Calvin Tomkins, the longtime New Yorker staff writer renowned for his profiles of major 20th-century artists, has died at the age of 100. His career spanned more than six decades at the magazine, where he produced intimate and influential portraits of figures like Marcel Duchamp and Robert Rauschenberg, and authored several books including "Living Well Is the Best Revenge."
Margaret Keane, the American painter known for her iconic "Big Eyed Waif" portraits, died on June 26 at age 94 in her Napa Valley home due to heart failure. For years, her second husband Walter Keane fraudulently claimed credit for her work, a deception that unraveled in the 1970s when she challenged him to a public paint-off and later won a courtroom showdown in 1986. Her story gained renewed attention with Tim Burton's 2014 film *Big Eyes*, starring Amy Adams.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) held a lavish opening gala for its new David Geffen Galleries, a $724 million concrete building designed by architect Peter Zumthor. The event drew a constellation of artists including Jeff Koons, Ed Ruscha, Mark Bradford, Refik Anadol, Todd Gray, Do Ho Suh, and Lauren Halsey, as well as Hollywood figures like Will Ferrell and Sharon Stone. LACMA director Michael Govan hosted the evening, which featured conversations about the building's design, the interplay of light and art, and the significance of the new space for the museum's future.
Singapore is currently hosting a wide array of kid-friendly art exhibitions and museum installations across major cultural venues. Key highlights include the immersive 'Van Gogh Inside: Love Vincent' at Parkview Square, David Hockney’s 'Bigger & Closer' at the newly opened IMBA Theatre, and various interactive digital experiences at the revamped Keppel Centre for Art Education. These offerings range from high-tech multimedia nature zones like Exploria to traditional art museum settings tailored for younger audiences.
The Bo Bartlett Center in Columbus, Georgia, is hosting the exhibition "We Are the Drum and the Scribe: Black Art In America Collection" from January 20 to May 16. The show features over 40 works from the private collection of Najee & Seteria Dorsey and Black Art In America (BAIA), including pieces by Kerry James Marshall, Wadsworth Jarrell, David Driskell, and contemporary artists like Dr Fahamu Pecou and Alfred Conteh. A public reception is scheduled for February 19th.
Frank Gehry, the legendary architect who transformed the global architectural landscape with his deconstructivist style, has died in Santa Monica on 5 December. The article traces his career from his early days remodeling his own Santa Monica home—a controversial project that used corrugated metal, plywood, and chain-link fencing—to his rise as a Pritzker Prize winner and the creator of the iconic Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1997). Gehry, born Ephraim Goldberg in Toronto in 1929, studied at the University of Southern California and Harvard before founding Frank O. Gehry & Associates in 1962, and spent over six decades championing buildings that embraced emotion and movement over cold minimalism.
The Greenville County Museum of Art (GCMA) will open “At This Moment: Portraits of South Carolina Artists” on November 12, featuring 78 photographs taken over ten months by photographer Jerry Seigel. Seigel was commissioned by GCMA’s Mark Sloan and Tom Styron to travel across the state and capture portraits of notable artists including Sigmund Abeles, Shepard Fairey, Pearl Fryar, Jonathan Green, Mary Jackson, Jasper Johns, Grainger McKoy, George Read, Brian Rutenberg, Leo Twiggs, and Mary Whyte. The exhibition runs through January 11, 2026, and will be accompanied by a book of the same title containing Seigel’s photos and biographical information on each artist.
The Studio Museum in Harlem, founded in 1968 in a rented loft above a liquor store, will open its first purpose-built 82,000-square-foot building on West 125th Street this fall, following a landmark $300 million capital campaign led by director and chief curator Thelma Golden. Designed by Adjaye Associates with Cooper Robertson, the new facility doubles the exhibition and studio space and includes dedicated areas for performance, education, and public programs. The museum, which has operated without a permanent space since 2018, has been a pioneering platform for artists of African descent, launching the careers of figures like David Hammons, Kerry James Marshall, Glenn Ligon, and Simone Leigh through its groundbreaking exhibitions and artist-in-residence program.
Georg Baselitz, the German Neo-Expressionist painter known for his provocative, upside-down figurative works, has died at age 88. Along with contemporaries like Anselm Kiefer, Baselitz led a frontal assault on the dominant Minimalist and Conceptualist art movements of the 1970s, reviving expressive, gestural painting in postwar Germany.
È morta VALIE EXPORT, icona dell’arte femminista che ha messo il corpo al centro della sua ricerca
VALIE EXPORT, the Austrian artist and feminist icon known for using her body as a political and artistic tool, has died in Vienna at age 85. Born in Linz in 1940, she changed her name in 1967 and became a pioneer of performance, film, and media art, creating provocative works such as "Tapp-und Tastkino" (1968), where she turned her body into a touchable cinema screen, and "Aktionshose: Genitalpanik" (1969). Her career spanned over six decades, and she taught at institutions including the University of Wisconsin and the Berlin University of the Arts. In 2023, the Albertina Museum in Vienna held a major retrospective of her work.
Tutta la complessità di Cézanne in mostra alla mitica Fondation Beyeler di Basilea
The Fondation Beyeler in Basel has opened a major exhibition dedicated to Paul Cézanne, marking the 120th anniversary of his death. Curated by senior curator Ulf Küster, the show features 80 works—58 paintings and 21 watercolors—drawn from public and private collections across Switzerland, Germany, France, the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, and the United States. Highlights include nine versions of Mont Sainte-Victoire, rare comparisons of two watercolor versions of "Boy in a Red Waistcoat," and two versions of "The Card Players" from the Courtauld Gallery and the Musée d'Orsay. The exhibition runs until May 25, 2026, and is accompanied by a catalog published by Hatje Cantz Verlag.
Paolo Masi, the Florentine artist known for his lifelong exploration of poor materials and their transformation, died in Florence on Wednesday, May 6, just days before his 93rd birthday. His career spanned from informal experiments in the 1950s through a rigorous investigation of materials in the 1960s, including his first solo show at the Strozzina in 1960. He joined the aesthetic research group Centro F/Uno alongside Baldi, Lecci, and Nannucci, and later co-founded the collective spaces Zona (1974) and Base (1998) with Mario Mariotti and Maurizio Nannucci. Masi participated in the Venice Biennale (1978) and the Rome Quadriennale (1986), and his works are held by major museums and foundations internationally. His later years saw significant retrospectives at the Museo MAGA in Gallarate (2018) and at Le Murate in Florence (2018), as well as a 2023 solo show at Florence's Galleria Frittelli, which remembered him as an extraordinary artist and dear friend.
Art Week nordiche: Stoccolma è capitale dell’arte europea per una settimana. L’intervista
Stockholm is hosting the Stockholm Art Week from April 21-26, transforming the city into a hub for contemporary art. The event features a citywide program of exhibitions across museums, galleries, and independent spaces, including a retrospective of textile artist Anna Casparsson at Moderna Museet, a photography show by Lotta Antonsson at Fotografiska, and an outdoor bronze sculpture installation by Italian artist Davide Rivalta. The week also coincides with the 20th anniversaries of two major Nordic art fairs, Market Art Fair and Supermarket Art Fair, which are moving to new venues.
This month’s selection of art publications features a landmark six-volume catalogue raisonné of Amedeo Modigliani’s oil paintings, which utilizes advanced scientific imaging to authenticate 100 previously unlisted works while de-attributing 15 others. Other notable releases include a comprehensive study of arms and armor from the Wallace Collection, an exhibition catalogue exploring three generations of women artists from the Nicholson family, and a practical career guide for artists published by Delphian Gallery.
The Lee Miller Archives, established after the American photographer's vast collection was discovered in the attic of her Sussex home following her death in 1977, is raising funds through an exhibition at Lyndsey Ingram gallery in London to conserve up to 60,000 negatives and prints, some nearly 100 years old and in perilous condition. The show, titled "Lee Miller: Performance of a Lifetime" (23 January-25 February), explores the role of theatre and performance in Miller's work from her 1929 arrival in Paris through her WWII photojournalism, with prices starting at £3,800. Proceeds will enable freezing and preservation of the archive stored at Farleys House, where Miller lived with her husband Roland Penrose.
Artist Helina Metaferia presents her solo exhibition 'Syntropy' at Praise Shadows Art Gallery in Brookline, Massachusetts, on view through December 20. The show features her mixed media collages, including a self-portrait titled 'Enthroned (I am an institution; I am an altar; I am an artwork in/of/for progress),' which marks her first self-portrait in years. The exhibition is part of her ongoing socially engaged project 'By Way of Revolution,' which explores the history of activism and civil rights through workshops, performance, and archival research. Metaferia, an Ethiopian American interdisciplinary artist, teaches at Brown University and previously exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
The Hammer Museum in Westwood will host the seventh edition of 'Made in L.A.,' a free biennial exhibition running from October 5, 2025, through March 1, 2026. The show features 28 regional artists, with a focus on emerging and under-recognized talents, and includes paintings, photographs, video works, sculptures, and dance. Notable works include Na Mira's 'Sugungga (Hello)' 2024 and a recreation of Alonzo Davis's 'Eye on '84' by Patrick Martinez.
The Fowler Museum at UCLA has voluntarily returned 11 culturally significant objects to the Larrakia Community of Australia’s Northern Territory. The items, including a kangaroo tooth headband and 10 glass spearheads dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, were handed over in a ceremony on May 20. Half of the objects arrived at the museum in 1965 via a large donation from the Wellcome Trust, while the rest were gifts from private collectors. Since 2021, Larrakia elders have worked with AIATSIS and the Fowler Museum to identify and facilitate the return. The Larrakia community plans to open a cultural center next year to house the repatriated items.
Art Karlsruhe returns for its 23rd edition from February 5–8, 2026, at Messe Karlsruhe in Rheinstetten, Germany. The fair brings together roughly 180 galleries from 18 countries, spanning 120 years of art history with dedicated halls for classical Modernism and contemporary art. New participants include Boston's Chase Young Gallery and Tehran's Maryam Fasihi Harandi Gallery, alongside a strong German contingent. Special sculpture areas feature works by Robert Schad, Martin Hollebecq, Koloman Wagner, and Sonja Edle von Hoeßle.
Artnet News published an interview with Julia Cameron, author of the bestselling creativity guide *The Artist's Way*, originally released in 1992. Cameron discusses the origins of her 12-week program for overcoming artistic blocks, including the famous 'Morning Pages' ritual of writing three pages of unedited text each day. She also introduces her new book *The Daily Artist's Way*, which offers a fresh approach for fans. The interview, conducted by Ben Davis, revisits how Cameron's practical, spiritually-infused techniques have become a staple for artists, musicians, and writers worldwide.
The National Etruscan Museum in Rome is undertaking a public restoration of the Sarcophagus of the Spouses, a 6th-century B.C.E. Etruscan terracotta tomb that was discovered in Cerveteri in 1881 and reassembled from 400 fragments by the museum's founder, Felice Barnabei. The open restoration will begin with the couple's legs, using digital technologies, and aims to highlight the work of art professionals while creating a long-term conservation plan for the masterpiece.
Mark Gerson, a British photographer renowned for his intimate portraits of literary figures, has died at age 104. Over a career spanning half a century, Gerson captured iconic images of authors including Evelyn Waugh, Doris Lessing, William Golding, Tom Stoppard, and Martin Amis, often photographing them in their own homes to put them at ease. His most famous picture is of a grumpy Waugh on his 60th birthday, taken after Gerson was plied with wine. Gerson's work was championed by National Portrait Gallery director Roy Strong, and in 1996 the gallery held a major exhibition of his portraits titled "Literati."
Jongjin Park won the 2026 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize and €50,000 for his work "Strata of Illusion, 2025," which combines glassblowing and bookbinding techniques using porcelain-coated paper layers. The ceremony took place at the National Gallery Singapore, with a jury led by Loewe's new creative directors Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, alongside architects Minsuk Cho, Frida Escobedo, Wang Shu, and Patricia Urquiola. Special mentions went to Graziano Visintin for his necklace "Collier" and a collaborative piece by Baba Tree Master Weavers and Álvaro Catalán de Ocón. The exhibition of 30 finalists, selected from over 5,100 applicants across 133 countries, runs at the National Gallery Singapore through June 14.
Cultured magazine profiles legendary 80-year-old artist Paul McCarthy during his Paris exhibition at Hauser & Wirth, titled “SS EE Saint Santa Eva Elf.” The article follows the journalist's three-day pursuit of McCarthy, covering a screening of his films *A&E Adolf & Eva/ Adam & Eve Cooking Show* (2022/2023) and *A&E Adolf & Eva/Adam & Eve Mother* (2022/2025), which feature psychosexual themes referencing Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun alongside Adam and Eve, co-starring actor Lilith Stangenberg. The exhibition includes large raw drawings created during improvised, multi-camera performances with Stangenberg, where they play twisted Santa and elf characters. McCarthy also has concurrent shows at The Journal Gallery in Los Angeles and SOLO contemporary art space in Madrid.
Robert Crumb and George DiCaprio, two figures from the 1970s underground comics scene, reunite for a conversation moderated by cartoonist Sammy Harkham on the rooftop of David Zwirner in Los Angeles. The discussion, published in Cultured, traces their serendipitous meeting in New York—DiCaprio offered his illegal loft to Crumb's band—and DiCaprio's subsequent move to Los Angeles after Crumb recommended him for an animation job on Ralph Bakshi's film *Heavy Traffic*. The interview coincides with the release of Crumb's first solo comic in 23 years, *Tales of Paranoia* (2025), published by Fantagraphics, and an exhibition of his new drawings and prints at David Zwirner, on view through January 10. Topics range from conspiracy theories and the economics of comics to DiCaprio's collection of underground art, including a letter from cartoonist Vaughn Bode to his unborn son Leonardo DiCaprio.
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, part of the New York Public Library, is celebrating its centennial with the exhibition “100: A Century of Collections, Community, and Creativity,” on view through June 2026. The show features manuscript pages from Maya Angelou, writings by Malcolm X, photography by Gordon Parks, murals by Aaron Douglas, and the original 1925 visitor book signed by Langston Hughes, recreating the experience of visiting the institution at the height of the Harlem Renaissance.
Artist Adrianna Wallis (born 1981) discovers that her paternal grandmother, painter Diane Esmond (1910–1981), was a victim of Nazi looting during World War II. After being contacted by historians Patricia Helletzgruber and Sophie Juliard, Wallis learns that much of Esmond's work was systematically destroyed by the ERR, the Nazi organization responsible for art theft in occupied countries. This revelation sparks a personal investigation that becomes a podcast for Arte Radio titled "Il restera la gravité," blending documentary, autobiographical inquiry, and sound installation. Wallis delves into archives, examining microfilms and lists that detail 46 of Esmond's paintings—each methodically described and declared destroyed, such as "Woman in blue evening dress: annihilated."
Egidio Marzona, the influential German-Italian collector, publisher, and patron, has died at the age of 81 in Berlin. Renowned for his intellectual approach to collecting, Marzona focused on the 20th-century avant-garde, including movements such as Bauhaus, Dada, Fluxus, and Arte Povera. Unlike traditional collectors, he prioritized the preservation of archives, letters, and ephemera alongside physical artworks, viewing the "paper trail of ideas" as essential to understanding artistic history.
A conservation plan is underway to protect 26 square kilometers of New Mexico desert near Abiquiu that inspired Georgia O’Keeffe’s iconic paintings. The land, owned by a charitable arm of the Presbyterian Church, is being safeguarded through a partnership with the New Mexico Land Conservancy and the state government, with a $920,000 award from a state conservation trust. The protected area includes sandstone bluffs, grasslands, and views of Cerro Pedernal, while preserving access for film productions and ranchers.
The Hepworth Wakefield and Art Fund have successfully raised £3.8 million to acquire Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture *Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red* (1943). The wood and string artwork, previously in private hands and rarely seen publicly, was sold at Christie’s in London last March for £3.5 million. A temporary export bar imposed by the UK government gave the museum time to raise funds, with the deadline set for August 27. The funding came from over 2,800 donations and major grants, including £1.89 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and £750,000 from the Art Fund, along with private support.