Art News. Vasari Codex

person people schedule Oct 13, 2025 visibility 17 link 1 artist

joan weinstein vice president getty wide program planning

The Getty has appointed Joan Weinstein, current director of the Getty Foundation, to the newly created role of vice president for Getty-wide program planning. Weinstein will continue as foundation director until a successor is named, and in her new position she will develop strategy across the institution’s four divisions: the Museum, Research Institute, Conservation Institute, and Foundation, focusing on art historical scholarship and community partnerships. She is best known for co-directing PST ART, a major Southern California cultural collaboration, and has overseen significant relief funds for artists affected by wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic.

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museum exhibitions schedule Oct 10, 2025 visibility 18 link 9 artists

claude monet venice brooklyn museum review

The Brooklyn Museum's exhibition "Monet and Venice" explores how Claude Monet's 1908 trip to Venice revitalized his creative practice, leading to 37 remarkable paintings that directly influenced his later "Water Lilies" series. The show assembles more than half of these Venice works alongside pieces by Canaletto, J.M.W. Turner, and others, tracing how the sojourn allowed Monet to see his canvases with fresh eyes after a period of creative impasse. Curated by Lisa Small and Melissa Buron, the 100-work survey opens October 11 and is the largest Monet exhibition in New York in over 25 years.

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museum exhibitions schedule Oct 8, 2025 visibility 17 link 11 artists

louvre jacques louis david museum retrospective

The Louvre in Paris is staging a major retrospective of Jacques-Louis David, featuring 100 works by the French Neoclassical painter, to mark the bicentenary of his death in 1825. The exhibition opens October 15 and runs through January, drawing on the Louvre's own collection and prestigious loans from institutions including the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Curator Sébastien Allard emphasizes that the show is not a conventional blockbuster but aims to explore under-examined aspects of David's practice, particularly his political engagement across the Ancien Régime, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic Empire.

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person people schedule Oct 6, 2025 visibility 17 link 7 artists

frick collection chief curator aimee ng

The Frick Collection in New York has promoted Aimee Ng to chief curator, effective November. She succeeds Xavier F. Salomon, who is leaving to become director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon. Ng, a curator at the Frick since 2015, has organized exhibitions on Italian Renaissance artists and co-curated the landmark 2023 show "Barkley L. Hendricks: Portraits at the Frick." Her appointment is the second senior leadership choice under director Axel Rüger, who joined in March ahead of the museum's long-awaited reopening.

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article news schedule Oct 1, 2025 visibility 16 link 1 artist

rembrandt masterpiece undergoes conservation at germanys stadel museum

The Städel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany, is undertaking a major conservation treatment of Rembrandt van Rijn's monumental painting *The Blinding of Samson* (1636). The project, expected to last three to four years, will address signs of aging and previous restorations, remove non-original paint, and create a historically accurate frame. The conservation follows a 2021 research seminar and technical studies published in the journal *ArtMatters*, which revealed previously unknown underdrawing techniques and adjustments to the artist's color palette and composition.

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trending_up market schedule Sep 8, 2025 visibility 23 link 16 artists

john pritzker donates 188 dada surrealist works to the metropolitan museum of art new york

John Pritzker, a Top 200 collector and Metropolitan Museum of Art trustee, has donated 188 Dada and Surrealist works by 37 avant-garde artists to the Met. The Bluff Collection includes pieces by Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Francis Picabia, and others, spanning collages, paintings, photographs, objects, and rare publications. Many works will feature in the museum's upcoming exhibition “Man Ray: When Objects Dream,” opening September 14, which includes 35 Man Ray pieces from the collection. The gift also establishes a research program funded by the John Pritzker Family Fund.

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article policy schedule Aug 29, 2025 visibility 12 link 3 artists

trump lonnie bunch meeting smithsonian

President Donald Trump had lunch with Lonnie G. Bunch III, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, on Thursday, according to the New York Times. This meeting comes amid ongoing tensions between the Trump administration and the Smithsonian, including a White House list denouncing specific artworks—such as a painting of refugees at the US-Mexico border and Amy Sherald’s portrait of a Black trans woman as the Statue of Liberty—and an executive order claiming the institution has been influenced by “divisive, race-centered ideology.” Trump has also called for a legal review of Smithsonian displays, though his authority over the institution is unclear. The lunch was described as “productive and cordial” by a White House spokesperson, but no details of the discussion were released.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 23, 2025 visibility 23 link 5 artists

guggenheim rauschenberg 100th birthday

Two major New York museums are celebrating the centennial of Robert Rauschenberg's (1925–2008) birth this fall with exhibitions that spotlight lesser-known chapters of his career. At the Guggenheim New York, the monumental silkscreen painting "Barge" (1962–63) returns to New York in October for the first time in nearly 25 years as part of a show titled "Life Can't Be Stopped." The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) will showcase Rauschenberg's undersung photography work focused on New York City. Neither exhibition features his famous "Combines," instead highlighting other aspects of his wide-ranging practice. The Guggenheim's show is part of its new "Focus" series, launched in November 2024, which aims to highlight the museum's collection.

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article culture schedule Jul 22, 2025 visibility 15 link 12 artists

how ancient egypt influenced modern art

The article explores how ancient Egyptian art and design have influenced modern Western aesthetics, from Empire furniture to Art Deco. It traces the phenomenon of 'Egyptomania' back to the 19th century, when European artists and archaeologists like Dominique Vivant Denon, Jean-Léon Gérôme, and Howard Carter brought Egyptian motifs and artifacts to public attention. The piece highlights three key examples: the adoption of Egyptian-inspired Empire furniture under Napoleon, the use of Nubian tribute scenes in decorative arts, and the impact of King Tutankhamun's tomb discovery on early 20th-century design.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 18, 2025 visibility 14 link 7 artists

ice age art

The British Museum has organized a new exhibition titled “Ice Age Art Now,” installed at Cliffe Castle Museum in Yorkshire, England, that presents Ice Age artifacts—carved images, figurines, and engravings dating from 24,000 to 12,000 years ago—alongside more recent artworks, including a print after Goya and a charcoal sketch by Maggi Hambling. Curated by Jill Cook, the show aims to reframe these prehistoric objects as artistic expressions rather than mere archaeological curiosities, highlighting their use of line, space, and scale to capture the observed world and communicate emotion.

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rate_review review schedule Jul 17, 2025 visibility 12 link 9 artists

william holman hunt the awakening of conscience

The article analyzes William Holman Hunt's 1853 painting *The Awakening Conscience*, which depicts a woman in a Victorian parlor rising from the lap of a man, her gaze fixed on a sunlit garden glimpsed in a mirror. Hunt, a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood alongside John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, filled the work with dense symbolism—such as the woman's ringless left hand, a discarded glove, and sheet music by Edward Lear and Thomas Moore—to reveal that the scene is not a married couple but a mistress and her lover, trapped in a gilded cage.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 15, 2025 visibility 16 link 11 artists

work of the week edouard vuillard

A painting by Édouard Vuillard, *Madame Vuillard à Table* (1896–1897), sold for $2.7 million at Ford Art Auction in 2025, a dramatic increase from its $254,000 sale at Sotheby’s just 18 months earlier. The work, depicting the artist’s mother, was estimated at $350,000–$550,000 and attracted 21 bidders. Ford’s sales director Elizabeth Katz attributed the strong result to the subject’s desirability and the painting’s origin in Vuillard’s Nabis period. The previous Sotheby’s sale was from the estate of William J. Levy, benefiting a University of Pennsylvania scholarship.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 14, 2025 visibility 13 link 1 artist

vermeer the street new research

The Rijksmuseum's 2023 Vermeer exhibition, which brought together 28 of the artist's 34 surviving paintings, was a historic success, drawing 650,000 visitors and inspiring extensive new research. A new book, *Closer to Vermeer*, presents findings from advanced imaging techniques and archival studies, revealing that Vermeer made significant changes to 30 of his paintings. For example, in *The Little Street* (1658–59), the door was originally painted shut, the children were absent, and the woman was positioned differently, showing how Vermeer deliberately opened the scene to viewers. Other alterations include modifications to *The Milkmaid* (1657–58) and *Diana and her Nymphs* (1653–54).

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article news schedule Jul 8, 2025 visibility 11 link 7 artists

romare bearden catalogue raisonne

The Wildenstein Plattner Institute (WPI) has released the first online tranche of the Romare Bearden Catalogue Raisonné Project, covering over 200 works from 1964 to 1969—a pivotal period when Bearden honed his signature collage style. The free digital publication fills a long-standing gap for the canonical Black American artist, who died in 1988, and includes works verified by an anonymous committee of experts, with a verified icon for examined pieces.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 4, 2025 visibility 14 link 6 artists

fra angelico fresco restored

A long-forgotten fresco by the early Renaissance master Fra Angelico, believed to be his earliest known work, has been restored in the chapter house of San Domenico in Fiesole, Tuscany. The painting, a Crucifixion dating to around 1420, was hidden under whitewash for centuries and rediscovered by Bottega Belacqua, a group of Renaissance art enthusiasts. Funding from Friends of Florence enabled conservators Alessandra Popple and Cristiana Conti to revive the work, just in time for a landmark exhibition in Florence.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 3, 2025 visibility 16 link 13 artists

turner rediscovered masterpiece auction

A rediscovered oil painting by J.M.W. Turner, titled *The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent’s Rock, Bristol*, sold for £1.9 million ($2.6 million) at Sotheby’s Old Masters and 19th Century Paintings evening auction in London—more than six times its high estimate. The work, painted in 1792 when Turner was 17, had been misattributed and sold for just $506 at a Dreweatts auction the previous year. After cleaning revealed Turner’s signature, scholars confirmed its authenticity, and it was identified as Turner’s first publicly exhibited oil painting, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1793. The winning bidder was a private collector in the U.K., outbidding Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, which had raised over £100,000 from donors in a failed attempt to acquire the work.

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article news schedule Jun 17, 2025 visibility 16 link 6 artists

donald judd marfa national register of historic places

The National Park Service has added the Donald Judd Historic District in Marfa, Texas, to the National Register of Historic Places. The designation covers 15 buildings transformed by artist Donald Judd, including structures on the decommissioned Fort D.A. Russell army base, as well as his outdoor work *15 Untitled Works in Concrete* (1980–84). Judd began acquiring property in Marfa in 1971, creating an artist-centered environment that now draws around 50,000 visitors annually.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 16, 2025 visibility 13 link 8 artists

leonard lauder mfa boston postcards

Leonard Lauder, the 85-year-old chairman emeritus of Estée Lauder Companies, has amassed a collection of approximately 130,000 postcards, many of which are a promised gift to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. A selection of 350 propagandist postcards from the World War I and World War II eras is now featured in a new exhibition at the MFA titled “The Art of Influence: Propaganda Postcards from the Era of World Wars” (through January 21), accompanied by a publication. Lauder began collecting as a boarding school student in Miami Beach, drawn to the idealized images and vibrant colors of Art Deco hotel postcards, and later expanded to historical and propagandist cards that he describes as “living history.”

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 12, 2025 visibility 15 link 12 artists

metropolitan museum of art rockefeller wing reopening

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has unveiled the renovated Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, dedicated to the art of Africa, Oceania, and the ancient Americas. Designed by Kulapat Yantrasast of WHY Architecture with Beyer, Blinder, Belle Architects, the 40,000-square-foot wing opened to the public on May 31, showcasing 1,800 objects from 663 cultures across 90 countries. The collection originated from Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, who began acquiring non-Western art in 1930 and later founded the Museum of Primitive Art in 1957 after the Met initially declined his donation.

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article culture schedule Jun 4, 2025 visibility 13 link 6 artists

three things hokusai great wave

Katsushika Hokusai's iconic woodblock print "The Great Wave" (officially *Under the Wave off Kanagawa*) is examined through three lesser-known facts. The article notes that the print, created between 1830 and 1832, is surprisingly small—less than 15 inches wide—and that its vivid blue pigment, Prussian blue, was a recent European import that revolutionized Japanese ukiyo-e prints. It also highlights Hokusai's practice of adopting over 30 different names throughout his career, which now helps scholars periodize his work.

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article news schedule Jun 3, 2025 visibility 25 link 14 artists

isp alumni open letter whitney museum palestine performance

On Monday, Whitney Museum director Scott Rothkopf announced via email that the museum would "pause" the 2025–26 academic year of its Independent Study Program (ISP), citing a lack of a director and strained operations. The announcement coincided with an open letter from high-profile ISP alumni—including artists Emily Jacir, Andrea Fraser, Mark Dion, and others—denouncing the museum's cancellation of a pro-Palestine performance titled "No Aesthetics Outside My Freedom: Mourning, Militancy, and Performance" by artists Fadl Fakhouri, Noel Maghathe, and Fargo Tbakhi. The performance was canceled two days before it was to be part of an ISP curatorial exhibition, after the museum accused the artists of "valorizing specific acts of violence" and singling out community members based on belief systems. The letter also referenced the earlier demotion of ISP director Gregg Bordowitz in February.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 1, 2025 visibility 14 link 7 artists

frida kahlo casa roja

A new museum dedicated to Frida Kahlo, the Museo Casa Kahlo, will open on September 27 in Mexico City's Coyoacán district at her family home, Casa Roja. Unlike the existing Museo Frida Kahlo at the adjacent Casa Azul, which focuses on her later career and marriage to Diego Rivera, this institution will explore Kahlo's early life and artistic roots, including her father's photography. The museum will display childhood photographs, dolls, jewelry, letters, her first oil painting, and her only known mural, alongside temporary exhibitions of Mexican, Latin American, and women artists. The project is led by Kahlo's descendants, including Mara Romeo Kahlo and Frida Hentschel Romeo, with support from the Rockwell Group architecture firm and a new nonprofit, the Fundación Kahlo.

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rate_review review schedule May 30, 2025 visibility 14 link 2 artists, 2 galleries

david hammons artist book hauser wirth

David Hammons has released a "post-exhibition catalogue" through Hauser & Wirth Publishers, six years after his 2019 survey at the gallery's Downtown Los Angeles location. The 12-by-12-inch, nearly 7-pound volume contains hundreds of images—installation shots, artwork reproductions, and ephemera—but no text whatsoever: no table of contents, essays, titles, dates, or page numbers. The book functions more as an artist's book than a traditional exhibition catalog, presenting Hammons's work in a raw, unapologetic sequence that resists scholarly interpretation.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 29, 2025 visibility 15 link 12 artists

berruguete restoration altarpiece

The Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao has completed a restoration of Pedro Berruguete's *The Annunciation* (1485–1490), a painting that once formed part of an altarpiece likely for a church in Palencia, Spain. The work, on a five-year loan from the Arburu collection, had suffered from cracks, dirt, and oxidized varnish over centuries. Two specialists—Elisa Mora Sánchez for the paint layer and Mayte Camino Martín for the gilding—cleaned, repaired, and re-gilded the panel, revealing Berruguete's blend of Italian Renaissance, Flemish, and Castilian Gothic influences.

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article policy schedule May 29, 2025 visibility 15 link 12 artists

neh stipends trump

The Trump administration is moving to eliminate the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) while simultaneously cutting its funding and reshaping its priorities. In early May, the NEH announced $9.55 million for 68 projects, a sharp drop from $26.2 million for 238 projects the previous year. The number of Summer Stipends was slashed from nearly 100 to just 18, with total funding cut by three-fourths to $144,000. Only one Media Project grant was awarded, down from ten. The administration has also sought to lay off NEH workers, cancel grants, and divert funds to a National Garden of American Heroes, a presidential pet project.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 19, 2025 visibility 19 link 4 artists

impressionist masters manet morisot major museum show

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco will present "Manet and Morisot," the first major museum exhibition dedicated to the artistic exchange between French Impressionists Édouard Manet and Berthe Morisot. Opening October 11 at the Legion of Honor, the show traces their relationship from 1868 to 1883, pairing works to reveal mutual influence. Lenders include the National Gallery of Art, Musée d'Orsay, J. Paul Getty Museum, and Cleveland Museum of Art, where the exhibition will travel next year.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 16, 2025 visibility 15 link 17 artists

rasquachismo exhibition mcnay art museum

The McNay Art Museum in San Antonio mounted the exhibition "Rasquachismo: 35 Years of a Chicano Sensibility" to mark the 35th anniversary of scholar Tomás Ybarra-Frausto's foundational 1989 essay theorizing rasquachismo. The show, curated by Mia Lopez and on view from December through March, featured works by major Chicanx artists including Yolanda M. López, Carmen Lomas Garza, Santa Barraza, Celia Álvarez Muñoz, Carlos Almaraz, Frank Romero, Patssi Valdez, Luis Jiménez, and younger artists like Ruth Buentello, Juan de Dios Mora, and Jimmy James Canales. Ybarra-Frausto credited Mi Tierra Cafe y Panaderia in San Antonio's Historic Market Square as a key influence on his critical eye, describing the restaurant as a "hotbed of rasquachismo."

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article culture schedule May 16, 2025 visibility 17 link 13 artists

leonardo da vinci existing paintings ranked

Artnet News has published a ranking of Leonardo da Vinci's surviving paintings, focusing on completed, stand-alone works and excluding frescos like *The Last Supper* and unfinished pieces. The article evaluates paintings such as *Annunciation* (c. 1472–76), *Madonna of the Carnation* (1478–80), and *Ginevra de' Benci* (c. 1474–78), considering factors like attribution certainty, historical context, and unique traits—for instance, *Ginevra de' Benci* is the only Leonardo painting in a public collection in the Americas.

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article news schedule May 15, 2025 visibility 11 link 5 artists

last known painting gauguin authenticity

The Kunstmuseum Basel has launched a fresh scientific investigation into a painting long believed to be Paul Gauguin's final self-portrait, *Self-Portrait with Glasses* (1903), after amateur art sleuth Fabrice Fourmanoir raised doubts about its authenticity. Fourmanoir claims the work may have been painted not by Gauguin but by a Vietnamese revolutionary named Ky Dong, a close acquaintance of the artist, after Gauguin's death. The museum, which has owned the painting since 1945, confirmed it is re-examining the work using modern techniques like infrared reflectography and radiology, with results expected by June or July.

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article culture schedule May 15, 2025 visibility 16 link 10 artists

michelangelo 550 birthday headlines

Artnet News rounds up recent headlines involving Renaissance master Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni as institutions prepare to celebrate his 550th birthday in 2025. The article highlights three stories: a scene in HBO's *The White Lotus* season three finale that echoes Michelangelo's *Pietà*; the ongoing scholarly debate over whether Michelangelo himself forged the ancient sculpture *Laocoön and His Sons*; and the restoration of Michelangelo's family tomb at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence ahead of his birthday.

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