Vasari Art Codex

museum exhibitions schedule Jun 10, 2025 visibility 4 link 4 artists

marlene dumas pushes the limits of portraiture at tate modern 242725

Marlene Dumas's largest retrospective to date, "The Image as Burden," has opened at Tate Modern, showcasing her uncompromising approach to portraiture. The exhibition features over 200 works, including early ink drawings like "Rejects" (1994-ongoing), political pieces such as "Osama" (2010), and the "Magdalenas" series from the 1995 Venice Biennale. Dumas, a South African painter based in Amsterdam, explores themes of identity, politics, and the female body through her fluid, often dark palette and responses to mass media images.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 10, 2025 visibility 6 link 7 artists

francis bacon pope painting auction 306033

Sotheby's London will auction three Francis Bacon paintings at its July contemporary art evening sale, including 'Study for a Pope I' (1961), one of six pope paintings Bacon created for a Tate exhibition. The work, previously owned by Gunter Sachs, sold for a record £10 million in 2005, and is now estimated at £25–35 million ($38.3–53.7 million). The sale also features a 1975 Bacon self-portrait and three studies for a 1980 self-portrait, with total sale expectations of £204 million ($312.9 million), 35 percent from British artists.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 10, 2025 visibility 6 link 5 artists, 1 gallery

james francos terrible nude paintings of seth rogen get gallery show updated 12640

James Franco has created a series of nude paintings of his friend and fellow actor Seth Rogen, based on a 2011 book of fan art by Christopher Schulz. The works, rendered in acrylic over graphite illustrations, include sexually provocative phrases and are slated for exhibition at OHWOW gallery in Los Angeles, despite earlier confusion about a show at Pace Gallery. The paintings have drawn criticism online for alleged homophobia and plagiarism, adding to Franco's recent legal troubles.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 10, 2025 visibility 7 link 11 artists

take home a nude new york academy of art 718625

The New York Academy of Art held its 25th annual 'Take Home a Nude' fundraiser at Sotheby’s New York on October 24, featuring a live auction and party. Attendees included actresses Brooke Shields and Naomi Watts, who bid on artworks, along with dealers, artists, and collectors. Sotheby’s auctioneer Courtney Christensen led the sale, and 'Baby' Jane Holzer was honored for her collecting and Warhol-era legacy. Watts purchased four works, including a portrait by Liz Markus for $14,000, while Shields helped raise bids online.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 9, 2025 visibility 6 link 5 artists

jennie c jones met roof commission 2631834

Artist Jennie C. Jones has unveiled "Ensemble" (2025), a rooftop commission at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art featuring three monumental, wind-activated stringed instruments—an Aeolian harp, zither, and one-string—that visitors are asked not to touch. The sculptures, coated in deep red powdered aluminum and concrete panels, are designed to be played by the breeze, though wind did not cooperate during the press preview. Jones drew inspiration from the Met's collection of 5,000 musical instruments, African American folk instrument makers like Moses Williams and Louis Dotson, and Minimalist abstraction, creating a work that explores anticipation and the sonic potential of untouchable objects.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 9, 2025 visibility 7 link 11 artists

what to know jean tinguely 2647688

Swiss artist Jean Tinguely, born 100 years ago on May 22, 1925, is celebrated in a centenary retrospective at Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan. Known for his kinetic sculptures—clattering, motorized assemblages of cogs, wheels, and found objects—Tinguely emerged from Dada influences in Basel and Paris to become a leading figure of kinetic art. His work satirizes technological reliance and explores themes of mortality, often incorporating animal skulls and planned explosions. Major retrospectives at the Stedelijk Museum (2016) and Pirelli HangarBicocca (2024) have revived interest in his oeuvre.

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article news schedule Jun 5, 2025 visibility 3 link 8 artists

pacita abad archives stanford university 2650508

Stanford University's libraries and Cantor Arts Center have acquired the archives of Filipina American artist Pacita Abad, who died in 2004 at age 58. The 120-foot-long collection, a gift from her estate managed by her husband Jack Garrity, includes correspondence with artists like Faith Ringgold, photographs from her childhood in Manila, and materials from her global travels and exhibitions. The acquisition comes with a donation to support processing, and is seen as a homecoming for Abad, who left the Philippines in 1969 after student protests and later settled in the Bay Area, where she studied and began her art career.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 5, 2025 visibility 6 link 5 artists

ashmolean museum acquires fra angelico painting 2566049

The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford has raised $4.48 million ($5.8 million) to acquire Fra Angelico's early Renaissance painting "The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist, and the Magdalen" (1420s). The work had been in a private British collection for two centuries and was nearly sold to a foreign buyer until the U.K. government imposed an export deferral in January 2024, giving time for a domestic buyer to step in. The acquisition was completed via a private treaty sale at a discounted price, funded by over 50 donors including chairman Lord Lupton, the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund, and the Headley Trust.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 5, 2025 visibility 5 link 4 artists

the national portrait gallery getty museum jointly acquire joshua reynolds portrait of omai 2278884

The National Portrait Gallery in London and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles have jointly acquired Joshua Reynolds's 1776 painting *Portrait of Omai* for an estimated £50 million ($62 million). This marks the first time museums in the UK and US have partnered on a single acquisition, with each institution paying half and sharing ownership of the artwork, which will be displayed alternately in both countries. The painting depicts Mai (Omai), a young Tahitian man who visited Britain in 1774 with explorer James Cook, and had never before been held in a museum collection.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 5, 2025 visibility 8 link 5 artists

sir joshua reynolds portrait inheritance tax 602312

The Tate in London has acquired a full-length portrait by Joshua Reynolds of the 5th Earl of Carlisle (1748–1825) through the UK's Acceptance in Lieu scheme, which allows art to be transferred to the nation in place of inheritance tax. The painting, valued at $6.1 million (£4.7 million), was painted in 1769 and had hung at Castle Howard in North Yorkshire for over 200 years. It will remain on public display there but will also travel to other venues including Tate Britain.

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article policy schedule Jun 4, 2025 visibility 6 link 9 artists

natural history museum will remove human remains from display 2381068

The American Museum of Natural History in New York City will remove human remains from its public displays over the next eight weeks and update its policies regarding the collection. The decision follows an investigation by Erin Thompson, a professor of art crime at John Jay College, whose report for Hyperallergic raised ethical and legal concerns about the acquisition of approximately 12,000 individuals' remains held by the museum. Museum president Sean Decatur announced the removal as the "right course of action," acknowledging that the remains were collected without consent and often used to advance racist scientific agendas.

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article culture schedule Jun 4, 2025 visibility 7 link 11 artists

renaissance artists raphael and durer were kind of obsessed with each other 2632204

The article explores the artistic friendship between Renaissance masters Raphael and Albrecht Dürer, who never met but exchanged letters and artworks across 600 miles. Initiated when both were at the height of their careers, the correspondence began with Dürer sending Raphael a gouache self-portrait, to which Raphael responded with drawings, including "Two male nude studies" (1515) and "Three Standing Men" (1514-16). The friendship lasted only five years, ending with Raphael's death in 1520 at age 37. The exchange is documented by Giorgio Vasari in "The Lives of the Artists," and one surviving drawing bears an inscription by Dürer acknowledging Raphael's gift.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 4, 2025 visibility 9 link 22 artists

old masters sales takeaways art detective 2649690

Sotheby's underperformed with the highly anticipated Saunders Collection of Old Masters, which was estimated at $80–120 million but sold for only $65.4 million, falling $14.6 million short of its low estimate. The sell-through rate was a dismal 58%, with 16 of 43 lots failing to sell in the standalone auction. Christie's also saw disappointing results, with a smaller sale totaling $6.89 million, 17% below its low target. The collection, amassed by the late banker Thomas A. Saunders III and his wife Jordan, was billed as the most valuable Old Masters collection ever to come to auction.

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article culture schedule Jun 4, 2025 visibility 5 link 6 artists

three things hokusai great wave 2367449

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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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 4, 2025 visibility 3 link 10 artists

manet paintings reunited 2608628

Two halves of an Édouard Manet painting, originally a single canvas that the artist split in 1874, have been temporarily reunited at London’s National Gallery for the first time in over a century. The works, *Au café* (1878) and *Corner of a Café-Concert* (probably 1878-80), depict different sides of the same bar at the Brasserie Reichshoffen in Montmartre. They were separated after the death of collector Étienne Barroil in 1887, with *Corner of a Café-Concert* entering the National Gallery in 1924 and *Au café* acquired by Swiss collector Oskar Reinhart in 1953. The reunion, on view through December 15, includes a display of Manet’s original sketch and explores his evolving creative process.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 4, 2025 visibility 6 link 17 artists

william dobson acquisition 2652185

A rare self-portrait by 17th-century British painter William Dobson has been jointly acquired by London's Tate and the National Portrait Gallery for £2.37 million ($3.2 million), setting a new record for the artist. The painting, considered the first known self-portrait by a British-born painter, was created in the late 1630s and last sold at Bonhams London in 2016 for just over £1.1 million. It will go on view in London before embarking on a national tour in 2026.

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article culture schedule Jun 4, 2025 visibility 12 link 17 artists

lorde man of the year video walter de maria 2652372

Lorde's new single "Man of the Year" from her upcoming album *Virgin* (released June 27) features a music video that visually references Walter De Maria's *New York Earth Room* (1977), a minimalist installation of 280,000 pounds of soil filling a SoHo loft. The video shows Lorde stripping, taping her breasts, and rolling in dirt, while the song's lyrics explore her fluid gender identity. Lorde also cites Italian artist Lucio Fontana and includes an X-ray cover image by photographer Heji Shin.

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article culture schedule Jun 3, 2025 visibility 7 link 12 artists

phoenician scheme wes anderson art curator jasper sharp 2647625

Wes Anderson's new film *The Phoenician Scheme* features a rogue businessman named Zsa-Zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro) who, after surviving a plane crash, decides to make his estranged daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton) his heir. The film's art collection, curated by Jasper Sharp, includes authentic masterpieces such as René Magritte's *The Equator* (1942), Pierre-Auguste Renoir's *Enfant Assis en Robe Bleue (Portrait of Edmond Renoir Jr.)* (1889), and a 17th-century still life by Floris Gerritsz van Schooten. Sharp, a long-time Anderson collaborator, selected and loaned original works to reveal aspects of Korda's character, noting that the real paintings transformed the energy on set.

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article news schedule Jun 3, 2025 visibility 12 link 36 artists

whitney museum paused independent study program censorship 2651955

The Whitney Museum of American Art has suspended its storied Independent Study Program (ISP) for the 2025–2026 academic year, following widespread outcry over the censorship of a performance titled "No Aesthetic Outside My Freedom: Mourning, Militancy, and Performance" by artists Fadl Fakhouri, Noel Maghathe, and Fargo Tbakhi. The performance, scheduled for May 14, was canceled by museum leadership after reviewing a video in which Tbakhi made demands that supporters of Israel or America leave the venue. Director Scott Rothkopf informed the ISP community of the pause in an email, citing the need to search for a new director. The museum also confirmed that Sara Nadal-Melsió, hired in 2024 as the ISP's first associate director, will not retain her position. The cancellation drew condemnation from free speech advocates, including the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), which likened the museum's actions to an authoritarian approach.

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article culture schedule Jun 2, 2025 visibility 8 link 11 artists

art bites why tilda swinton napped moma 2618812

In 2013, visitors to New York's Museum of Modern Art encountered actress Tilda Swinton sleeping in a raised glass box in the lobby, a performance piece titled *The Maybe*. Swinton first performed the work at London's Serpentine Gallery in 1995, developed with Joanna Scanlan, and has reprised it only twice: at Rome's Museo Baracco in 1996 and at MoMA in 2013. The MoMA iteration, curated by Klaus Biesenbach, featured Swinton alone in the glass case for eight hours a day over seven days, without the historical curiosities that accompanied the original Serpentine installation. Swinton has stated in a 2024 interview that she intends to perform *The Maybe* again "when least expected."

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 1, 2025 visibility 5 link 7 artists

frida kahlo casa roja 2649522

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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person people schedule May 30, 2025 visibility 5 link 7 artists

art institute of chicago director on leave airline incident 2640021

James Rondeau, the director and president of the Art Institute of Chicago, will return to work on June 2, 2025, after taking voluntary leave following an incident on a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Munich on April 18. Rondeau was met by police upon landing after reports that he became intoxicated and removed his clothes mid-flight. The museum conducted an independent investigation and expressed confidence in his leadership, with Rondeau stating he regrets the incident and is grateful to continue furthering the museum's mission.

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trending_up market schedule May 30, 2025 visibility 5 link 12 artists

georges lemmen record auction 2647919

Belgian Neo-Impressionist Georges Lemmen's painting *Jeune femme faisant du crochet (Julie Lemmen)* (1890) sold for $698,500 at Sotheby's New York on May 14, shattering its $50,000–$70,000 estimate and more than doubling the artist's previous auction record. The Pointillist portrait of the artist's sister, Julie Fréderique Lemmen, had been in a private Florida collection since 1960 and was consigned through Sotheby's online portal. The sale drew over a dozen bidders, including a museum, two dealers, and five private collectors, and was backed by an irrevocable bid.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 29, 2025 link 6 artists

theaster gates smart museum chicago 2649884

The Smart Museum at the University of Chicago has announced plans for a major mid-career survey of artist Theaster Gates, titled “Unto Thee,” opening September 23 and running through February of next year. This marks Gates’s first solo museum exhibition in his hometown of Chicago, despite his international acclaim and numerous institutional shows elsewhere. The exhibition will feature objects Gates has collected and repurposed from the university, including glass lantern slides, vitrines, concrete, and wooden pews, alongside a large-scale installation of African masks accompanied by music from the late DJ Frankie Knuckles.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 29, 2025 visibility 7 link 12 artists

berruguete restoration altarpiece 2649867

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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trending_up market schedule May 29, 2025 visibility 5 link 7 artists

5 essential works rene magritte 2637456

René Magritte, the iconic Belgian Surrealist, remains a dominant force in the art market and popular culture. In November 2024, his painting *L’empire des Lumières* (1954) sold for a record $121.2 million at Christie’s in New York, followed by *La reconnaissance infinite* (1933) fetching £10.3 million ($13.7 million) at Christie’s in London in March 2025. Magritte also topped Artnet News’ 2025 Intelligence Report as the best-selling Impressionist & Modern artist, with over $312 million in sales. The article highlights five essential works, including *The False Mirror* (1928) and *The Lovers* (1928), both held by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and *The Treachery of Images* (1929), exploring their surrealist themes and enduring appeal.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 29, 2025 visibility 5 link 5 artists

how did hiroshige become an international sensation 2643771

A new exhibition at the British Museum, “Hiroshige: Artist of the Open Road,” showcases over 100 works by the Japanese ukiyo-e master Utagawa Hiroshige, including a landmark gift of 35 prints from U.S. collector Alan Medaugh. Many of the prints have never been publicly displayed before, and some are believed to be the only surviving examples of their kind. The show runs through September 7 and features landscapes, bird-and-flower prints, fan prints, and an immersive digital experience created with Outernet London.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 29, 2025 visibility 9 link 12 artists

rolling stone artechouse amplified immersive 2650523

Artechouse has partnered with Rolling Stone to launch "Rolling Stone Presents: Amplified, The Immersive Rock Experience," a 50-minute, 270-degree immersive journey through rock history. The showcase draws on Rolling Stone's vast photography archive, featuring over 1,000 images, 200 videos, and 1,300 magazine covers, with a soundtrack of classic rock songs. The experience is divided into thematic chapters such as "Backstage," "Fans," "Studio," and "Hair," and includes narration by actor Kevin Bacon. The creative team, led by former Rolling Stone creative director Jodi Peckman and music director Joe Levy, spent two years curating the archival material, which includes work by renowned photographers like Lynn Goldsmith, Bob Gruen, and Anton Corbijn.

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article policy schedule May 29, 2025 visibility 7 link 12 artists

neh stipends trump 2649896

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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article culture schedule May 28, 2025 visibility 6 link 5 artists

frank lloyd wright news 2637348

More than sixty years after his death, Frank Lloyd Wright remains a highly influential architect, and in 2025 his legacy continues to generate news. This article from Artnet News compiles eight recent stories about Wright's buildings, including Marc Jacobs' restoration of the Max Hoffman House, Loyola University's acquisition of the Emil Bach House, the contested sale of Oklahoma's Price Tower, and the deteriorating condition of the J.J. Walser Jr. House in Chicago. It also notes a fictional Wright-inspired building appearing in the Apple TV+ series *The Studio*, starring Seth Rogen.

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