Art Basel’s Soft Opening Belies Strong, Swift Sales Across Tiers

Art Basel's 2025 edition opened with a soft atmosphere that belied strong and swift sales across all price tiers. Major galleries reported significant transactions: David Zwirner sold 68 works including a $9.5 million Ruth Asawa sculpture and a $6.8 million Gerhard Richter painting; Gladstone placed a $3.5 million Keith Haring piece; and Thaddaeus Ropac sold a €1.8 million Georg Baselitz and a $1.8 million James Rosenquist painting to a European institution. White Cube, Hauser & Wirth, and Tina Kim Gallery also reported robust sales, with works by artists such as Dana Schutz, Marlene Dumas, Yayoi Kusama, and Ha Chong-Hyun moving quickly. However, mid-tier galleries like Marianne Boesky Gallery noted more cautious, eye-driven buying rather than the frenzied chasing of past years.

Our Guide to New York Art Week 2025

New York Art Week 2025 is condensed into a single mega-week starting May 5, featuring major art fairs including Frieze New York, Independent, and TEFAF New York, alongside gallery openings, auction previews, and museum shows. The guide provides a day-by-day itinerary, fair overviews, and practical tips for navigating the week, emphasizing that many events are ticketed or free and do not require VIP passes.

Charge of the Indian art brigade

At a Christie’s auction in New York’s Rockefeller Center, an untitled work (Gram Yatra) by MF Husain sold for over Rs 118.7 crore ($13.8 million), becoming the most expensive modern Indian painting ever sold. The buyer is reportedly collector and philanthropist Kiran Nadar. Other record-tying sales include Amrita Sher-Gil’s The Story Teller and Tyeb Mehta’s Trussed Bull, each fetching Rs 61.8 crore at SaffronArt auctions, while a Jagdish Swaminathan painting exceeded estimates at Sotheby’s. These results come amid a 19% rise in the top 50 Indian artists’ sales to $36.2 million, per the 2024 Hurun India Art List.

Lynda Roscoe Hartigan Named Director of Smithsonian American Art Museum

Lynda Roscoe Hartigan has been appointed as the new director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in Washington, DC, effective September 8. She returns to SAAM, where she began her career and later served as chief curator, from her current position as executive director and CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. She succeeds acting director Jane Carpenter-Rock, who will remain as deputy director.

‘Surfers say, that board is so sick!’ The French artist redesigning the surfboard like you’ve never seen before

French designer and musician Lucas Lecacheur is creating wildly unconventional yet functional surfboards and skateboards, including a split board resembling crab pincers, a stingray-like shape, and a Brutalist board. Currently in Australia for Melbourne Design Week, Lecacheur is living and working out of At The Above gallery in Fitzroy, where he is crafting new boards like the cowboy boot-nosed Château Rouge. His designs, made with traditional materials like fiberglass, push the boundaries of surfboard norms while remaining rideable.

Fair Week in NYC!

New York City is hosting a packed week of art fairs in May 2025, including Frieze at The Shed, Independent Art Fair at Pier 36, TEFAF New York at the Park Avenue Armory, and NADA New York at the Starrett-Lehigh Building. The fairs feature hundreds of international galleries, with Frieze emphasizing Central and South American exhibitors, Independent exploring a dystopian theme, TEFAF offering antiquities and fine art, and NADA celebrating its 12th edition with 121 galleries. The article also notes recent major exhibitions at the New Museum, Whitney Biennial, MoMA PS1, The Met, and MoMA, and includes a guide to Upstate New York art destinations.

Remembering Raghu Rai, Jack Thornell, and Jarvis Rockwell

Hyperallergic's weekly 'In Memoriam' column honors eight recently deceased figures from the art world, including Indian photojournalist Raghu Rai (1942–2026), Argentine abstract painter Ides Kihlen (1917–2026), Israeli painter and activist Yair Garbuz (1945–2026), British photographer Mark Gerson (1921–2026), Japanese art collector Kurt Gitter (1937–2026), Danish antiquities dealer Ittai Gradel (1965–2026), indigo textile artist Leigh Magar (1968–2026), and Kenyan muralist Patrick Mukabi (1967–2026). Each entry summarizes their life, career highlights, and contributions to visual art and photography.

The Incredible Story of Edmonia Lewis, America’s First Black and Indigenous International Art Star

The Peabody Essex Museum has launched "Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone," the first-ever retrospective dedicated to the 19th-century sculptor who was the first Black and Indigenous American artist to achieve international fame. Curated by Shawnya L. Harris and Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, the exhibition is the culmination of seven years of research and detective work to locate surviving marble sculptures and archival fragments. The show tracks her journey from her early life as "Wildfire" to her education at Oberlin College and her eventual professional success in Boston and Rome.

LACMA, Lucas Museum, Dataland… Los Angeles engaged in a crazy race for culture

LACMA, Lucas Museum, Dataland… Los Angeles engagée dans une folle course à la culture

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has opened its new David Geffen Galleries building, a massive, controversial structure designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor. The $835 million project, funded in part by philanthropist David Geffen, spans Wilshire Boulevard and replaces four older modernist pavilions, sparking a decade-long debate over its design, cost, and the loss of the previous buildings.

Look Inside the Art-Filled Home of New York City's Cultural Crusaders

This profile explores the Upper West Side residence of Crystal McCrary McGuire and Raymond J. McGuire, a power couple deeply embedded in New York City’s cultural and financial sectors. Their home serves as a private gallery for a significant collection of African American art, featuring masterworks by Norman Lewis, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Elizabeth Catlett, and Romare Bearden. The couple’s shared passion for collecting began independently, sparked by their formative years studying in France, and has since evolved into a joint mission to preserve and live alongside Black artistic heritage.

art new york gallery guide spring

Cultured's spring gallery guide for New York highlights a curated selection of exhibitions across the city, with standout shows including Carol Bove's sculptural installation at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Joan Semmel's retrospective at the Jewish Museum, Jessi Reaves's furniture-based works at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the group show "Afterlives: Contemporary Art in the Byzantine Crypt" at the Metropolitan Museum. The guide also notes exhibitions by Paul Chan, Nicola Tyson, Doron Langberg, and Yuval Pudik that are closing soon, and extends coverage to shows in Philadelphia and Warsaw.

art charlie marder east hampton

Cultured magazine's Hamptons issue features an interview between designer Robin Standefer and Charlie Marder, the East End horticulturalist known as the 'tree whisperer.' Marder, who co-founded an eponymous Bridgehampton nursery with his wife Kathleen—dubbed 'a horticultural MoMA' by the New York Times—has assembled a sprawling field of massive geological specimens across from the nursery. The rocks, some weighing 10 tons, are salvaged from development sites and quarries. Standefer, who purchased one of Marder's boulders for her birthday, discusses with Marder the ethics of placement, the personalities of stones, and the human urge to give new life to ancient matter.

new york exhibition guide

The article is a July 2025 New York exhibition guide from Cultured, highlighting last-chance viewing opportunities for shows across the city. Featured exhibitions include Willem de Kooning at Gagosian, Salman Toor and Jack Whitten at MoMA, Jane and Louise Wilson at 303 Gallery, Chloe Dzubilo at Participant Inc., N.H. Pritchard at Peter Freeman Inc., and Steve McQueen at Dia Chelsea, among others. The guide organizes shows by neighborhood and includes critical commentary on each artist's work.

Ripple: Furniture Sculpture and Painting after 1982

David Kordansky Gallery is presenting "Ripple: Furniture Sculpture and Painting after 1982," an exhibition of historic works by Swiss artist John Armleder, on view from May 7 to June 13, 2026. The show focuses on Armleder's Furniture Sculpture series from the 1980s, which incorporates functional or decorative objects alongside paintings, exploring the intersection of art, design, and everyday life. Works like FS 156 (1987) and Untitled (FS) (1987) exemplify his interest in collectivity, chance, and the viewer's role in assigning meaning, influenced by experiences such as a prison stint for refusing conscription and his time on a rowing team, as well as the experimental compositions of Erik Satie and John Cage's writings on chance.

Walk the auction: your guide to Christie’s 20th and 21st Century Art sales in NY this November

Christie’s is holding its 20th and 21st Century Art auctions in New York this November, featuring masterpieces by David Hockney, Mark Rothko, Pablo Picasso, Lucian Freud, and Richard Diebenkorn. The sales include works from distinguished private collections such as The Collection of Robert F. and Patricia G. Ross Weis, Elaine: The Collection of Elaine Wynn, the Edlis | Neeson Collection, and the Arnold and Joan Saltzman Collection. A free public exhibition runs from 7–20 November at Christie’s Rockefeller Center galleries, with live auctions on 18 and 20 November, including an Impressionist & Modern Works on Paper Sale and a Post-War & Contemporary Art Day Sale. Highlights include Edgar Degas’ pastel *Danseuses sur la scène* (c. 1879), a Joan Miró from 1942, and a Frida Kahlo painting with a storied exhibition history.

Nara's vampire-girl portrait sells for US$10m at Sotheby's, leading US$43m Hong Kong Evening Sale

Sotheby's Modern and Contemporary Evening Auction in Hong Kong on 28 September achieved HK$335 million (US$43.1 million), with a 95% sell-through rate across 40 lots. The top lot was Yoshitomo Nara's 2012 painting *Can't Wait 'til the Night Comes*, which sold for HK$79.9 million (US$10.3 million) to a private Asian collector. A group of five works by Roy Lichtenstein from the artist's personal collection also debuted at auction, collectively bringing HK$46.4 million (US$5.9 million).

Documenta Taps an All-Women Artistic Team—and More Art Industry News

Documenta has selected an all-women artistic team for its upcoming edition, marking a historic shift for the prestigious quinquennial exhibition. In other art industry news, Sotheby's will open its new global headquarters in the Breuer Building on November 8, Christie's London will auction the collection of Danish businessman Ole Faarup in October, and Bob Ross's market has surged with record auction prices. Several galleries announced new artist representations and relocations, including François Ghebaly adding Brooklin A. Soumahoro and Latitude Gallery moving to Tribeca. The Whitney Museum made three curatorial appointments, the Harvard Art Museums acquired a Heinz Mack sculpture, and Claudia Gould was named executive director of the Shaker Museum. The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation added new board members, and Maëlle Ebelle was appointed inaugural director of the Liu Shiming Art Foundation.

The School That Became a Refuge for Artists From Georgia O’Keeffe to Tony Smith

The Art Students League of New York, founded in 1875, is celebrating its 150th anniversary with an exhibition titled "Shaping American Art: A Celebration of the Art Students League of New York at 150." The show features 87 works by famous alumni and instructors, including Alexander Calder, Louise Bourgeois, Norman Rockwell, Tony Smith, and Robert Rauschenberg, drawn from the school's collection and supplemented by loans. Curated by Esther V. Moerdler and Ksenia Nouril, the exhibition spans the school's main gallery, lobby, registration office, and café, highlighting the League's unique open-enrollment, non-degree atelier model that has instructed some 200,000 students since its founding.

The galleries on Cork Street join forces for group exhibition celebrating 100 years as a landmark art destination.

Fifteen galleries on London's historic Cork Street have united for a first-of-its-kind group exhibition titled "Fear Gives Wings To Courage" to mark the street's centennial as a landmark art destination. Curated by Tarini Malik, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Royal Academy of Arts, the exhibition unfolds in three parts: an outdoor banners commission, presentations within each participating gallery from 11 to 25 July 2025, and a special catalogue issue launching during Frieze London 2025. The title references Jean Cocteau's 1938 painting of the same name, which caused controversy when shown at Peggy Guggenheim's gallery Guggenheim Jeune on Cork Street in 1938 and was confiscated by British customs.

Claude Monet’s Market Triumph: 12 Record‑Smashing Paintings That Define an Era

Claude Monet's market dominance is analyzed through twelve record-breaking paintings sold at auction over the past decade, led by *Meules (Haystacks)* (1890), which achieved $110.7 million at Sotheby's New York in 2019—a record for any Impressionist work. The article highlights key sales including *Le Bassin aux Nymphéas* (1919) at $80.45 million, *Nymphéas* (1906) at $54 million, and *Le Pont du chemin de fer à Argenteuil* (1873–74) at $41.4 million, tracing how Monet's serene yet radical landscapes have consistently commanded top prices across Christie's and Sotheby's.

Trevor Paglen’s New Book Says AI Is Rewriting What Images Do

Artist Trevor Paglen has published a new book, *How to See Like a Machine: Images After AI*, which argues that generative AI and computer vision are fundamentally changing how images function in culture. Drawing on his decade-long practice, Paglen contends that images are no longer merely representations for human interpretation but have become operational tools—'activations' that trigger automated responses and shape reality. He cites examples such as surveillance cameras at grocery stores, the Samsara navigation system in trucks, and the ImageNet database to illustrate how machine vision systems normalize surveillance in service of capital, a phenomenon he terms 'machine realism.'

Lucas Museum Reveals First Set of Exhibitions Curated by Founder George Lucas

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles has announced its inaugural exhibitions, curated by founder George Lucas, ahead of its September opening. The initial hang will feature around 12,000 objects from the museum's collection of over 40,000, displayed across 30 galleries in the 300,000-square-foot building. Thematic galleries will highlight specific artists such as Thomas Hart Benton, Norman Rockwell, and N.C. Wyeth, as well as mediums like cinema, photography, muralism, and comics. Broader themes include "Everyday Life," "Narrative Forms," and "Western Stories."

The curator awakens: Lucas Museum of Narrative Art reveals inaugural exhibition lineup

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, founded by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, will open in Los Angeles on 22 September with 18 inaugural exhibitions featuring over 1,200 objects. Curated by Lucas himself, the shows span media like photography, architecture, and cinema, as well as genres such as manga, anime, comics, and children's stories. Six solo exhibitions will highlight American artists including Thomas Hart Benton, Frank Frazetta, and Norman Rockwell. The museum's collection now exceeds 40,000 works, including the Separate Cinema Archive and Lucas Archives of film memorabilia.

New US exhibition explores power of monuments – with help from Rocky

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has opened a new exhibition titled "Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments," which uses the iconic Rocky Balboa statue as a focal point to explore the power and meaning of monuments across two millennia of boxing and celebrity culture. Curated by Paul Farber, co-founder of Monument Lab, the show features ancient sculptures, 19th-century works, images from boxing's golden age, and contemporary pieces by artists including Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Glenn Ligon. The Rocky statue, placed on the museum's steps in 1982, attracts an estimated 4 million visitors annually, rivaling the Statue of Liberty.

US National Gallery of Art gifted more than 1,200 Mitch Epstein photographs

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., has received a gift of 1,261 photographs from artist Mitch Epstein and his wife, Susan Bell. The donation, the largest institutional collection of Epstein's work, spans his five-decade career and includes major series such as 'American Power,' 'Property Rights,' and 'New York Arbor.'

David Bowie: You’re Not Alone review – Ziggy glam and Berlin grime in a bum-shaking yet sanitised immersion

A new immersive film exhibition titled 'David Bowie: You’re Not Alone' has opened at London's Lightroom. Directed by Mark Grimmer, who previously designed the V&A's 2013 Bowie exhibition, the hour-long 360-degree film focuses on the artist's most-streamed hits and features unseen performance footage, including from his 1978 Earls Court show. It aims to appeal to both die-hard fans and a younger audience.

Rare Books Stolen From Ex-MoMA President’s Home Recovered After Nearly 40 Years

Seventeen rare books, valued at over $2 million and stolen nearly 40 years ago from the Long Island estate of former Museum of Modern Art president John Hay Whitney, have been recovered and will be returned to his descendants. The trove includes a $2 million portfolio of handwritten letters from poet John Keats and first editions of works by James Joyce and Aleister Crowley.

LACMA’s New Building Invites You to Chart Your Own Path

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is set to open its long-awaited and highly debated new building, the David Geffen Galleries. Designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, the $720 million concrete structure spans Wilshire Boulevard and replaces several older buildings with a single, elevated exhibition level. The opening marks the culmination of a decade-long project spearheaded by Director Michael Govan, featuring a non-linear layout that integrates the museum's encyclopedic collection into thematic displays rather than traditional chronological or regional divisions.

2026 Guggenheim Fellowships Go to Sonya Clark, John Miller, and American Artist

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has announced its 101st class of fellows, awarding 223 scholars and artists across 55 disciplines for 2026. Selected from a pool of nearly 5,000 applicants, the new cohort includes prominent visual artists such as Sonya Clark, John Miller, American Artist, and Kota Ezawa. The fellowships provide significant financial grants to individuals who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.

An Intimate Portrait of Basquiat’s Early Life Returns to Brooklyn

The exhibition “Our Friend, Jean” returns to Brooklyn this May at The Bishop Gallery, coinciding with Frieze Week. The show features twenty artworks alongside personal ephemera and photographs from Jean-Michel Basquiat’s formative years between 1979 and 1980, primarily sourced from the collection of his former roommate Alexis Adler. This iteration includes previously unseen items from Adler’s trove, such as hand-painted garments and postcards, and will be activated by panels featuring Basquiat’s early collaborators.