Art News. Vasari Codex

article news schedule Oct 20, 2025 visibility 21 link 4 artists

amy sherald talks canceled smithsonian show 60 minutes

Painter Amy Sherald has revealed in a "60 Minutes" interview with Anderson Cooper that she pulled out of her solo exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery because the museum considered removing her painting of a Black transgender Statue of Liberty, titled "Trans Forming Liberty." Sherald stated that the Smithsonian secretary, Lonnie G. Bunch III, proposed replacing the painting with a video discussing trans issues that would include anti-trans views, which she deemed unacceptable censorship. The exhibition, "American Sublime," was originally organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and last shown at the Whitney Museum; it is now expected to open at the Baltimore Museum of Art on November 2.

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article news schedule Oct 20, 2025 visibility 16 link 2 artists

british museum fundraising gala interrupted by protestor

The British Museum's inaugural fundraising gala on October 18 was interrupted by a protester from the group Energy Embargo for Palestine. The woman, who gained access to the Great Court by working as a waitress, took the stage next to board chair George Osborne holding a sign reading 'DROP BP NOW.' She criticized the museum for accepting a £50 million sponsorship from BP, an oil and gas company she accused of causing climate collapse and enabling genocide in Gaza. The gala, co-chaired by Isha Ambani of Reliance Industries, raised over $2 million from ticket sales and featured a silent auction, including a pet portrait by Tracey Emin and a private tour of Coco Chanel's Paris apartment.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 17, 2025 visibility 15 link 6 artists

gene hackman bonhams auction

Bonhams will auction works from the collection of late actor Gene Hackman this November, spanning three sales—one live and two online. The live sale, titled “Gene Hackman: A Life in Art, Part I,” takes place November 19 in New York and features highlights such as Milton Avery’s 1957 painting *Figure on the Jetty* (estimate $500,000–$700,000) and Richard Diebenkorn’s 1986 color etching *Green* (estimate $300,000–$500,000). Online sales include two of Hackman’s Golden Globes, a still life painting by the actor himself, and additional lots of annotated books, scripts, and cinematic memorabilia. Hackman, who died in February, was a major arts patron in Santa Fe, a painter, and a board member of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.

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museum exhibitions schedule Oct 17, 2025 visibility 13 link 7 artists

robert rauschenberg dance guggenheim

A gala performance at the Guggenheim Museum in New York marked what would have been Robert Rauschenberg's 100th birthday, featuring dancers performing Paul Taylor's 'Tracer' (1962), for which Rauschenberg created costumes and sets—including a spinning bicycle wheel that served as a portal to the exhibition above. The show, 'Robert Rauschenberg: Life Can’t Be Stopped,' opened in one of the museum's tower galleries and runs through May 3, presenting select works from the Guggenheim's collections and loans from the artist's foundation, including major pieces like 'Barge' (1962–63), the largest silkscreen painting Rauschenberg made in the early 1960s, back in New York for the first time in nearly 25 years.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 16, 2025 visibility 23 link 2 artists, 3 galleries

pace japan director tokyo interview

Kyoko Hattori, vice president of Pace Japan, expressed her desire for Tokyo to become the center of art in Asia in a recent interview with the Japan Times. This comes one month after the third edition of Tokyo Gendai art fair closed with solid but unspectacular sales. Pace, the only mega-gallery with a location in Tokyo, opened a space in the Azabudai Hills development, which has been seen as a signal of the city's arrival on the global art stage. The article notes cautiously optimistic data, with Japan seeing 2 percent growth in the art market last year while the wider market contracted by 12 percent, and competitors China and Korea saw significant drops.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 16, 2025 visibility 14 link 1 artist, 1 gallery

gagosian first to announce it sold out at frieze london

Gagosian became the first exhibitor at Frieze London to announce a complete sellout of its booth, featuring a solo presentation of works by Los Angeles artist Lauren Halsey. The booth included pieces from Halsey's 2025 untitled series of polymer-modified gypsum and stain on wood, as well as a six-foot-tall plaza sign sculpture titled 'LODA PLAZA (2025)'. Gagosian director Antwaun Sargent confirmed that the works were placed with both institutions and serious long-term collectors in the U.S. and Europe.

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article local schedule Oct 15, 2025 visibility 16 link 1 artist

frank lloyd wright kalil house national historic places

Frank Lloyd Wright's Kalil House, a 1957 Usonian Automatic home in Manchester, New Hampshire, has been added to the National Register of Historic Places. Commissioned by Dr. Toufic and Mildred Kalil, the house was built using 2,580 concrete blocks and retains nearly all of its original Wright-designed furnishings. It is one of only seven such Usonian Automatic homes ever constructed and was purchased by the Currier Museum of Art in 2019.

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article news schedule Oct 15, 2025 visibility 25 link 7 artists

leading artists call for nationwide resistance against authoritarian forces

Visual artist Dread Scott, playwright Lynn Nottage, and dozens of cultural figures have launched "Fall of Freedom," a nationwide weekend of creative demonstrations scheduled for November 21–22, 2025, to protest rising authoritarianism under the Trump administration. The project invites arts communities to organize independent actions—such as storefront readings, pop-up performances, exhibitions, and workshops—at museums, galleries, classrooms, comedy clubs, or any community gathering space. Participating institutions include the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, which will host a "Wear Your Rights" silk-screening workshop, and New York's Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, which will turn a gallery into a library of queer art activism books. Other notable participants include artists Marilyn Minter, Robert Longo, and Amy Sherald, who recently canceled a Smithsonian exhibition after concerns over her painting of a Black transgender Statue of Liberty.

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museum exhibitions schedule Oct 15, 2025 visibility 18 link 11 artists, 1 gallery

william monk pace frieze london 2025

British painter William Monk is presenting a new series of paintings at Pace Gallery's solo booth at Frieze London 2025. The works, created during a residency at the Neuendorf House in Mallorca, feature obsessive cactus forms and a sentinel figure evolving from his earlier Ferryman series. Monk's studio visit reveals his meticulous process of controlling every detail, with paintings that recall Seurat and Bonnard in their dense, rhythmic brushwork.

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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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article news schedule Oct 13, 2025 visibility 15 link 1 artist

climate activists deface christopher columbus painting on day marking his arrival to americas

Two activists from the climate group Futuro Vegetal were arrested on October 12 after throwing biodegradable red paint on José Garnelo's 1892 painting *First Tribute to Christopher Columbus* at the Naval Museum in Madrid. The protest occurred on Spain's National Day, which commemorates Columbus's arrival in the Americas. The activists unfurled a banner reading “October 12, nothing to celebrate. Ecosocial justice” and were charged with crimes against cultural heritage. Separately, about 20 activists from Marea Palestina staged a sit-in around Picasso's *Guernica* at the Reina Sofía Museum, demanding an end to “the genocide against the Palestinian people,” temporarily closing the gallery.

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museum exhibitions schedule Oct 13, 2025 visibility 25 link 13 artists

toledo museum of art digital art ai and future proofing the museum

Adam Levine, director and CEO of the Toledo Museum of Art, has transformed the Ohio institution into a model for digital adaptation. Over five years, he grew the operating budget from $15 million to $23 million, expanded the endowment by $90 million, and launched TMA Labs, an in-house consultancy focused on data, Web3, AI, and emerging technologies. The museum has acquired digital artworks including NFTs and digital numismatics, established a digital artist-in-residence program, and opened the exhibition "Infinite Images," which traces the history of computer and digital art. Levine, one of the youngest museum directors in the U.S. at 38, discussed these initiatives in an interview with ARTnews.

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article policy schedule Oct 12, 2025 visibility 20 link 3 artists

smithsonian closes museums government shutdown

The Smithsonian Institution has been forced to close its 21 museums in Washington, D.C., indefinitely due to a continuing U.S. government shutdown that began on October 1. The National Gallery of Art had already closed the previous weekend. The Smithsonian had initially used its own funds to stay open, first planning to close on October 6 and then extending operations through October 11, but the ongoing shutdown—stemming from disagreements between Democrats and Republicans over health care policy—has now made closure unavoidable. The shutdown also threatens upcoming programming, including a planned Grandma Moses survey at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and a portraiture competition exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, which has already been postponed.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 10, 2025 visibility 20 link 3 artists

frieze abu dhabi fair announced

Frieze, the London-based art fair organizer, announced it will launch Frieze Abu Dhabi in November 2026, partnering with the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi). The new fair will replace the existing Abu Dhabi Art fair, which has run since 2007, and will take place at Manarat Al Saadiyat in the Saadiyat Cultural District. The announcement follows Frieze's recent acquisition by Mari, a company founded by Ari Emanuel, and comes amid a wave of international art fair expansions in the Gulf region, including Art Basel's new fair in Doha.

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article news schedule Oct 10, 2025 visibility 15 link 8 artists

national portrait gallery cancels exhibition events due to government shutdown

The National Portrait Gallery has postponed opening events for its upcoming exhibition “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today,” originally scheduled for October 16–17, due to the ongoing U.S. government shutdown. The decision was communicated in a letter from acting director Elliot Gruber on October 7, citing the shutdown as the reason for the cancellation. The exhibition, which features 35 portraits by 36 artists selected from over 3,300 entries, is part of the museum’s seventh triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition and is still set to open to the public on October 18, pending the resolution of lapsed funding.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 9, 2025 visibility 15 link 5 artists

jean michel basquaits 45 m crowns peso neto to headline sothebys fall auctions in new york

Sotheby's will offer Jean-Michel Basquiat's 1981 painting *Crowns (Peso Neto)* as the headline lot of its contemporary evening sale in New York this fall, carrying a high estimate of $45 million. The work, which has never been auctioned before, debuted at Basquiat's landmark 1982 solo show at Annina Nosei Gallery and later appeared at Documenta 7. It will be exhibited in London during Frieze Week, then in Paris coinciding with Art Basel Paris, before arriving at Sotheby's new Breuer Building headquarters in New York ahead of the November 8 sale.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 7, 2025 visibility 15 link 4 artists, 3 galleries

hauser amp wirths uk profits drop

Hauser & Wirth's UK subsidiary reported an 87% decline in pretax profit for 2024, falling to $1.6 million from $12.5 million the previous year, as revenue dropped by more than half to $91.4 million. The gallery attributed the downturn to a sharp fall in secondary-market sales, which can fluctuate significantly based on a few high-value transactions. The UK entity represents only a small portion of the gallery's global business, which the founders said remained aligned with the prior year's successful performance. Separately, the gallery's hospitality arm, Artfarm Group, posted a wider pretax loss of $24 million despite a 16% rise in turnover.

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museum exhibitions schedule Oct 4, 2025 visibility 17 link 2 artists

acropolis michael rakowitz athens allspice mesopotamia

Michael Rakowitz's survey exhibition "Allspice" at the Acropolis Museum in Athens explores themes of cultural displacement, looting, and historical narrative through works like his series "The invisible enemy should not exist" (2007–), which reconstructs looted artifacts from Baghdad's National Museum of Iraq using Arabic food wrappers and newspapers. The show also features his 2004 video "Return," documenting his effort to import Iraqi dates labeled as "product of Iraq" to the US after decades of sanctions, and includes interventions with the museum's own collection, such as a Cypriot head he linked to Assyrian art.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 1, 2025 visibility 13 link 3 artists

bacon rodin works sothebys frieze week sale

Four works by Francis Bacon and Auguste Rodin will headline Sotheby’s Frieze Week contemporary evening auction in London on October 16. The lots include Bacon’s paintings *Portrait of a Dwarf* (estimated up to £9 million) and *Study for Self-Portrait* (up to £6 million), alongside Rodin’s final bronze iterations of *Pierre de Wissant* and *Jean de Fiennes* (each estimated at £600,000–£900,000). The works come from an important private collection, with the Bacons acquired directly from the artist and held for over 40 years, and the Rodins purchased from the Musée Rodin. Sotheby’s shared previously unpublished audio featuring art historian Eddy Batache, a close friend of Bacon, who noted that *Portrait of a Dwarf* is the only painting Bacon ever kept for himself.

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article culture schedule Oct 1, 2025 visibility 17 link 4 artists

steve mcqueen soundtrack bottega veneta milan fashion week

Steve McQueen, the Turner Prize-winning artist and Oscar-winning filmmaker, created the soundtrack for Louise Trotter's debut collection as creative director of Bottega Veneta at Milan Fashion Week. The show took place at Fabbrica Orobia, a former zinc factory in Milan, and featured McQueen's sound piece '66 – '76, which pairs vocal recordings by David Bowie and Nina Simone of the song "Wild is the Wind." McQueen attended the event with his daughter Alex, both wearing the brand's signature leather Intrecciato.

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article news schedule Oct 1, 2025 visibility 16 link 3 artists

british museum ball international partnerships

The British Museum in London has announced a new fundraising event called the British Museum Ball, scheduled for October 18, with a pink theme inspired by the colors and light of India, tied to its exhibition 'Ancient India: Living Traditions.' The gala will be co-chaired by Isha Ambani, a patron of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre in Mumbai, and will feature a silent auction, music by Anoushka Shankar and Jules Buckley, and a guest list including Zadie Smith, Naomi Campbell, Idris Elba, Miuccia Prada, and others. Proceeds will support the museum's international partnerships and its goal of making its collection more accessible worldwide.

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person people schedule Sep 30, 2025 visibility 17 link 6 artists, 3 galleries

white cube jessie washburne harris global director

White Cube has appointed Jessie Washburne-Harris as a global director, based in New York, effective October 2025. She joins from Pace Gallery, where she was senior vice president, and has previously worked at Marian Goodman, Gagosian, Petzel, and Sotheby’s, as well as cofounding Harris Lieberman gallery. The appointment coincides with the second anniversary of White Cube’s permanent New York space, which opened in 2023 in a former bank on the Upper East Side and has hosted exhibitions by Tracey Emin, Theaster Gates, Antony Gormley, and Ilana Savdie.

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person people schedule Sep 30, 2025 visibility 19 link 3 artists

bana kattan selected as curator for uae venice biennale pavilion

The National Pavilion UAE has selected Bana Kattan, curator and associate head of exhibitions at the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, to curate the United Arab Emirates' presentation at the 61st International Venice Biennale in 2026. Born in Abu Dhabi and raised in the UAE, Kattan previously served as a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, where she organized shows for artists including Wafaa Bilal, Maryam Taghavi, and Mona Hatoum. A dedicated publication will accompany her pavilion presentation.

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museum exhibitions schedule Sep 29, 2025 visibility 18 link 3 artists

picasso museum paris expansion sculpture park plan

The Musée Picasso-Paris has announced a €50 million ($59 million) transformation plan, including a new wing for temporary exhibitions and a redesigned garden that will connect with the nearby Square Léonor-Fini. The project, scheduled for construction from 2028 to 2030, will double the museum's temporary exhibition space to 8,600 square feet and create a 25,000-square-foot sculpture park featuring around 10 Picasso sculptures, free to the public without a museum ticket. The museum plans to remain open during construction, which will be funded through patronage raised by a foundation hosted by the Académie des Beaux-Arts, with a significant donation from the Picasso family.

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person people schedule Sep 27, 2025 visibility 29 link 16 artists, 2 galleries

ebony l haynes zwirner global head of curatorial projects

Ebony L. Haynes, a director at David Zwirner since 2020 and founder of the gallery's affiliated space 52 Walker in 2021, has been promoted to the newly created position of global head of curatorial projects. In this role, she will oversee special exhibitions, projects, and collaborations with Zwirner's artists globally, while continuing to direct 52 Walker in New York's Tribeca neighborhood. The space has hosted 16 shows since opening in October 2021, featuring artists such as Kandis Williams, Nikita Gale, Nora Turato, and Raymond Pettibon, whose wrestling-themed drawings and live matches open tonight.

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trending_up market schedule Sep 26, 2025 visibility 17 link 8 artists, 1 gallery

perelman art insurance ruling

A New York judge has ruled against billionaire investor and art collector Ronald O. Perelman in his attempt to collect $400 million from insurers for five paintings allegedly damaged in a 2018 fire at his East Hampton estate. Justice Joel M. Cohen of State Supreme Court in Manhattan found no visible damage to the works—two by Andy Warhol, two by Ed Ruscha, and one by Cy Twombly—and nothing traceable to the fire that would reduce their value. Perelman claimed the fire robbed the paintings of their 'spark' and 'oomph,' but insurers including Lloyd's of London, Chubb, and AIG countered that the works were unscathed and accused Perelman of filing claims under severe financial pressure after a collapse in Revlon stock.

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museum exhibitions schedule Sep 26, 2025 visibility 17 link 9 artists

lawrence abu hamdan munch museum exhibition golan heights

Lawrence Abu Hamdan's exhibition "Zifzafa" has opened at the Munch Museum in Oslo, featuring a politically charged exploration of sound as both a celebration of life and a tool of displacement. The show centers on a forensic audio investigation into the impact of 31 wind turbines planned for the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, or Jawlan. Key works include the video projection *Wind Ensemble* (2024) featuring saxophonist Amr Mdah, CGI animations *Tilting at windmills i, ii & iii* (2024), and the 45-minute film *Zifzafa: Livestream Audio Essay* (2025), which uses a video game walkthrough format to simulate the sonic pollution that will affect local homes—some as close as 115 feet from the turbines. The game incorporates field recordings by local composer Busher Kanj Abu Saleh and turbine noise from Germany, highlighting the sounds of daily life and resistance.

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trending_up market schedule Sep 26, 2025 visibility 23 link 9 artists

abu dhabi to host most expensive art exhibition staged by sothebys in the middle east valued at 150 m

Abu Dhabi will host the most expensive art exhibition ever staged by Sotheby's in the Middle East on October 1 and 2, valued at approximately $150 million. The exhibition features six masterpieces by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Frida Kahlo, René Magritte, Camille Pissarro, and Edvard Munch, sourced from major private collections including those of Leonard A. Lauder, Cindy and Jay Pritzker, and Matthew and Kay Bucksbaum. It takes place at the Bassam Freiha Art Foundation on Saadiyat Island Cultural District and marks Sotheby's first public fine art show in the UAE, ahead of its Abu Dhabi Collectors' Week in November.

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article news schedule Sep 25, 2025 visibility 15 link 6 artists

blaffer art museum curator fired jatovia gary canceled

The Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston has fired associate curator Erika Mei Chua Holum, leading artists Ja’Tovia Gary and Kenneth Tam to cancel or postpone their exhibitions. The turmoil follows the appointment of Laura Augusta as director and chief curator in 2024. According to a report in Glasstire, Holum was terminated in July over budget disputes she disputes, and Gary pulled her show after budget negotiations broke down. Tam’s exhibition was described as canceled by the artist but denied by the museum, while a show by Thania Petersen also faces uncertainty. The museum previously canceled a Guadalupe Maravilla presentation in February, citing construction concerns.

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article news schedule Sep 25, 2025 visibility 21 link 21 artists

aspen art museum redefining future

The Aspen Art Museum is undergoing a strategic shift under director Nicola Lees, moving away from its reputation as a collector's clubhouse toward becoming a global institution. The museum's annual ArtCrush gala and fundraiser week, once centered on wealth-displaying collector home visits and glitzy parties, now emphasizes intellectual programming like the inaugural AIR festival, a $20 million artist-led interdisciplinary initiative featuring talks by Werner Herzog and Hans Ulrich Obrist. This change comes amid soaring local real estate prices, including a $108 million home co-purchased by Steve Wynn and Thomas Peterffy, and contrasts the area's deep pockets with the museum's free admission since 2008.

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