‘The Hay Wain’ to go on show in Constable's home county for the first time

John Constable's iconic painting *The Hay Wain* (1821) will be exhibited in Suffolk, the artist's home county, for the first time in 2026 as part of the 250th anniversary of his birth. The work, on loan from the National Gallery in London, will be shown at Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich from 11 July to 4 October 2026, within the exhibition *Constable: Walking the Landscape*. It will be reunited with preparatory sketches from the Ipswich collection and accompanied by loans from the Tate, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Academy of Arts, and the National Galleries of Scotland. Two additional exhibitions at Christchurch Mansion—*Constable: A Cast of Characters* and *Constable to Contemporary*—also form part of the broader Constable 250 project, which is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and supported by the Weston Loan Programme.

Detroit Institute of Arts' new African American galleries open Saturday

The Detroit Institute of Arts opens its new African American art galleries, titled “Reimagine African American Art,” to the public on Saturday. The installation features 50 works displayed across four galleries in a central location adjacent to Rivera Court, organized by the museum’s Center for African American Art. The galleries present a chronological narrative of African American history from 1840 to 1986, covering key periods and themes such as the Harlem Renaissance, Social Realism, the Civil Rights era, and the Black Arts Movement.

Memorial Art Gallery Announces Frontiers of Impressionism: Paintings from the Worcester Art Museum Opening Nov. 2

The Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) in Rochester, NY, will present "Frontiers of Impressionism: Paintings from the Worcester Art Museum" from November 2, 2025, through March 1, 2026. The exhibition features fifty-two masterworks from the Worcester Art Museum's collection, including Claude Monet's 1908 painting "Nymphéas (Water Lilies)"—the first water lily painting ever purchased by an art museum. More than thirty European and American artists are represented, such as Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Mary Cassatt, Childe Hassam, and John Singer Sargent.

Paradigm Shift – a major exhibition exploring new dimensions in Moving Image.

180 Studios presents 'Paradigm Shift', a major exhibition at 180 Strand in London that transforms the venue's subterranean spaces to showcase acclaimed moving image works from the 1970s to the present. Curated by Jefferson Hack and Mark Wadhwa, the show features over a dozen artists including Ryan Trecartin, Nan Goldin, Andy Warhol, Pipilotti Rist, and Arthur Jafa, drawing from avant-garde cinema, TV, music video, performance, fashion, gaming, and internet culture. New commissions by 180 Studios sit alongside iconic historical works, tracing revolutions in moving image culture from Warhol's 1970s 'Fashion TV' to TELFAR TV today.

New Frida Kahlo museum, focused on the artist's youth and family life, opens in Mexico City

A new museum dedicated to Frida Kahlo, Museo Casa Kahlo, opened on 27 September in Mexico City's Coyoacán neighborhood, a five-minute walk from the iconic Casa Azul. Housed in the historic Kahlo family home acquired in 1930 and passed down through generations, the museum draws on the private archive of Isolda Kahlo, Cristina Kahlo's daughter, which includes letters, everyday objects, and personal effects. The intimate space focuses on Kahlo's youth and family life, featuring immersive audiovisual elements, a re-created darkroom of her father Guillermo, and a basement studio where Kahlo once painted. A notable highlight is a recently uncovered mixed-media mural from around 1949, hidden for years under white paint.

Is Vermeer’s ‘The Art of Painting’ in fact a lost work?

Paul Taylor, a curator at London’s Warburg Institute specializing in 17th-century Dutch art, argues that Vermeer’s celebrated painting *The Art of Painting* (1666-68), housed at Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, may not be the work referenced in a 1676 legal document by the artist’s widow, Catharina. Taylor tracked 25 period descriptions of “de schilderconst” (the art of painting) and found they all depict allegorical personifications of painting, not studio scenes like Vermeer’s composition. He believes the document refers to a now-lost Vermeer that could still resurface.

From Dior's golden coat to landscape jewellery at Christie's: where the worlds of art and luxury collide this autumn

The article highlights two luxury-art crossovers this autumn: Jonathan Anderson's debut Dior menswear collection for spring/summer 2026, presented in Paris, and Natasha Wightman's new jewellery collection displayed at Christie's London. Anderson's show reimagined Dior's iconic women's silhouettes for men, featuring a standout €200,000 coat embroidered with ancient Indian mukesh work that took 12 artisans 34 days to create. Wightman's jewellery incorporates bog oak, a semi-fossilised wood from British fens, carved into pendants celebrating the country's remaining temperate rainforests.

The Biggest-Ever Raphael Exhibition in the U.S. Is Opening at the Met

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will host the largest-ever U.S. exhibition dedicated to Raphael, opening March 29, 2026. Titled "Raphael: Sublime Poetry," the show will bring together over 200 works from more than 30 international lenders, including the Louvre, Uffizi, Vatican Museums, and the Prado. Curated by Carmen Bambach, the exhibition spans Raphael's career from Urbino to Rome, featuring paintings, preparatory sketches, tapestries, and decorative objects, with highlights such as the Alba Madonna and works rarely loaned before.

Thom Yorke Embraces ‘Terrifying’ Work as a Visual Artist in First Museum Exhibit

Thom Yorke, frontman of Radiohead, is presenting his first-ever museum exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, UK. Titled 'This is What You Get', the show runs until January 2026 and features the complete catalog of album covers, unseen sketchbook pages, and recent paintings created in collaboration with artist Stanley Donwood. Yorke, who trained as a visual artist before turning to music, describes returning to physical painting as 'absolutely terrifying' and sees the exhibition as a reclamation of his original artistic identity.

Robert Wilson, experimental playwright, director and artist, has died, aged 83

Robert Wilson, the visionary experimental playwright, director, and visual artist known for his highly stylized theatrical productions, has died at age 83. He passed away at his home in Water Mill, New York, on July 31 following a brief acute illness, according to a statement from the Watermill Center, the arts organization he founded. Wilson's most famous works include the silent opera *Deafman Glance* (1970) and the epic collaboration with composer Philip Glass, *Einstein on the Beach* (1976). He was also a prolific visual artist, creating drawings, sculptures, and video portraits, including a series featuring Lady Gaga, Pope.L, and Isabella Rossellini, and his work was exhibited at institutions such as SFMoMA, the Centre Pompidou, and the Louvre.

At this Houston-area art museum, you can walk right up and touch the paintings

The Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts in Spring, Texas, has opened an interactive exhibition called "Art Unleashed" that invites visitors to touch tactile recreations of famous artworks, including Leonardo da Vinci's "The Mona Lisa" and Vincent van Gogh's "Starry Night." The show features contoured bronze and three-dimensional reproductions, fabric sculptures, and woven textiles, all designed to be handled. Each piece includes braille placards, and the exhibition is free and runs through August 30.

Behind the The Art of Banksy with Michel Boersma

The article recounts a personal visit to 'The Art of Banksy' exhibition at the Aotea Centre in Auckland, New Zealand, on July 7, 2024. The author, initially hesitant due to past awkward experiences at art shows, attends the opening and describes the immersive, gritty atmosphere of the 909 sqm space featuring 160 authenticated Banksy pieces. The exhibition includes iconic works like a girl with a heart-shaped balloon and anti-royalist pieces, and the author interviews curator Michel Boersma, who explains the show's growth from 65 pieces in 2018 to its current scale, touring 19 cities and attracting over 1.5 million visitors.

An expert’s guide to Edvard Munch: five must-read books on the Norwegian Expressionist

The article presents a curated reading list on Edvard Munch, compiled by Trine Otte Bak Nielsen, a curator at the Munch Museum in Oslo. The list includes five key books: Ali Smith's essay "So in the Spruce Forest" (2025), Gerd Woll's catalogue raisonné "Edvard Munch: Complete Paintings" (2009), "Living Lines: Five Contemporary Artists on Edvard Munch's Drawings" (2021) edited by Halvor Haugen, Rolf E. Stenersen's biography "Edvard Munch: Close-up of a Genius" (1944/2013), and Stanislaw Przybyszewski's "Das Werk Des Edvard Munch" (1894). The selection coincides with the museum's exhibition "Lifeblood: Edvard Munch," which explores the artist's work through themes of health and sickness.

Whiteley showcase reveals struggles with addiction and pursuit of beauty

A touring exhibition from the Brett Whiteley studio in New South Wales, titled *Inside The Studio*, has arrived at the Shepparton Art Museum in Victoria—its final stop and only Victorian venue. The show features drawings, ceramics, sketchbooks, photographs, Whiteley's iconic Sydney Harbour painting, and his 1976 Archibald Prize-winning self-portrait. Wendy Whiteley, the artist's former wife and an artist herself, shares memories of their turbulent marriage, including his struggles with addiction and his intense dedication to his craft. She has also repurchased several of her favorite sketches of her in the bathtub, which had been auctioned off over the years.

A brush with Cezanne in Aix-en-Provence, France: a blockbuster retrospective comes to town

Paul Cezanne's hometown of Aix-en-Provence is staging a major retrospective at the Musée Granet, bringing together over 130 works including still lifes, portraits, and landscapes. The exhibition coincides with the reopening of two key sites after an eight-year restoration: the artist's atelier in Les Lauves and the Bastide du Jas de Bouffan, the family estate where Cezanne painted for 40 years. The Bastide, acquired by Cezanne's banker father in 1859, had fallen into disrepair and closed in 2017; it reopens on 28 June with guided tours and grounds open to visitors.

DIA's revamped African American art galleries to reopen in heart of museum this fall

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) announced on June 2, 2025, that its newly reimagined African American art galleries will open to the public in October 2025. The galleries are being relocated to a central position within the museum, adjacent to the Diego Rivera murals at Rivera Court, to highlight the contributions of Black artists to Detroit's and history's artistic landscape.

Post-War to Present

On 26 June, a live auction at a London saleroom achieved £9,284,310, led by Victor Man's 'The Chandler' at £705,600 and David Hockney's iPad painting at £504,000. Other top lots included works by KAWS, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Tracey Emin, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Raymond Pettibon. An online auction closed on 3 July with a total of £1,247,904, featuring Manolo Valdés's 'Amélie II' as the top lot at £56,700, along with works by George Condo, Sylvie Fleury, and Gilbert & George.

Monet to Matisse exhibition coming to Birmingham Museum of Art in 2026

The Birmingham Museum of Art (BMA) will premiere "Monet to Matisse: French Moderns, 1850–1950" on January 30, 2026, featuring over 100 masterworks from the Brooklyn Museum's European collection and supplemented by 50 works from BMA's own holdings. The exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by artists such as Monet, Matisse, Chagall, Degas, and Renoir, and will run through May 24, 2026, with accompanying public programs like lectures, guided tours, and workshops.

London’s Tate Modern Art Gallery Will Soon Start Opening Earlier For Special Tours

Tate Modern in London is launching exclusive 'Before Hours' tours in partnership with GetYourGuide, allowing visitors to explore the gallery before it opens to the public. Starting over the upcoming bank holiday weekend, the hour-long small-group tours will be led by expert guides or curators and cost £69 per person. The initiative is part of GetYourGuide's 'All Art, No Crowds' campaign, which also includes similar early-access programs at MoMA in New York and the Vatican Museums, responding to growing traveler concerns about crowding and overtourism.

Kent Monkman's Miss Chief

Kent Monkman's exhibition "History is Painted by the Victors" is on view at the Denver Art Museum (DAM) through August 17, before traveling to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts on September 27. The show centers on Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, a fictional narrator who appears throughout Monkman's work to disrupt false narratives about Indigenous history and colonization. The article excerpts a catalog essay explaining how Monkman created Miss Chief as a campy, humorous, and empowering figure who infuses Indigenous perspectives into art history, often inserting her into iconic artworks to subvert colonial tropes.

Iconic photos are part of Gordon Parks exhibition at Wichita Art Museum

The Wichita Art Museum opens "Homeward to the Prairie I Come," an exhibition of 71 photographs by Gordon Parks, running from May 11 to July 27, 2025. The works come from a collection Parks curated and donated to Kansas State University in 1973, now held by the Beach Museum of Art, which co-curated the touring show with Aileen Wang and Sarah Price. The exhibition is organized thematically around five large iconic images, including portraits of Muhammad Ali, Alexander Calder, Malcolm X, and Flavio da Silva, the subject of Parks' first film.

Mind-bending work of M.C. Escher alters reality, space at new Arlington exhibition

The Arlington Museum of Art has opened "M.C. Escher: Infinite Variations," an exhibition featuring nearly 150 of the Dutch artist's prints, including his famous lithograph "Relativity" (1953). The show spans Escher's career from the early 1930s to the late 1960s, with themed galleries covering his early works, book illustrations, tessellations, and impossible worlds. The exhibition runs through August 3 and includes an Infinity Mirrored Room as an immersive finale.

Rashid Johnson Finds His Promised Land at the Guggenheim (Published 2025)

Rashid Johnson has mounted a major exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, titled "Rashid Johnson: The Promised Land." The show spans the artist's career, featuring his signature works in sculpture, painting, and installation that explore themes of Black identity, history, and the African diaspora. It includes iconic pieces such as his "Anxious Men" series and large-scale works incorporating materials like shea butter, books, and plants.

three paintings bob ross 600000 bonhams auction american public broadcasting 1234761613

Three original paintings by beloved American television icon Bob Ross were auctioned at Bonhams on Tuesday, selling for a combined total of $600,000. The works—Cliffside (1990), Home in the Valley (1993), and Winter's Peace (1993)—were among the top lots in a California and Western art sale. Proceeds from this and future sales of 30 Ross canvases will benefit American Public Television, a nonprofit syndicator affected by federal budget cuts. The idea originated with Joan Kowalski, president of Bob Ross Inc., after earlier Ross paintings sold well above estimates at Bonhams.

Ambiguity Reigns in Olaf Hajek’s Mysterious Illustrations

Berlin-based illustrator Olaf Hajek creates dense, uncanny compositions that blend nature, culture, and magic, drawing inspiration from Surrealist icons like Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo. His work emphasizes ambiguity, using superimposed florals and figures, dramatic scale shifts, and a tension between decay and renewal to develop a universal visual language from diverse cultural influences.

La Seconda guerra mondiale con gli occhi dei grandi fotografi in una mostra a Gorizia

Palazzo Attems-Petzenstein in Gorizia hosts the exhibition "Back to Peace? La guerra vista dai grandi fotografi Magnum," which presents the Second World War and its aftermath through two hundred photographs, video installations, and soundscapes by legendary Magnum photographers. The show features iconic works by Robert Capa, Eve Arnold, Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Seymour, Eric Hartmann, René Burri, Thomas Hoepker, George Rodger, Wayne Miller, and Werner Bischof, covering the Normandy landings, the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, the atomic devastation of Hiroshima, and the return of French prisoners. Curated by Andrea Holzherr and Marco Minuz, the exhibition is divided into two sections: one focusing on wartime imagery and the other on the immediate consequences of the conflict, including the suffering of civilians and the fragile hope of reconstruction.

THE BIOMUSEO SCIENCE AND ARCHITECTURE OF THE FIRST LEVEL

The Biomuseo, a striking museum of biodiversity designed by architect Frank Gehry, stands on the Amador Causeway at the entrance to the Panama Canal. Its avant-garde, deconstructivist structure, featuring chaotic shapes and vivid colors, is designed to narrate the geological formation of the Isthmus of Panama and its impact on global biodiversity. Inside, it houses large sculptures, mineral exhibitions, and audiovisual projections about Panamanian ecosystems, alongside temporary science exhibitions like the current 'Eyes in Space' show about NASA technology.

Rubens Under Construction at the Louvre

Rubens en chantier au Louvre

The Louvre Museum has launched a major four-year restoration project for the monumental 24-canvas 'Cycle of Marie de Médicis' by Peter Paul Rubens. The initiative, funded by the Société des Amis du Louvre with a budget of 4 million euros, aims to restore the works' chromatic power and stabilize their fragile paint layers. The Medici Gallery will close to the public in May, though some stages of the process will be viewable.

Lee Miller at the Musée d’Art Moderne: The Future Great Photographer Who Went from Rebel Child to Vogue Model

Lee Miller au musée d’Art moderne : la futur grande photographe passée de l’enfant rebelle au mannequin Vogue

The Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris is hosting a major retrospective dedicated to Lee Miller, tracing her evolution from a rebellious child in upstate New York to a celebrated Vogue model and pioneering surrealist photographer. The exhibition highlights her early life under the influence of her father, Theodore Miller, an amateur photographer who introduced her to the technical aspects of the darkroom, and her subsequent move to Paris in 1930 where she transitioned from being a muse for photographers like George Hoyningen-Huene to a formidable artist in her own right.

At the Walters: Douriean Fletcher’s jewelry for the ‘Black Panther’ movies

The Walters Art Museum is showcasing the intricate jewelry designs of Douriean Fletcher, the specialty jeweler responsible for the iconic adornments in the 'Black Panther' film franchise. The exhibition highlights Fletcher's craftsmanship and her ability to blend Afrofuturist aesthetics with traditional African metalworking techniques, bringing cinematic artifacts into a fine art museum context.