Art News. Vasari Codex

candle obituary schedule Oct 8, 2025 visibility 17 link 15 artists

robert wilson memorial silence

A memorial for the late theater visionary Robert Wilson was held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Harvey Theater, featuring a 30-minute period of silence as requested by Wilson before his death at age 83. The gathering drew luminaries including Philip Glass, Rufus Wainwright, Laurie Anderson, ANOHNI, Christopher Knowles, Joan Jonas, and Paula Cooper, none of whom spoke during the main program. The silence was punctuated by shifting lighting and a recorded ringing telephone, followed by remarks from William Campbell, chairman of Wilson's Watermill Center, and Joseph Melillo, former BAM executive producer.

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gavel restitution schedule Sep 29, 2025 visibility 14 link 3 artists

fiat family missing artworks collection investigation

The family behind the Fiat empire, the Agnellis, is under a new investigation into missing artworks and forgeries, as reported by the Times of London. Italian investigators are focusing on 13 works by artists including John Singer Sargent, Pablo Picasso, and Francis Bacon, allegedly missing from the collection founded by Giovanni Agnelli and expanded by his grandson Gianni, who died in 2003. Margherita Agnelli de Pahlen, Gianni’s daughter, claims she is being cheated out of her inheritance by Marella’s children from a previous marriage. Shippers reportedly brought copies of the works to the family’s Rome residence between 2016 and 2018, and Carabinieri are seeking information on the originals.

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article news schedule Sep 17, 2025 visibility 16 link 4 artists

basquiat biopic samo lives filming the east village tompkins square park

Filming has begun on the long-awaited Jean-Michel Basquiat biopic *Samo Lives* in New York City's East Village, specifically around Tompkins Square Park. Directed by Julius Onah and starring Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Basquiat, the film was first announced in January 2022 but faced delays. Grainy photos from local blog EV Grieve suggest an actor has been cast to play Andy Warhol, Basquiat's friend and collaborator. The production is shooting in the neighborhood where Basquiat once lived and worked, including his former studio at 57 Great Jones Street.

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museum exhibitions schedule Aug 11, 2025 visibility 15 link 6 artists

george lucas comic con panel lucas museum preview

George Lucas made his long-awaited debut at Comic-Con's Hall H to present a sneak peek of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, set to open in Los Angeles next year. The panel, moderated by Queen Latifah, included filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and production designer Doug Chiang, and revealed details about the 300,000-square-foot building designed by Ma Yansong of MAD, with 33 galleries, two theaters, and 11 acres of green space. Lucas discussed his personal collection of over 40,000 works, emphasizing narrative art's role in shaping community and shared beliefs, and highlighted pieces by Norman Rockwell, Kadir Nelson, Beatrix Potter, and Frida Kahlo.

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article culture schedule Jul 25, 2025 visibility 13 link 4 artists

georges seurat a sunday on la grande jatte why so important 2

Georges Seurat's Post-Impressionist masterpiece, *A Sunday on La Grande Jatte* (1884–86), is analyzed in depth for its revolutionary technique and historical context. The painting depicts weekend day-trippers in a Parisian park, employing pointillism—which Seurat called divisionism or *peinture optique*—to fix modern life in a chromatic eternity. Influenced by his academic training under Henri Lehmann (a student of Ingres) and Michel Eugène Chevreul's color theory, Seurat used tiny dots of color that blend in the viewer's eye, merging science with art. The work was preceded by *Bathers at Asnières* (1884), which shares the same landscape and thematic concerns, together portraying both sides of the Seine.

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article news schedule Jul 25, 2025 visibility 13 link 3 artists

samherji odee copyright case

A London high court has upheld a previous ruling against Icelandic artist Oddur Fridriksson, known as Odee, ordering him to surrender ownership of his conceptual artwork *We’re Sorry* (2023). The work consisted of a website impersonating Samherji, Iceland’s largest fishing company, and featured a fake apology for the company’s role in the 2019 “fishrot” corruption scandal. Judge Anthony Mann rejected Odee’s final appeal, affirming that the artwork constituted copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and malicious falsehood. The artist must now hand over control of the domain samherji.co.uk to the corporation.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 25, 2025 visibility 14 link 9 artists

alan sonfist seeds of time

American artist Alan Sonfist, a pioneer of the Land Art movement known for his 1978 work "Time Landscape" in New York City, has opened a solo exhibition titled "Seeds of Time" at Parco Arte Vivente (PAV) in Turin, Italy. Curated by Marco Scotini, the show features a new installation, "Growth Between the Cracks" (2025), for which Sonfist collaborated with local residents to collect soil samples from overlooked urban spaces across Turin. The exhibition revisits Sonfist's early ecological works and includes a conversation between the artist and curator about the evolution of environmental art.

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article news schedule Jul 25, 2025 visibility 17 link 2 artists

uk high court rejects artists final appeal after he issued fake apology for fishing firms alleged role in fishrot scandal

The UK High Court has rejected a final appeal by Icelandic artist Oddur Eysteinn Friðriksson, known as ODEE, to retain ownership of his conceptual artwork *We're Sorry* (2023), a fake website that mimicked Iceland's largest fishing company Samherji and apologized for its alleged role in the Fishrot corruption scandal. Judge Anthony Mann upheld a previous order requiring ODEE to surrender control of the domain, ruling that the site was not a parody and constituted an instrument of fraud, thus not protected under Article 10 of the Human Rights Act.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 16, 2025 visibility 8 link 5 artists

global auction sales h1 2025 arttactic analysis

Global auction sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips fell 6.2% in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period last year, while the number of lots sold rose 1.3%. ArtTactic’s analysis reveals significant category shifts: post-war and contemporary art dropped 19.3% to $1.22 billion, impressionist and modern art fell 7.7% to $989.5 million, and luxury sales were nearly flat. In contrast, Old Masters surged 35.6% to $171.2 million, and design, decorative arts, and furniture rose 20.4% to $172 million. The decline in high-value trophy lots, including the withdrawal of Andy Warhol’s *Big Electric Chair* and Alberto Giacometti’s *Grande tête mince*, contributed to the slump in contemporary sales.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 16, 2025 visibility 11 link 8 artists

christies first half results 2025

Christie's reported that its auction sales for the first half of 2025 totaled $2.1 billion, identical to the same period last year, suggesting the art market may be stabilizing. However, the $2.1 billion figure marked a 22 percent drop from the first half of 2023, indicating stabilization at a lower level. The house sold seven of the top 10 works at auction, led by Piet Mondrian's *Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black, and Blue* (1921) for $47.6 million from the collection of Barnes & Noble founder Leonard Riggio. Luxury sales rose 29 percent, while Old Master sales increased 15 percent, but Asian art and Classics fell 28 percent and 32 percent respectively. The Americas led buyer activity at 45 percent, followed by EMEA at 34 percent and APAC at 21 percent.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 11, 2025 visibility 16 link 6 artists

man ray rediscovered

A rediscovered watercolor sketch by Man Ray, created in 1913 when he was in his early twenties, has resurfaced after decades in an attic and sold for £18,000 ($24,000) at Dreweatts auction house in Newbury, England, on July 10. The work, titled *Nude Playing Musical Instrument [Study for “Tapestry Painting”]*, is a preparatory study for a lost larger oil-on-linen tapestry and offers rare insight into the artist's pivotal transition from traditional painting to avant-garde experimentation inspired by European modernism encountered at the 1913 Armory Show.

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article culture schedule Jun 30, 2025 visibility 12 link 2 artists

bob dylan point blank book

Bob Dylan, at 84, is releasing a new book titled *Point Blank (Quick Studies)* in November 2025, published by Simon & Schuster. The volume collects about 100 drawings he created between 2021 and 2022, featuring portraits, still lifes, and landscapes in black-and-white. The works were originally the foundation for his current exhibition of the same name at Halcyon Gallery in London, on view through July 6. The book includes prose contributions from writers Lucy Sante and Eddie Gorodetsky.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 26, 2025 visibility 16 link 4 artists

ai weiwei major installation ukraine

Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei will debut a major new installation in Kyiv, Ukraine, this fall at Pavilion 13, a Soviet-era glass exposition hall that recently reopened as a cultural venue after renovation by architectural firm Forma. The work, titled *Three Perfectly Proportioned Spheres and Camouflage Uniforms Painted White* (2025), features metal spheres inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's mathematical illustrations, encased in camouflage fabric thinly painted white, exploring themes of concealment, reality, and war. Commissioned by the nonprofit Ribbon International, the installation will be on view from September 14 to November 30, 2025, alongside a site-responsive intervention by Berlin-based artist Sam Lewitt.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 18, 2025 visibility 11 link 2 artists

picasso ceramics auction geneva

A rare collection of seven unique Picasso ceramics, hand-painted between 1947 and 1964 at the Madoura Pottery Workshop in Vallauris, France, will be auctioned at Piguet in Geneva on Thursday. The pieces, including plates and platters featuring animals and motifs from Picasso's oeuvre, have been in private hands for nearly 40 years after being gifted from the Picasso estate to a friend in the 1980s. Estimates range from 20,000 to 50,000 Swiss francs, with a pigeon platter expected to fetch the highest price. Two additional works on paper by Picasso from the same owner are also included in the sale.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 12, 2025 visibility 13 link 5 artists

eames past prologue san francisco

An exhibition titled "Past as Prologue: The Last Decade of Furniture Design by Ray and Charles Eames" opens June 7 at the Transamerica Pyramid Center during San Francisco Design Week. Curated by Llisa Demetrios, the couple's granddaughter and chief curator of the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity, the show highlights the Eameses' often-overlooked final decade of collaboration (1968–1978). It features iconic designs like the side chair, executive chair, chess stool, and chaise, alongside rarely seen models and materials that reveal their iterative design process.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 10, 2025 visibility 14 link 5 artists

new institute of sexology celebrates history of erotic art film photography

The Wellcome Collection in London has opened a new exhibition titled "The Institute of Sexology," celebrating the history of erotic art, film, and photography. The show features a wide range of objects including archival material, ethnographic and medical artifacts, erotica, and works by contemporary artists such as John Stezaker, Sharon Hayes, Zanele Muholi, and Timothy Archibald. It highlights pioneers of sexology like Sigmund Freud, Alfred Kinsey, and Marie Stopes, and marks the first exhibition after the institution's £17.5 million expansion, inaugurating a new gallery for large, year-long shows.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 9, 2025 visibility 22 link 16 artists

new york sales underperform may 2025

Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips collectively fell short of their spring auction expectations, bringing in just over $1 billion in evening sales against estimates of $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion. The hammer total of $837.5 million was down from $1.4 billion in the same week last year and $1.8 billion in 2022, with a notable drop in high-priced works and fading interest in emerging artists. The top ten lots generated $278.6 million, a 63 percent decline from 2022, and only a handful of artists under 45 appeared in evening sales, compared to previous years.

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trending_up market schedule May 28, 2025 visibility 17 link 4 artists

lost gustav klimt portrait african prince tefaf maastricht

A long-lost Gustav Klimt portrait of an African prince, missing since World War II, has resurfaced and is now on view at TEFAF Maastricht with a €15 million ($16.4 million) price tag. The painting, titled *Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuona* (1897), was brought to W&K – Wienerroither & Kohlbacher Gallery in 2023 in poor condition, but a stamp from Klimt's estate led to its identification by catalog raisonné author Alfred Weidinger, who had searched for it for two decades. The work depicts an Osu prince from present-day Ghana, created after Klimt attended an ethnographic exhibition at Vienna's Tiergarten am Schüttel where Osu people were put on display. The painting had been owned by Ernestine and Felix Klein, Jewish collectors who fled the Nazis, and is now being shown after a restitution settlement with Klein's heirs.

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article policy schedule May 23, 2025 visibility 14 link 5 artists

louisville art historian resigns statue louis xvi damaged

Chris Reitz, an art historian and chair of Louisville’s Commission on Public Art, has resigned in protest over the city’s plan to restore a statue of King Louis XVI that was damaged by protesters in May 2020 following the police killing of Breonna Taylor. In an op-ed, Reitz argued that the $200,000 restoration cost is unjustified for a statue he deems beyond repair, and accused city officials of trying to erase evidence of the protests. The statue, created by Achille Valois, was originally erected in France in 1829 and gifted to Louisville in 1966; it was vandalized on the same day the city released 911 calls from Taylor’s killing.

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article news schedule May 19, 2025 visibility 21 link 29 artists

new talent art in america 2025

Art in America, the sister publication of ARTnews, has released its Summer 2025 issue featuring profiles of 20 emerging artists selected as "New Talent." The list includes artists from around the world working in various mediums, such as Agnes Questionmark, Aislan Pankararu, Alejandro García Contreras, Alison Nguyen, and others. This marks a continuation of the magazine's long-running "New Talent" designation, which began in 1954 and ran regularly until 1966, was relaunched in summer 2021, and has continued since.

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article news schedule Apr 29, 2025 visibility 6 link 3 artists

dutch municipality trashes of andy warhol print

The Dutch municipality of Maashorst accidentally threw out a valuable Andy Warhol silk-screen print of former Queen Beatrix, along with nearly 50 other artworks, during a town hall renovation. An independent investigation commissioned by the municipality, first reported by the New York Times, was inconclusive, and officials acknowledged the error in a letter to the council, stating that recovery of the missing works is unlikely. The Warhol print, from the Reigning Queens series (1985), is valued between $40,000 and $50,000.

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article news schedule May 4, 2026 visibility 22 link 4 artists

Anish Kapoor says US’s ‘politics of hate’ should exclude it from Venice Biennale

Anish Kapoor has called for the United States to be excluded from the Venice Biennale, citing the country's "abhorrent politics of hate" and "incessant warmongering." His comments follow the resignation of the five-member international jury, who stepped down in protest over the inclusion of Israel and Russia. Kapoor praised the jury's decision as "courageous" but argued they should have also targeted the US. The US pavilion, featuring artist Alma Allen and his exhibition "Call Me the Breeze," has faced scrutiny over perceived Trump administration interference and a delayed selection process. Meanwhile, the Israeli and Russian pavilions remain flashpoints, with over 200 participants signing a letter demanding the cancellation of the Israeli pavilion, and the Russian pavilion closed to the public but viewable through windows.

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candle obituary schedule Apr 16, 2026 visibility 15 link 4 artists

Chris Mullen obituary

Chris Mullen, a distinguished educator and historian of art and design, has died at the age of 81. Throughout a career spanning over three decades at the Norwich School of Art and the University of Brighton, Mullen became a pivotal figure in integrating contextual studies with studio practice. He was renowned for his vast personal archive of printed ephemera and his digital project, "The Visual Telling of Stories," which served as a vital resource for generations of students and researchers.

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trending_up market schedule May 20, 2026 visibility 1 link 9 artists, 2 galleries

Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art: Online - Christie's

Christie's is presenting an online sale titled "Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art: Online" from June 2–16, 2026, in London. The auction features 62 lots by leading modern and contemporary artists from the Gulf, the Levant, Iraq, Iran, and North Africa, including works by Samia Halaby, Saliba Douaihy, Baya, Parviz Tanavoli, Mohamed Melehi, and Abdul Halim Radwi. The sale marks 20 years since Christie's inaugural Middle Eastern art auction in the UAE in 2006.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 20, 2026 visibility 1 link 9 artists, 1 gallery

Singapore Art Museum at 30: tough decisions

The Singapore Art Museum (SAM) is celebrating its 30th anniversary while navigating the challenges of its 2022 relocation to Tanjong Pagar Distripark, a remote industrial building that has drawn mixed reactions—some visitors find it too inaccessible, while younger audiences applaud the move away from the colonial civic district. Director and CEO Eugene Tan defends the decision, citing the building's high ceilings and flexible spaces as ideal for contemporary art, and announces a fifth gallery opening by 2026 that will bring total exhibition space to 3,800 square meters. The museum also plans to experiment with open-air exhibition techniques in the new space, aiming to reduce energy demands.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 20, 2026 visibility 2 link 6 artists, 1 gallery

Art Gallery of NSW to unveil landmark exhibition exploring the many forms of Vishnu

The Art Gallery of New South Wales will open 'Avatar: Forms of Vishnu' in June, its largest exhibition of South and Southeast Asian art in over two decades. Featuring more than 200 works spanning 1,500 years, the show includes ancient sculptures, paintings, textiles, photography, and contemporary installations from institutions such as the British Museum, Ashmolean Museum, and National Museum of Cambodia. Curated by Melanie Eastburn and Chaitanya Sambrani, the exhibition explores artistic interpretations of Vishnu and his avatars across cultural, political, and spiritual contexts, with new commissions by Desmond Lazaro and Sumakshi Singh, and works by Nalini Malani, Pushpamala N, Gulammohammed Sheikh, and Jumaadi.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 5, 2026 visibility 25 link 8 artists, 1 gallery

Take a Look Inside This Year's 2026 Met Gala 'Costume Art' Exhibition

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced its spring 2026 Costume Institute exhibition titled "Costume Art," along with the accompanying Met Gala fundraiser scheduled for May 4, 2026, with a "Fashion is Art" dress code. The exhibition will debut in the newly designed 12,000-square-foot Condé M. Nast Galleries, featuring nearly 400 objects that juxtapose historical garments with fine art across thematic bodily categories such as the "Classical Body" and "Pregnant Body." Curated by Andrew Bolton, the show includes standout pairings like a Glenn Martens suit with an ancient marble statue and a Comme des Garçons ensemble with a Max Weber painting, with mannequins featuring polished steel heads by artist Samar Hejazi.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 4, 2026 visibility 23 link 13 artists, 1 gallery

Exclusive | Met Gala 2026 and ‘Costume Art’ brashly transform flesh, bones and guts into too-cool couture

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute will debut its spring 2026 exhibition, “Costume Art,” on May 10, preceded by the Met Gala on May 4. The exhibition explores the dressed body in all forms—nude, pregnant, plus-size, disabled, aging, and internal—and features fashion designer Renata Buzzo’s hand-stitched “Corset Anatomia” from her 2024 collection “The Body.” Buzzo was personally selected by curator Andrew Bolton and donated her pieces. The exhibition will be housed in the new Condé M. Nast Galleries, an 11,500-square-foot space that will make fashion galleries the first thing visitors see upon entering the Great Hall. The Met Gala, co-chaired by Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour, raised a record $31 million in 2025 and will follow the dress code “Fashion is Art.”

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 22, 2026 visibility 26 link 16 artists, 1 gallery

Confronting the Uncertain Future Of Image Making and AI — These Houston Photography Exhibitions Keep It Real

Two new photography exhibitions in Houston explore the past and future of image-making. At Moody Gallery, a retrospective titled "MANUAL — The Collaboration of Ed Hill & Suzanne Bloom, 1974-2024" honors the legacy of the groundbreaking photographic duo MANUAL, co-founded by Ed Hill and the late Suzanne Bloom, who passed away in 2025. The show, closing April 25, features works inspired by art history, literature, and nature, including pieces referencing Paul Cézanne and Walt Whitman. Meanwhile, at Rice University's Moody Center for the Arts, the group exhibition "Imaging After Photography" (through May 9) examines the intersection of photography and artificial intelligence, featuring artists like Trevor Paglen, Refik Anadol, and Joan Fontcuberta, and raising questions about bias in datasets and algorithms.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jan 8, 2026 visibility 29 link 39 artists, 1 gallery

Groundbreaker Private Tour of the Spirit House Contemporary Art Exhibition at UW's Henry Gallery [SOLD OUT]

On January 8, 2026, Asia Society Seattle will host a private tour of the exhibition "Spirit House" at the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington, led by Associate Curator Swagato Chakravorty. The event is invite-only for the society's Advisory Council, Corporate Members, Groundbreaker and Innovator members, and donors. The exhibition, organized by the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, features 34 contemporary artists of Asian descent exploring themes of life, death, spirituality, and diaspora through works that engage with spirit houses and ancestral connections.

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