Art News. Vasari Codex

trending_up market schedule Sep 8, 2025 visibility 23 link 16 artists

john pritzker donates 188 dada surrealist works to the metropolitan museum of art new york

John Pritzker, a Top 200 collector and Metropolitan Museum of Art trustee, has donated 188 Dada and Surrealist works by 37 avant-garde artists to the Met. The Bluff Collection includes pieces by Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Francis Picabia, and others, spanning collages, paintings, photographs, objects, and rare publications. Many works will feature in the museum's upcoming exhibition “Man Ray: When Objects Dream,” opening September 14, which includes 35 Man Ray pieces from the collection. The gift also establishes a research program funded by the John Pritzker Family Fund.

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rate_review review schedule Sep 5, 2025 visibility 22 link 10 artists

stephen shore early work mack

The article reviews Stephen Shore's book *Early Work*, which collects photographs he took between the ages of 13 and 18, from 1960 to 1965. Despite his youth, the images display remarkable sophistication, a feat Shore attributes to an atypical childhood that included early access to cameras and a copy of Walker Evans's *American Photographs*. The book includes a "pre-history" essay in which Shore reflects on his formative influences, including time spent at Andy Warhol's Factory and a friendship with headmaster William Dexter, who deepened his interest in photography. The earliest image in the book is a portrait of Dexter taking a photograph, which Shore describes as a metanarrative of a photographer photographing a photographer.

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trending_up market schedule Sep 5, 2025 visibility 27 link 17 artists, 9 galleries

clearing gallery closes

Clearing, a New York-based gallery known for launching the careers of artists like Korakrit Arunanondchai, Harold Ancart, and Marguerite Humeau, has permanently closed its spaces in New York and Los Angeles after 14 years. Founder Olivier Babin cited an unsustainable path forward, stating the gallery could no longer operate at its standards. The closure follows a wave of New York gallery shutdowns, including Blum, Venus Over Manhattan, and Kasmin, which is transitioning into a new entity called Olney Gleason. Clearing’s final exhibitions were solo shows by Coco Young in New York and Henry Curchod in Los Angeles.

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article policy schedule Aug 29, 2025 visibility 12 link 3 artists

trump lonnie bunch meeting smithsonian

President Donald Trump had lunch with Lonnie G. Bunch III, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, on Thursday, according to the New York Times. This meeting comes amid ongoing tensions between the Trump administration and the Smithsonian, including a White House list denouncing specific artworks—such as a painting of refugees at the US-Mexico border and Amy Sherald’s portrait of a Black trans woman as the Statue of Liberty—and an executive order claiming the institution has been influenced by “divisive, race-centered ideology.” Trump has also called for a legal review of Smithsonian displays, though his authority over the institution is unclear. The lunch was described as “productive and cordial” by a White House spokesperson, but no details of the discussion were released.

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trending_up market schedule Aug 26, 2025 visibility 10 link 4 artists

people inc claes oldenburg coosje van bruggen plantoir sculpture

People Inc., the media company formerly known as Dotdash Meredith, sold the 23-foot-tall sculpture *Plantoir* (2001) by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen on August 22. The bright-red garden trowel sculpture, recognized as the World’s Largest Garden Trowel Sculpture, had been a landmark on the former Meredith Corp. campus in Des Moines, Iowa, since 2002. The buyer, sale price, and new location were not disclosed, though the company stated the piece was offered to local organizations before being sold to an out-of-state buyer. The sculpture is expected to be moved by the end of September.

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article policy schedule Aug 25, 2025 visibility 22 link 5 artists

amy sherald speaks out government censorship at the smithsonian

Amy Sherald, the painter who canceled her exhibition “American Sublime” at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in July due to censorship issues, has broken her silence in a MSNBC article. Sherald canceled her September show after the museum considered removing her painting *Trans Forming Liberty* (2024), depicting model and performance artist Arewà Basit as a Black transgender Statue of Liberty. In her op-ed, Sherald explains that institutional fear shaped by political hostility toward trans lives played a role, and she cannot comply with a culture of censorship targeting vulnerable communities.

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article news schedule Aug 20, 2025 visibility 11 link 2 artists

mickalene thomas racquel chevremont harassment allegations

Artist Mickalene Thomas has been accused in a legal filing of fostering an abusive work environment and mismanaging funds involving her former romantic partner Racquel Chevremont. Chevremont, a model, curator, and reality TV star, filed a summons in the Supreme Court of the State of New York on August 8, alleging she was not properly compensated for work done for Thomas, that Thomas diverted significant funds and business opportunities, and that she subjected Chevremont to quid pro quo harassment and a hostile work environment. The summons states their romantic relationship ended in 2020 but their professional ties remained strained, and Chevremont is seeking $10 million in damages.

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person people schedule Aug 20, 2025 visibility 20 link 2 artists

brian ferriso named director dallas museum of art

The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) has appointed Brian Ferriso, the longtime director of the Portland Art Museum (PAM), as its next director, effective December 1. Ferriso succeeds Agustín Arteaga, who left last year to lead the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. During his 18-year tenure at PAM, Ferriso grew the endowment by $40 million, eliminated $7 million in debt, doubled curatorial staff, and made the museum free for visitors 17 and under. He also oversaw major collection diversification, co-commissioned Jeffrey Gibson’s U.S. Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale, and will open a 100,000-square-foot expansion funded by a $140 million capital campaign.

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trending_up market schedule Aug 15, 2025 visibility 21 link 6 artists

sothebys to open its new breuer building hq on november 8 with blockbuster exhibition

Sotheby's has announced November 8 as the opening date for its new headquarters in the iconic Breuer Building at 945 Madison Avenue, New York. The auction house purchased the building from the Whitney Museum in 2023 and commissioned Pritzker Prize-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron, along with PBDW Architects, to renovate the landmarked structure. The opening will feature a blockbuster exhibition of modern and contemporary art, followed by major sales the week of November 17. The building, designed by Marcel Breuer and completed in 1966, previously housed the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Frick Collection.

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museum exhibitions schedule Aug 14, 2025 visibility 13 link 6 artists

rosa barba moma times square moynihan

Rosa Barba's exhibition "The Ocean of One's Pause" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York surveys 15 years of her work, featuring over a dozen cinematic sculptures arranged as a single installation. Central to the show is her latest 25-minute film *Charge* (2025), co-commissioned by MoMA and the Vega Foundation, shot at CERN in Geneva. The film will also screen at Moynihan Train Hall and in Times Square as part of the "Midnight Moment" program throughout July. Barba transforms a black box gallery into a cello-like space, with long wires and film projectors creating a celluloid symphony through mechanical clicks and analog apparatuses.

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museum exhibitions schedule Aug 11, 2025 visibility 25 link 18 artists

aspen air festival 2025

The inaugural AIR festival took place in Aspen as part of Aspen Art Week, featuring a mix of talks, performances, and a closed-door retreat for artists, writers, scientists, and theorists. Highlights included a pack of panting huskies, a psychoanalysis talk in a psychedelic chapel, an artist conversing with his AI doppelganger, and a whispery musical performance on a museum rooftop. The festival kicked off with a film by Apichatpong Weerasethakul accompanied by composer Rafiq Bhatia, followed by discussions on dreaming and catastrophe, and site-responsive works by Jota Mombaça and Paul Chan.

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article culture schedule Aug 6, 2025 visibility 17 link 11 artists

the right influential art historian victoria coates project esther

The article profiles Victoria Coates, an art historian and former Trump administration official, who is leading 'Project Esther,' a conservative initiative aimed at taking over US higher education and targeting progressive organizations. Named after the biblical queen, the project accuses critics of Israel of anti-Semitism and seeks to dismantle what it describes as a 'terrorist support network.' Coates, who previously served as Deputy National Security Advisor and worked on Rumsfeld's memoirs, has a long history of attacking academia from within, including as an anonymous blogger behind 'Elephants in Academia.'

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person people schedule Aug 5, 2025 visibility 14 link 2 artists

rosa barba wins the zurich art prize 2026

Sicily-born, Berlin-based installation artist Rosa Barba has been named the 19th winner of the Zurich Art Prize, awarded by Museum Haus Konstruktiv and Zurich Insurance Group Ltd. The prize includes 100,000 CHF ($124,000) toward a show at the museum and an additional 30,000 CHF ($37,000). Barba’s conceptual installations combine film, sculpture, and sound to explore time, space, and human impact on the natural world. She recently presented the cinematic installation “The Ocean of One’s Pause” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

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trending_up market schedule Aug 4, 2025 visibility 22 link 18 artists

sothebys karpidas collection sale lots magritte surrealism

Sotheby's has announced the headline lots for the upcoming sale of British socialite and arts patron Pauline Karpidas's collection, set to take place September 17–19 in London. The 250-item auction, described as the 'greatest collection of Surrealism to emerge in recent history,' is led by René Magritte's oil painting *La Statue volante* (1940-41), estimated at £9–12 million ($12–16 million). Other highlights include ten more Magritte works, four Andy Warhol pieces from his 'Art from Art' series, and works by Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, and Leonora Carrington, along with furniture and design objects.

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article news schedule Aug 4, 2025 visibility 15 link 4 artists

amy sherald trans forming liberty the new yorker cover

Amy Sherald's portrait of a Black transgender Statue of Liberty, titled *Trans Forming Liberty* (2024), has appeared on the cover of *The New Yorker* after the artist canceled a planned iteration of her traveling survey at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, alleging censorship. Sherald said museum leadership objected to the painting and proposed replacing it with a video discussion that would include anti-trans views. The work is currently on view at the Whitney Museum, where her survey 'American Sublime' runs through August 10. The Smithsonian later stated it sought to contextualize rather than replace the work, while the Trump administration praised the removal as a 'principled and necessary step' amid broader scrutiny of the institution's exhibitions.

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candle obituary schedule Aug 3, 2025 visibility 22 link 14 artists, 2 galleries

robert wilson theatre director artist dead

Robert Wilson, the influential playwright and artist known for his spare, slow-moving productions that blurred the line between performance art and theater, died Thursday at age 83 in Water Mill, New York. His death was announced by the Watermill Center, the arts center he founded, which stated he died of a brief but acute illness. Wilson's career spanned stage works like the landmark 1976 opera *Einstein on the Beach* (with Philip Glass and Lucinda Childs), video portraits of figures such as Lady Gaga and Brad Pitt, and sculptures, all characterized by stillness and a radical use of time.

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rate_review review schedule Aug 1, 2025 visibility 16 link 8 artists, 2 galleries

stan douglas bard museum survey review

Stan Douglas's survey at Bard College's Hessel Museum of Art features a new video installation titled "Birth of a Nation" (2025), which reworks a racist sequence from D.W. Griffith's 1915 film of the same name. The installation presents the original footage alongside four new videos from different character perspectives, shot in black and white without sound, and ends with a blue screen left bare to suggest the mutability of historical images. The survey also includes earlier works like "Hors-Champs" (1992), which critiques televisual representation through a staged free jazz performance.

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rate_review review schedule Aug 1, 2025 visibility 15 link 11 artists

sam gilliam sculpture textile fiber dublin ireland imma

The article reviews an exhibition of Sam Gilliam's work at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) in Dublin, focusing on 23 works from the 1990s that highlight his use of sewing and stitching. Gilliam, a relentless experimenter who died in 2022, is known for moving from hard-edged stripe paintings to draped, unstretched canvases that blurred painting and sculpture. This show reveals a lesser-known aspect of his practice: patchwork-like assemblages of painted and printed canvas pieces held together by visible machine stitching, often incorporating photographic imagery of botanical forms. The works originated from a 1993 residency in Ballinglen, County Mayo, where Gilliam shipped pre-painted canvases from Washington, D.C., and had a seamstress sew them together.

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article news schedule Jul 29, 2025 visibility 19 link 4 artists

john roberts smithsonian kim sajet firing

Kim Sajet, the former director of the Smithsonian-run National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., resigned after President Donald Trump claimed he fired her via social media. Despite Trump's demand, Sajet continued reporting to work until formally quitting. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution, intervened to block internal board suggestions to follow Trump's orders, leading the board to issue a resolution affirming its sole authority to fire museum directors. The controversy followed Trump's executive order accusing the Smithsonian of promoting a "divisive, race-centered ideology" and his post calling Sajet a "highly partisan person" and "strong supporter of DEI." Separately, artist Amy Sherald withdrew her mid-career survey from the National Portrait Gallery after being asked to remove a portrait of a trans woman posing as the Statue of Liberty.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 28, 2025 visibility 15 link 4 artists

sam barsky sweaters kohler r u still painting

Sam Barsky, a self-taught knitter who learned from a library book in 1999 after dropping out of nursing school due to chronic illness, creates intricate pictorial sweaters entirely freehand without patterns. His sweaters depict landscapes and landmarks—such as Central Park, the London Bridge, and the Twin Towers—and he often photographs himself wearing them at the actual sites. His first museum solo exhibition, “It’s Not the Same Without You,” recently closed at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin, and his work also appeared in the group show “R U Still Painting???” in Manhattan alongside artists like assume vivid astro focus and Uri Aran.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 25, 2025 visibility 17 link 7 artists

consuelo kanaga brooklyn museum

The Brooklyn Museum has opened "Consuelo Kanaga: Catch the Spirit," a major solo exhibition dedicated to the pioneering American photographer Consuelo Kanaga (1894–1978). The show features nearly 200 works drawn from the museum's extensive collection of 2,000 negatives and 340 prints, gifted by Kanaga's third husband, artist Wallace Putnam. Kanaga, one of the nation's first women photojournalists, is celebrated for her socially conscious images capturing labor activists, the poor, and African Americans under Jim Crow laws, as well as cityscapes, portraits, and still lifes. The exhibition is organized with Madrid's Fundación MAPFRE and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and curated by Drew Sawyer, formerly of the Brooklyn Museum and now at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

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article culture schedule Jul 24, 2025 visibility 9 link 4 artists

artful tom a memoir damn the originals

Thomas Hoving recounts his decision to pursue art history graduate school after military service, rejecting his father's demand that he join the family business and attend business school instead. He describes a cross-country road trip with his wife Nancy and their dog Whiskey, including a failed gambling attempt in Las Vegas and mechanical troubles in Missouri.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 24, 2025 visibility 22 link 18 artists, 4 galleries

societe hauser wirth berlin

Hauser & Wirth and Société are collaborating on a large-scale group exhibition titled "States of Being" during Berlin Art Week 2025. The show, running from September 11 to November 1, will feature over 30 artists across two floors of Hauser & Wirth's Berlin space, including Alina Szapocznikow, Rashid Johnson, Lee Lozano, Louise Bourgeois, Lu Yang, Mika Rottenberg, Tina Braegger, Darren Bader, Phyllida Barlow, and Petra Cortright. The initiative stems from a friendship between Hauser & Wirth president Marc Payot and Société CEO Daniel Wichelhaus, and marks Hauser & Wirth's first project in Berlin, though the gallery has no plans to open a permanent outpost there.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 23, 2025 visibility 23 link 5 artists

guggenheim rauschenberg 100th birthday

Two major New York museums are celebrating the centennial of Robert Rauschenberg's (1925–2008) birth this fall with exhibitions that spotlight lesser-known chapters of his career. At the Guggenheim New York, the monumental silkscreen painting "Barge" (1962–63) returns to New York in October for the first time in nearly 25 years as part of a show titled "Life Can't Be Stopped." The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) will showcase Rauschenberg's undersung photography work focused on New York City. Neither exhibition features his famous "Combines," instead highlighting other aspects of his wide-ranging practice. The Guggenheim's show is part of its new "Focus" series, launched in November 2024, which aims to highlight the museum's collection.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 22, 2025 visibility 16 link 6 artists

yvette mayorga times square arts magic grasshopper

Artist Yvette Mayorga will unveil her largest public artwork, "Magic Grasshopper," in New York's Times Square in October. The 30-foot sculpture features a pink Baroque carriage with gold-rimmed wheels, drawn by four carousel horses wearing Hello Kitty backpacks, and is covered in Mayorga's signature faux frosting piped from pastry bags. The work draws on the artist's Mexican-American heritage, incorporating references to low-rider culture, the royal carriage of the Second Mexican Empire, and the Nahuatl origin of the name Chapultepec, which means "hill of the grasshopper."

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trending_up market schedule Jul 22, 2025 visibility 20 link 21 artists, 11 galleries

the summer group shows new york city

New York galleries are rethinking the traditional summer group show, moving away from ambitious, canon-redefining exhibitions toward more pragmatic, relationship-driven presentations. Dealers and advisers note that these shows now serve primarily to maintain gallery visibility during the slow August season, test emerging artists, and foster networking. The article highlights examples like "Open Eyes" at A Hug from the Art World, curated by 14-year-old Luke Newsom, which balances playfulness with serious curation, featuring works by KAWS, Urs Fischer, and Raymond Pettibon.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 18, 2025 visibility 14 link 7 artists

ice age art

The British Museum has organized a new exhibition titled “Ice Age Art Now,” installed at Cliffe Castle Museum in Yorkshire, England, that presents Ice Age artifacts—carved images, figurines, and engravings dating from 24,000 to 12,000 years ago—alongside more recent artworks, including a print after Goya and a charcoal sketch by Maggi Hambling. Curated by Jill Cook, the show aims to reframe these prehistoric objects as artistic expressions rather than mere archaeological curiosities, highlighting their use of line, space, and scale to capture the observed world and communicate emotion.

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article news schedule Jul 16, 2025 visibility 17 link 5 artists

barbara guggenheim abigail asher lawsuit

Barbara Guggenheim Associates, Inc., a New York art advisory firm, is embroiled in legal conflict after founder Barbara Guggenheim and her longtime associate Abigail Asher filed dueling lawsuits in the Supreme Court of the State of New York. Guggenheim’s suit, filed in August but only recently reported by Artnet News, accuses Asher of diverting some $20.5 million in firm revenue for personal expenses, including rent, dinner bills, and home repairs, and alleges Asher wrongfully kept commissions from a Jean-Michel Basquiat artwork. Asher countersued, accusing Guggenheim of bullying, gaslighting, and using firm funds for personal costs like funeral expenses and luxury vehicles, while denying the financial misconduct claims. The lawsuits also involve the firm’s CPA, Robert Mandeltort, and Asher’s assistant, Jessica Lewis.

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article news schedule Jul 16, 2025 visibility 18 link 19 artists

prominent art advisory implodes after 37 years as ex partners fire off lawsuits

Art advisors Barbara Guggenheim and Abigail Asher, who ran the blue-chip advisory Guggenheim Asher Associates for 37 years, are now locked in a bitter legal dispute. Lawsuits filed in New York Supreme Court allege fraud, tax evasion, misappropriation of funds, abuse, and exploitation. Guggenheim claims Asher misappropriated over $20.5 million in revenue, while Asher counters with accusations of unethical behavior, including using sex and kickbacks to secure artworks and lying to collectors. The firm’s clients included celebrities like Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise and corporations such as Sony and Coca-Cola.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 15, 2025 visibility 16 link 11 artists

work of the week edouard vuillard

A painting by Édouard Vuillard, *Madame Vuillard à Table* (1896–1897), sold for $2.7 million at Ford Art Auction in 2025, a dramatic increase from its $254,000 sale at Sotheby’s just 18 months earlier. The work, depicting the artist’s mother, was estimated at $350,000–$550,000 and attracted 21 bidders. Ford’s sales director Elizabeth Katz attributed the strong result to the subject’s desirability and the painting’s origin in Vuillard’s Nabis period. The previous Sotheby’s sale was from the estate of William J. Levy, benefiting a University of Pennsylvania scholarship.

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