Choreographer Michael Clark's 2003 work *Satie Studs* was revived as part of the live event programme for Peter Doig's exhibition *House of Music* at London's Serpentine Galleries. Dancer Jules Cunningham performed the minimalist solo, set to Erik Satie's piano preludes, showcasing controlled, precise movements that distilled ballet and yoga poses into a stark, deliberate sequence.
Sotheby's held its first sale at its new US headquarters in New York, where Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer" sold for $236.4 million, becoming the most valuable work of modern art ever sold at auction and the most expensive artwork ever sold by Sotheby's globally. The record-breaking 20-minute bidding war also saw strong results for works by Edvard Munch ($35.1 million) and a Klimt landscape ($86 million), while the evening's total reached $706 million. However, two top lots by Kerry James Marshall and Barkley L. Hendricks failed to sell, and Maurizio Cattelan's gold toilet "America" drew only a single bid from Ripley's Believe It or Not! for $12.1 million.
Abstract painter James Hayward, known for his monochromatic oil and wax impasto works, died last week at age 82. A legendary figure in the LA art scene, Hayward was equally celebrated for his magnetic personality, ribald humor, and storytelling. He rose to prominence in 1977 when included in the group show "Less is More" at Sidney Janis Gallery in New York, and was admired by art-world giants such as Dave Hickey, Chris Burden, Nancy Rubins, Ed Moses, and Mike Kelley. Hayward also taught at colleges across the country, including a guest seminar at the University of Southern California, and was a longtime supporter of the LA contemporary art magazine Artillery.
Artist Steve DiBenedetto presents a new body of work in his solo exhibition, "Spiral Architect," at Derek Eller Gallery. The show features 17 paintings ranging from large-scale canvases to intimate works, all characterized by a restless movement between abstraction and figuration. DiBenedetto utilizes a process-heavy technique of adding, scraping, and reworking oil paint to create dense, visionary landscapes filled with octopi, cellular forms, and Rube Goldberg-esque machinery.
David Novros’s latest exhibition at Paula Cooper Gallery showcases his "portable murals," intricate multi-paneled paintings that challenge the traditional concept of art as a mere object on a wall. Utilizing oil and murano on canvas, Novros assembles monochromatic, L-shaped, and horizontal panels with precise intervals that incorporate the gallery wall into the composition. These works are designed to be experienced kinesthetically, responding to shifting natural light and the viewer's physical movement through the space.
Two concurrent solo exhibitions at Alexander Berggruen Gallery feature the work of artists Kevin McNamee-Tweed and Tajh Rust. McNamee-Tweed presents enigmatic, tenderly absurd ceramic scenes, while Rust debuts in New York with figurative paintings that explore perception and Black identity through portraits of leisure and experimental silvered glass works.
Camille Henrot and Hillary Taymour, wearing Collina Strada, are featured in a Cultured magazine interview marking the reopening of the New Museum on March 21, 2026, after a 60,000-square-foot expansion by OMA. The conversation is part of a series pairing three artists from the inaugural exhibition "New Humans: Memories of the Future" with three downtown fashion designers. Henrot discusses her New York origin story, her film *In the Veins* premiering in the show, and her upcoming play *Commedia dell’Arte* at the Aspen Art Museum’s AIR Festival, while Taymour recounts moving from Los Angeles to New York in 2010 to pursue fashion design.
The New Museum in New York is reopening on March 21 with a major expansion—a 60,000-square-foot addition designed by OMA, doubling its footprint. To celebrate, the museum paired three artists featured in its inaugural exhibition "New Humans: Memories of the Future" with three independent fashion designers for studio conversations. The article presents one such dialogue between artist Cato Ouyang and designer Zoe Gustavia Anna Whalen, who discuss their New York origin stories and the challenges of creative life in the city.
Nicole Eisenman's solo exhibition "STY" is on view at 52 Walker in New York through January 10, 2026. The show features recent paintings including "The Auction" (2025) and "Archangel (The Visitors)" (2024), which blend styles from realism to post-Cubist caricature. Curated by Ebony L. Haynes, the gallery is transformed into a single room lined with Homasote board, creating an intimate studio-like atmosphere that includes reference ephemera from Eisenman's Brooklyn studio, such as a printout of Martin Kippenberger's 1984 abstraction.
EJ Hill's new endurance performance, "Yearning for an Absolute" (2025), is on view at 52 Walker in Tribeca through September 13, 2025. For the duration of the exhibition, the 40-year-old Black queer artist kneels every day, all day, within a red velvet enclosure, referencing Catholic devotional practices, saintly mortifications, and his own history of durational works like "Excellentia, Mollitia, Victoria" (2018) at the Hammer Museum's "Made in LA" biennial. The installation also includes red leather kneelers for sale, framed kneeler pad paintings marked with the artist's indentations, and a neon rectangle reminiscent of Dan Flavin's church installation.
Anastasia Samoylova, an artist who works in photography and painting, is presenting her rarely shown "Breakfasts With" series at Casa Tua Aspen this summer. The series, begun in 2015 after she received her green card, combines breakfast food with photo books by notable creatives, creating still-life "conversations" that serve as daily creative prompts. The exhibition follows her dual show with Walker Evans at the Met, which showcased two differing visions of Florida. In an interview, Samoylova discusses how the series developed from a meditative morning ritual into a practice that helped her ground herself after leaving a tenured teaching position, and how intuitive pairings—like a cut mango with Barbara Kasten's work—emerged from spontaneity rather than conceptual planning.
On Tuesday, Gucci, CULTURED magazine, and Anna Freedman hosted a cocktail party at the Gucci Aspen boutique to celebrate the Anderson Ranch Summer Series, curated by CULTURED Editor-in-Chief Sarah Harrelson for the second consecutive year. The event honored artist Kelly Akashi and MoMA PS1 Chief Curator Ruba Katrib, who will lead upcoming conversations in the series. The boutique was transformed into an intimate salon, with guests including collectors, museum curators, and patrons mingling over champagne and hors d'oeuvres, while a violin performance set the tone for the evening.
German artist Georg Baselitz has died at the age of 88. According to Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, he passed away peacefully on Thursday. Born Hans-Georg Bruno Kern in 1938 in Deutschbaselitz, Saxony, Baselitz fled East Germany in 1957 after political repression and academic conflicts. His first solo exhibition in West Berlin in 1963 was shut down due to scandal, and works were confiscated. He became internationally known in the late 1960s for his radical upside-down painting, a signature inversion that destabilized pictorial logic. He also created an extensive sculptural body of work. Key career milestones include representing Germany at the Venice Biennale in 1980 alongside Anselm Kiefer, multiple Documenta appearances, the Praemium Imperiale in 2004, and election to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 2019. Major late-career exhibitions included "Nackte Meister" at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna in 2023.
Dans l’atelier d’Abdelkader Benchamma, cartographe des mondes invisibles
French-Moroccan artist Abdelkader Benchamma is preparing for his upcoming solo exhibition, "Signs and Wonders," at Galerie Templon in Paris. Working from his sun-drenched studio in Montpellier, Benchamma has transitioned from his signature black-and-white ink drawings to large-scale canvases that incorporate celestial blues and earthy mineral tones. The new body of work draws inspiration from 15th and 16th-century manuscripts, specifically the Kitab al-Bulhan and the Book of Miracles, creating a "giant book" of visual narratives that blur the lines between abstraction and figuration.
The article provides a roundup of museum exhibitions on view in Southwest Florida during May, highlighting five new openings, eight closings, and 25 continuing shows across museums from Sarasota to Naples. Featured exhibitions include Molly Hatch's site-specific ceramic installation "Amalgam" at Sarasota Art Museum, Jillian Mayer's interactive "Slumpies" sculptures, a group show "Something Borrowed, Something New" with works by Louise Bourgeois, Chuck Close, David Hockney, Yoko Ono, Kara Walker, and Ai Weiwei, and Maria A. Guzman Capron's solo textile exhibition "Penumbra." The Marietta Museum of Art & Whimsy is noted as closing for the summer.
The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) has acquired six works by artists Nicole Eisenman, Gloria Klein, Caroline Monnet, and Raymond Saunders from the 2026 Dallas Art Fair. The purchases were made through the joint Dallas Art Fair Foundation + Dallas Museum of Art Acquisition Fund, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary and has now placed 78 works into the museum's collection with over $1 million in funding.
A limited edition 30th-anniversary exhibition poster for the historic Warhol/Basquiat collaboration is currently being offered for sale. The work, an offset lithographic poster published by the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in 2015, commemorates the iconic 1985 exhibition that brought together the king of Pop Art and the rising star of Neo-Expressionism. Signed by the publisher Tony Shafrazi, the piece is part of an edition of 300 and is being shipped from Hong Kong.
Doris Lockhart, the US-born art collector who played a pivotal role in shaping the Saatchi collection and championing contemporary art in the UK, has died at age 88. Alongside her then-husband Charles Saatchi, she helped introduce postwar American artists like Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg to British audiences, and was instrumental in recognizing the Young British Artists (YBAs) of the 1990s, including Damien Hirst and Gary Hume. After their divorce in 1990, Lockhart continued collecting independently, backing emerging talents and expanding her interests to architectural models and drawings.
Southwest Florida museums, from Sarasota to Naples, present a robust July lineup: two exhibitions open, one closes, and 24 continue. Highlights include Chris Friday's first solo museum show "Where We Never Grow Old" at Sarasota Art Museum, featuring large-scale chalk drawings and a site-specific installation exploring safe havens. Other notable shows include "Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press," with works by Martin Puryear and Kerry James Marshall; Jillian Mayer's interactive sculpture series "Slumpies"; Lillian Blades' immersive mixed-media maze "Through the Veil"; and Molly Hatch's site-specific ceramic installation "Amalgam" (2023-24). The Ringling Museum also highlights a newly acquired painting by Juana Romani.
Luxury Asset Capital (LAC) has filed a civil complaint in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York accusing Maddox Gallery of inflating the value of artworks used as collateral for loans. The dispute stems from a 2023 deal in which Maddox provided substitute collateral—works by Duncan McCormick and Albert Willem—in exchange for a George Condo painting previously held by LAC. LAC alleges that Maddox engaged in a "pump and dump" scheme, artificially bidding up auction prices for McCormick and Willem works to 10–15 times pre-sale estimates, then using those inflated values to justify trades. After the alleged bid-rigging stopped, auction prices fell, and LAC claims it is left with works worth only a fraction of what Maddox represented. Maddox Gallery co-founder Nick Sharp denies the claims as "bizarre and irrational," calling the lawsuit a baseless attempt to unwind a voluntary agreement.
Jackson Pollock's painting *Number 7A, 1948* sold for a record $181.2 million at Christie’s in New York, becoming the fourth most expensive work ever sold at auction. The sale also saw record prices for works by Constantin Brâncuși, Mark Rothko, and Joan Miró, with Brâncuși's bronze head *Danaïde* fetching $107.6 million and Rothko's *No 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe)* selling for $98.4 million.
Artnet News writers highlight six standout exhibitions at the 2026 Venice Biennale, which opens to the public on May 9. Among the picks are Ei Arakawa-Nash's interactive installation "Grass Babies, Moon Babies" at the Japan Pavilion, featuring baby dolls and diaper-changing stations; Florentina Holzinger's provocative performance "Seaworld Venice" at the Austria Pavilion, involving nude performers, jet skis, and recycled wastewater; and Dayanita Singh's photographic exhibition "Archivio" at the State Archives of Venice, presenting intimate black-and-white images arranged as freestanding columns.
An eBay seller listed a giclée print of Kees van Dongen's painting "Femme Fatale" (ca. 1905), claiming it once hung above Jeffrey Epstein's desk in his Upper East Side townhouse. The listing, titled "Documented by Federal Prosecutors," sought $50,000 and reached $25,000 in bidding before eBay removed it for violating its policies. The print had previously sold at Millea Bros. Auctioneers for $275. The New York Post first reported the listing, which referenced federal documentation of Epstein's art collection.
Radiohead has launched a multimedia installation, exhibition, and screening experience titled "Motion Picture House KID A MNESIA" at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, running through June 28. The immersive event features artwork related to the band's albums Kid A and Amnesiac, including screenprints, a video array with vintage TVs, and a 25-foot-tall sculpture of the band's recurring "Stickman" figure. The centerpiece is a hour-plus film set in a black-and-white woods, accompanied by the band's music, with no dialogue or wall text, allowing visitors to freely explore the darkened space. Tickets are $72, and the experience will travel to Chicago, Mexico City, and San Francisco.
Lubaina Himid, the 71-year-old British artist, is representing Britain at the Venice Biennale with a solo exhibition in the British Pavilion. Known for her decades-long career addressing Black identity and colonial history through paintings, textiles, and cut-out figures, Himid installed her work early and even got married in the lead-up to the biennale. She follows fellow Black British artists John Akomfrah and Sonia Boyce in recent years, completing a trio of artists from the same generation to take over the pavilion.
Raghu Rai, the celebrated Indian photographer who was recruited to Magnum Photos by Henri Cartier-Bresson in 1977, has died at the age of 83. Over five decades, he produced defining images of Indian life, ranging from intimate portraits of Mother Teresa to stark documentation of the Bhopal disaster. His work captured both the grand and the everyday, from crowds at Mumbai's Churchgate railway station to slums in Dharavi, and he published more than 18 books, receiving multiple awards for his unflinching human gaze.
Two significant paintings by Claude Monet, unseen by the public for over a century, are being offered at auction by Sotheby's Paris. The works, *Les Îles de Port-Villez* (1883) and *Vétheuil, Effet du Matin* (1901), have been held in private collections for 115 and over 100 years respectively, with the former last exhibited in the early 20th century at Paul Durand-Ruel's New York gallery. Their combined estimates make them the most valuable Monet paintings to appear at auction in France since 2001.
Chung Sang-hwa, a leading figure of the Korean Dansaekhwa (monochrome painting) movement, died on January 28 at the age of 93. His death was reported by the Korea Times following a prolonged illness.
Lorena Levi, a British artist known for her narrative portraits painted on wood, died on January 8 at age 29 after battling pancreatic cancer. Her death was announced via Instagram. Levi gained rapid momentum in the UK art scene over the past few years, staging a show in Milan with M+B gallery, participating in the V.O. Curations program, and being added to Marlborough Gallery's roster shortly before it closed in 2023. Her work is held in the British government's national collection. She was born in Istanbul in 1997, raised in Tel Aviv and the UK, and studied at Art & Guilds in London and Edinburgh College of Art.
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has announced its 2025 Arts Writers Grant recipients, awarding a total of $1.04 million to 31 writers. The grants, ranging from $15,000 to $50,000, are distributed across four categories: Articles, Books, Short-Form Writing, and a newly introduced Translation category with a $30,000 purse for translating books on contemporary visual art into English. Recipients include past and current contributors to ARTnews and Art in America, such as Glenn Adamson, Jeremy Lybarger, Zoé Samudzi, and Catherine G. Wagley.