joseph beuys daniel spaulding honigpumpe

Joseph Beuys remains one of the most polarizing figures in 20th-century art, a former Nazi soldier who reinvented himself as a shamanic healer and a founding member of the Green Party. A new monographic study by art historian Daniel Spaulding, 'Joseph Beuys and History', re-evaluates the artist's legacy by confronting his refusal to apologize for his wartime past and his use of ambiguous materials like fat and felt. Spaulding argues that Beuys’s work should be read through the lens of 'bad faith,' where his utopian slogans masked a deep, unresolved engagement with the horrors of the Holocaust.

Exclusive | The world's 100 most visited art museums in 2025: new venues a big hit with visitors

The Art Newspaper's 2025 survey of the world's 100 most visited art museums reveals a strong but uneven recovery from the pandemic, with total visits reaching over 200 million. New museums in the Middle East, East Asia, and major Western cities have been major hits with the public, driving significant attendance.

From The Magic Faraway Tree to 5 Seconds of Summer: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

The Guardian has published a comprehensive weekly entertainment guide covering cinema, gigs, art exhibitions, stage performances, and home entertainment options. The guide highlights new film releases like the adaptation of Enid Blyton's 'The Magic Faraway Tree' and the documentary 'Orwell: 2+2 = 5', major concerts from 5 Seconds of Summer, and art exhibitions featuring Estonian modernist Konrad Mägi and Scottish painter Joan Eardley.

The Best Booths at Art Basel Hong Kong, From AI Magical Girls to Asia’s Unsung Masters

Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 showcased a vibrant array of talent, with standout presentations across its curated sectors like Discoveries and Insights. Highlights included Vin Gallery's ceramic skeleton shadow puppets by Ako Goto, Lucie Chang Fine Arts' case for the late painter Zhu Xinjian, and gdm's pairing of Kongkee's lightbox sculptures with abstract works by Thai modernist Tang Chang. The fair also featured a monumental, self-sabotaged neon sign by Kongkee reading "Price / Value."

Frank O’Hara’s Curatorial Eye

The article examines the largely overlooked curatorial work of poet Frank O'Hara during his tenure at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It details his role in organizing significant exhibitions, championing emerging artists like Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, and his influential collaborations with artists such as Larry Rivers.

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.

Shoplifting, sex shows and sheepdog-breeding: great artists and the side-hustles they did to get by

The article explores the unconventional and often illicit side jobs that famous artists historically took to support their creative pursuits. It details examples like Jean Genet's specialized book theft, Jean-Luc Godard's pilfering of books and cash, Chantal Akerman's ticket-skimming at a porn theater, and Kathy Acker's simulated sex show performances, highlighting how financial necessity drove them to inventive, sometimes desperate, measures.

christopher columbus statue white house grounds

A replica of a Christopher Columbus statue was installed on the White House grounds under the direction of the Trump administration. The sculpture is a reproduction of a monument that was toppled and thrown into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor by protesters during the 2020 racial justice movements. Created by artist Will Hemsley using scans of the original fragments, the project was previously funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and has now been placed near the West Wing as part of preparations for the 250th anniversary of American independence.

Churchill Landscape Gets First U.K. Showing in Exhibition Tracing His Artistic Life

An exhibition titled "Churchill the Artist" has opened at Chartwell, Winston Churchill's former home in Kent, England. The show features personal artifacts like his paint-spattered Savile Row overalls and spectacles, alongside paintings, including the first U.K. display of his work "Quiet Waters," a gift to his friend Lord Beaverbrook.

new museum 43 million expansion

The New Museum in New York has announced a major $80 million capital campaign to double its physical footprint on the Bowery. The expansion will utilize an adjacent building already owned by the institution, increasing the total space from 58,000 to over 100,000 square feet. The museum has already secured $43 million of its goal, bolstered by a record-breaking undisclosed donation from longtime supporter Toby Devan Lewis.

massimiliano gioni interview

Massimiliano Gioni and Beatrice Trussardi have launched the Beatrice Trussardi Foundation, a nomadic art initiative that debuted with an installation by Polish artist Paweł Althamer in a remote 17th-century hut in Switzerland's Engadin Valley. The project, featuring a sculpture of St. Francis and a series of happenings, marks a new chapter for the duo who previously spent two decades staging ephemeral public art projects in Milan. The foundation aims to operate without a permanent home, bringing site-specific contemporary art to unexpected global locations.

British Museum did not remove Palestine from labels due to pressure campaign, museum sources say—as backlash continues

Over 200 cultural figures, including musician Brian Eno and writer Laleh Khalili, have signed an open letter condemning the British Museum for allegedly removing the word "Palestine" from labels in its Ancient Levant gallery. The letter, published in March, accuses the museum of historical revisionism and links the action to pressure from the advocacy group UK Lawyers for Israel, while also criticizing the museum's broader ties to Israel.

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.

acer tags new museum graffiti

An anonymous graffiti artist known as Acer 444 successfully tagged the third-story facade of the New Museum on New York’s Bowery. The large-scale piece, featuring black lettering against a red background, was placed in a precarious, high-visibility location directly above Glenn Ligon’s neon installation. Despite the museum's security measures and its specialized aluminum mesh exterior, the artist managed to complete the work undetected before maintenance crews began removal efforts the following morning.

‘Absolutely transformative’: Willem de Kooning exhibition uncovers raw intensity of early work

The Princeton University Art Museum is presenting "Willem de Kooning: The Breakthrough Years," an exhibition revisiting the pivotal period from 1945-1950 that led to the artist's first solo show and established his reputation. The show features 18 paintings, including key works like *Black Friday* and *Dark Pond*, highlighting his intense exploration between figuration and abstraction with a restricted palette.

7 museum openings of 2025

The global art landscape is set for a significant transformation in 2025 with the opening of several high-profile museum projects. These range from the long-awaited reopening of New York’s Frick Collection and the Studio Museum in Harlem to ambitious international debuts like the PoMo museum in Norway and the Fenix Museum of Migration Stories in Rotterdam. These projects feature designs by world-renowned architects including Annabelle Selldorf, India Mahdavi, and MAD Architects, often repurposing historic structures with bold contemporary additions.

london national gallery revamp

The National Gallery in London has unveiled its £85 million ($113 million) renovation of the Sainsbury Wing, marking the culmination of the museum's bicentenary celebrations. Led by architect Annabelle Selldorf, the project transformed the postmodernist building into the museum's primary accessible entrance, featuring a more spacious atrium, clear glass walls to invite natural light, and a significant rehang of the permanent collection. The redesign aimed to resolve long-standing issues with visitor flow and accessibility while preserving the building's iconic grand staircase.

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.

‘Old masters too’: Ghent exhibition celebrates female artists of the baroque

The Ghent Museum of Fine Arts (MSK) has opened the exhibition 'Unforgettable: Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600-1750,' featuring over 40 female artists from the Baroque period in the Low Countries. The show highlights painters like Judith Leyster and Maria van Oosterwijck, as well as practitioners of crafts like paper-cutting and lace-making, aiming to restore these women to a historical narrative dominated by male 'Old Masters' like Rembrandt and Vermeer.

Rosalía Apologizes for Picasso Comments on TikTok

rosalia apologizes picasso comments tiktok

Spanish pop star Rosalía issued a public apology on TikTok after facing backlash for comments regarding Pablo Picasso. During a podcast interview with writer Mariana Enriquez, the singer initially stated she did not care to differentiate Picasso’s art from his personal life; however, she later retracted those statements, admitting she was unaware of the artist's well-documented history of physical and emotional abuse toward women.

rauschenberg centennial award senga nengudi david thomson

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation has announced the recipients of its Rauschenberg Centennial Awards, granting $100,000 in unrestricted funds to five creators across four disciplines. The winners include Senga Nengudi for art, David Thomson for performance, Chandra McCormick and Keith Calhoun for photography, and Patricia Spears Jones for writing. Established to commemorate the late artist’s 100th birthday in 2025, the awards recognize alumni of the foundation’s Captiva Residency program who demonstrate artistic excellence and community impact.

The rise and fall of ‘buy-one, give-one’ art sales

A once-common sales tactic in the contemporary art market, known as "buy-one, give-one" or "bogo," has significantly declined. Under this arrangement, collectors gained preferential access to in-demand artists' paintings by agreeing to purchase two works and donating one to a museum. The practice peaked from 2021 to 2023, with institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, acquiring works this way.

Masterpieces From London’s National Gallery, Now on Display at Home With LG Gallery+

The National Gallery in London has partnered with LG Electronics to make over 4,000 images from its collection available on the LG Gallery+ digital platform. Users can now display high-quality digital reproductions of masterpieces by artists like Monet, Gauguin, and Seurat on their LG OLED screens at home, using a curated, playlist-like interface called LG Gallery+ Shelves.

Marina Abramović Is the Unlikely Star of the New Balloon Museum

Marina Abramović Is the Unlikely Star of the New Balloon Museum

Performance artist Marina Abramović has created a large-scale inflatable installation for the new permanent New York outpost of the Balloon Museum. Titled *Snowy/Windy/Spring On The Planet Z*, the immersive work transforms the Tin Building into an imagined extraterrestrial meadow filled with balloon sculptures, light, and air currents, opening in July 2026.

art industry news january 23 2020

A high-profile fundraising campaign led by the Art Fund is underway to save Prospect Cottage, the former home of artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman. Supported by figures like Tilda Swinton and Jeremy Deller, the initiative seeks to raise £3.5 million to preserve the site and its archive for public tours and artist residencies. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Museum of Art's CEO, Timothy Rub, has issued an apology regarding the institution's handling of sexual harassment allegations against former manager Joshua Helmer.

a wake up call for the whitney biennial

The Yams Collective, a group of African American artists, has withdrawn from the 2014 Whitney Biennial in protest. Their departure centers on the inclusion of Joe Scanlan, a white artist whose long-running project involves hiring Black women to portray a fictional artist named Donelle Woolford. The collective argues that Scanlan’s work, which is listed in the biennial under the fictional artist's name rather than his own, is a form of racial drag that is particularly offensive within an exhibition already criticized for its lack of diversity.

critical reduction the 2014 whitney biennial 5409

The 2014 Whitney Biennial has debuted with a controversial three-curator structure, tasking Michelle Grabner, Stuart Comer, and Anthony Elms with organizing separate floors of the museum. This meta-review aggregates the initial critical reception from major publications, noting that the fragmented format has forced critics to evaluate the exhibition as three distinct shows rather than a unified vision.

Picasso Exhibition at Burgos Cathedral Explores Artist's Biblical Roots

picasso burgos cathedral show

The Catedral de Santa María in Burgos is hosting "Picasso: Biblical Roots," an exhibition exploring the enduring influence of Christian iconography on Pablo Picasso. Featuring 44 works loaned from major institutions like the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen-Bornemisza, the show traces the artist's journey from his early academic religious paintings in Spain to the subtle theological motifs found in his later Cubist and post-war works.

scarcity rarity artnet 20th century art auction

Artnet Auctions has launched its "20th Century Art" sale, featuring works by blue-chip masters including Joan Miró, Yves Klein, and Andy Warhol. The auction, curated by specialists Sylvie François Sturtevant and Jason Rulnick, highlights the distinction between "rarity"—objects that are unusual due to limited production or historical loss—and "scarcity"—where high market demand outstrips the available supply of editioned works.

Art Oscar Picks, Whitney Biennial Star Pat Oleszko, Wet Paint

art oscar picks whitney biennial star pat oleszko wet paint

This installment of the Wet Paint gossip column reports on several high-profile developments within the New York and Los Angeles art scenes. Key highlights include internal museum deliberations at the Whitney Museum regarding Precious Okoyomon’s provocative installation for the upcoming Biennial, which features dolls hanging from nooses, and sightings of former Artforum editor David Velasco meeting with Whitney director Scott Rothkopf. Additionally, the column tracks celebrity sightings at Frieze Los Angeles and confirms Lotus L. Kang as the artist for Bvlgari’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale.