« Le jardin anglais incarne une vision de la société » : une expo à Versailles explore cette passion de l’Europe des Lumières

The article explores an exhibition at the Grand Trianon in Versailles dedicated to the English garden, a style that emerged in 18th-century Europe as a deliberate contrast to the rigid symmetry of the formal French garden. Curator Élisabeth Maisonnier and museum director Laurent Salomé explain how these gardens, with their winding paths, irregular flowerbeds, and surprise features like grottoes and pagodas, were carefully constructed to imitate and amplify nature's complexity, drawing on influences from antiquity, the Middle Ages, and China.

The Best and Worst of the Stars at the 2026 Met Gala Inspired by Art History

Le meilleur et le pire des stars au Met Gala 2026 inspiré par l’histoire de l’art

On May 4, 2026, the Met Gala brought together 450 guests at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York under the theme "Fashion is Art," tied to the exhibition "Costume Art." Attendees were asked to draw inspiration from specific artworks, resulting in standout looks: Madonna channeled Leonora Carrington's "The Temptation of Saint Anthony" (1945) in a Saint Laurent gown, Kim Kardashian wore a custom piece by Allen Jones extending his "Cover Story 4/4" (2021), Hunter Schafer embodied Gustav Klimt's portrait "Mäda Primavesi" (1912-1913) in Prada, and Tessa Thompson referenced Yves Klein's "Anthropométries" in Valentino. Gracie Abrams also paid homage to Klimt's "The Kiss."

Au musée Marmottan Monet, la peinture de Giovanni Segantini hisse la modernité au sommet des Alpes

The Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris is hosting the first retrospective in France of Giovanni Segantini (1858–1899), a major but little-known figure of Symbolism. The exhibition traces his career through the lens of his geographical ascent into the Alps, from his early success with "Ave Maria à la traversée" (1886–1888) to his final triptych "La Vie, La Nature, La Mort," which he was working on when he died at age 41. Segantini's divisionist technique, which Vassily Kandinsky considered a precursor to abstraction, is highlighted as a means of expressing a dematerialized vision of the world.

Museum Night, Photomobiles… 10 outing ideas for the month of May

Nuit des musées, Photomobiles… 10 idées de sorties à faire au mois de mai

Beaux Arts Magazine presents a curated list of ten cultural outings across France for May 2026, highlighting events such as the Nouveau Printemps festival in Toulouse directed by Rossy de Palma, the Interstice festival in Caen focusing on emerging art and technology, the L'art est dans le pré festival in Troyes featuring contemporary art in rural villages, an immersive installation at the Musée d'Orsay tied to the Renoir exhibition, and the Cœurs-Volants kite festival in Essonne where architecture students create flying artworks. Other suggestions include outdoor art trails, heritage site sports programs, and literary festivals in Épinal and Seine-Maritime.

Which museums are free on the first Sunday of the month in Paris and Île-de-France?

Quels musées sont gratuits ce 1er dimanche du mois à Paris et en Île-de-France ?

This article from Beaux Arts Magazine lists museums in Paris and Île-de-France that offer free admission on the first Sunday of each month, including the Musée de l'Orangerie, Musée national Picasso-Paris, Musée des Arts et Métiers, Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Musée Carnavalet, Musée Cognacq-Jay, Crypte archéologique de l'île de la Cité, Maison Victor Hugo, and Musée de Cluny. It also notes that municipal museums in Paris are free year-round, and provides practical tips such as booking online and taking advantage of free entry for visitors under 18 or 26.

Near Paris, this mythical restaurant transports us into a Renoir masterpiece

Près de Paris, ce mythique restaurant nous transporte dans un chef-d’œuvre de Renoir

The historic Maison Fournaise in Chatou, a legendary riverside restaurant and inn near Paris, has been meticulously restored to its 19th-century glory. Once a central hub for the Impressionist movement, the site served as the specific setting for Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s 1881 masterpiece, "Luncheon of the Boating Party." The restoration, led by the Ludéric group and featuring a menu by Michelin-starred chef Christian Le Squer, coincides with major Renoir exhibitions at the Musée d’Orsay.

The Beautiful Renaissance of the [mac] in Marseille

La belle renaissance du [mac] à Marseille

The [mac] (Musée d’Art Contemporain) in Marseille is undergoing a significant revival following years of stagnation and underfunding. Under the new leadership of Stéphanie Airaud, who was appointed in 2023, the museum has completed major renovations including updated storage facilities, a new rooftop terrace, and a reorganized gallery layout. The institution is leveraging its impressive but previously underutilized collection of over 1,000 works—featuring masters like Basquiat, Klein, and Saint Phalle—while actively working to correct historical gender imbalances and strengthen ties to Mediterranean contemporary art.

Kerstin Brätsch at Kunstmuseum Bonn

German artist Kerstin Brätsch has opened a comprehensive solo exhibition titled "MƎTAATEM" at Kunstmuseum Bonn. The presentation features a vast array of works that document her experimental approach to painting, including her signature use of glass, marbling, and collaborative processes that challenge the traditional boundaries of the medium.

John Giorno “The Performative Word” at MAMbo, Bologna

A major retrospective exhibition dedicated to John Giorno, titled "The Performative Word," has opened at MAMbo, the Museum of Modern Art of Bologna. The show, curated by Andrea Bellini and Vincente Todolí, explores Giorno's multidisciplinary practice as a poet, artist, and activist, highlighting his collaborations and his innovative approach to making poetry a performative and visual experience.

frances mcdormand suzanne bocanegra hauser and wirth 1234762595

Actor Frances McDormand and performance artist Suzanne Bocanegra have debuted a new iteration of their multi-sensory installation, 'CRADLED', at Hauser & Wirth’s downtown Los Angeles location. Developed in collaboration with the Shaker Museum, the exhibition features adult-sized cradles and Shaker furniture designed for care and infirmity. The performance-based installation explores themes of mortality, loneliness, and communal care through the lens of Shaker craft and spiritual tradition.

Berlin in Art Spring

Berlin im Kunstfrühling

The Monopol podcast "Kunst und Leben" previews the upcoming Gallery Weekend Berlin, taking place from May 1 to 3. Editors Elke Buhr and Silke Hohmann share their personal watchlist of must-see exhibitions, including shows by Daniel Buren and Lawrence Weiner at Konrad Fischer, Candice Breitz at KOW, Heimo Zobernig at Nagel Draxler, and Jorinde Voigt at Mercator Höfe. The episode also covers performances, tattoo art on moving cars, tapestries, robot dogs, and tips for navigating the weekend.

Olivia Rodrigo’s New Music Video Is a Dizzying Romp Through Versailles

Pop star Olivia Rodrigo has released the music video for her new single "Drop Dead," filmed on location at the Palace of Versailles. Directed by Petra Collins, the production marks the first time a music video has been granted permission to film inside the palace's royal apartments, including the Queen's Bedroom and the Grand Couvert Antechamber. The video features Rodrigo performing alongside historic masterpieces, such as Pierre Mignard’s 17th-century tapestry "Apollo and the Muses on Mount Parnassus."

‘It’s a tiny bit of joy!’ How trinket swapping is making the world a happier place, one china sheep at a time

Trinket exchange boxes, where people swap small items like pins, stickers, and ceramic animals, are rapidly spreading across the UK and US. The phenomenon, which began in Philadelphia in autumn 2024, has grown from 800 to nearly 1,500 installations in two months, according to Portland-based artist Rachael Harms Mahlandt, who tracks them on a world map. In Edinburgh, pet-sitter Sam Stevens runs a popular pink box outside Argonaut Books, inspired by a San Francisco exchange, and has seen her follower count jump overnight as locals trade trinkets for fun.

Fiona Pardington’s portraits of the lost birds of Aotearoa New Zealand – in pictures

Fiona Pardington has created a new series of human-scale photographic portraits of native New Zealand birds, many of which are extinct or endangered, using taxidermy specimens from regional museums. The series, titled "Taharaki Skyside," will be exhibited at the Aotearoa New Zealand pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale. Pardington, who has Māori and Scottish ancestry, incorporates the birds' eyes with superimposed historical landscapes to evoke their lost habitats and spiritual significance as intermediaries between human and divine worlds in Māori culture.

Simply divine: the extraordinary supernatural visions of Francisco de Zurbarán

Francisco de Zurbarán, one of the three great Spanish 17th-century painters alongside Velázquez and Murillo, is finally receiving his first solo exhibition in the UK at the National Gallery in London. The show highlights his distinctive style of religious painting, characterized by stark chiaroscuro, sculptural realism, and a meditative stillness that makes the immaterial seem tangible. Works such as his crucified Christ and The Apparition of Saint Peter to Saint Peter Nolasco exemplify his ability to depict visions and inner spirituality, often commissioned by powerful religious foundations in Seville during the Counter-Reformation.

fondazione dries van noten opens with inaugural exhibition at palazzo pisani moretta, venice

Fondazione Dries Van Noten has opened at Palazzo Pisani Moretta in Venice with its inaugural exhibition, "The Only True Protest Is Beauty," running from April 25 to October 4, 2026. Curated by Dries Van Noten himself, the show features over 200 works across twenty rooms, blending fashion, art, design, ceramics, glass, and photography. Highlights include archival pieces by Christian Lacroix and Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons, alongside works by emerging and established artists such as Ayham Hassan, Peter Buggenhout, Ritsue Mishima, and Misha Kahn. The exhibition avoids a fixed curatorial logic, instead using instinctive juxtapositions to explore beauty as tension and disruption.

Amanda Heng Walks the Walk

Singaporean artist Amanda Heng, now 74, is representing Singapore at this year's Venice Biennale with her exhibition titled *A Pause*, featuring a site-specific installation and durational performance. Known for her decades-long performance *Let's Chat* (1996–), in which she cleans mung bean sprouts with participants to foster casual conversation, Heng transforms everyday domestic gestures into feminist acts. Her work reclaims the body, labor, and relationships as sites of personal autonomy. She was part of the pioneering, male-dominated generation of Singaporean contemporary artists in The Artists Village, but left due to its hierarchical structure to pursue collaborations with women artists and further studies.

Venice Golden Lion jury won’t consider Russian and Israeli pavilions

The jury for the Golden and Silver Lion awards at the 61st Venice Biennale has announced it will not consider the national pavilions of any country whose leaders are currently charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. This decision specifically excludes Russia, whose president Vladimir Putin is charged with unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children, and Israel, whose prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is charged with targeting Palestinian civilians and using starvation as a weapon. The jury, presided over by Solange Oliveira Farkas and including Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma, and Giovanna Zapperi, issued a full statement explaining their commitment to human rights and alignment with the curatorial vision of the late Koyo Kouoh.

Chanel Will Launch New Culture Fund Fellowship With the Guggenheim

Chanel will launch an annual, one-year fellowship in fall 2026 in collaboration with the Guggenheim. The Chanel Culture Fund Fellowship will host a fellow in New York and at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, targeting MA and PhD-level scholars dedicated to collection studies and curatorial research. The program complements existing Guggenheim fellowship and internship programs, aiming to nurture emerging talent in modern and contemporary art curation.

Hans Ulrich Obrist Reveals the One Artist Who Refused to Let Him Into Their Studio

Hans Ulrich Obrist, the artistic director of London's Serpentine Galleries, revealed in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that he has never been able to secure a studio visit with the reclusive painter Jasper Johns. Obrist, known for his extensive artist interviews and visits, stated that Johns, now 95, "doesn't see anyone," making him the one artist who has consistently refused Obrist's requests.

Mind the baby! Visitors to the Japanese Venice Biennale pavilion will be asked to look after dolls

Ei Arakawa-Nash, a Japanese-born artist who no longer holds Japanese citizenship, will represent Japan at the Venice Biennale with an exhibition titled "Grass Babies, Moon Babies." The pavilion will feature over 100 baby dolls that visitors are invited to adopt and carry, engaging in caregiving tasks such as changing a nappy. Each doll corresponds to a historically significant date tied to minority communities, linking intimate acts of care to broader historical narratives. The project also includes a collaboration with the Korean Pavilion, marking the first such partnership between the two national pavilions in Biennale history.

Marietta Museum of Art & Whimsy closing for summer, but 37 other exhibitions on view at museums in May

The article provides a roundup of museum exhibitions on view in Southwest Florida during May, highlighting five new openings, eight closings, and 25 continuing shows across museums from Sarasota to Naples. Featured exhibitions include Molly Hatch's site-specific ceramic installation "Amalgam" at Sarasota Art Museum, Jillian Mayer's interactive "Slumpies" sculptures, a group show "Something Borrowed, Something New" with works by Louise Bourgeois, Chuck Close, David Hockney, Yoko Ono, Kara Walker, and Ai Weiwei, and Maria A. Guzman Capron's solo textile exhibition "Penumbra." The Marietta Museum of Art & Whimsy is noted as closing for the summer.

Mary Frank Creates Her Own Pantheon

Mary Frank, an artist in her early 90s known for mythologically rooted sculpture and works on paper, is the subject of a focused exhibition at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects in New York. Curated by Steven Harvey, the show presents 11 sculptures in wood, bronze, and ceramic from 1958 to 1985, alongside five works on paper, including a monotype and an oil-on-paper piece. Frank’s work, influenced by her study with Martha Graham, centers on self-sustaining female figures that embody agency, tenderness, and survival, often rendered in ceramic slabs or carved wood.

Who Do Chicago’s Art Fairs Serve?

Expo Chicago and its satellite fairs serve as a complex barometer for the Midwestern arts ecosystem, highlighting both the successes of local representation and the tensions of institutional growth. While galleries like Andrew Rafacz and Corbett vs. Dempsey demonstrate viable career paths for Chicago-based artists like Melissa Leandro and Gabrielle Garland, the fair's shifting structure reveals a narrowing field for smaller nonprofits.

8 New Art Exhibitions You Cannot Miss This May

This May, galleries across India are presenting a diverse array of new art exhibitions, ranging from postcolonial installations and forgotten print histories to deeply personal paintings and sculptural storytelling. Highlights include Sri Lankan artist Shanaka Kulathunga's solo show 'Silent Stories' at Bikaner House, exploring memory and displacement; the group exhibition 'In the Telling' at Chemould Prescott Road in Mumbai, focusing on narrative-making and fragmented memory; and 'An Ancient Ballad' at Emami Art in Kolkata, drawing from mythology and folklore. Other notable shows include a retrospective of modernist A. A. Raiba at Thapar Gallery, the politically charged 'The Architecture Of The Void' at Gallery Dotwalk, and Navjot Altaf's 'Waste Archives as Landscape' at CSMVS museum in Mumbai.

MOCAD Reopens with New Exhibitions from Detroit Artists

Detroit's Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCAD) has reopened after an eight-month closure for construction, unveiling four new exhibitions as part of its 2026 Spring Exhibition and 20th anniversary. The renovations include a new HVAC system, educational space, and windows that allow passersby to see inside. The building has been renamed the Julia Reyes Taubman Building in honor of the late co-founder, whose family contributed $1.8 million toward the $3 million first phase. Mayor Mary Sheffield toured the exhibitions at an April 23 media preview, praising the museum's role in community healing and access. Featured exhibitions include "Olayami Dabls: Detroit Cosmologies," the first retrospective of the artist's nearly 50-year career, showcasing his evolution from figurative acrylics to abstract collage.

London’s Most Talked-About Art Exhibitions Close This Weekend: Don’t Miss Your Final Chance to See Turner, Picasso, and New Contemporary Talent

Four major art exhibitions across London are entering their final weekend, with closing dates set for April 12, 2026. Highlights include Tate Britain’s face-off between landscape masters J.M.W. Turner and John Constable, and Tate Modern’s dual offerings: a deep dive into Pablo Picasso’s theatrical influences and Máret Ánne Sara’s monumental Hyundai Commission installation in the Turbine Hall. The South London Gallery is also concluding its showcase of the New Contemporaries, which highlights emerging artistic talent.

Boulder County’s latest art exhibits

The Boulder County arts community is hosting a diverse array of exhibitions across its galleries and museums this spring. Key highlights include Jorge Vinent’s environmentally focused works at Ana’s Art Gallery, the group exhibition "Yes &…" at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, and a historical exploration of segregation at the Collective Community Arts Center. The region is also showcasing student work from the Boulder Valley School District and various solo presentations by local artists like Rodney Carswell and Jessica Rohrer.

Art Dealers Try Their Hand as Artists in This Unusual Exhibition

White Columns, New York’s oldest alternative nonprofit art space, has launched a unique fundraising exhibition titled “Art (by) Dealers.” The show features works created by over 90 art dealers and gallery professionals rather than the artists they represent. Organized by Kathy Huang and Will Leung, the exhibition presents uniform 12-by-9-inch works priced at $500 each, sold anonymously to benefit the nonprofit's programming.

Aileen Murphy Sleeps on the Ceiling

Aileen Murphy's third exhibition at Deborah Schamoni in Munich, titled "Sleeps on the Ceiling," presents five new paintings dominated by rosé and pink tones. The works revolve around a table-like motif, featuring animals, disembodied limbs, and surreal details such as a white cat with red eyes and a yellow snake. Murphy, who completed her studies in 2018, blends abstract gestures with detailed figuration, creating scenes that are both playful and uncanny. The exhibition's title is borrowed from Elizabeth Bishop's poem "Sleeping on the Ceiling" (1946), reflecting a dissolution of domestic interior, urban monument, and psychological landscape.