Art News. Vasari Codex

article news schedule Aug 1, 2025 visibility 12 link 5 artists

protestors visit the whitney after cancelation of pro palestine performance

On Friday, May 23, arts and culture workers protested at the Whitney Museum in New York following 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 protest, organized by Writers Against the War on Gaza, took place during the museum's Free Friday Night event, with demonstrators unfurling a Palestinian flag and a banner reading "Creativity Does Not Have to Rely on Death," distributing brochures demanding the removal of board members with ties to Israel, and calling out museum leadership for censorship. The performance, originally scheduled for May 14 as part of the Whitney's Independent Study Program, was canceled after museum leadership viewed a recording of its initial presentation at the Poetry Project, citing concerns that it "valorized specific acts of violence" and singled out community members based on belief systems.

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article news schedule Jul 29, 2025 visibility 14 link 2 artists

wesley lepatner met museum trustee dead

Wesley M. LePatner, a newly elected trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, was among four people killed by a gunman in a Midtown office building on Monday. LePatner was a senior managing director at Blackstone, where she served as global head of its Core+ Real Estate division and CEO of the Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust. She had just been elected to the Met’s board in February and was previously a member of the Met’s Friends of European Paintings group.

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person people schedule Jul 25, 2025 visibility 16 link 2 artists

johanna burton director ica philadelphia departs moca la

Johanna Burton, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, has been appointed the next director of the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Philadelphia, effective November 1. She succeeds Zoë Ryan, who left in January to lead the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Burton, who joined MOCA in 2021 after leading the Wexner Center for the Arts, stabilized the institution following a period of turmoil, reinstating its annual gala, securing major gifts, and hiring senior curator Clara Kim.

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gavel restitution schedule Jul 25, 2025 visibility 16 link 3 artists

is spains sistine chapel of romanesque art at risk

The Spanish Supreme Court has ordered the return of the Sijena Murals, 12th-century Romanesque frescoes known as the "Sistine Chapel of Romanesque Art," from the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) in Barcelona to their original monastery in Huesca, Aragon, by June 25. However, the MNAC is resisting the move, arguing that transporting the fragile, fire-damaged murals poses a "real risk of irreparable damage." The museum has requested more information about the destination and conditions at the Sijena monastery, and has suggested a longer timeline for the return of particularly delicate sections, while the Sijena City Council has proposed installing the works elsewhere if necessary.

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article news schedule Jul 22, 2025 visibility 13 link 9 artists

haitian museum police rescue artworks from gangs

Haitian police conducted a two-day armed operation to evacuate thousands of artworks and documents from the Centre d’Art in Port-au-Prince, as gangs tightened control over the capital. The museum, founded in 1944 and housing works by artists such as Hector Hyppolite, Georges Liautaud, and Philomé Obin, had been forced to suspend operations in February after gang members stole solar panels and a generator. Under gunfire, authorities used armored vehicles to clear barricaded streets and removed an estimated 6,000 artworks and 3,600 documents to safety.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 21, 2025 visibility 12 link 4 artists

nagakin capsule tower moma

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York has acquired and put on display a capsule from the demolished Nagakin Capsule Tower in Tokyo. The capsule, designated A1305, is the centerpiece of a year-long exhibition titled "The Many Lives of the Nakagin Capsule Tower," which also includes archival materials such as photographs, models, films, and recordings. The tower, designed by Kisho Kurokawa and completed in 1972, was a landmark of the Metabolism movement, featuring 140 prefabricated modules. After years of decline, it was demolished in 2022, but 23 capsules were salvaged, with 16 finding homes in institutions including MoMA.

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article news schedule Jul 16, 2025 visibility 13 link 5 artists

mick taylor guitar stolen met museum donation

A donation of 500 guitars to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in May 2025, announced via a profile in The New Yorker, has become embroiled in controversy. Mick Taylor, former guitarist for the Rolling Stones, claims through his manager that one of the donated guitars—a Les Paul stolen from the band's French villa in 1971—is his property. The Met initially declined to comment, but later told The New York Times that Taylor played the guitar but never owned it, asserting a well-documented ownership history. The guitars were donated by collector Dirk Ziff, and the museum plans to open a permanent American guitar gallery in 2027.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 2, 2025 visibility 14 link 9 artists

cleveland museum of art acquires giambologna

The Cleveland Museum of Art has acquired Giambologna's marble sculpture *Fata Morgana* (ca. 1572), believed to be the last marble work by the Flanders-born Italian Mannerist in private hands. The piece, which depicts a nude woman emerging from a grotto, was originally commissioned by banker Bernardo Vecchietti and remained with his family for 200 years before being sold in 1775. It was misattributed for centuries until London dealer Patricia Wengraf correctly identified it at a 1989 Christie's auction, purchasing it for £715,000. The museum acquired the sculpture for an undisclosed price, making it only the second Giambologna marble in the U.S. and one of just three outside Italy.

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article news schedule Jul 1, 2025 visibility 13 link 2 artists

director of sao paulos museu afro brasil dismissed after less than two years

Hélio Menezes has been dismissed as director of the Museu Afro Brasil in São Paulo after less than two years in the role. He announced his departure on Instagram, describing the museum's internal decision-making as informal, personalistic, and lacking transparency, and criticized a leadership disconnected from Black representation and the visual arts world. Two board members, Wellinton Souza and artist Rosana Paulino, also resigned. The museum cited budgetary disagreements and accused Menezes of personal attacks against its board chair.

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gavel restitution schedule Jun 9, 2025 visibility 14 link 2 artists

fbi recovers paintings university new mexico harwood museum art

The FBI has recovered two paintings stolen 40 years ago from the University of New Mexico's Harwood Museum of Art in Taos. Victor Higgins's oil painting *Aspens* (c. 1932) and Joseph Henry Sharp's portrait *Oklahoma Cheyenne aka Indian Boy in Full Dress* (c. 1915) were taken in March 1985, when the building housed a public library with a museum on the second floor. The recovery was triggered by a late 2023 tip from investigative reporter Lou Schachter to museum executive director Juniper Leherissey, who then led an Art Recovery Task Force. The paintings had been sold in 2018 by the Scottsdale Auction House under altered titles, and were located, recovered, and returned to the museum on May 12, 2025, with a public unveiling on June 6.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 9, 2025 visibility 16 link 4 artists

rachel ruyschs still lifes dutch toledo pinakothek munich mfa boston

The Toledo Museum of Art has opened the first major exhibition dedicated to Dutch Golden Age painter Rachel Ruysch, organized with the Alte Pinakothek in Munich and traveling next to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The show features Ruysch's vibrant still lifes of fruits and flowers, often animated by insects, and places her work alongside that of her sister Anna Ruysch and other female scientific illustrators like Maria Sibylla Merian. Curator Robert Schindler's rediscovery of Anna Ruysch's work helped inspire the exhibition, which also draws on botanical research to catalog the global plant species Ruysch depicted, reflecting colonial trade networks.

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article news schedule May 30, 2025 visibility 14 link 2 artists

museum removes maori artist new zealand flag diane prince

The Suter Art Gallery in Nelson, New Zealand, removed an artwork by Māori artist Diane Prince after public outcry. The piece, a new version of her 1995 work *Flagging the Future*, featured the New Zealand flag printed with the words “PLEASE WALK ON ME” and was part of a solo show organized by Pātaka Art + Museum. Local resident Ruth Tipu protested by picking up the flag daily, citing distress over the flag being walked on, especially given her grandfather’s service in the Māori Battalion. The museum cited an escalation in hostile discourse as the reason for removal, while affirming support for freedom of expression.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 27, 2025 visibility 11 link 4 artists

prado museum clara peeters exhibition

The Museo del Prado in Madrid has opened its first-ever exhibition dedicated to a female artist, "The Art of Clara Peeters," 197 years after the museum's founding. The show features 15 major works by the Flemish still-life painter, active in early 17th-century Antwerp, and is curated by Alejandro Vergara, the museum's Chief Curator of Flemish and Northern School Painting. The exhibition runs from October 25, 2026, to February 19, 2017, and is co-organized with the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 8, 2025 visibility 15 link 5 artists

new taipei city art museum interview

The New Taipei City Art Museum (NTCAM) opened to the public last weekend with fireworks and light installations after nearly eight years of development. Located in Yingge District, about 30 minutes from Taipei, the publicly funded museum cost 3 billion NTD (approximately $93 million) and spans 38 acres. Designed by Taiwanese architect Kris Yao, the 11-story building houses eight exhibition halls, a 500-seat auditorium, a public plaza, and a park for public art. Inaugural director Lai Hsiang-ling outlined the museum's vision to serve local audiences and the arts community while fostering international and regional collaboration. The opening includes the inaugural exhibition featuring the local art collective Xindian Boys and their commission "Don't Worry, Baby," which addresses ecological change, global politics, and artificial intelligence.

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article news schedule May 6, 2025 visibility 15 link 3 artists

water leaks from louvres roof and misses prized cimabue painting

A powerful hailstorm caused water to leak through the Louvre's roof into the Salle Rosa room, where the exhibition "A New Look at Cimabue: At the Origins of Italian Painting" is on view. The water narrowly missed Giovanni Cimabue's unprotected "Maestà" panel painting (circa 1280), but drips hit the base of Nicola Pisano's "Three Acolytes" (1264-67) on loan from Florence's Museo Nazionale del Bargello. Another near miss occurred near Duccio di Buoninsegna's "Madonna of the Franciscans" (1285-88), which was protected by glass. The museum closed the exhibition early for firefighter inspection, identified a damaged glass seal as the cause, and reopened the next morning after repairs.

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trending_up market schedule May 5, 2025 visibility 17 link 6 artists

national gallery mysterious altarpiece 20 million

London's National Gallery has acquired a mysterious altarpiece painted by an unknown artist around 1510, paying £16.4 million ($21.8 million) for the work titled *The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret*. The painting, arranged via a private sale by Sotheby's and funded by the American Friends of the National Gallery London, features unusual details including a uniquely expressive dragon beneath baby Jesus's feet, playful angels, and subtle symbolic references. The acquisition marks the museum's bicentennial and will go on public display on May 10 in the rehung Sainsbury Wing.

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trending_up market schedule May 1, 2025 visibility 14 link 9 artists

national gallery acquires curious altarpiece by unknown artist for 20 m

London's National Gallery has acquired a $20 million altarpiece, *The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret and Two Angels* (1500-10), by an unknown artist. The purchase, funded by the American Friends of the National Gallery of London and brokered by Sotheby's, was made from a private collection to celebrate the museum's bicentenary. The painting, first documented in 1602 in Ghent, Belgium, features iconographical oddities including a unique dragon and a bawdy scene, and is painted on Baltic oak, suggesting a Netherlandish origin despite French elements like the fleur-de-lis.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 23, 2025 visibility 20 link 9 artists

rachel ruysch toledo museum

The Toledo Museum of Art has opened "Rachel Ruysch: Nature Into Art," the first monographic exhibition dedicated to the 17th-century Dutch still-life painter Rachel Ruysch. Curated by Robert Schindler, the show brings together dozens of her paintings from public and private collections across Europe and America, including her only known work on paper, alongside manuscripts and works by contemporary women botanical artists. The exhibition originated at the Alte Pinakothek Munich and will travel to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston later this year.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 14, 2026 visibility 11 link 2 artists

Why Does the “Rocky” Statue Draw Crowds? This Show Investigates.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is launching a new exhibition centered on the cultural phenomenon of the "Rocky" statue, a bronze monument originally created as a movie prop that has become one of the city's most visited landmarks. By bringing the narrative of the fictional boxer inside the museum's walls, the show investigates the public's emotional connection to populist monuments and the tension between cinematic myth and traditional art history.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 10, 2026 visibility 25 link 1 artist

The Sense of Touch at Billboard Scale

Conceptual artist Ann Hamilton has debuted a new series of large-scale scanner photography installations at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Moving from her signature immersive environments to high-resolution digital captures, Hamilton utilizes a flatbed scanner to document the tactile qualities of various objects and figures, enlarging them to billboard proportions to emphasize the intimacy of touch.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 8, 2026 visibility 23 link 2 artists

Centre Pompidou to open Seoul outpost

The Centre Pompidou Hanwha is set to open in Seoul this June, housed in a renovated four-story former aquarium in the Yeouido district. Designed by French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, the new outpost is the result of a four-year partnership between the Hanwha Foundation of Culture and the Parisian institution. The museum will launch with the exhibition "The Cubists: Inventing Modern Vision," which explores the evolution of Cubism and its specific intersections with Korean art history.

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article news schedule May 14, 2026 visibility 14 link 4 artists

Artists Spar Over Credit For A Dress Displayed In The Met’s ‘Costume Art’ Exhibition

London-based artist Anouska Samms has accused the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute of exhibiting a dress that she claims is a counterfeit of her work in the ongoing "Costume Art" exhibition. The dress, titled Corpus Nervina 0.0, is credited solely to New York-based Israeli designer Yoav Hadari, but Samms alleges it closely resembles an earlier Nervina hair dress she co-developed with Hadari during their 2023 residency at the Lee Alexander McQueen Sarabande Foundation. Samms discovered the display via a social media post and has since spoken out, noting that a contract from their collaboration designated her as the sole owner of the intellectual property of the fabric. The Met has requested that the two parties resolve their dispute before the museum takes further action.

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person people schedule May 1, 2026 visibility 27 link 5 artists

Montclair Art Museum Hires New Chief Curator Kate Kraczon

The Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey has hired Kate Kraczon as its new chief curator, replacing Gail Stavitsky. Kraczon previously served as director of exhibitions and chief curator at the David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University, where she was terminated last December amid university layoffs. At the Bell, she organized the only US screening of "Prisoners of Love, 2025" by Palestinian artists Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, and an exhibition of Julien Creuzet's work originally shown at the French Pavilion in the 2024 Venice Biennale. Before Brown, she worked as a curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Philadelphia, where she organized the 2018 show "Ree Morton: The Plant That Heals May Also Poison."

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article news schedule Apr 24, 2026 visibility 32 link 1 artist

Leaky Berlin Modern Museum’s Opening Delayed Until 2030

The opening of the Berlin Modern Museum, a planned extension of the Neue Nationalgalerie, has been delayed until 2030 due to significant moisture damage and microbial contamination in its foundation, floors, roof coverings, and exterior walls. Originally laid in February 2024 with a projected 2027 opening, the museum's construction costs have surged from 200 million to 507 million euros, according to Monopol. A spokesperson for the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation stated that repairs are underway but will push completion back by approximately eight months.

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person people schedule Apr 9, 2026 visibility 21 link 5 artists

The Met Hires Star Photography Curator for the Museum’s New Wing

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has appointed Oluremi C. Onabanjo as a curator in the Department of Photographs, poaching her from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Onabanjo, formerly the Peter Schub Curator at MoMA, will be tasked with managing the landmark gift of over 6,500 photographs from the Walther Family Foundation and curating exhibitions with a focus on twentieth-century media.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 8, 2026 visibility 34 link 3 artists

Paris’s Centre Pompidou to Welcome Seoul Outpost in June

The Centre Pompidou is expanding its global footprint with the opening of a new satellite museum in Seoul this June. Housed in a former aquarium within the Hanwha Group's headquarters in the Yeouido financial district, the Centre Pompidou Hanwha is the result of a four-year partnership between the French institution and the Hanwha Foundation of Culture. The renovated 108,000-square-foot space, designed by architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, will debut with an exhibition titled "The Cubists: Inventing Modern Vision," which explores the evolution of Cubism and its intersections with Korean art.

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museum exhibitions schedule Aug 28, 2025 visibility 12 link 3 artists

banksy piranhas london museum

A Banksy mural featuring a fish tank full of piranhas, installed overnight on a police sentry box in London's financial district in August 2024, has been acquired by the London Museum. The work was one of nine animal-themed pieces the artist created across the capital over nine consecutive days. After being removed by the City of London Corporation, the booth was displayed at Guildhall Yard and then placed in storage; it will go on permanent view in 2026 at the London Museum's new Smithfield location, part of a $280 million relocation project.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 23, 2026 source 3 sources visibility 39 link 12 artists

The Sprawling New David Geffen Galleries At LACMA Open To The Public On Sunday, May 3

The David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) will open to the public on Sunday, May 3, after 20 years of development. Designed by architect Peter Zumthor, the 900-foot-long horizontal glass and concrete structure overlooks the La Brea Tar Pits and stretches over Wilshire Boulevard. The main floor, elevated 30 feet above street level, offers 110,000 square feet of gallery space for LACMA’s permanent collection. The inaugural exhibition is inspired by four major bodies of water—the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans, and the Mediterranean Sea—and features works by artists including Todd Gray, Do Ho Suh, Lauren Halsey, Tavares Strachan, Jeff Koons, and Diego Rivera. The building also includes open plazas, an outdoor public space, and an Erewhon Cafe, with a larger restaurant and wine bar planned for fall 2026.

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article news schedule Apr 23, 2026 visibility 18 link 4 artists, 1 gallery

Dartmouth Students Turn to Moldy Beef Jerky Installation in Renewed Bid to Remove Leon Black’s Name from Arts Center

Art students at Dartmouth College installed a provocative piece titled "Something Rotten" in the Black Family Visual Arts Center, consisting of 20 moldy beef sticks arranged into a smiley face over the dedication wall honoring billionaire financier Leon Black and his family. The work, created by students Erik Siegel, Angeles Juarez-Ruiz, and Roan Wade, was removed one week after the exhibition "Storage Room" opened on April 14. The piece references Black's documented friendship and business dealings with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, with the wall label quoting an Epstein email mentioning "jerky." The installation is part of a broader student and alumni campaign to remove Black's name from the arts center, which was funded by a $48 million gift from Black and his wife Debra.

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article culture schedule Mar 12, 2026 visibility 22 link 15 artists, 1 gallery

art fashion camille henrot collina strada interview

Camille Henrot and Hillary Taymour, wearing Collina Strada, are featured in a Cultured magazine interview marking the reopening of the New Museum on March 21, 2026, after a 60,000-square-foot expansion by OMA. The conversation is part of a series pairing three artists from the inaugural exhibition "New Humans: Memories of the Future" with three downtown fashion designers. Henrot discusses her New York origin story, her film *In the Veins* premiering in the show, and her upcoming play *Commedia dell’Arte* at the Aspen Art Museum’s AIR Festival, while Taymour recounts moving from Los Angeles to New York in 2010 to pursue fashion design.

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