Art News. Vasari Codex

trending_up market schedule Oct 11, 2025 visibility 21 link 3 artists, 4 galleries

upsilon gallery milan opening

Upsilon Gallery, founded by German-Argentine dealer Marcelo Zimmler, will open its first continental European location in Milan on November 18. The 200-square-meter space is situated near Via Monte Napoleone in the Quadrilatero fashion district, joining a wave of international galleries—including Thaddaeus Ropac, Cardi Gallery, and Robilant + Voena—that are betting on Milan's potential to become a global art capital. The inaugural exhibition features four canvases from Osvaldo Mariscotti's Valley series, with a bilingual catalogue edited by critics David Ebony and Alex Grimley, and coincides with twin shows in Upsilon's London and New York outposts.

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article policy schedule Oct 10, 2025 visibility 15 link 1 artist

museums prepare to close their doors government shutdown continues

As the U.S. government shutdown enters its third week, museums that had remained open are now closing. The National Portrait Gallery (NPG), part of the Smithsonian Institution, postponed its exhibition “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today,” originally set to open October 18, after the Smithsonian’s surplus funds run out on October 11. The National Gallery of Art (NGA) closed on October 1, leaving two major works by Houston-based multimedia artist Dario Robleto—the film *Until We Are Forged: Hymns for the Elements* and the sculpture *Small Crafts on Sisyphean Seas*—inaccessible to the public.

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article culture schedule Oct 8, 2025 visibility 12 link 3 artists

cannupa hanska luger mascot jordan peele horror film him

Cannupa Hanska Luger collaborated with the filmmakers of the horror film *Him*, directed by Justin Tipping and produced by Jordan Peele, to create a sports mascot named “Tinsel Larry.” The mascot appears in the film as the symbol for the fictional San Antonio Saviors team. Luger worked with lead costume designer Dominique Dawson on the design, which evolved from a “Conquistador Larry” concept into a “razzle-dazzle rose gold glitter monster.” Luger explained on Instagram that the mascot incorporates Indigenous references as a deliberate commentary on the racist history of sports mascots, calling it “an act of reclamation.”

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candle obituary schedule Oct 7, 2025 visibility 11 link 4 artists

mohamed hamidi moroccan modernist painter obituary

Moroccan modernist painter Mohamed Hamidi has died at the age of 84, as announced by the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah. Born in Casablanca in 1941, Hamidi studied at the School of Fine Arts of Casablanca and later at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. A founding father of Moroccan modern art, he returned to Morocco in 1967 and taught at the Casablanca School, helping to democratize its curriculum. He participated in the landmark 1969 exhibition “Manifesto” in Marrakech and founded the Moroccan Association of Plastic Arts in 1972. His abstract, erotic paintings incorporated traditional Maghreb motifs and geometric shapes.

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article culture schedule Oct 3, 2025 visibility 19 link 5 artists

taylor swift fate of ophelia painting john everett millais

Taylor Swift's new album 'The Life of a Showgirl' includes a song titled 'The Fate of Ophelia,' which references the tragic character from Shakespeare's 'Hamlet.' The article draws a parallel between Swift's song and John Everett Millais's Pre-Raphaelite painting 'Ophelia' (1851–52), which depicts the character before her death. The Tate, which owns the painting, posted about the work to discuss the death of its model, Elizabeth Siddal, in 1862. Swift's album cover, showing her floating in water, has been compared to the Millais painting, but the song reimagines Ophelia's narrative with a happy ending tied to her relationship with Travis Kelce.

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person people schedule Oct 3, 2025 visibility 18 link 5 artists

glenn lowry middle east podcast interview

Glenn Lowry, who stepped down last month after 30 years as director of the Museum of Modern Art, has given a wide-ranging interview on the podcast *The Art World: What If…?!* with Charlotte Burns. He discusses the Trump administration’s threats to museums’ tax-exempt status, his upcoming advisory roles for the Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Delhi, a prospective leadership campaign for Alice Walton’s Art Bridges Foundation, and a series of talks at the Louvre titled “I Want a Museum. I Need a Museum. I Imagine a Museum.”

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rate_review review schedule Oct 2, 2025 visibility 14 link 1 artist, 1 gallery

p staff david zwirner review

P. Staff's current exhibition at David Zwirner in New York transforms the gallery's Upper East Side townhouse into a haunting, body-centric experience. The show features a new video titled *Penetration* (2025), split across three floors, depicting a person with a laser beamed at their bare stomach, alongside sculptures with wood spikes under latex drapes and ambient sounds of a beating heart. The installation evokes a dread of having a body, with jaundiced yellow window films and disjointed sensory elements creating an uncomfortable, dysphoric atmosphere.

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museum exhibitions schedule Sep 30, 2025 visibility 20 link 3 artists

marina xenofontos cyprus pavilion 2026 venice biennale

Athens-based artist Marina Xenofontos has been selected to represent Cyprus at the 2026 Venice Biennale with a pavilion titled “It rests to the bones.” Curated by Kyle Dancewicz, deputy director of SculptureCenter in New York, the exhibition will be housed at the Associazione Culturale Spiazzi near the Arsenale. Xenofontos, born in Limassol in 1988, works across sculpture, kinetic objects, and film, often exploring Cyprus’s history and British colonial legacy. Her proposal was chosen from 21 submissions via an open call organized by Cyprus’s Department of Contemporary Culture, with a five-person advisory committee praising its engagement with Cypriot micro-histories and global issues.

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gavel restitution schedule Sep 30, 2025 visibility 19 link 2 artists

nazi looted painting argentina attribution investigation

A painting discovered in an Argentine home in August, initially attributed to 18th-century Italian painter Giuseppe Ghislandi and believed to be Nazi-looted art, has been called into question. Paolo Plebani, curator of the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, Italy, told the Argentine newspaper Clarín that the work is actually by Giacomo Ceruti, another Northern Italian painter. The painting was previously owned by Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, who fled the Nazis, and later by former Nazi Friedrich Kadgien, whose daughters Patricia and Alicia owned the Mar del Plata home where it was found. Argentine authorities recovered the painting after placing the daughters and Patricia's husband under house arrest.

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article news schedule Sep 29, 2025 visibility 16 link 1 artist

orange county museum of art acquired by university of california irvine

The University of California, Irvine (UCI) has acquired the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) and will merge it with the UC Irvine Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art (Langson IMCA). The combined institution will be renamed the UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art. UCI will oversee OCMA's 53,000-square-foot, $98 million facility in Costa Mesa, California, and integrate its 4,500-object collection with approximately 9,000 works from the Irvine Museum Collection and the Gerald Buck Collection. Previously planned programming at both venues is expected to continue through 2026, and a national search is underway for an executive director to lead the new museum.

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museum exhibitions schedule Sep 27, 2025 visibility 11 link 1 artist

menachem begin grandson avinadav art exhibition israel

Avinadav Begin, grandson of former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, is currently exhibiting his latest abstract metal and steel works at Sheetrit & Wolf Contemporary Art Gallery in Tel Aviv. The pieces, which he describes as “openings, apertures,” are neither paintings nor sculptures but heavy hybrid forms weighing up to 220 pounds, resembling rubble and broken window frames. In interviews, Begin has emphasized his identity as an artist rather than a politician, distancing himself from the current Likud party leadership under Benjamin Netanyahu, while acknowledging the influence of the ongoing war and hostage crisis on his work.

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museum exhibitions schedule Sep 23, 2025 visibility 15 link 6 artists

nivaagaard collection susanna painting artemisia gentileschi

The Nivaagaard Collection, a small art museum in rural Denmark, has acquired Artemisia Gentileschi's painting *Susanna and the Elders* (1644–48), marking the first work by the Italian Baroque artist to enter a Danish institution. Director Andrea Rygg Karberg secured the painting from a private collection via New York–based Old Masters dealer Nicholas Hall, beating dozens of international galleries. The acquisition is described as the most important addition to the museum since its founding in 1908.

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trending_up market schedule Sep 18, 2025 visibility 15 link 4 artists

interest in asian art strong despite challenges art market

The autumn edition of Asia Week New York is underway, with auction houses reporting strong interest in Asian art despite broader economic challenges. Bonhams kicked off the week with sales totaling $7.3 million, including Chinese ceramics and snuff bottles, though it offered 47% fewer lots than last year. Top results included a blue-and-white jar selling for $1.75 million and a pair of famille rose dishes for $1.5 million. Christie’s sold a Vasudeo S. Gaitonde painting for $2.35 million and a Tyeb Mehta work for nearly $2 million. New US tariffs under the Trump administration have added uncertainty, particularly for cross-border consignments and purchases.

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trending_up market schedule Sep 10, 2025 visibility 14 link 2 artists

christies auction first calculating machine blaise pascal

Christie’s will auction a Pascaline, the first calculating machine in history, developed by Blaise Pascal in 1642, at a sale in Paris on November 19. The estimate for the box decorated with ebony sticks is €2 million to €3 million. This particular model, dedicated to survey calculations, is the only one in private hands among nine surviving originals, and it remains fully functional. The auction also includes 15 volumes of Pascal’s writings, including a first copy of *Pensées* (estimate €200,000–€300,000), and works by Descartes, Newton, and others.

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museum exhibitions schedule Sep 10, 2025 visibility 21 link 5 artists

raphael exhibition 2026 metropolitan museum new york

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will open a landmark exhibition dedicated to Renaissance master Raphael in 2026. Titled "Raphael: Sublime Poetry," the show runs from March 29 to June 28 and will be the first major Raphael retrospective ever mounted in the United States. Curated by Carmen Bambach, the exhibition brings together 200 works including paintings, drawings, tapestries, and decorative arts, with loans from major museums worldwide such as the Louvre, the Uffizi, the Prado, and the Vatican Museums. Key loans include the Louvre's "Portrait of Baldassarre Castiglione" and the Galleria Borghese's "Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn."

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museum exhibitions schedule Aug 21, 2025 visibility 14 link 6 artists

martin beck environments art

Martin Beck has created a new body of artwork inspired by the *Environments* series of LPs, which debuted in 1969 and featured long-duration nature sounds and aural abstractions. The works are on view at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut, through October 5, and include wall works, video, and an exhibition design that explores how the records were marketed as lifestyle accessories and productivity aids. Beck first encountered the series through a friend's lecture at Columbia University and became fascinated by its blend of utopian vision and commercial hype.

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article news schedule Aug 5, 2025 visibility 17 link 3 artists

tate reports budget deficit critics respond

Tate Modern, the world's most visited modern and contemporary art museum, reported a budget deficit six months ago, prompting critics to blame its programming and curatorial strategies for declining foot traffic. While domestic attendance has recovered to 95% of pre-Covid levels, international visitors have dropped significantly—down 39% at Tate Modern, 32% at Tate Britain, and nearly 40% at Tate St Ives. Tate Liverpool remains closed until 2027. Research from The Art Newspaper's annual visitor report, however, points to external factors such as Brexit, socioeconomic shifts, and the cost-of-living crisis as key drivers of the decline, particularly among young European visitors aged 16 to 24.

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article news schedule Aug 1, 2025 visibility 12 link 5 artists

protestors visit the whitney after cancelation of pro palestine performance

On Friday, May 23, arts and culture workers protested at the Whitney Museum in New York following 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 protest, organized by Writers Against the War on Gaza, took place during the museum's Free Friday Night event, with demonstrators unfurling a Palestinian flag and a banner reading "Creativity Does Not Have to Rely on Death," distributing brochures demanding the removal of board members with ties to Israel, and calling out museum leadership for censorship. The performance, originally scheduled for May 14 as part of the Whitney's Independent Study Program, was canceled after museum leadership viewed a recording of its initial presentation at the Poetry Project, citing concerns that it "valorized specific acts of violence" and singled out community members based on belief systems.

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article news schedule Jul 31, 2025 visibility 13 link 2 artists

thomas kinkade foundation responds dhs morning pledge post

The Thomas Kinkade Family Foundation has publicly condemned the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for using Kinkade's painting *Morning Pledge* in a July 1 social media post on X that included the phrase “Protect the Homeland.” The foundation stated it did not authorize the use of the artwork and that the post promotes division and xenophobia, which is antithetical to its mission. It has requested the post's removal and is consulting legal counsel. This follows similar complaints from artist Morgan Weistling, whose painting *New Life in A New Land* was used by DHS without permission, and criticism over DHS's use of John Gast's *American Progress* (1872), owned by the Autry Museum of the American West.

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article policy schedule Jul 30, 2025 visibility 13 link 2 artists

trump big beautiful bill space shuttle discovery museum houston

President Donald Trump signed the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" on July 4, which includes a provision requiring the Smithsonian Institution to transfer a space vehicle—widely understood to be the space shuttle Discovery—to NASA. The shuttle has been displayed at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, since 2012. The move must be completed by January 4, 2027, and $85 million has been allocated for planning, transportation, and a new exhibition facility in Houston. The provision originated from the "Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act" introduced by Texas senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, after their state lost the original competition to host Discovery.

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article news schedule Jul 30, 2025 visibility 14 link 1 artist

ucca centre for contemporary art allegedly withheld wages

The UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing allegedly withheld staff wages for six months from January to June, according to the South China Morning Post. The institution, founded by the late Belgian collectors Guy and Myriam Ullens in 2007, has faced financial challenges including lower ticket sales, higher international freight costs, stricter rental demands from its landlord in Beijing's 798 Art District, and difficulty collecting payments from international partners. Its Shanghai branch, UCCA Edge, has seen no activity since June after an exhibition co-presented with the Saudi Ministry of Culture. Director Philip Tinari acknowledged a difficult year for museums in China, citing a slower consumer economy, and said the UCCA is working on long-term funding solutions.

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article news schedule Jul 29, 2025 visibility 15 link 2 artists

wesley lepatner met museum trustee dead

Wesley M. LePatner, a newly elected trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, was among four people killed by a gunman in a Midtown office building on Monday. LePatner was a senior managing director at Blackstone, where she served as global head of its Core+ Real Estate division and CEO of the Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust. She had just been elected to the Met’s board in February and was previously a member of the Met’s Friends of European Paintings group.

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person people schedule Jul 25, 2025 visibility 16 link 2 artists

johanna burton director ica philadelphia departs moca la

Johanna Burton, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, has been appointed the next director of the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Philadelphia, effective November 1. She succeeds Zoë Ryan, who left in January to lead the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Burton, who joined MOCA in 2021 after leading the Wexner Center for the Arts, stabilized the institution following a period of turmoil, reinstating its annual gala, securing major gifts, and hiring senior curator Clara Kim.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 18, 2025 visibility 9 link 2 artists

posthumous kaari upson retrospective copehnagen louisiana museum denmark

Kaari Upson's posthumous retrospective "Dollhouse" has opened at the Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. The exhibition features works such as "Trespass" (2012), a simulated chain-link fence coated in flesh-toned acrylic, and "The Grotto" (2008-09), a faux-rock formation with water features and video projections of sex-doll-like figures. The show explores themes of voyeurism, transgression, and the blurring of public and private boundaries, drawing from Upson's acclaimed "Larry Project" (2005-12), which involved breaking into a neighbor's abandoned home.

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article news schedule Jul 16, 2025 visibility 13 link 5 artists

mick taylor guitar stolen met museum donation

A donation of 500 guitars to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in May 2025, announced via a profile in The New Yorker, has become embroiled in controversy. Mick Taylor, former guitarist for the Rolling Stones, claims through his manager that one of the donated guitars—a Les Paul stolen from the band's French villa in 1971—is his property. The Met initially declined to comment, but later told The New York Times that Taylor played the guitar but never owned it, asserting a well-documented ownership history. The guitars were donated by collector Dirk Ziff, and the museum plans to open a permanent American guitar gallery in 2027.

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article news schedule Jul 8, 2025 visibility 20 link 8 artists, 8 galleries

tim blum gallery closure

Tim Blum, co-founder of the influential Los Angeles gallery Blum & Poe, announced the closure of the gallery last week. Blum, who took over after Jeff Poe left the business in 2023, cited personal burnout and a system-wide problem of over-expansion as reasons for the decision. In an interview with CULTURED editor-in-chief Sarah Harrelson, Blum reflected on his 35-year career, his role in building LA into an art-market capital, and his plans to stay involved in the art world in a new, alternative form.

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article news schedule Jul 1, 2025 visibility 13 link 2 artists

director of sao paulos museu afro brasil dismissed after less than two years

Hélio Menezes has been dismissed as director of the Museu Afro Brasil in São Paulo after less than two years in the role. He announced his departure on Instagram, describing the museum's internal decision-making as informal, personalistic, and lacking transparency, and criticized a leadership disconnected from Black representation and the visual arts world. Two board members, Wellinton Souza and artist Rosana Paulino, also resigned. The museum cited budgetary disagreements and accused Menezes of personal attacks against its board chair.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 30, 2025 visibility 13 link 1 artist

sandy rodriguez ringling museum of art exhibition

Los Angeles-based artist and researcher Sandy Rodriguez has opened her most ambitious exhibition to date, "Currents of Resistance," at the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, running through August 10. The centerpiece is "Resistance Map of the Gulf of Mexico" (2025), a 94.5-inch amate paper map from her ongoing "Codex Rodriguez-Mondragón" series. Rodriguez creates her own pigments from foraged minerals and botanical specimens, and uses handmade amate bark paper from San Pablito, Mexico, a sacred Mesoamerican material once outlawed during the colonial era. The map layers 500 years of cartographic tradition with historic and contemporary acts of resistance, including the Mixtón War, the Calusa resistance, and modern police violence in New Orleans. For this exhibition, she also introduced ocean water from the Gulf of Mexico to thin her pigments, referencing climate change as ongoing colonial aggression.

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gavel restitution schedule Jun 9, 2025 visibility 14 link 2 artists

fbi recovers paintings university new mexico harwood museum art

The FBI has recovered two paintings stolen 40 years ago from the University of New Mexico's Harwood Museum of Art in Taos. Victor Higgins's oil painting *Aspens* (c. 1932) and Joseph Henry Sharp's portrait *Oklahoma Cheyenne aka Indian Boy in Full Dress* (c. 1915) were taken in March 1985, when the building housed a public library with a museum on the second floor. The recovery was triggered by a late 2023 tip from investigative reporter Lou Schachter to museum executive director Juniper Leherissey, who then led an Art Recovery Task Force. The paintings had been sold in 2018 by the Scottsdale Auction House under altered titles, and were located, recovered, and returned to the museum on May 12, 2025, with a public unveiling on June 6.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 9, 2025 visibility 16 link 4 artists

rachel ruyschs still lifes dutch toledo pinakothek munich mfa boston

The Toledo Museum of Art has opened the first major exhibition dedicated to Dutch Golden Age painter Rachel Ruysch, organized with the Alte Pinakothek in Munich and traveling next to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The show features Ruysch's vibrant still lifes of fruits and flowers, often animated by insects, and places her work alongside that of her sister Anna Ruysch and other female scientific illustrators like Maria Sibylla Merian. Curator Robert Schindler's rediscovery of Anna Ruysch's work helped inspire the exhibition, which also draws on botanical research to catalog the global plant species Ruysch depicted, reflecting colonial trade networks.

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