Inside the 19th-century Parisian club that became a safe haven for female artists

Art historian Jennifer Dasal's new book "The Club" tells the story of the American Girls' Club, a Parisian safe haven founded in 1893 by Elisabeth Mills Reid at 4 Rue de Chevreuse in Montparnasse. The club provided affordable housing and meals for aspiring female American artists who faced obstacles their male counterparts did not, including societal pressure toward marriage, financial constraints, and safety concerns. Notable residents and participants included painters Anne Goldthwaite, Florence Lundborg, and sculptors Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller and Alice Morgan Wright, whose works and lives are chronicled in Dasal's account.

Jenny Saville to present unseen Venice-inspired works to coincide with 61st Biennale

Jenny Saville will present previously unseen works in Venice next year as part of a major exhibition at the International Gallery of Modern Art at Ca’ Pesaro, running from 28 March to 22 November 2026. The show will feature around 30 works from the last 30 years, including a new cycle created in homage to the lagoon city, and coincides with the 61st Venice Biennale (9 May-22 November 2026). The exhibition draws from private and public collections, placing Saville's monumental canvases in dialogue with the great painters of Venice's artistic heritage.

Art Review | Impressionist Field Day

The Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) is hosting a major traveling exhibition, "The Impressionist Revolution: Monet to Matisse from the Dallas Museum of Art," alongside its own companion show, "Encore: 19th-Century Art from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art." The exhibition features works by Monet, Matisse, Pissarro, Berthe Morisot, and others, including rare pieces from SBMA's permanent collection such as Monet's "Villas in Bordighera." The show marks the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition and includes related movements like Post-Impressionism, Pointillism, and Fauvism.

Exhibition Celebrating Abstract Painter Joan Mitchell Features Work on Loan from the Hofstra Museum

Joan Mitchell's painting "Metro" (1965) from the Hofstra University Museum of Art's permanent collection is on loan to David Zwirner gallery in New York for the exhibition "To define a feeling: Joan Mitchell, 1960-1965," running from November 6 to December 13, 2025. The exhibition focuses on a transformative period in Mitchell's career, showcasing paintings and works on paper from public and private collections, including the Joan Mitchell Foundation, that trace her shift from structured abstractions to centralized, swirling forms inspired by travels along France's Côte d'Azur.

Extravagant Munich museum dedicated to Symbolist Franz von Stuck to reopen after €13.5m renovation

Munich's Museum Villa Stuck, the former home of Symbolist artist Franz von Stuck, reopens on 18 October after a €13.5m renovation. The project upgraded infrastructure, restored the facade, and renewed historical rooms, including music and reception salons with restored Pompeii-inspired wall paintings and new silk curtains. The museum's display of Stuck's paintings has been reconfigured, with fresh exhibits such as a recently donated work, and the total number of Stuck paintings on view has increased. The reopening coincides with a contemporary art exhibition, 'A Song of Ascents,' featuring Manchester-based artist Louise Giovanelli.

In Xie Lei’s Work, the Uncanny Becomes Painting

Chinese-born, Paris-based painter Xie Lei has spent nearly two decades perfecting what he calls a 'poetics of the strange' in his canvases, which feature ghostly, gender-ambiguous figures in ambiguous situations—such as a kiss that could also be an act of suffocation. His works, which draw on memory rather than live models, will be exhibited at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris in September 2025. Xie cites influences ranging from classical Western painters like Delacroix and Goya to French authors Albert Camus and Jean Genet, as well as psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva and Chinese writers Zhuang Zhou and Pu Songling.

Waddington Custot to open in Paris ahead of Art Basel Paris

Waddington Custot has announced it will open a new gallery at 36 rue de Seine in Paris, occupying the historic space formerly home to Lansberg Gallery in the 6th arrondissement. The gallery is set to open in October 2025, ahead of Art Basel Paris, and will be managed by Isaure de Roquefeuil and Antoine Clavé. The inaugural exhibition will focus on the Nabis painters, followed by a group show of modern and contemporary artists. The 200-square-meter space is located in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district. (Note: The opening has since been rescheduled to early 2026.)

The Art of the Tour: King Charles's Traveling Painters

King Charles III has sponsored an exhibition titled “The King’s Tour Artists” at Buckingham Palace, featuring 43 artists he recruited to paint during 70 royal tours over the past 40 years. The show, open until September 28, includes 74 paintings selected from over 300 works in the King’s private collection, alongside a companion book, *The Art of Royal Travel: Journeys with The King*. The idea originated from Peter St. Clair-Erskine, the 7th Earl of Rosslyn, who catalogued the collection. Critics have dismissed the works as polite and old-fashioned, but the exhibition highlights Charles’s long-standing patronage of representational art and his own practice as a watercolorist.

Art Meets Open Sky: NDMC Brings Srijan Gallery To Life

The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) inaugurated the revamped Srijan Art Gallery at Nehru Place on Friday, transforming the former Srijan Artists' Corner into a modern open-air exhibition space. The upgraded gallery features a dedicated entry gate, curated display areas, landscaped gazebos, improved seating, and an expanded open area of approximately 15,225 square meters. NDMC chairman Keshav Chandra announced plans for a sculpture park in Nehru Park and weekly Sunday gatherings where painters, sculptors, and other artists can create and showcase their work. The event included live painting sessions by Padma awardees such as Rameshwar Broota, Biman Bihari Das, Jai Prakash Lakhiwal, and Harsh Vardhan Sharma.

Fort Worth’s 7 Must-See Museum Exhibits This Summer

Fort Worth's top museums are presenting seven must-see exhibitions this summer, ranging from a deep dive into the life of primatologist Jane Goodall at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History to a joint survey of abstract painters Aubrey Williams and Frank Bowling at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Other highlights include a hands-on exploration of indigenous knowledge in 'Roots of Wisdom,' a survey of pop-culture-infused paintings by Alex Da Corte, and a behind-the-scenes look at photographer Richard Avedon's process at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art.

Just a number: drawing by 11-year-old Joseph Wright of Derby goes on view for the first time

A pencil drawing of the wreathed head of Silenus, created by Joseph Wright of Derby at age 11 in 1745, will go on public display for the first time at the Derby Museum and Art Gallery. The drawing, recently rediscovered in a private family collection, is the earliest known work by the artist and is inscribed “Jos Wright 11 Years”. It features in the exhibition *Life on Paper*, which focuses on Wright’s intimate drawings, letters, and sketches, including tender depictions of his baby daughter and a self-portrait acquired through a public appeal in 2022.

Turner vs Constable: is it time for art historians to choose?

Art historian and author James Hall, writing in The Art Newspaper, reviews Nicola Moorby's new book "Turner and Constable: Art, Life, Landscape" and uses it as a springboard to argue that art historians should not shy away from making value judgments about artists. He compares the legacies of J.M.W. Turner and John Constable, noting that Turner currently dominates popular and institutional esteem—appearing on banknotes, celebrated by Tate Britain as the greatest British artist, and fitting modern conceptions of the artist as a rebellious, eccentric genius. Hall contrasts this with Constable's more conservative image and declining presence in commercial culture.

Museum Spotlight: Kim Chong Hak Exhibition

The High Museum of Art in Atlanta is hosting the first American museum exhibition dedicated to Kim Chong Hak, a South Korean master painter born in 1937 and known as "the painter of Seoraksan." Featuring over 70 works, including new acquisitions from the museum's own collection, the show spans the artist's mature career and highlights an aspect of late 20th-century Korean art rarely seen outside South Korea. The exhibition runs through November 2, 2025.

Day Trip From Chicago: Milwaukee Art Museum to Exhibit Significant Collection of 16th-17th Century Spanish Art

The Milwaukee Art Museum will debut a major exhibition titled "The Brilliance of the Spanish World: El Greco, Velázquez, Zurbarán" on May 2, 2025. Billed as the "most significant collection of Hispanic art outside of Spain," the show features masterpieces from 16th- and 17th-century Spanish painters including El Greco, Diego Velázquez, and Francisco de Zurbarán, spanning Renaissance and Baroque periods. The exhibition runs through July 27 and is included with general admission.

White Girls and the Global South

The article is a curated list of art books for spring reading, featuring a diverse range of subjects. It highlights two main critical reviews: one critiques a new novel, *Flat Earth* by Anika Jade Levy, as another navel-gazing story about disaffected white women, while the other praises a scholarly work, *Non-Aligned: Art, Decolonization and the Third World Project in India* by Atreyee Gupta, which examines the international solidarity networks of Indian modernist painters long before the term "Global South" became popular.

Shirley Gorelick: Figuring It Out

The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) is presenting "Shirley Gorelick: Figuring It Out," an exhibition running from March 27 to June 28, 2026, that centers on three large-scale paintings by the American realist artist Shirley Gorelick (1924–2000). The show brings together these works from NMWA’s collection for the first time, including the first canvas in her "Three Graces" series, a triple portrait of activist Libby Ourlicht, and a depiction of longtime friends Gunny and Lee Benson. More than 30 additional paintings, drawings, and prints further illuminate Gorelick’s practice and her subjects. Gorelick, who was active in New York artist-run women’s cooperative galleries in the 1970s, developed a bold realist style that combined vigorous brushwork, heightened shadows, and vivid patterns, yet she was largely omitted from art historical narratives that focused on Pop art, Minimalism, and conceptual art.

arar gallery

ARAR Gallery in Utrecht, Netherlands, is championing contemporary Armenian art on the global stage. Founded by Ashot Khalafyan, the gallery presents a diverse roster of artists who synthesize Armenian cultural heritage with avant-garde practices, refusing to treat the art as an isolated category. The gallery's program includes painters like Hasmik Khalafyan and Anahit Mirijanyan, photographer Aram Khalafyan, and extends to limited-edition wearable art based on original paintings.

art witt fetter young artist

Cultured magazine profiles 31-year-old artist Witt Fetter as part of its 2025 Young Artists list. Based in New York and originally from Los Angeles, Fetter is known for paintings that reimagine surreal American scenes—such as the White House Situation Room, a Titanic-shaped inflatable slide, and a false missile alert sign—bathed in a distinctive violet-blue haze. Her work has been featured at Fierman and Derosia galleries, and she describes her practice as motivated by grief, desire, and faith, often exploring the tension between personal mythology and broader cultural contexts. The profile includes her reflections on a self-portrait titled *Diana, 2022*, inspired by a photograph of Princess Diana, and her tribute to her grandfather, who taught her to paint and whose technique of using a violet undercoat she continues.

The best exhibitions to discover in Paris this Whitsun weekend

This article from a Parisian events guide rounds up ten exhibitions to see over the Whitsun weekend (May 23–25, 2026) in Paris and Île-de-France. Highlights include a show of works by artist-patients at the Art and History Museum of Sainte-Anne Hospital, maritime paintings at the Navy Museum, a Papua New Guinea-themed exhibition at the Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac Museum, an interactive socially engaged show called "Ne Pas Toucher" in the Marais, a Louvre exhibition on water in ancient Mesopotamia, and a major Hilma af Klint retrospective at the Grand Palais in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou.

Exhibition | Shota Nakamura, 'Apple' at Karma, Los Angeles

Shota Nakamura's exhibition 'Apple' at Karma in Los Angeles presents a series of new paintings that explore familiar subjects—fruit, shells, sailboats, landscapes—through a dreamlike, tonally nuanced lens. The Berlin-based Japanese artist focuses on the tonality of light, using closely-valued hues to investigate relationships between color, luminosity, and illusion. Works such as 'Landscape with Apples' (2026), 'A Black Dog', and 'Violin Player' demonstrate his method of combining personal photographs, memory, and art historical references into compositions that balance representation with formal abstraction, often referencing modern Japanese painters like Zenzaburo Kojima and Morikazu Kumagai as well as Mark Rothko.

'Soulages-Hartung : Affinités électives' at Perrotin, Paris Marais, France on 25 Apr–30 May 2026

Perrotin in Paris Marais is presenting 'Soulages-Hartung: Affinités électives,' an exhibition exploring the friendship and artistic dialogue between Pierre Soulages (1919–2022) and Hans Hartung (1904–1989). The show features a never-before-screened filmed interview from the Fondation Hartung-Bergman, along with archival documents and rarely seen studio tools. It highlights their shared concerns as postwar abstract painters, their mutual support and gift exchanges—such as Soulages's walnut stain piece given to Hartung in 1948—and their contrasting approaches, with Hartung's explosive gestures versus Soulages's measured structures. The exhibition also reveals their lesser-known use of blue in the 1980s.

Ai Weiwei's first solo show in India features a Pichwai in his iconic toy-brick style

Globally renowned conceptual artist Ai Weiwei has opened his first solo exhibition in India at the Nature Morte gallery in New Delhi. The show, presented in collaboration with Galleria Continua, features his iconic toy-brick canvases, including new commissions inspired by Indian modernist painters like Raza and Gaitonde, and a unique LEGO-brick interpretation of a traditional Pichwai painting. Other works address themes of migration, history, and censorship through mediums like Neolithic stone axes, porcelain urns, and repurposed furniture.

Ai Weiwei’s first India solo exhibition to open in New Delhi

Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei will open his first solo exhibition in India this week at Nature Morte gallery in New Delhi, running from 15 January to 22 February. The untitled show spans four decades of his career, featuring large-scale Lego works based on famous artworks (including versions of Hokusai's 'Surfing' and Monet's 'Water Lilies'), new Lego pieces inspired by Indian Pichwai paintings and homages to modernist painters V.S. Gaitonde and S.H. Raza, plus installations such as 'Whitewashed Remnants of History of the State of Emerging Future Works' and 'F.U.C.K.' (2024). All works are for sale, with several pre-sold; the exhibition is a collaboration between Nature Morte and Galleria Continua.

Yuan Fang’s Visceral Paintings at Skarstedt Confront the Body’s Fragility and Its Strength

Yuan Fang presents a new series of visceral abstract paintings at Skarstedt Chelsea, created after she was diagnosed with cancer. The works mark a shift from her earlier gestural abstraction, confronting the fragility and resilience of the body through intuitive, layered processes that evoke cycles of generation, decay, and rebirth. Fang, who gained international attention during the pandemic, joined Skarstedt last year and continues to attract collectors in Hong Kong and beyond.

An expansive monograph of Celia Paul paints a portrait of a single-minded, singular artist

A new monograph on Indian-born British painter Celia Paul (b. 1959) presents an expansive survey of her career, featuring over 500 color reproductions and essays by Hilton Als, Clare Carlisle, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Edmund de Waal, and Rowan Williams, alongside contributions from the artist herself. The book traces Paul's trajectory from her training at the Slade School of Fine Art and her decade-long relationship with Lucian Freud to her recent solo exhibition *Colony of Ghosts* at Victoria Miro in London, positioning her as a singular figure distinct from the shadow of Freud and the School of London painters.

New Manhattan gallery slips into historic property

Slip House, a new Manhattan gallery co-founded by Ingrid Lundgren and Marissa Dembkoski, has opened in a historic carriage house on East 5th Street. Its inaugural group exhibition, "As if a line" (9 May–14 June), features a cross-generational lineup of painters including Jack Whitten, Claude Viallat, and emerging talents like Lizzy Gabay and Alix Vernet. The show was organized with former Sprüth Magers director Jessica Draper, and the space also includes lamps by ceramicist Gordon Moore on consignment. The building, built in the 1880s, once belonged to fashion designer and artist Charles Kritsky, who allegedly had Jean-Michel Basquiat contribute to its penny mosaic facade.

The Bennett Prize Opens Fifth Call for Entries

The Bennett Prize has launched its fifth call for entries, inviting women figurative realist painters to compete for a newly increased grand prize of $75,000. The award, established by collectors Steven Alan Bennett and Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt, includes a two-year stipend and a traveling solo exhibition that debuts at the Muskegon Museum of Art. Applications are open through September 19, 2026, with a jury featuring prominent figures like curator Miranda Lash and artist Julie Heffernan.

May First Friday 2026: 20+ events, exhibition openings in Lancaster city this Friday

Lancaster city's May First Friday 2026 features over 20 events, including exhibition openings, concerts, and performances. Highlights include a new exhibition 'Hybrids' by artist Jeremy Waak at Curio Gallery & Creative Supply, the Demuth Museum's 'Demuth Invitational: American Reflections' tied to the U.S. 250th anniversary, and the Lancaster Living Poetry Museum II with performers embodying poets at venues like the Lancaster Public Library and Lancaster Art Vault. Other offerings include salsa dancing at Binns Park, works by York County painters at The Framing Concept, and a show inspired by Yayoi Kusama at Friendship Heart Gallery + Market.

A Dismembered Album by Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656): Unpublished Drawings and Reconstruction of a Corpus

Un album démembré de Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656) : dessins inédits et reconstitution d'un corpus

An article in La Tribune de l'Art presents a significant expansion of the known corpus of drawings by Dutch Golden Age painter Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656). Following the 2014 exhibition of twenty-seven drawings identified by the author, this study adds thirty-two more sheets—twenty-two of which are previously unpublished—as a preliminary step toward reconstructing a dismembered album. The research, conducted with direct observation and advanced imaging techniques (digital microscopy, ultraviolet, raking light), aims to restore the album's original order and shed light on the role of drawing in Honthorst's workshop and creative process.

Thomas Hart Benton, Jessie Wlicox Smith announced for shows at Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, co-founded by filmmaker George Lucas and businesswoman Mellody Hobson, has announced its inaugural exhibitions. The ambitious survey will feature over 1,200 works from a founding collection of more than 40,000 objects, including pieces by Thomas Hart Benton and Jessie Wilcox Smith. The museum is housed in a 300,000-square-foot building designed by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects with Stantec.