Art News. Vasari Codex

person people schedule Sep 15, 2025 visibility 13 link 3 artists

max carter christies chairman 20th and 21st century art americas

Christie’s has appointed Max Carter as chairman of 20th and 21st Century art for the Americas. Carter, a Canadian-American writer and art specialist who joined the auction house in 2007, previously led the Impressionist and modern art department in the Americas from 2017 to 2022. He has overseen major collection consignments from Anne Bass, Paul Allen, S.I. Newhouse, Mica Ertegun, Robert F. Weis and Patricia G. Ross Weis, and Elaine Wynn, and has achieved record prices for artists like Ed Ruscha and Henri Rousseau. Carter will report to Christie’s global president and succeeds in the role as the auction house prepares for its marquee November sales in New York.

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article culture schedule Sep 11, 2025 visibility 14 link 4 artists

girl with a pearl earring vermeer why so important

This article explores the enduring fascination with Johannes Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" (1665–67), examining the mystery of the unknown subject and the painting's history. It debunks popular theories about the sitter's identity, clarifying that the work is a "tronie"—a formal study of facial features, not a portrait—and traces Vermeer's life, his limited output of 34 known paintings, and his posthumous obscurity for 200 years before rediscovery in the mid-19th century.

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article culture schedule Aug 8, 2025 visibility 17 link 14 artists

deleuze seminars painting

A newly translated English edition of Gilles Deleuze's 1981 seminars on painting, originally published in French as 'Sur la peinture' in 2023, has been released by the University of Minnesota Press. Translated by Charles J. Stivale, the eight lectures explore what concepts painting can offer to philosophy, rather than the reverse. Deleuze discusses terms like catastrophe, the diagram, and figure, focusing on artists such as Titian, Turner, Cézanne, van Gogh, Klee, Mondrian, Pollock, and Bacon, offering a chaotic yet magnificent counterpoint to his more systematic book 'Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation'.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 23, 2025 visibility 14 link 3 artists

eames house restored reopened

The Eames House, designed by Charles and Ray Eames in the late 1940s in Los Angeles's Pacific Palisades, has reopened after a six-month closure due to smoke damage from the January 2025 wildfires. The property was saved from destruction partly because hundreds of surrounding trees were removed in 2024. The restoration has expanded visitor access, opening the studio for the first time, which will host exhibitions on the house's evolution and contemporary design influences. The first exhibition may focus on community rebuilding after the fires.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 22, 2025 visibility 11 link 2 artists

refik anadol lionel messi favorite goal ai data sculpture

Refik Anadol's A.I. data sculpture "A Goal in Life," based on Lionel Messi's favorite goal from the 2009 Champions League final, sold for $1.87 million at Christie's. The artwork uses millions of data points, including Messi's biometric voice data, breathing patterns, and heartbeat rhythms, to recreate the moment in an immersive 16K-resolution mirrored room. Proceeds benefit education programs in Latin America and the Caribbean supported by the Inter Miami CF Foundation.

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article culture schedule Jul 22, 2025 visibility 13 link 3 artists

eddington ari aster poster david wojnarowicz

Ari Aster's upcoming film *Eddington*, premiering at Cannes, uses David Wojnarowicz's 1988–89 artwork *Untitled (Buffalos)* as its poster image. The film, set in May 2020, follows a sheriff and mayor clashing over face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wojnarowicz's work, originally a critique of U.S. government indifference during the AIDS crisis, depicts bison falling off a cliff—a metaphor for societal collapse. The poster slightly alters the image, and A24, the production company, has not commented on the design.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 17, 2025 visibility 17 link 13 artists

top auction results june 2025

The summer 2025 auction season concluded with total sales of $85.7 million, a significant drop from $105 million the previous year. The top lot, François-Xavier Lalanne's *Grand Rhinocrétaire II* (2003), sold for $16.42 million at Sotheby’s New York, far below last June’s $29 million top price. Other notable results include Tamara de Lempicka’s *La Belle Rafaëla* (1927) at $10.18 million, two Jean-Michel Basquiat works, and a strong showing by Jacek Malczewski’s *Reality* (1908) at Desa Unicum in Warsaw.

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article local schedule Jul 7, 2025 visibility 14 link 8 artists

manhattans beloved elizabeth street garden is saved

New York City has abandoned plans to demolish Soho's Elizabeth Street Garden for affordable housing, instead rezoning three nearby sites to build 620 units while preserving the garden. The deal, brokered with council member Christopher Marte—a former garden volunteer—ends a years-long campaign backed by celebrities like Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, and Patti Smith, as well as artists JR and Dustin Yellin and curator Klaus Biesenbach. The garden, filled with antique architectural remnants, was created by the late Allan Reiver and his son Joseph Reiver, who continued the fight after Allan's death in 2021.

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article news schedule Jul 2, 2025 visibility 8 link 5 artists

picasso ceramics studio reopens

Pablo Picasso's former ceramics studio, the Madoura Pottery workshop in Vallauris, France, is set to reopen to the public in 2027 after a €7 million ($8.2 million) renovation. The studio, opened in 1938 by ceramicist Suzanne Ramié and her husband Georges, was a creative hub for Picasso, Matisse, and Marc Chagall before closing in 1997. Mayor Kevin Luciano has led the project, which includes structural repairs, asbestos removal, a new 3,000-square-foot extension for a museum entrance, and a 20,000-square-foot public garden. The first construction phase is complete, with the second starting this fall.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 27, 2025 visibility 21 link 8 artists

curator andrea von goetz alps

Curator, collector, and artistic director Andrea von Goetz founded Sommer Frische Kunst in 2011 as a humble artist-led retreat in Bad Gastein, Austria, housed in the historic Kraftwerk am Wasserfall building. Over 15 years, the initiative has grown from a small artist-in-residence program into an internationally recognized contemporary art festival at 1,000 meters above sea level, featuring major exhibitions, public art projects, and its own art fair, art:badgastein. The 2025 anniversary is marked by a reunion exhibition titled "Welcome back!" co-curated with Dr. Silvie Aigner.

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article culture schedule Jun 25, 2025 visibility 12 link 14 artists

no artists arent the winners of the new gilded age

The article critiques the current art market frenzy in New York, where fairs and auctions dominate the scene, and argues that the relationship between art and money is being misrepresented in mainstream media. It cites recent op-eds by David Brooks, Tyler Cowen, and Matthew Yglesias, who suggest that wealth inequality benefits artists by boosting the financial returns of fine art. The author counters that these commentators conflate the art market with artists' livelihoods, ignoring the precarious reality most artists face.

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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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trending_up market schedule Jun 17, 2025 visibility 11 link 3 artists

sothebys picasso ceramics

Sotheby's London held a 'white glove' sale of 126 one-of-a-kind ceramics by Pablo Picasso, all from the collection of his granddaughter Marina Picasso. The auction achieved a 100% sell-through rate, generating £12.3 million ($19.4 million), with the top lot—a painted goat-shaped vase titled *Cabri* (circa 1947)—selling for £485,000, nearly quadrupling its estimate.

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candle obituary schedule Jun 13, 2025 visibility 16 link 11 artists

graham gund architect art collector dead

Graham Gund, an architect and prominent art collector, died on June 6 at age 84. With his wife Ann, he built a significant contemporary art collection featuring works by Pablo Picasso, Kenneth Noland, Kiki Smith, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and Richard Serra. Gund designed and funded the Gund Gallery at Kenyon College, his alma mater, and was a longtime patron of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, where a gallery and the directorship endowment bear his name. He appeared multiple times on the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 12, 2025 visibility 10 link 5 artists

francois xavier lalanne rhinoceros bar sothebys

Sotheby's design sale in New York achieved the second highest auction price ever for a work by French artist François-Xavier Lalanne, with his monumental sculpture desk *Grand Rhinocrétaire II* (1964) selling for $16.4 million—more than triple its $5 million high estimate. The piece, which opens into a fully functional writing desk, sparked a 13-minute bidding battle. Just weeks earlier, another Lalanne work, *Bar aux Autruches* (1967–68), sold for €11.1 million at Sotheby's Paris. The all-time record for Lalanne remains $19.4 million for *Rhinocrétaire I*, sold at Christie's Paris in 2023.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 10, 2025 visibility 15 link 7 artists

the gates christo jeanne claude

Artist duo Christo and Jeanne-Claude developed 'The Gates' for New York City's Central Park in 1979, but the project faced over two decades of bureaucratic hurdles before finally being installed in 2005 under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The work consisted of 7,503 steel gates with orange nylon fabric along 23 miles of pathways, using 5,390 tons of steel. Now, on its 20th anniversary, a comprehensive survey titled 'Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Gates and Unrealized Projects for New York City' is being held at the Shed, accompanied by an augmented reality experience via the Bloomberg Connects app.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 10, 2025 visibility 12 link 6 artists

christo jeanne claude the gates ar shed

An augmented reality (AR) experience is reviving Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s iconic 2005 installation *The Gates* in New York’s Central Park. Starting in February 2025, visitors can use the Bloomberg Connects app to view virtual saffron-colored fabric panels suspended over 23 miles of park pathways, recreating the original work that featured 7,503 panels on metal arches. The project is a collaboration between the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation, the New York City Parks Department, the Central Park Conservancy, and Bloomberg Philanthropies, with support from former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The Shed is concurrently hosting an exhibition documenting the project’s history, including original arches and a scale-model diorama.

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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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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 5, 2025 visibility 19 link 11 artists

collectors igor and mojca lah open contemporary art museum slovenian mountains

Collectors and philanthropists Igor and Mojca Lah are opening a new contemporary art museum called Muzej Lah in Bled, Slovenia, set to debut next year. Designed by David Chipperfield Architects, the 55,000-square-foot museum will be built into a hillside beneath Bled Castle and will house the Fundacija Lah art collection of around 800 works, including pieces by Joseph Beuys, Anselm Kiefer, William Kentridge, Anne Imhof, and Theaster Gates, many never before publicly displayed.

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person people schedule May 20, 2025 visibility 13 link 3 artists

mari claudia jimenez art law and advisory withers

Mari-Claudia Jiménez, a prominent figure in the international art market and former chairman and president of the Americas at Sotheby's, has joined global law firm Withers to launch Withers Art and Advisory, a hybrid legal-art advisory practice based in New York. The new venture will provide collectors, estates, and institutions with integrated market advice and legal counsel on acquiring and holding art, combining real-time market insight with transactional legal expertise. Jiménez, a barred attorney, has overseen landmark deals including the restitution and sale of five Kazimir Malevich paintings, the $106.5 million sale of Picasso's *Nude, Green Leaves and Bust*, and the record-breaking $922 million Macklowe collection auction.

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trending_up market schedule May 19, 2025 visibility 21 link 11 artists

may marquee auctions recap analysis christies sothebys

Christie's marquee auctions in New York generated $489 million across two sales, led by the $272 million 'Leonard & Louise Riggio: Collected Works' sale and a $217 million 20th century art evening auction. The house guaranteed all 39 lots in the Riggio sale and used third-party guarantees on many others to mitigate risk in a soft market. Top lots included Piet Mondrian's *Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black, and Blue* (1922) at $47.6 million, Claude Monet's *Peupliers au bord de l'Epte, crépuscule* (1891) at $49.2 million, and Mark Rothko's *No. 4 (Two Dominants) [Orange, Plum, Black]* (1950–51) at nearly $39 million. Two Warhols were pulled before the sale, highlighting ongoing challenges in selling high-value works at auction.

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article policy schedule May 19, 2025 visibility 9 link 1 artist

smithsonians african american history museum removed objects

Two lenders to the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) reported that their objects were removed from the museum’s galleries earlier than expected, raising concerns about the influence of President Trump’s recent executive order targeting “anti-American content” in Smithsonian museums. Amos C. Brown, a civil rights activist and pastor, lent a 1880 book on Black history and his father’s Bible, which Martin Luther King Jr. carried during protests; the museum cited the loan’s May expiration as the reason for removal. Liz Brazelton, who lent the diary of her great-great-grandfather—a lawyer who worked on behalf of Solomon Northup—said the diary was returned in March, six months before a 10-year loan agreement was set to end in September, with the museum citing an “internal gallery rotation schedule.” At least 32 objects have reportedly been removed, though the museum denied planned removals.

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trending_up market schedule May 16, 2025 visibility 13 link 6 artists

decorative art sold 2024

Sales in the decorative-art category—including design objects, furniture, jewelry, and watches—dropped nearly 42% year on year in 2024, netting $3.3 billion, the lowest total in a decade. The average price of a decorative artwork at auction fell 39.5% to $13,010, also the lowest since 2014. Sotheby’s and Christie’s remained nearly tied, with Sotheby’s edging ahead by $72.9 million. Europe led regional sales with $1.3 billion, followed by Asia at $1 billion and North America at $898 million.

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trending_up market schedule May 14, 2025 visibility 19 link 18 artists

sothebys modern art may 2025 sale report giacometti

Sotheby's modern art evening sale in New York on Tuesday night achieved $186.4 million with buyer's premium across 60 lots, with a sell-through rate of 83.3%. Top lots included Pablo Picasso's *Homme assis* ($15.1 million), Georgia O'Keeffe's *Leaves of a Plant* ($13 million), and a new auction record for Paul Signac's *Saint-Georges. Couchant (Venise)* ($8.1 million). However, the sale was overshadowed by the failure of Alberto Giacometti's *Grande tête mince*, a 1955 bronze bust estimated north of $70 million, which went unsold after bidding stalled at $64 million.

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trending_up market schedule May 5, 2025 visibility 18 link 6 artists

lalanne auction london

A rare complete set of Claude Lalanne's green-painted 'Ginkgo' dining suite will be auctioned at Christie's London on June 5, 2025, as part of a single-owner sale from the collection of Baron Diego von Buch. The 12-piece set, sold as four individual lots, is expected to fetch over £1 million ($1.4 million) total, with individual estimates ranging from £100,000 to £300,000 per lot. The sale includes 100 lots from von Buch's homes across Europe, featuring works by François-Xavier Lalanne, Fernand Léger, Fernando Botero, and Lee Ufan.

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trending_up market schedule May 1, 2025 visibility 15 link 12 artists

art shipping in turmoil as tariffs trigger delays

President Trump's tariff policies are causing significant disruption in the art shipping industry, despite artworks themselves remaining largely exempt from import taxes under U.S. law. While Section 1702(b) of the IEEPA protects artworks, books, and films from presidential trade restrictions, antiques and design objects are subject to a 10 percent universal tariff, creating confusion for customs officers. Meanwhile, changes to de minimis rules—lowering the threshold for formal customs processing from $2,500 to $800—have forced DHL to temporarily suspend certain shipments and caused multi-day delays. Smaller art dealers relying on global logistics firms are particularly affected, as bespoke fine-art shippers like Crozier, UOVO, and Cadogan Tate are often too expensive for lower-value works under $10,000.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 12, 2026 visibility 15 link 10 artists

Close encounters: the new wave of women photographers – in pictures

The Saltzman-Leibovitz photography prize, founded in 2025 by Lisa Saltzman and Annie Leibovitz, announces its winners and runners-up for 2026. Bolivian photographer Marisol Mendez wins for her series 'MADRE,' which challenges patriarchal representations of women in Bolivia through portraits of matriarchs and references to the Inca moon goddess. Runner-up Miranda Barnes documents African American debutante cotillions in Detroit, while other featured photographers include Bettina Pittaluga and Cole Ndelu, whose works explore body diversity and the fusion of Zulu cosmology with Catholicism. The exhibition runs at Photo London, Olympia, 13–17 May 2026.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 5, 2026 visibility 16 link 8 artists

Seen a ghost? The eeriest images from Fotografia Europea – in pictures

Fotografia Europea, the international photography festival in Reggio Emilia, Italy, has opened with 20 exhibitions and related events under the theme 'ghosts of the moment'. The festival features works by artists including Tania Franco Klein, Giulia Vanelli, Felipe Romero Beltrán, and Salvatore Vitale, exploring themes of memory, migration, identity, and the unseen forces shaping contemporary life. The festival runs until 14 June 2026.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 28, 2026 visibility 26 link 15 artists

‘The doorbell went at 5am. Six masked men were outside’: Belarus Free Theatre bring totalitarian terror to the Venice Biennale

Belarus Free Theatre (BFT), an exiled troupe based in London, is presenting its first major visual art project, titled 'Official. Unofficial. Belarus.', at the Venice Biennale. The installation, masterminded by the founders' daughter Daniella Kaliada, features contributions from former political prisoners, painters, sculptors, composers, and world-renowned chef Rasmus Munk, who created a dish evoking detention under an authoritarian regime. The work includes a giant ball of banned books, surveillance cameras attached to an iron crucifix, and a custom scent of a freshly dug grave, all reflecting the terror of life under Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko.

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rate_review review schedule Apr 16, 2026 visibility 19 link 6 artists

Colours of Time review – Monet meets Mamma Mia in charming French artist comedy

Director Cédric Klapisch’s new film, *Colours of Time* (originally *La Venue de L’Avenir*), is a sentimental French comedy that weaves a fictional romantic history around Impressionist master Claude Monet and pioneering photographer Félix Nadar. The plot follows a group of modern-day descendants who discover a trove of historical secrets in a derelict cottage, leading to a whimsical, time-bending exploration of their ancestors' lives in Belle Époque Paris.

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