5 New Books to Transport You Elsewhere This June

ARTnews lists five new art books for June 2026 that use art and history as portals to other times and places. The selections include Isaac Butler's 'The Perfect Moment' on the 1980s culture wars, Deborah Levy's 'My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein' on the modernist icon, Ruth Bernard Yeazell's 'Vermeer's Afterlives' on the Dutch painter's legacy, Rem Koolhaas's 'Rem Before Koolhaas' collecting his early journalism, and Katja Hoyer's 'Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe' on the artistic golden age of the Weimar Republic.

My latest masterpiece – a house for toy farm animals! What my son learned from a day making art at home

A parent and art critic spends a day at home with their toddler making and looking at art, from morning play with magnet tiles and crayons to a visit to the William Morris Gallery. The day includes reading art-themed books like Miffy and Mildred the Gallery Cat, decorating the child's room with prints by Moira Frith and William Nicholson, and a trip to a local gallery where the child knows the attendant by name.

Cupcakes, bunting and a bus stuck in the mud: the funeral of Martin Parr – in pictures

Martin Parr's funeral was held at Woodlands Memorial Garden near Bristol, organized by his family and the Martin Parr Foundation. The ceremony featured his favorite music, including 'The Girl from Ipanema,' and was followed by a country fete-themed celebration with bunting, clingfilm-wrapped sandwiches, sad-faced cupcakes, and a tombola of unwanted Christmas gifts, recreating food from his famous photographs. Guests included artist Grayson Perry, who spoke fondly of Parr's obsessive nature and work ethic. Photographer Sophie Green documented the event, as Parr had long been interested in breaking the taboo of funeral photography.

John M Armleder Reframes Centuries of Art History at MAH Geneva

Swiss artist John M Armleder has launched "Observatoires," the sixth edition of the Carte Blanche initiative at the Musée d’art et d’histoire (MAH) in Geneva. The exhibition reframes the museum’s historic collection through thematic rooms exploring animals, abstraction, and musical instruments, with playful interventions such as an oversized disco ball and graphic lobster wallpaper. Newly commissioned temporary structures inspired by Armleder’s own drawings in the museum’s collection further blur boundaries between contemporary art and cultural heritage.

The Art Market Post-Pollock

The article critiques the narrative of a thriving art market following spring's marquee auctions, using Christie's $181.2 million sale of Jackson Pollock's "Number 7A" (1948) as a misleading headline. Despite a $1.1 billion evening sale, roughly 30% of lots sold below low estimate or went unsold, including high-profile works like Agnes Gund's Twombly. Similar patterns emerged at Phillips and Sotheby's evening sales, where over a third of lots performed at or below estimate. The author argues that auction houses engineer low estimates to ensure sell-through rates, but the resulting hammer prices often fall short of gallery prices for comparable works, while buyer's premiums and consignor fees create disappointment for sellers.

Spin city: Melbourne loves records – but is it really the vinyl capital of the world?

The article explores Melbourne's claim as the "vinyl capital of the world" through the lens of Rising festival's exhibition "The Vinyl Factory: Reverb" at ACMI. Curated by Yasmine Sharaf, the exhibition celebrates vinyl culture with listening rooms, rare records like Elias Rahbani's 1972 album, and works such as Carsten Nicolai's interactive turntable piece. A report by the Victorian Music Development Office claims Melbourne has 5.9 record stores per 100,000 residents, the highest per capita globally, though the article questions this metric against cities like Tokyo.

The Long Road to the Pavilion

Der lange Weg in den Pavillon

The article explores the overlooked history of East Germany's (DDR) participation in the Venice Biennale from 1982 to 1990. Despite being officially represented, the DDR never exhibited in the German Pavilion, which was controlled by West Germany. Instead, East German artists like Sabina Grzimek (1986) and Wieland Förster showed their work in the Venezuelan Pavilion. Artist Henrike Naumann, co-curator of the 2024 German Pavilion, researched this history in the Federal Archives, uncovering documents that reveal the DDR's persistent but unsuccessful efforts to secure space in the German Pavilion or build its own, highlighting a cultural-political struggle for visibility during the Cold War.

Baby otters make a splash and a JD Vance chest bump: photos of the day – Friday

The Guardian's photo editors curated a series of images from around the world on Friday, May 29, 2026. Highlights include rare 15-week-old giant otter pups cooling off after their first swimming lesson at Chester Zoo in the UK, and US Vice-President JD Vance exchanging a celebratory chest bump with a graduating cadet at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Other notable images feature British artist Sue Tilley with Lucian Freud's portrait of her, 'Sleeping by the Lion Carpet', ahead of its auction debut at Sotheby's, as well as scenes from a street festival in Zagreb, a memorial at Anfield, and conflict-related images from Lebanon and Gaza.

Pre-Raphaelite Masterpiece Expected to Rake in $1.3 Million at Auction

Christie's will auction 20 Pre-Raphaelite and Symbolist works from the collection of the late literary agent Albert Zuckerman across two sales in London this summer. The highlight is John Melhuish Strudwick's painting *Thy Music, faintly falling, dies away, Thy dear eyes dream that Love will live for aye* (1893), estimated at £700,000–£1 million ($950,000–$1.3 million) in the Old Masters Evening Sale on June 30. The work, which Zuckerman bought from Christie's in 2003 for £509,250, represents Strudwick's second-highest auction record. The following day, 19 more works from Zuckerman's collection will be offered in the Old Masters to Modern Day Sale, including pieces by John Anster Fitzgerald, William Bell Scott, Albert Joseph Moore, Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer, and Edgard Maxence.

How We Complied Our List of the 100 Best Artworks About America

ARTnews and Art in America have published a list of the 100 greatest artworks about America, timed to the nation's upcoming 250th anniversary. The list spans from an 18th-century painting of a Founding Father to a 21st-century video essay on anti-Black racism, including works that address settler colonialism, enslavement, the Civil War, the Vietnam War, and the Civil Rights Movement. Artists hail from the US, Korea, Moldova, Iraq, Chile, Vietnam, Cuba, Hong Kong, Japan, Switzerland, and Mexico, and the selection was debated over a year by editors through meetings and Slack discussions.

Kinlaw’s Performances Are High Stakes, No Net.

Performance artist Kinlaw, known for high-risk, physically demanding works, is profiled ahead of her upcoming project *FALL RISK*. The article details her two-year residency in Bell Labs' anechoic chamber, an unauthorized rooftop concert in SoHo on the day of Luigi Mangione's arraignment, and a previous iteration of *FALL RISK* at Art Omi where she was suspended 128 feet in the air by a crane while narrating her mother's medical struggles. She is now planning a version in Times Square, dangling above industries that calculate the cost of human life.

Lalanne’s Playful Frog Fountains Surface at Auction

A set of four bronze Grenouille fountains by François-Xavier Lalanne, created in 1981 for American designer and collector Alexandra Marshall, will be the marquee lot at Christie’s Design auction on June 10 at Rockefeller Center, with an estimate of $2.5 million to $3.5 million. The fountains, the first Lalanne ever made, were originally installed around Marshall’s swimming pool in Houston, Texas. The sale also includes a patinated bronze ram by Lalanne (estimate $800,000–$1.2 million), a Henning Koppel eel covered dish from the estate of late collector Henry S. McNeil Jr., and 18 lots by Tiffany Studios, led by the Boyd Family Memorial Window (estimate $1.5–$2 million).

The Universe According to Sang Huoyao—and His Humanoid Robot

At the Museum of Art Pudong (MAP) in Shanghai, artist Sang Huoyao opened his solo exhibition “Brushstrokes of the Universe” with a performance titled *How to Explain Painting to a Living Robot* (2026), in which he walked a humanoid robot from Unitree through the galleries, explaining each painting. The show, curated by Jonas Stampe, features 52 works including silk paintings, aluminum panel installations, and new media pieces, centered on the monumental 46-foot-long silk painting *Birth under the Sky* (2025–26).

Stripteases, ecstatic embraces and a dog in a dress: the full-on photos celebrating queer dancefloors worldwide

A new photo book titled *Sex, Clubs, Dissent: Visualising Queer Nightlife*, edited by writer Amelia Abraham, collects photographs from the 1960s to today that document queer nightlife around the world. The anthology features works by artists such as Wolfgang Tillmans, Sunil Gupta, Kia LaBeija, Phyllis Christopher, Roxy Lee, Ajamu X, and Del LaGrace Volcano, alongside images from trans community archives in Mexico City and Buenos Aires. The book is organized into sections on sex, clubs, and dissent, and includes a range of media from film stills to a Grindr screenshot, aiming to capture the messy, sexy, and politically charged atmosphere of queer social spaces.

Detroit’s MOCAD Reopens with a New Vision and a New Kind of Leadership

The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) has reopened after an eight-month renovation, marking its 20th anniversary with a new vision centered on artists and community. Co-directors Jova Lynne and Marie Madison-Patton have titled this new chapter "A Practice of Multiplicity," emphasizing the wholeness of artists' lives beyond their work. The renovation includes infrastructural upgrades like an HVAC system, a new Learning Studio, a transformed café for programming, and a facade that opens to the street. Two inaugural surveys highlight Detroit artists Olayami Dabls and Carole Harris, whose practices explore the city's history, culture, and social transformation.

Headfirst into Eternity

Kopfüber in die Ewigkeit

Conceptual artist Timm Ulrichs, who died on April 29 at age 86, has been buried in a self-designed grave in the Künstlernekropole (artists' necropolis) near Kassel, Germany. His tomb features a life-size bronze cast of his body buried head-first in the earth, with only the soles of his feet visible above ground. Ulrichs, a pioneer of West German postwar conceptual art known for provocative works like tattooing himself and locking himself inside a hollowed boulder, was laid to rest in the forest cemetery founded by artist Harry Kramer in 1992.

Boats and trains, not planes: reflections on a greener—but sometimes greenwashed—Venice Biennale

The article recounts the author's train journey from London to Venice for the 61st Venice Biennale, highlighting the environmental benefits and pleasant experience of traveling by rail versus flying, despite higher costs and longer duration. It then focuses on the Biennale's central exhibition "In Minor Keys" curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, which foregrounds environmental themes through works that engage with earth, nature, and ecological stakes, featuring artists like Otobong Nkanga, Célia Vasquez Yui, Theo Eshetu, Linda Goode Bryant, and Annalee Davis.

Final proposals for Billie Holiday monument in New York City revealed

The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs has selected six finalist proposals for a monument to jazz singer Billie Holiday in Queens, where she once lived and performed. The finalists—all Black artists from around the world—include Tavares Strachan, La Vaughn Belle, Tanda Francis, Nikesha Breeze, Thomas J Price, and Nekisha Durrett. Their designs range from realistic to abstract, with some focusing on Holiday's expressive face, her signature gardenia, or symbolic forms. The winning project will be announced this summer and installed near the Jamaica Performing Arts Center (JPAC).

Nicole Kidman's Billion-Dollar Breakfast at Christie's

Christie's held a record-setting evening sale on May 18, 2025, that generated over $1 billion, featuring a promotional video starring Nicole Kidman. Jackson Pollock's drip painting "Number 7A, 1948" sold for $181.2 million, nearly tripling the artist's previous auction record, while Constantin Brancusi's bronze bust "Danaïde" (c. 1913) fetched $107.6 million, becoming the second most expensive sculpture ever sold. The works came from the collection of late magazine magnate S.I. Newhouse, and a Rothko from Agnes Gund's collection also set a new artist record at $98.4 million.

In Performance Series, Artists Tackle the Nature of Images, and Reality, in the Face of AI

At Giorno Poetry Systems (GPS) in New York, a three-day program titled “Exert: The Physics of Metaphysics” featured performances and readings by artists including Mark Leckey, Hari Kunzru, and Gideon Jacobs. The works explored how emerging technologies like AI, VR, and AR are reshaping perceptions of reality and simulation, with Kunzru reading from a novel-in-progress about a man navigating a world where simulation encroaches on everyday life, and Jacobs presenting a performance lecture blending theater, essay, and AI-generated video.

In the new film Nagi Notes, art is a vessel for characters’ desires

Japanese writer-director Koji Fukada's new film *Nagi Notes* premiered on 13 May at the Cannes Film Festival. The story follows Yuri (Shizuka Ishibashi), who visits the remote town of Nagi to sit for a sculptor friend, Yoriko (Takako Matsu). The film explores how characters use art—from drawings to sculptural busts—as a medium to express unspoken desires, grief, and identity, with key scenes set at the Nagi Museum of Contemporary Art featuring a permanent installation by Arakawa and Madeline Gins.

Art in America’s Summer “New Talent” Issue Names 20 Artists to Watch

Art in America, the sister publication of ARTnews, has announced its Summer 2026 "New Talent" issue, featuring 20 emerging artists selected by the magazine's editors. The list includes international artists working across various mediums, such as Joeun Kim Aatchim, Jenny Calivas, Kiah Celeste, Malo Chapuy, Mitchell Charbonneau, Isaiah Davis, Elizabeth Glaessner, Juliana Halpert, Craig Jun Li, Kinlaw, Koyoltzintli, Kyung-Me, Chyrum Lambert, Terran Last Gun, Satchel Lee, Claudia Pagès Rabal, Ren Light Pan, Emma Safir, Frank Wang Yefeng, and Alexa West. Profiles of each artist appear in the print edition and will be published online in the coming weeks.

This First Nations artist wants your racist 'Aboriginalia' – video

Indigenous artist Tony Albert has issued a public call for Australians to donate their 'Aboriginalia'—objects that depict Aboriginal people and designs but were created by non-Indigenous people, often as caricatures or exoticized souvenirs. Over 3,000 items from Albert's own collection, including tea towels, ashtrays, and playing cards, are now on display in his solo exhibition 'Not a Souvenir' at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Sydney, opening on 21 May.

Grayson Perry’s life story to be told in ‘outrageous’ musical

Grayson Perry’s life story is being adapted into a stage musical titled *Grayson the Musical*, co-created with Richard Thomas, composer of *Jerry Springer: The Opera*. The show follows Perry from his childhood in Chelmsford to his rise as a Turner Prize-winning ceramicist and tapestry-maker, featuring his iconic dresses and his teddy bear Alan Measles. Perry wrote the lyrics, with a book by screenwriter Sara-Ella Ozbek and direction by Sean Foley. A workshop production will run for five performances in July at Soho Theatre Walthamstow, the east London borough where Perry once kept a studio and which inspired his famous work *The Walthamstow Tapestry*.

‘How can nudity be so provocative?’ Florentina Holzinger on rocking Venice with naked jetskiers, human bells and urine divers

Florentina Holzinger, an Austrian dancer and choreographer known for provocative, physically extreme performances, is representing Austria at the Venice Biennale with a new work titled *Seaworld Venice*. The piece features naked performers on a barge in the lagoon, including a woman suspended upside down inside a cast-iron bell hoisted by a crane, a guitarist rocking at a vertiginous height, and a vocalist screaming like Yoko Ono. Holzinger’s previous opera *Sancta* included a climbing wall, nuns on roller skates, and a pregnant pope on a robot arm, and has toured European opera houses for two years.

Jean-Marc Bustamante ouvre son fonds à Arles

French artist Jean-Marc Bustamante (born 1952) will inaugurate the Fonds Bustamante in Arles on July 9, 2026. The foundation, dedicated to contemporary art, is housed in the former Sainte-Croix church, renovated by architect Charles Zana. Its opening coincides with the Rencontres d'Arles festival and features the inaugural exhibition "Bustamante en miroirs." The facade will display an enameled lava frieze by Bustamante and a monumental sculpture by Cristina Iglesias. The project is overseen by a supervisory board and scientific committee, joining Arles' major institutions such as LUMA Arles, Lee Ufan Arles, and the Fondation Vincent Van Gogh.

The wind carries away JR's cave

Le vent emporte la caverne de JR

The article reports that JR's monumental installation 'La Caverne' has been destroyed by wind. The large-scale outdoor work, which was a temporary public art piece, collapsed under strong gusts, leaving only remnants at the site. The incident occurred recently, drawing attention to the fragility of large-scale ephemeral art installations.

Carrières de Lumières: Criminal Conviction of Culturespaces

Carrières de lumières : condamnation pénale de Culturespaces

France's highest court, the Cour de cassation, has definitively upheld the criminal conviction of Culturespaces and its CEO Bruno Monnier for 'recel de favoritisme' (concealment of favoritism) in the irregular award of a public service delegation for the Carrières des Baux-de-Provence. The case stems from a long-running dispute with Cathédrale d'Images, the original operator of the site since 1976, which was ousted in 2008 when the municipality awarded the contract to Culturespaces. Monnier received a six-month suspended prison sentence and a €60,000 fine, while Culturespaces was fined €100,000. The court also confirmed a five-year ban on Culturespaces participating in public procurement contracts.

Steven Soderbergh, the Colors of Money

Steven Soderbergh, les couleurs de l’argent

Steven Soderbergh's new film "The Christophers" (2025) is a sharp, chamber-piece drama about art, inheritance, and money. The story follows Julian Skar, a former art superstar from the 1970s now living in seclusion and earning a living by caricaturing himself on social media. His children, Barnaby and Sally, eager to maximize their future inheritance, hire a repentant forger named Lori Butler to secretly complete Julian's unfinished masterpiece, an eight-portrait series titled "The Christophers." The film explores the complex relationships that develop between the four characters in a labyrinthine London house, written in the style of a lively theatrical play.

Monet in Le Havre, the Awakening of the Master

Monet au Havre, l’éveil du maître

The MuMa (Musée d'art moderne André Malraux) in Le Havre is presenting a summer exhibition that explores Claude Monet's formative years in the port city, where he developed the groundbreaking intuition for Impressionism. The show traces his evolution from caricatures and portraits to landscapes, highlighting how his childhood in Le Havre—with its bustling docks, luminous beaches, and dramatic cliffs—shaped his artistic vision. Key works include his first plein-air painting from 1858, created alongside mentor Eugène Boudin, and the iconic *Impression, Soleil levant* (1872), painted in the same harbor.