Art News. Vasari Codex

article news schedule Apr 7, 2026 visibility 19 link 5 artists

Gods, emperors and eagles restored in Blenheim Palace roof-rescue mission

Blenheim Palace is nearing the completion of a £12m conservation project, the most extensive in the 300-year history of the UNESCO World Heritage site. Led by Donald Insall Associates, the initiative involved a massive logistical effort, including the construction of 31 miles of scaffolding and a one-acre protective tent to repair rotting timbers, crumbling stonework, and leaking roofs. The restoration also addressed the palace's iconic Baroque skyline, featuring statues of gods, emperors, and a 30-tonne marble bust of Louis XIV.

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museum exhibitions schedule Mar 31, 2026 visibility 16 link 1 artist

François-Xavier Gbré Uses His Photography to Fill in History’s Gaps

Artist François-Xavier Gbré's photographic series "Radio Ballast" made its US debut in a duo exhibition at the International Center of Photography in late January. The work documents the century-old railroad system in Côte d'Ivoire, built by French colonizers, exploring the country's colonial history, independence, and modernization through landscapes, train stations, and the communities shaped by the railway.

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museum exhibitions schedule Mar 27, 2026 visibility 22 link 1 artist

Precious Okoyomon’s Whitney Biennial Installation Is on View After a Delay, and It’s a True Shocker

Precious Okoyomon's major installation for the 2024 Whitney Biennial, titled 'Everything wants to kill you and you should be afraid,' opened after a brief delay. The work, featuring around 50 stuffed animals and racist dolls suspended by nooses, was moved from the museum lobby to the eighth floor to provide more space for viewers to engage with its disturbing yet beautiful mix of childhood nostalgia and violence.

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museum exhibitions schedule Mar 19, 2026 visibility 20 link 1 artist, 2 galleries

Rising Artist Ding Shilun’s Sweet Paintings Mask Unsettling Truths

Artist Ding Shilun's career is accelerating, marked by a major auction record for his 2021 work 'The Adoption of the Maiden' at Phillips London and a current solo exhibition, 'Spectres in Rehearsal,' at Bernheim Gallery in Zurich. His large-scale paintings blend theatrical compositions, Goya-esque and manga influences, and narrative structures from Chinese zhiguai tales to create accessible yet complex scenes.

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museum exhibitions schedule Mar 3, 2026 visibility 17 link 2 artists

video game leo castaneda 2026 whitney biennial

The Whitney Museum of American Art has announced that Leo Castañeda’s video game, Camoflux Recall Grotto, will be featured in the 2026 Whitney Biennial. Ahead of the exhibition's opening, the work is already accessible to the public online, allowing users to engage with a hand-painted digital environment inspired by the Amazon and the Everglades. The game emphasizes "mutualism" and environmental care, tasking players with cultivating "cyberflora" through a meditative, non-violent gameplay loop.

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museum exhibitions schedule Feb 10, 2026 visibility 12 link 2 artists

british museums samurai show reveals the untold story of women warriors

The British Museum has opened a major exhibition titled "Samurai" that challenges popular perceptions of the warrior class. It reveals that after 1615, half of all samurai were women, though they did not engage in combat, and explores the evolution of samurai from medieval fighters to Edo-period bureaucrats and cultural figures. The show features over 280 objects, from armor and weapons to everyday items like a woman's dressing set, and examines the contrast between historical reality and modern pop culture portrayals.

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trending_up market schedule Feb 2, 2026 visibility 20 link 2 artists

rare greek funerary sculpture tefaf david aaron

A rare ancient Greek funerary sculpture, the Stele of Medeia (375-350 BCE), is being offered for sale at the TEFAF art fair by the London gallery David Aaron. The piece, priced at £450,000, depicts an unmarried young woman and retains significant original pigment. It has already attracted significant interest from a major US museum.

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person people schedule Jan 30, 2026 visibility 17 link 3 artists

brooklyn museum robert wiesenberger senior curator

Robert Wiesenberger has been appointed as the new senior curator of contemporary art at the Brooklyn Museum. The position had been vacant since 2023, following the departure of Eugenie Tsai after 15 years. Wiesenberger is moving from his current role as a curator of contemporary art at the Clark Art Institute in Massachusetts.

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article policy schedule Jan 29, 2026 visibility 14 link 3 artists

walker museum cuts ties minneapolis police

The Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Institute of Art have announced they will cease contracting with the Minneapolis Police Department for security at events. The Walker's decision demands the MPD implement reforms, including demilitarizing training and holding officers accountable, stating 'George Floyd should still be alive.'

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article culture schedule Jan 28, 2026 visibility 15 link 8 artists

jonathan anderson dior magdalene odundo

Jonathan Anderson presented his debut haute couture collection for Dior, the Spring 2026 line, at Paris Fashion Week. The runway was transformed into a garden with suspended flowers, blending floral motifs with an edgy, exploratory aesthetic. Anderson drew inspiration from ceramicist Magdalene Odundo, whose sinuous forms influenced the collection's sculptural tension, and referenced 18th-century miniatures by Rosalba Carriera and John Smart for couture jewelry. The collection is now on view at the Musée Rodin in a week-long presentation titled "Grammar of Forms," alongside works by Christian Dior and Odundo.

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article culture schedule Jan 28, 2026 visibility 16 link 2 artists, 1 gallery

w david marx blanks space

W. David Marx joins Artnet News senior editor Kate Brown on the podcast 'The Art Angle' to discuss his new book, *Blank Space: A Cultural History of the Twenty-First Century*. The book argues that creativity across art, media, and popular culture has stagnated over the past 25 years, driven by commercialization, rapid technology shifts, and a preference for profit-driven formulas over experimentation. Marx identifies a 'conspicuous blank space where art and creativity used to be' and proposes five strategies to revive cultural inventiveness.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jan 20, 2026 visibility 14 link 9 artists

michelangelo florence art trail

Seven museums in Florence have merged to form the Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze e Musei del Bargello, creating the world's largest collection of works by Michelangelo. The new complex includes the Bargello National Museum, the Medici Chapels, Palazzo Davanzati, Orsanmichele, Casa Martelli, the former Church of San Procolo, and the Accademia, home to Michelangelo's David. Starting March 15, joint tickets will be available, with a system-wide pass costing €38 for 72 hours. Ticket prices at individual museums will rise on February 1, and three themed tours will launch in May, including one focused on Michelangelo's innovations.

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article news schedule Jan 20, 2026 visibility 19 link 5 artists

top architecture firm accused of illegally firing union supporting staff founding editor of artforum dies morning link for january 20 2025

The National Labor Relations Board has accused Snøhetta, a prominent New York-based architecture firm, of illegally firing eight employees who supported a 2023 unionization campaign. The NLRB complaint alleges that managers tracked union supporters and improperly questioned staff about their sympathies, while Snøhetta denies the claims, attributing layoffs to business pressures predating the union drive. Separately, Singapore Art Week is spotlighting women artists from Southeast Asia, with the launch of Krystina Lyon's book "You Are Seen" and the National Gallery Singapore exhibition "Fear No Power: Women Imagining Otherwise." Other news includes the death of Artforum founding editor Philip Leider at 96, LANZA chosen for the Serpentine Pavilion, and a Louvre heist caught on newly released footage.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jan 13, 2026 visibility 15 link 4 artists

anne boleyn portrait elizabeth i

New research by Tudor historian Owen Emmerson suggests that the most famous portrait of Anne Boleyn, displayed at London’s National Portrait Gallery, actually depicts her daughter Queen Elizabeth I. Emmerson argues the late-16th-century painting was deliberately made to resemble Elizabeth I, reinforcing a legitimate Tudor succession. The theory is supported by comparisons with another portrait of Elizabeth at Compton Verney and by Lawrence Hendra of Philip Mould gallery. An upcoming exhibition at Hever Castle, "Capturing a Queen: The Image of Anne Boleyn," will present this and other evidence, alongside newly identified contemporaneous images of Boleyn, including a miniature from the British Museum and a drawing by Hans Holbein the Younger.

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trending_up market schedule Jan 10, 2026 visibility 19 link 8 artists

new wealth 2026

The article examines the art market's struggle to attract new wealthy buyers despite a surge in global wealth. Marc Spiegler, former global director of Art Basel, argues that galleries have failed to recruit the newly wealthy, noting that inflation-adjusted art sales have declined over the past 15 years. He suggests the industry needs to reposition art as 'magical' and transformative to appeal to potential patrons.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jan 10, 2026 visibility 18 link 5 artists

sandra mujinga stedelijk museum sculpture performance

Sandra Mujinga, a Congolese-born artist based in Berlin and Oslo, recently unveiled a new performance at the Park Avenue Armory in New York and has a major installation, "Skin to Skin" (2025), finishing its run at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam before traveling to the Belvedere museum in Vienna. The installation features 55 lithe, tentacular figures covered in the artist's own textiles, arranged around mirrored columns in a green-lit environment. In an interview, Mujinga discussed how fashion and clothing function as data and storytelling, reflecting identity and belonging, a theme that permeates her sculptures, videos, and performances.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jan 9, 2026 visibility 16 link 1 artist

delcy morelos barbican london commission

The Barbican in London will present a major commission by Colombian artist Delcy Morelos, her first in the United Kingdom, from May 15 to July 31. The centerpiece is an oval-shaped pavilion measuring roughly 78 feet in circumference, constructed from soil, clay, spices, and plant materials, sited in the Barbican's outdoor Sculpture Court. It is the third public-realm commission by the Barbican and the first in its Sculpture Court. The project is supported by the London-based Bukhman Foundation, founded by Anastasia Bukhman, a new addition to ARTnews's Top 200 Collectors list.

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trending_up market schedule Jan 1, 2026 visibility 16 link 5 artists

how the dinosaur came roaring back

2025 has been a landmark year for dinosaur fossils in the art world, marked by high-profile sales, seizures, and ethical controversies. In November, a pair of Allosaurus fossils and a Stegosaurus skeleton worth £12 million ($15.6 million) were seized by the UK's National Crime Agency from Binghai Su, a Chinese national linked to a major money-laundering case in Singapore. The fossils had been purchased at Christie's Jurassic Icons auction in 2024. Meanwhile, Sotheby's sold a juvenile Ceratosaurus fossil for $30.5 million in July, far exceeding its $6 million estimate, and Phillips entered the dinosaur market for the first time, selling a juvenile Triceratops skeleton for $5.4 million in November. The most expensive dinosaur fossil ever, a Stegosaurus named Apex bought by hedge fund titan Kenneth Griffin for $44.6 million in 2024, was loaned to the American Museum of Natural History.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 19, 2025 visibility 14 link 2 artists

las vegas museum of art francis kere designs

The Las Vegas Museum of Art (LVMA) has unveiled architectural designs by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Francis Kéré for its first standalone museum, a 60,000-square-foot building at Symphony Park in downtown Las Vegas. The design incorporates local stone, baobab trees, and a canopy for shade, drawing inspiration from the Mojave Desert and the city's culture, with a central staircase evoking a canyon. The museum, supported by a land donation from the city and a partnership with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), has raised over half of its $200 million goal and is slated to open in 2029.

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person people schedule Dec 19, 2025 visibility 17 link 4 artists

2026 ruth awards recipients yuji agematsuwill rawls

The Ruth Foundation for the Arts has named five artists as recipients of its 2026 Ruth Awards: Yuji Agematsu, Ranu Mukherjee, Will Rawls, Ellen Sebastian Chang, and Anna Martine Whitehead. Each winner receives an unrestricted $100,000 grant disbursed over two years. The artists work across diverse media—from Agematsu's miniature street-detritus sculptures and Rawls's multidisciplinary choreography to Mukherjee's painting and film installations, Sebastian Chang's decades-spanning theater and film work, and Whitehead's performance art. The awards are open to artists across North America and are now in their third year.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 16, 2025 visibility 13 link 6 artists

17th century spain fashion

A new exhibition at the Hispanic Society Museum & Library in New York, titled "Spanish Style: Fashion Illuminated, 1550–1700," explores how 17th-century Spanish fashion was governed by strict moral and legal codes. Curator Amanda Wunder highlights that garments like the guardainfante hoop skirt and the ruffled collar were regulated by kings and clergy, with women fined or barred from church for revealing shoulders or wearing lace, and men criticized for effeminate styles. The show features portraits and artifacts that reveal how clothing was used as a tool of social control, power, and gender policing in Habsburg Spain.

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candle obituary schedule Dec 14, 2025 visibility 23 link 6 artists

tony fitzpatrick chicago artist obituary

Tony Fitzpatrick, a prominent figure in Chicago's art scene, died at age 66 on October 11 from a heart attack while awaiting a double lung transplant at Rush University Medical Center. He was an artist, printmaker, poet, writer, actor, gallerist, and city booster, known for collages combining vintage illustrations, tattoo art, words, and natural motifs. His work is held by major institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art. He also ran several Chicago galleries—The Edge, World Tattoo, and The Dime—and published a book, The Sun at the End of the Road: Dispatches From an American Life.

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article policy schedule Dec 9, 2025 visibility 21 link 3 artists

moma ps1 free admission sonya yu gift

MoMA PS1 in New York will eliminate admission fees for all visitors starting in 2026, funded by a gift from collector and creative strategist Sonya Yu. The three-year initiative coincides with the museum's 50th anniversary and expands its existing free admission for New Yorkers to everyone. Director Connie Butler said the goal is to remove barriers and welcome broader audiences, including families with strollers, while Yu cited her own experience as a Chinese immigrant to explain her motivation.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 9, 2025 visibility 15 link 1 artist

saya woolfalk empathic universe

New York-based artist Saya Woolfalk is the subject of her first retrospective, "Saya Woolfalk: Empathic Universe," at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York. The exhibition, curated by Alexandra Schwarz, runs from April 12 to September 7, 2025, and surveys two decades of Woolfalk's multidisciplinary practice, which blends science fiction, fantasy, and critical examinations of race, science, anthropology, and identity. The show is organized into chapters highlighting major projects, including her fictional "Empathics"—a race of women who can fuse with plants—and features sculptures, video, painting, works on paper, a commissioned audio drama, and live dance performances.

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article culture schedule Dec 4, 2025 visibility 16 link 8 artists

caravaggio top 10 paintings ranked

Artnet News published a ranked list of Caravaggio's top 10 paintings, highlighting works such as 'Victorious Cupid' (1601–02), 'The Cardsharps' (c. 1594), 'Young Sick Bacchus' (c. 1593), 'The Incredulity of Saint Thomas' (1602), 'Supper at Emmaus' (1601), 'Narcissus' (1597–99), and 'Boy Bitten by a Lizard' (1594–96). The article scores each painting on storytelling, behind-the-scenes intrigue, and sheer audacity, and notes that 'Victorious Cupid' recently went on view in the U.K. for the first time.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 3, 2025 visibility 16 link 1 artist

immersive studio ghibli exhibition opens abu dhabi may 2026

"The World of Studio Ghibli," a traveling immersive exhibition dedicated to the Japanese animation studio, will open at Manarat Al Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi from May 30 to August 20, 2026. The show features large-scale theatrical sets from 16 Studio Ghibli films, including iconic scenes from My Neighbor Totoro, and tickets are available for 125 AED (about $34). The exhibition launched in 2013 and has previously toured Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Singapore.

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museum exhibitions schedule Nov 26, 2025 visibility 12 link 1 artist

two curatorial teams win the 2025 hyundai blue prize

Two curatorial teams have won the Hyundai Blue Prize+ 2025, an award organized by Hyundai Motor Company to support curators addressing contemporary issues in an Asian context. The winners are Hyejin and Yoonyoung Park, a Seoul-based duo whose proposal examines AI's reliance on natural resources and labor, and Yifeng Wei and Penny Dan Xu, based in Dublin and London, who invite viewers to reimagine the future of modern technology. Selected from over 160 proposals, the teams participated in a mentorship program and research trip before being chosen by an international jury. Their exhibitions will be held at Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing between mid-2026 and early 2027, with each receiving 800,000 RMB (about $110,000) for production costs.

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museum exhibitions schedule Nov 17, 2025 visibility 14 link 3 artists

samurai exhibition british museum

The British Museum has announced a major 2026 exhibition titled "Samurai" that will trace the 1,000-year history of Japan's warrior class. Spanning armor, woodblock prints, paintings, clothing, ceramics, and contemporary media, the show brings together 280 objects from the museum's own collection and international lenders. Highlights include a 17th-century suit of armor recently acquired by the museum, a portrait of envoy Mancio Itō by Domenico Tintoretto, and works by Katsushika Hokusai. The exhibition also examines the modern myth of the samurai as shaped by film, manga, and video games such as Akira Kurosawa's movies and Assassin's Creed: Shadows.

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museum exhibitions schedule Nov 17, 2025 visibility 16 link 3 artists

crystal bridges to mount exhibition by singer songwriter jewel venice biennale

Crystal Bridges Museum will present an exhibition dedicated to singer-songwriter Jewel during the Venice Biennale, running from May 10 to November 22 at the Salone Verde, near Fondazione Prada. Titled “Matriclysm: An Archeology of Connections Lost,” the show is organized by Crystal Bridges curator-at-large Joe Thompson and features paintings from Jewel's “Ceremony” series, a tapestry, and three large-scale sculptures—including “Heart of the Ocean,” an eight-foot-tall piece that uses live oceanic data from NASA and Stanford University to control 60,000 programmable lights. The exhibition explores themes of feminine memory, matriarchy, and connection.

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article news schedule Oct 15, 2025 visibility 17 link 4 artists

taylor swift fans friedrich heyser ophelia wiesbaden state museum germany

Taylor Swift fans have flocked to the Wiesbaden State Museum in Germany to see Friedrich Heyser's painting 'Ophelia' (ca. 1900), which the singer referenced in the opening scene of her music video for the song 'The Fate of Ophelia' from her album 'The Life of a Showgirl'. The museum saw hundreds of additional visitors last weekend, with director Andreas Henning expressing surprise and delight at the attention.

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