Art News. Vasari Codex

trending_up market schedule Jun 5, 2025 visibility 22 link 9 artists

museum launches public appeal to buy rare barbara hepworth sculpture

The Hepworth Wakefield museum, supported by the Art Fund, has launched a public appeal to raise £3.8 million ($5 million) to acquire Barbara Hepworth's rare 1943 sculpture *Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red*. The work was purchased by a private collector at Christie's London in March 2024 for the same amount, but the UK government imposed a temporary export ban in December 2024, citing its outstanding historical and aesthetic significance. The museum has until August 27 to raise the remaining £2.9 million; the Art Fund has already contributed £750,000. If the goal is not met, the collector may export the piece.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 4, 2025 visibility 14 link 3 artists

adam pendletons hirshhorn museum exhibition

Adam Pendleton's exhibition "Love Queen" is on view at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., through January 3, 2027. The show features his distinctive abstract works that blend mark-making, pictographs, and all-caps texts, including pieces from his "Untitled (Days)" series and "Black Dada" series, as well as a single-channel video titled "Resurrection City Revisited (Who Owns Geometry Anyway?)" that documents the 1968 Poor People's Campaign.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 4, 2025 visibility 20 link 9 artists

manet paintings reunited

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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article culture schedule Jun 4, 2025 visibility 22 link 16 artists

lorde man of the year video walter de maria

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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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 3, 2025 visibility 18 link 12 artists

ruba katrib moma ps1 the gatherers exhibition interview

MoMA PS1 has opened its marquee spring exhibition, “The Gatherers,” a group show featuring 14 artists from around the world who explore the psychic and material burdens of climate change, globalization, and neoliberalism. Curated by Ruba Katrib, the exhibition includes works in sculpture, video, assemblage, and installation, spanning regions from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Lithuania, and is on view through October 6. Katrib, PS1’s chief curator and director of curatorial affairs, emphasizes that the show lets the artworks speak for themselves through form and material rather than delivering a direct lecture.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 1, 2025 visibility 15 link 7 artists

frida kahlo casa roja

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

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museum exhibitions schedule May 30, 2025 visibility 15 link 10 artists

met museum rockefeller wing renovation review

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, closed since 2021, reopens after a $70 million renovation. The redesign by architect Kulapat Yantrasast transforms the previously dark and cramped galleries into airy, energizing spaces, with a major rehang that reconfigures the Oceania galleries. Notable changes include the repositioning of a Kwoma ceremonial house ceiling in collaboration with descendants of the original painters, the relocation of Asmat funerary poles to a dedicated gallery, and the addition of newly acquired works by Ömie artist Ilma Savari. The renovation also features revised wall texts that better contextualize the objects.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 30, 2025 visibility 18 link 14 artists

laura raicovich circus of life counterpublic

Writer and curator Laura Raicovich is organizing a weekend-long festival called the "Circus of Life" in St. Louis, Missouri, taking place October 24–26 at the Big Top circus grounds in the Grand Center Arts District. The event is part of Counterpublic, a triennial civic exhibition founded in 2019 by James McAnally, and will feature artists, writers, theater groups, performers, and activists. Raicovich leads a team of four "ringleaders" including Kenneth Bailey, Galen Gritts, Jeanne van Heeswijk, and Nontsikelelo Mutiti, with additional participants such as Chloë Bass, Hilma's Ghost, and Kameelah Janan Rasheed. The program includes performances by Bread and Puppet Theater, conversations with Roxane Gay and Nermeen Shaikh, workshops, a parade, and communal meals, all free and open to the public.

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article culture schedule May 30, 2025 visibility 18 link 8 artists

5 rediscoveries transforming black art narratives

Artnet News highlights five recent rediscoveries and reinterpretations that are reshaping narratives around Black artists and sitters in art history. These include Gustav Klimt's long-lost portrait of Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuona, an Osu prince exhibited in a racist "human zoo" in Vienna, which resurfaced in 2023 and was shown at TEFAF Maastricht with a $16.4 million price tag. Also featured are Edvard Munch's dual portrayals of Sultan Abdul Karim—one intimate, one stereotyped—on view at the National Portrait Gallery in London, and new research identifying James Cumberlidge, a Black servant in a Jean-Baptiste van Loo portrait, correcting a historical misattribution.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 29, 2025 visibility 15 link 5 artists

how did hiroshige become an international sensation

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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trending_up market schedule May 28, 2025 visibility 19 link 8 artists

artcurial twenty one contemporary

On June 6, 2025, Artcurial Paris will host "Twenty One Contemporary," a curated auction dedicated exclusively to 21st-century art. The sale features works by artists such as Xavier Veilhan, Barthélémy Toguo, Aboudia, Thomas Houseago, and Guillaume Bresson, spanning experimental sculpture, painting, and works on paper. Highlights include Veilhan's machine-carved birch sculpture "The Neptunes" (2015), Toguo's large-scale watercolor "Homing Pigeon" (2005), and Bresson's photorealistic "Sans titre" (2010), with estimates ranging from €15,000 to €120,000.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 23, 2025 visibility 17 link 13 artists

6 textile works at moma

MoMA has opened "Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction," a touring survey that examines the role of textiles in modern and contemporary art. The exhibition features works by artists such as Sonia Delaunay, Paul Klee, Agnes Martin, Jeffrey Gibson, and Anni Albers, and incorporates other mediums like video and photography. Curator Lynne Cooke notes that the show has evolved at each venue, and at MoMA it holds special significance because the museum was foundational in writing the history of Modernism and collected textiles from its early days.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 23, 2025 visibility 14 link 4 artists

frida kahlo museum mexico city casa roja

A new museum dedicated to Frida Kahlo will open in Mexico City's Coyoacán district this September, housed in the Casa Roja, a private residence purchased by Kahlo's parents and passed down through the family. The property was gifted by the artist's grandniece Mara Romeo Kahlo, and the museum was designed by the New York–based Rockwell Group. Adán García Fajardo has been appointed director, and the project is funded by the newly established nonprofit Fundación Kahlo, chaired by public relations veteran Rick Miramontez. The museum will explore Kahlo's early life, inspirations, and cultural influences, and will feature rotating contemporary art exhibitions focused on Mexican, Latin American, and women artists.

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article news schedule May 22, 2025 visibility 15 link 6 artists

pope leo first general address van gogh sower at sunset

Pope Leo XIV, in his first general address, referenced Vincent van Gogh's 1888 painting *The Sower at Sunset* as a metaphor for faith and divine guidance. He noted that behind the sower, van Gogh painted the grain already ripe, interpreting the sun as the central figure of the biblical parable. The address highlighted the Pope's engagement with art as a means of spiritual reflection.

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candle obituary schedule May 20, 2025 visibility 22 link 8 artists

bill horrigan curator video wexner center dead

Bill Horrigan, a pioneering curator who transformed Ohio's Wexner Center for the Arts into a leading destination for film and video art, died on May 15 after a long battle with amyloidosis. Over 34 years at the Columbus museum, he built a celebrated film and video program that attracted world-renowned artists like Chris Marker and Julia Scher, and organized landmark exhibitions for Mark Dion, Gretchen Bender, and Shirin Neshat. He also served as a curatorial adviser for the 2008 Whitney Biennial, helped program the Video Data Bank, and led the 1989 edition of Video Against AIDS.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 20, 2025 visibility 14 link 7 artists

new portraits of historys black revolutionaries

The article reports on the exhibition “Rise Up: Resistance, Revolution, Abolition” at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, which highlights overlooked figures of the transatlantic abolitionist movement. It features contemporary portraits by British-Nigerian artist Joy Labinjo, including her 2022 works depicting Olaudah Equiano and Phillis Wheatley, alongside historical paintings like Thomas Gainsborough’s portrait of Charles Ignatius Sancho. Labinjo’s paintings fill gaps where no visual records of these revolutionaries exist, drawing on historical sources to create accurate, vivid representations.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 17, 2025 visibility 20 link 21 artists

fenix immigration museum rotterdam

A new cultural institution called Fenix has opened in Rotterdam, Netherlands, dedicated entirely to the topic of migration. Housed in a 1923 waterfront warehouse that once served the Holland America Line—a major transporter of cargo and passengers—the museum occupies nearly 175,000 square feet in the Katendrecht neighborhood, a historic gateway for millions of immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries. Designed by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects, the building features a central double-helix staircase nicknamed the Tornado, leading to a rooftop observation deck. Three inaugural exhibitions, including “All Directions,” showcase over 150 artworks and objects by artists such as Max Beckmann, Willem de Kooning, Sophie Calle, and Yinka Shonibare, alongside personal mementoes from local families.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 16, 2025 visibility 18 link 7 artists

michelle grabner kohler independent

Michelle Grabner, a Milwaukee-based artist known for examining overlooked visual languages, has created a new series of porcelain sculptures at the Kohler Company's MakerSpace in Wisconsin. These works, which mimic janitorial supplies like sponges, sinks, and mop carts, are being shown at the Independent art fair this week with Cleveland's Abattoir Gallery. Grabner, who co-curated the 2014 Whitney Biennial and served as the inaugural artistic director of FRONT International, continues to expand her practice beyond painting into industrial materials, while also holding two concurrent museum retrospectives: "Underdone Potato" at the Schneider Museum of Art and "Under the Sink" at the Haggerty Museum.

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gavel restitution schedule May 16, 2025 visibility 21 link 7 artists

botticelli virgin and child export bar

The United Kingdom has imposed a temporary export bar on Sandro Botticelli's painting "The Virgin and Child Enthroned" (c. 1470), valued at £10.2 million ($13.5 million). The work was sold to a foreign buyer at Sotheby's London last fall for £8.6 million, but the export license deferral—recommended by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art—gives British institutions until August 8 to express interest in acquiring it. The painting, previously attributed to Botticelli's workshop, was confirmed as an autograph work through new scientific analyses and has been in the private collection of Lady Wantage since 1904.

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person people schedule May 16, 2025 visibility 19 link 4 artists

v a c foundation ex director teresa mavica interview

Teresa Iarocci Mavica, former director of the Moscow-based V-A-C Foundation, which she co-founded with Russian billionaire Leonid Mikhelson, has resurfaced after three years of silence. She resigned from V-A-C in November 2021, just before the opening of GES-2 House of Culture, Russia's largest contemporary art museum, and left Russia shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Now based in Naples, she has curated "The Sun to Come" at Made in Cloister, launching her biennial program "REBIRTH." The exhibition includes three Russian artists, reflecting her continued commitment to cultural dialogue between Russia and Europe despite the war.

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

heffel spring auction 2025 highlights art sale

Toronto-based Heffel Fine Art Auction House will host its Spring Auction on May 22, 2025, featuring a two-part sale: the Postwar and Contemporary Art sale at 5 p.m. EST, followed by the Canadian, Impressionist, and Modern Art sale at 7 p.m. EST. The auction highlights Canadian art from the past century, including works by Group of Seven members like Lawren Harris and Tom Thomson, as well as Refus Global artist Jean-Paul Riopelle. Notable lots include Harris's *Northern Lake* (1926) estimated at $2–3 million CAD, Riopelle's *Sans titre* (1952) with estimate upon request, and Thomson's *Autumn, Algonquin Park* (1914) estimated at $1–1.2 million CAD.

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candle obituary schedule May 15, 2025 visibility 21 link 10 artists

koyo kouoh remembered

Koyo Kouoh, the acclaimed Cameroonian-born curator and director of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town, has died at age 57 after a battle with cancer. Tributes pour in from artists Robin Rhode and Julie Mehretu, curator Azu Nwagbogu, and colleagues like Mandla Sibeko, who mourn the loss of a towering figure in African and global contemporary art. Kouoh was also set to serve as artistic director of the 2026 Venice Biennale, making her the first African woman to hold that role.

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

michelangelo 550 birthday headlines

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

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museum exhibitions schedule May 15, 2025 visibility 22 link 7 artists

olga de amaral wove her own path at 92 the art world is catching up

The nonagenarian Colombian fiber artist Olga de Amaral, now 92, is the subject of a major retrospective at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, following its debut at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris in 2024. The exhibition, on view through October 12, 2025, features works spanning her entire career, from the 1950s to the present, and includes pieces that blend ancient and futuristic aesthetics, often incorporating gold shimmer and woven density. Curated by Marie Perennès and Stephanie Seidel, the show highlights Amaral's pioneering role in textile art, a medium historically marginalized as craft rather than fine art.

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trending_up market schedule May 15, 2025 visibility 20 link 6 artists

met receives photography collection walter artur

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has received a promised gift of more than 6,500 photographic works from German American collector Artur Walther and the Walther Family Foundation. The collection spans 19th-century vernacular photography to contemporary video, with strengths in African studio photography, German post-war photography, Chinese conceptual art, and early vernacular images. Artists represented include Malick Sidibé, Zanele Muholi, Ai Weiwei, Thomas Struth, and Bernd and Hilla Becher. A selection will debut when the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing reopens this month, with further displays planned for the Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing opening in 2030.

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article culture schedule May 15, 2025 visibility 15 link 9 artists

theophile alexandre steinlen tournee du chat noir

The article explores the life and work of Théophile Alexandre Steinlen (1859–1923), the Swiss-born artist who created the iconic 1896 poster *Tournée du Chat Noir* for Rodolphe Salis’s legendary Parisian cabaret Le Chat Noir. It details how Steinlen, a resident of Montmartre, was introduced to the cabaret’s circle by fellow artist Adolphe Willette and went on to produce numerous commercial works featuring cats, including advertisements, exhibition announcements, and the artists' book *Des chats, dessins sans paroles*. The piece also highlights Steinlen’s involvement in leftist politics and his broader artistic output, which included landscapes, still lifes, and nudes shown at the Salon des Indépendants.

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trending_up market schedule May 15, 2025 visibility 16 link 5 artists

marlene dumas miss january rubell family christies auction

A Marlene Dumas painting, *Miss January* (1997), sold for $13.6 million at a Christie’s auction, making the South African artist the most expensive living female artist at auction. The work, consigned from the Rubell Family collection, had an estimate of $12–18 million and was backed by a third-party guarantee. It was won by an anonymous telephone bidder represented by Sara Friedlander, Christie’s deputy chairman for postwar and contemporary art.

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candle obituary schedule May 14, 2025 visibility 12 link 9 artists

yasunao tone fluxus dead

Yasunao Tone, a composer, theorist, and artist associated with the Fluxus movement, has died at age 90. Artists Space, which hosted his first US retrospective in 2023, announced his passing due to age-related complications. Tone was known for experimental music that used unorthodox methods such as altering instruments with ice, scratching CDs to create white noise, and producing graphic scores that resembled abstract artworks. He co-founded Group Ongaku in 1961, collaborated with key figures like Nam June Paik, George Maciunas, and Yoko Ono, and later explored digital corruption of audio files and AI. His work influenced experimental music and sound art, with a 2023 profile in AnOther Magazine stating he "changed music forever."

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article culture schedule May 12, 2025 visibility 22 link 19 artists

7 art history facts

Frieze Week in New York has arrived, drawing tens of thousands of visitors to The Shed for displays from over 65 international galleries. The article offers a collection of art historical trivia to help attendees impress peers, including tales of a potentially fake Picasso gifted to Robin Williams by Disney, Piet Mondrian's fondness for Disney's *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs*, and a legend that Raphael's pupil Giulio Romano created erotic frescos in the Vatican's Sala di Constantino out of anger over delayed payment from Pope Clement VII.

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candle obituary schedule May 12, 2025 visibility 19 link 10 artists

koyo kouoh dead zeitz mocaa venice biennale

Koyo Kouoh, the celebrated Cameroonian-born curator known for championing African contemporary art, has died unexpectedly at age 57. She passed away in a hospital in Basel, Switzerland, due to cancer, just months after being appointed curator of the 2026 Venice Biennale—making her only the second African-born curator to lead the prestigious exhibition, following Okwui Enwezor in 2015. Kouoh was executive director and chief curator of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town since 2019, where she organized landmark shows like "When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting" (2022), and founded RAW Material Company in Dakar in 2008, an independent art center now considered a top space in West Africa.

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