists

‘It’s really important that the public is not just a silent witness’: Marina Abramović on her Venice Biennale exhibition

Marina Abramović is the first living female artist to have a solo exhibition at the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, where her work will be installed alongside the museum's permanent collection. The show, titled *Transforming Energy*, features interactive 'transitory objects' such as stone beds and crystal-embedded structures that visitors are invited to use, as well as a juxtaposition of her 1983 photograph *Pietá (with Ulay)* with Titian's final masterpiece *Pietá* (1575-76). Abramović, who won the Golden Lion for Best Artist at the 1997 Venice Biennale, emphasizes audience participation over passive viewing, banning telephones and encouraging visitors to spend at least three hours engaging with the works.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 28, 2026 visibility 4 link 2 artists

Tefaf restoration award goes to 500-year-old Medici tapestry

Tefaf has awarded its Museum Restoration Fund prize to the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA) for the restoration of a 500-year-old Medici tapestry, "The Meeting of Dante and Virgil" (circa 1547-49). The €25,000 grant will support cleaning, consolidation, and lining of the 5.3-meter-high work, which has not been displayed in over 60 years due to severe damage including silk weft loss and open slits. The conservation will be carried out by the Midwest Art Conservation Center, and the tapestry is expected to go on public view at MIA this summer.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 28, 2026 visibility 6 link 5 artists

From monumental glass sculptures to a lagoon in the sky: what to see beyond the Venice Biennale pavilions

The article highlights several must-see exhibitions and installations beyond the main Venice Biennale pavilions. Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo's redevelopment of the island of San Giacomo opens on 7 May, transforming abandoned Napoleonic-era powder magazines into exhibition spaces with a solo show by British artist Matt Copson and a group show from her collection. American artist Melissa McGill presents 'Marea', a street-spanning installation of 100 paintings created with local residents and students, addressing climate change and rising sea levels. Dale Chihuly returns to Venice with 'Chihuly: Venice 2026', featuring monumental glass installations along the Grand Canal, including 'Gold Tower' (2025). Wallace Chan unveils titanium sculptures at the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietà, with a parallel exhibition at the Long Museum in Shanghai.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 23, 2026 visibility 17 link 7 artists

'The museum is not a space for the elite': Portuguese building firm’s new museum puts workers first

A new museum called Muzeu—Thought and Contemporary Art DST has opened in Braga, northern Portugal, housed in a former courthouse and built by the DST Group, a Portuguese industrial conglomerate. The inaugural exhibition, titled "Let Us Be Realistic, Let Us Demand the Impossible," features over 100 works by 96 artists including Alex Katz, Francesco Clemente, Franz West, and Nan Goldin. The museum prioritizes workers, opening first exclusively for company employees on 24 April, then to the public on Freedom Day (25 April), with free admission for the first week and closure on International Workers' Day (1 May).

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article culture schedule Apr 17, 2026 visibility 26 link 15 artists

How Wayne McGregor’s epic ballets draw on help from his artistic friends

Choreographer Wayne McGregor’s upcoming production at the Royal Opera House, 'Alchemies', highlights his career-long commitment to cross-disciplinary collaboration with visual artists and designers. The program features a world premiere with costumes by fashion designer Saul Nash, alongside revivals of 'Yugen' and 'Untitled, 2023'. These works incorporate significant contributions from the art world, including set designs by ceramicist Edmund de Waal and previous collaborations with figures like Tacita Dean and Olafur Eliasson.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 9, 2026 visibility 12 link 7 artists

Philadelphia art museums celebrate America's 250th anniversary with blockbuster two-venue show

The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) have announced a massive collaborative exhibition titled "A Nation of Artists" to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Featuring over 1,000 works, the show spans from colonial-era masterpieces like Charles Willson Peale’s portrait of George Washington to contemporary Indigenous art and modern portraiture by Barkley L. Hendricks. The exhibition will also debut 120 works from the Middleton Family Collection, including significant Hudson River School and American Impressionist pieces.

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gavel restitution schedule Mar 27, 2026 visibility 19 link 2 artists

One of Donatello’s most important bronze statues is being restored: should it ever be shown outdoors again?

Donatello's monumental 1453 bronze equestrian statue, Gattamelata, has been moved from its outdoor plinth in Padua to a nearby indoor hall for a major €1 million restoration. This marks only the third time the statue has been moved indoors in nearly 600 years, prompted by severe corrosion known as "bronze cancer" and structural concerns about its stone pedestal. The restoration is funded by two American non-profit organizations, Friends of Florence and Save Venice.

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article news schedule Mar 25, 2026 visibility 16 link 4 artists, 3 galleries

From technology to Gen Z collectors, Adrian Cheng shares the key trends in Hong Kong’s art scene

Adrian Cheng, a key figure in Hong Kong's art world, identifies major trends shaping the city's art scene ahead of Art Basel Hong Kong. He highlights the convergence of major art fairs, auction house sales, and new gallery openings during the 'Art March' period, drawing a global audience with high-profile exhibitions by international artists like Mary Weatherford, Nicole Eisenman, and El Anatsui.

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museum exhibitions schedule Mar 19, 2026 visibility 15 link 6 artists

Exhibition explores how the US shaped Joan Miró—and he it

A major exhibition titled "Miró and the United States" opens at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, exploring the profound artistic dialogue between Catalan artist Joan Miró and the United States. The show features Miró's paintings, sculptures, and works on paper alongside pieces by American contemporaries like Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, and Alexander Calder, tracing how his visits and exposure to the New York art scene influenced his work and, in turn, inspired a generation of post-war American artists.

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trending_up market schedule Mar 18, 2026 visibility 15 link 5 artists

Understanding Nifty Gateway’s demise is paramount for NFTs’ fans and critics alike

Nifty Gateway, a once-prominent curated NFT marketplace, has announced its closure after failing to achieve its ambitious goal of converting one billion people into NFT owners. The platform, which initially succeeded by focusing on digital art sales, leveraged social media metrics like Instagram popularity to select artists such as Kenny Scharf, Filip Hodas, and FVCKRENDER, favoring a pop-centric, visually digestible aesthetic.

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article policy schedule Apr 13, 2026 visibility 15 link 7 artists

trump executive orders arts 2605142

President Donald Trump’s return to office has triggered a sweeping overhaul of the American cultural landscape through executive orders and the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Key actions include the dissolution of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices at the Smithsonian, the cancellation of thousands of National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grants, and the removal of high-profile Biden appointees from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum board. These measures are accompanied by new tariffs and immigration policies that threaten the international art trade and cross-border collaborations.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 10, 2026 visibility 7 link 2 artists

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.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 9, 2026 visibility 7 link 3 artists, 1 gallery

You Can Become an Artwork at This New York Museum—Thanks to Piero Manzoni

Magazzino Italian Art in Cold Spring, New York, is reactivating Piero Manzoni’s seminal conceptual work, "Magical Base" (1961). On April 10 and 11, visitors can stand on the artist's wooden pedestal to be documented as living sculptures, receiving a photograph and record of their participation. The activation is part of the larger exhibition "Piero Manzoni: Total Space," which also features the artist's "Achromes" and immersive, unrealized environments like the "Phosphorescent Room" and "Hairy Room."

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article news schedule Apr 8, 2026 visibility 25 link 5 artists

Proposed Loan of Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ Sparks Clash Between Spanish Authorities

A heated political dispute has emerged between the Spanish central government and the Basque regional government over a proposed loan of Pablo Picasso’s 'Guernica' to the Guggenheim Bilbao. The Basque government requested the masterpiece for a 2027 exhibition marking the 90th anniversary of the bombing of Guernica, but the Reina Sofia Museum and Spain’s Ministry of Culture have blocked the move. Officials cite a recent technical report warning that the painting’s massive scale and fragile condition make it too vulnerable to survive the vibrations of transport.

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person people schedule Apr 3, 2026 visibility 10 link 3 artists

How an Overlooked Printmaker Became a Hero of Mexican Cultural Identity

The article profiles the life and work of José Guadalupe Posada, a prolific Mexican printmaker who died in relative obscurity in 1913. It details his career from his early work in lithography and political cartoons to his later, defining collaboration with publisher Antonio Vanegas Arroyo in Mexico City, where he produced sensationalist broadsides and his iconic calaveras (skeletons).

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