Art News. Vasari Codex

trending_up market schedule Jan 14, 2026 visibility 15 link 4 artists

christies jimmy carter paintings auction

Christie’s is auctioning four paintings by former US President Jimmy Carter this month, with estimates under $15,000. Three works—Mountain Waterfall (2003), Steeple (2010), and A Still Life (An Angry Pomegranate)—are part of the online sale “The American Collector,” closing January 27, while The Hornet’s Nest (2003) will be offered in a live day sale titled “We the People: America at 250” on January 23. Bidding has already exceeded estimates, with Steeple reaching $24,000. The paintings come from a larger trove of Carter family personal items, with proceeds benefiting the Carter Family Foundation.

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rate_review review schedule Jan 12, 2026 visibility 17 link 5 artists

internet personality mackenzie thomas performance review

Internet personality MacKenzie Thomas staged a four-hour durational performance titled "I Said What I Said" in New York, where she read aloud every post she made on X over the past year, interspersed with personal essays. The performance, which sold out both New York showings, will travel to Los Angeles at Heavy Manners. Thomas recounted intimate details of her life, including a breakup, her dog's death, health struggles, and family dynamics, while notably omitting her success as an influencer with half a million followers.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 4, 2025 visibility 12 link 2 artists

zhang shangfeng bonian space

Chinese artist Zhang Shangfeng presents a solo exhibition titled “The Discourse of Neo-Mythmaking” at Beijing’s Bonian Space, curated by Yang Xi. The show features recent paintings that blend personal experience with contemporary archetypes to create what the artist calls “neo-myths.” Zhang’s work draws on his time in Xi’an, China, and an exchange program at the University of Arts in Belgrade, using stylized, modernist-influenced imagery to explore themes of self, otherness, loneliness, and interpersonal relationships.

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article culture schedule Nov 30, 2025 visibility 14 link 5 artists

empress sisi of austria portrait

Empress Elisabeth of Austria (1837–1898), known as Princess Sisi, has re-entered the cultural spotlight after eagle-eyed historians noticed a striking similarity between Franz Xaver Winterhalter's informal portrait of the Empress with her hair down and a bridal scene in Guillermo del Toro's new film *Frankenstein*, where actress Mia Goth appears with flowing auburn locks. The comparison, shared widely on social media by historian Rachael Gibson and others, gave Winterhalter's 19th-century portrait a new viral moment, sparking renewed interest in Sisi's life and the role of hair in Victorian Europe.

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museum exhibitions schedule Nov 19, 2025 visibility 16 link 3 artists

harry clarke geneva window wolfsonian miami

The Wolfsonian–Florida International University in Miami Beach is exhibiting "Harry Clarke and the Geneva Window," showcasing a luminous stained glass window created by Irish artist Harry Clarke (1891–1931) for the League of Nations building in Geneva. Commissioned by the Irish Free State in 1926, the window was ultimately rejected by the Irish government due to its controversial content, including depictions of drunkenness, nudity, and Protestant writers. The exhibition explores the window's scandalous history, Clarke's life cut short by tuberculosis at age 41, and the broader context of Irish nationalism and the Celtic Revival.

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article news schedule Oct 28, 2025 visibility 10 link 1 artist

inca building acoustics huaytara peru

A 15th-century Inca building in Huaytará, Peru, known as a carpa uasi or tent house, may have been designed to amplify low-frequency sounds like drumming. Art historian Stella Nair of UCLA, along with acoustic experts led by Stanford professor Jonathan Berger, is studying the structure's unique three-walled design to understand its acoustic properties. The building survived because a Christian church was built on top of it, stabilizing the stone structure.

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museum exhibitions schedule Sep 23, 2025 visibility 10 link 4 artists

st patricks cathedral cvijanovic mural

A new mural by artist Adam Cvijanovic, titled *What’s So Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding*, was unveiled at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York on September 17, 2025. Spanning 1,920 square feet across 12 panels, the work is the largest permanent artwork commissioned for the cathedral in its 146-year history. It reimagines the 1879 Apparition at Knock, Ireland, as a backdrop to immigrant life in New York, featuring figures such as St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Dorothy Day, and Pierre Toussaint among contemporary immigrants. The project was facilitated by art adviser Suzanne Geiss and funded by benefactors Kevin and Dee Conway, with installation handled by UOVO.

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gavel restitution schedule Sep 12, 2025 visibility 17 link 3 artists

ohio dutch paintings looted nazis monuments men foundation

The auction of two 17th-century Dutch still-life oil paintings of flowers was halted at Apple Tree Auction Center in Newark, Ohio, after the Monuments Men and Women Foundation and the Jewish Digital Cultural Recovery Project identified them as Nazi-looted art. The paintings, originally part of Adolphe and Lucie Haas Schloss's collection, were seized in 1943 and later stored in Hitler's Führerbau before being looted again. Foundation founder Robert Edsel traveled to Ohio to alert the auction house, which cooperated by removing the works from sale and placing them in a vault. The consignor's identity remains undisclosed, and the foundation is working to return the paintings to the Schloss family.

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article culture schedule Jul 19, 2025 visibility 9 link 2 artists

bernini the ecstasy of saint teresa

Gian Lorenzo Bernini's iconic Baroque sculpture *The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa* (1647–1652) is examined in detail, depicting the Spanish Carmelite nun Saint Teresa of Ávila in a moment of divine rapture as an angel pierces her heart with a golden arrow. The artwork, housed in the Cornaro Chapel at Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome, was commissioned by Cardinal Federico Cornaro and remains one of Bernini's most celebrated and controversial masterpieces, blending theatricality, religious fervor, and virtuosic marble carving.

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article news schedule Jul 18, 2025 visibility 10 link 3 artists

painter morgan weistling dhs stole work social media homelands heritage

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted an image of Morgan Weistling's oil painting "New Life in A New Land" on its X account with the caption "Remember Your Homeland’s Heritage," without obtaining the artist's permission. Weistling publicly stated that the use was a violation of his copyright, expressing surprise and seeking next steps. The painting depicts a pioneer family in a covered wagon, and DHS had also recently used a Thomas Kinkade work without apparent authorization.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 14, 2025 visibility 8 link 2 artists

lincoln center editions lilian martinez

Lincoln Center's Summer for the City Festival, now in its 2025 season, commissioned artist Lilian Martinez to create a limited-edition benefit print titled *Calla Lily Dancer* (2025). The archival pigment print, produced in an edition of 36, features Martinez's signature vibrant palette and flat planes of color, depicting a woman dancing with a trumpet and coconut drink amid symbolic objects like calla lilies, candles, and potted plants. The print is available through Lincoln Center Editions, and all festival offerings remain free or choose-what-you-pay.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 3, 2025 visibility 9 link 1 artist

thomas kinkades legacy will outlive us all

The Daily Beast published a lengthy article on Thomas Kinkade's legacy two years after his death from alcohol and Valium, detailing his divorce, alcoholism, and strip club visits—contradicting the idyllic scenes in his mass-marketed paintings. Despite these revelations, Kinkade's commercial empire has thrived: sales on ShopNBC have risen, most galleries report higher sales than before his death, licensing partners like Hallmark and Andrews McMeel Publishing saw double-digit growth, and Kinkade ranked #81 on Global License!'s bestselling licensed brands with $425 million in annual sales, ahead of CBS Consumer Products and National Geographic.

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article news schedule Jun 30, 2025 visibility 15 link 5 artists

mystery artists return with trump dance sculpture

An anonymous artist collective, previously responsible for an eight-foot-tall golden monument of Donald Trump crushing Lady Liberty, has installed a new unauthorized artwork on Washington, D.C.'s National Mall. The piece is a life-size, gold-painted television set playing a silent 15-second loop of Trump performing his signature slow-motion dance moves, set against backdrops including campaign rallies and a party with Jeffrey Epstein. The installation, permitted through Sunday, includes a spray-painted gold eagle and a plaque quoting a White House statement criticizing the earlier sculpture. The White House responded with a sarcastic statement from spokesperson Abigail Jackson, claiming the video brings 'joy and inspiration' to tourists.

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article news schedule Jun 12, 2025 visibility 8 link 3 artists

vast roman villa under excavation in france

Archaeologists from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) have uncovered a massive 43,000-square-foot Roman villa at Sainte-Nitasse in Auxerre, France, during excavations ahead of a road construction project. The villa, dating from the 1st to 3rd centuries C.E., features a central garden with a basin and fountain, thermal baths with an underfloor heating system, and rooms including a reception room, kitchen, and working area. Previously known from 19th-century records and a 1960s dig that revealed a smaller 7,500-square-foot building, the new findings reveal what Inrap calls “one of the great villas of Roman Gaul,” with thick walls, marble, mosaics, and frescoes indicating aristocratic owners.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 23, 2025 visibility 14 link 2 artists

stephan appleby barr mesocosmos robilant and voena

London-based painter Stephen Appleby-Barr is presenting his fourth solo exhibition with Robilant and Voena, titled “Mesocosmos,” running from May 23 to July 4, 2025. The show features a new body of work created over two years, blending Old Master techniques with contemporary life and fantasy. Appleby-Barr describes the exhibition as a self-contained universe where drawings, sculptures, and paintings interact, with the aim of allowing each medium to influence the others in unexpected ways. The artist emphasizes ambiguity and the unknown over clear resolutions, inviting viewers to form their own interpretations.

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trending_up market schedule May 23, 2025 visibility 11 link 1 artist

sothebys napoleons auction bicorne hat

Sotheby's will auction approximately 100 lots from the private collection of French antiques collector Pierre-Jean Chalençon on June 25 in Paris, including Napoleon Bonaparte's iconic bicorne hat (estimated at €800,000), a herald sword and stick from his 1804 coronation, his personal gold and ebony seal, worn stockings, and a portable camp bed. The sale, described as one of the most significant offerings of Napoleonic material ever to come to market, spans imperial furniture, Old Master paintings, and personal relics. Chalençon, who has amassed the collection over four decades, is reportedly selling the items to repay a €10 million loan from Swiss Life Banque Privée, though he has denied being deeply in debt.

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article policy schedule Apr 29, 2025 visibility 14 link 1 artist

mellon foundation emergency funding state councils neh cuts

The Mellon Foundation, the largest funder of the arts and humanities in the U.S., announced $15 million in emergency funding to the Federation of State Humanities Councils (FSHC). The funds will be distributed to state councils in all 50 states and six jurisdictions, with each council receiving a $200,000 one-time grant totaling $11.2 million, plus $2.8 million in challenge grants requiring local matching. This comes after the Trump administration cut $65 million from the National Endowment for the Humanities budget that was earmarked for these councils, threatening severe deficits or closures. The cuts were justified by the federal government as necessary for fiscal priorities, with $17 million redirected to a Trump-designated National Garden of American Heroes.

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article news schedule Apr 29, 2025 visibility 9 link 2 artists

suffering life models in florence are threatening legal action over working conditions

Life models at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze (Florence Academy of Fine Arts) are threatening legal action and a potential nude protest over poor working conditions. They complain of exhausting work, insufficient breaks, and renewable annual contracts offering 500 hours over 11 months with no insurance, holidays, sick leave, or timecards. The models argue that a 2024 Italian ministry law requiring permanent contracts for those with three years of service does not apply to them because the academy claims they were hired under simplified procedures. Union president Giancarlo Iacomini met with academy director Gaia Bindi on April 9 to seek a resolution, calling the situation "deeply contradictory."

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trending_up market schedule Apr 23, 2025 visibility 14 link 7 artists

rare 19th century image major daguerreotype sale

Christie's is hosting a 200-lot auction of the Maillet Daguerreotype Collection from June 10 to 26, featuring rare 19th-century daguerreotypes. The collection includes early works by pioneers like Samuel Morse and John William Draper, as well as images of American monuments and everyday life, such as Henry Fitz Jr.'s Washington Monument and Platt Babbitt's Niagara Falls view. The auction highlights the dawn of photography in America, with many images being unique due to the daguerreotype's lack of negatives.

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article news schedule Oct 15, 2025 visibility 18 link 8 artists

parties marilyn minter artist documentary

On Saturday, the art world gathered in East Hampton for a special screening of the documentary *Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty*, which chronicles the artist's life from addiction to icon. The invite-only event included appearances by Jeff Koons, Jane Fonda, Monica Lewinsky, Cindy Sherman, and other notable figures, followed by a dinner at the home of co-producer and collector Debi Wisch. The film explores Minter's unflinching feminist commentary and her decades-long challenge to conventional beauty and desire in contemporary art.

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person people schedule Mar 16, 2026 visibility 16 link 2 artists

We the People: Iowa City’s ‘library lady’ lives on through art collection

The article details the enduring legacy of Hazel Westgate, a pioneering children's librarian who served the Iowa City Public Library for nearly 40 years until her death in 1988. Westgate's most visible contribution is a unique collection of original children's book illustrations, acquired through personal correspondence with legendary authors and illustrators like Dr. Seuss and Charles M. Schulz, many inscribed directly to her or the children of Iowa City. Her mission was to ensure the artwork reflected the children themselves, fostering a lifelong love of reading and literature.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 16, 2026 visibility 18 link 8 artists, 1 gallery

Pre-Raphaelite exhibition explores LGBT+ stories

Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford has launched a new exhibition of Pre-Raphaelite masterpieces paired with contemporary reflections from the local LGBT+ community. Members of the Equity Partnership charity collaborated with museum staff to reinterpret 19th-century works by artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown, and John Collier through the lens of lived queer experience.

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article culture schedule Apr 13, 2026 visibility 16 link 2 artists

Simultaneous or Poly-Cinema

The Bauhaus artist László Moholy-Nagy proposes a radical departure from traditional filmmaking in his 1925 text, "Simultaneous or Poly-Cinema." He envisions a cinematic experience that moves beyond the static, rectangular screen, suggesting instead curved, spherical, or multi-planar surfaces that can accommodate multiple simultaneous projections. By utilizing rotating prisms and intersecting film strips, Moholy-Nagy describes a system where different narrative threads—such as the lives of multiple characters—can physically overlap and merge, creating a dynamic architectural arrangement of light and movement.

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article events schedule Mar 30, 2026 visibility 26 link 10 artists

Two Thousand Seasons: A Conversation

The African Film Institute at e-flux launched its 2026 program with an event titled "Two Thousand Seasons: A Look Into 2026 and Beyond." The evening featured a screening of a curated playlist of film clips and works by artists like Ayesha Hameed, Ousmane Sembène, and John Akomfrah, compiled by Christian Nyampeta, followed by a conversation with Nyampeta, KJ Abudu, and Kaneza Schaal.

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article culture schedule Mar 25, 2026 visibility 17 link 2 artists

Introduction to the Dark Forest Theory of the Internet

The article explores the conceptual origins of the internet, tracing its development to figures like Douglas Engelbart and Jacques Vallée, whose work blended computing with cosmic and paranormal inquiry. It argues that early internet pioneers were deeply influenced by ideas of remote viewing, extrasensory perception, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, framing the network as a project of cognitive augmentation and alien encounter.

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museum exhibitions schedule Mar 11, 2026 visibility 18 link 7 artists, 1 gallery

Milwaukee Art Museum to Present Widline Cadet’s First U.S. Museum Solo Exhibition

The Milwaukee Art Museum has announced "Currents 40: Widline Cadet," the first U.S. museum solo exhibition for the Haitian-born artist. Running from May 8 through August 9, 2026, the show features the debut of her decade-long project, "Seremoni Disparisyon (Ritual [Dis]Appearance)." The exhibition utilizes photography, video, and installation to explore themes of Black diasporic life, migration, and the creation of a "living archive" through staged imagery and autobiographical details.

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article local schedule Sep 25, 2025 visibility 11 link 3 artists, 1 gallery

Annual Open Art Exhibition to be held at Beverley Art Gallery

Beverley Art Gallery in the East Riding of Yorkshire will launch its 24th annual Open Art Exhibition on 27 September 2025. A record 300+ artists submitted works, with 126 pieces selected by jurors Sarah Howard of Hull Museums and Ferens Art Gallery and Andrea Martin of Lincoln Museum and Usher Gallery. The show features a range of mediums from professional and amateur artists, with prizes awarded by the Friends of Beverley Art Gallery and a People's Choice Award voted by visitors. Many works are available for purchase, and the exhibition runs until 18 December.

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article culture schedule May 7, 2026 visibility 12 link 1 artist

Inside the Artist Peter Bradley’s Upstate New York Home

Peter Bradley, a painter, art dealer, and prominent figure in the 1960s and ’70s Manhattan art scene, has lovingly restored an 18th-century home in upstate New York, bringing a loftlike aesthetic to the historic property. The article offers an inside look at his residence, highlighting how his artistic sensibility shaped the renovation.

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article culture schedule May 6, 2026 visibility 19 link 2 artists

Taking a Deep Dive into a Connecticut Ranch House

Artist couple Janis Provisor and Brad Davis transformed an indoor swimming pool in their Connecticut ranch house into a studio, prioritizing their creative work over leisure. The article explores how they adapted the unconventional space to suit their artistic practices.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 21, 2026 visibility 14 link 1 artist

An Artist Asks: Without Darkness, Who Are We?

Artist Jan Tichy has created a new exhibition that explores the consequences of light pollution and the disappearance of natural darkness. The project, titled "Without Darkness, Who Are We?", involved extensive research and collaboration with scientists including entomologists and neurobiologists to understand the ecological and psychological impacts of artificial light.

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