How Lillian Bassman Pushed Fashion Photography to the Edge of Abstraction

A new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Lillian Bassman: Harper's Bazaar and Beyond," highlights the pioneering work of fashion photographer Lillian Bassman. The show reveals how Bassman, through darkroom experimentation like selective exposure and blowing cigarette smoke under the enlarger, created moody, abstract images that often reduced clothing to mere suggestion, pushing the boundaries of commercial fashion photography in the 1940s and 1950s.

From ‘Game of Thrones’ to ‘Downton Abbey’—Iconic Costumes Go on View in Scotland

An exhibition titled "Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop" is opening at Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh, featuring over 80 iconic costumes from major film and television productions such as 'Game of Thrones,' 'Downton Abbey,' and 'Pirates of the Caribbean.' The show, which premiered last year in London, celebrates the six-decade legacy of the renowned costume house Cosprop, founded by Oscar-winning designer John Bright.

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Conservators at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum have successfully identified the original 17th-century upholstery for a set of 14 chairs in the Dutch Room, the site of the infamous 1990 art heist. Using a combination of AI colorization software called Palette and the discovery of a single faded thread, the team determined that the chairs were originally vibrant red with pink stripes, rather than the fabric used in a 1970s restoration. This discovery is part of a comprehensive three-year project to restore the room to the founder's original vision.

art institute of chicago stock exchange expansion plan 1234775823

The Art Institute of Chicago is considering a major expansion that could involve relocating or reshaping the historic Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room. Located on the museum's east side, the 5,700-square-foot room is a preserved architectural landmark originally designed in the 1890s and saved from demolition in the 1970s. While no final decisions have been made, museum officials identified this area as having the highest potential for increasing gallery capacity to showcase more of the institution's permanent collection.

Van Gogh Museum Explores the Artist's Obsession with Yellow

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The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has launched a major exhibition centered on Vincent van Gogh’s profound obsession with the color yellow. The show explores how the artist utilized the hue—from the 'pale sulfur' of his Arles landscapes to his iconic sunflowers and the famous Yellow House—as a symbol of life-giving sunshine and modernity. Beyond Van Gogh’s own masterpieces, the exhibition features works by 19th- and 20th-century masters like Wassily Kandinsky and Hilma af Klint, as well as a contemporary light installation by Olafur Eliasson.

louvre denon wing leak painting damaged 1234773408

A water leak occurred in the Denon Wing of the Louvre Museum in Paris, damaging an early 19th-century painting. The leak, labeled an emergency, forced the closure of several rooms and caused two micro-tears and paint layer lifting on Charles Meynier's 1820 work 'Triumph of French Painting: Apotheosis of Poussin, Le Sueur and Le Brun'.

bonhams new hq 111 west 57th street 1234773273

Bonhams has opened its new U.S. headquarters at 111 West 57th Street in New York, moving from its longtime Madison Avenue location into a 42,000-square-foot space within the restored Steinway Hall. The design features an 80-foot glass atrium, a grand staircase, and restored historic elements, aiming to create a transparent, cultural-center-like atmosphere rather than a traditional salesroom.

open letter demanding more curatorial independence at ago after non acquisition of nan godin work collects 500 signatures 1234772059

An open letter demanding curatorial independence at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) has gathered over 500 signatures after trustee Judy Schulich reportedly blocked the acquisition of Nan Goldin's moving-image work *Stendhal Syndrome* (2024), calling the Jewish American photographer “antisemitic.” The AGO had planned to acquire the work jointly with the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Walker Art Center, but the vote was 11–9 against acquisition. In response, curator John Zeppetelli resigned, two volunteer committee members stepped down, and Goldin herself criticized the decision as censorship driven by donor influence. The AGO has since announced a restructuring of its modern and contemporary curatorial committee, splitting it into two groups for 20th- and 21st-century art, effective in 2026.

rossett mill jmw turner for sale 2740273

A 450-year-old watermill in Wrexham, Wales, that was the subject of a J.M.W. Turner watercolor has been listed for sale at £1.5 million ($2.05 million). The Rossett Mill, built in 1588, has been converted into a four-bedroom home with modern amenities while retaining its historic features, including a restored corn mill. The property is listed with Currans Unique and was previously owned by Celia and Branden Wilson, who restored it after it was rescued from demolition in 1973.

british water mill sale turner painting inspiration 1234771073

Brendan and Celia Wilson are selling Rossett Mill, a Grade II-listed 16th-century water mill in Wrexham, Wales, for £1.5 million ($2 million). The couple purchased the derelict property 17 years ago for £660,000 and spent two years and roughly £250,000 restoring it into a four-bedroom home, sourcing reclaimed oak beams from France and preserving its historic character. The mill, which dates to 1588, once inspired an early painting by J.M.W. Turner titled *Marford Mill* (1795), created during one of his tours of Wales. The Wilsons are selling to move closer to their children.

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Nan Goldin used the opening of her retrospective “This Will Not End Well” at Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie to deliver a forceful 14-minute speech condemning the Israel-Gaza war and criticizing Germany’s censorship of pro-Palestinian voices. She called for a phone-free moment of silence for the dead in Palestine, Israel, and Lebanon, and framed her exhibition as a test case for artistic freedom. The event drew a large crowd, police presence, and was widely shared on social media by figures like Ai Weiwei and Wolfgang Tillmans.

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Milan is briefly opening access to a rare Leonardo da Vinci mural inside the Sforza Castle during the 2026 Winter Olympics. From February 7 to March 14, visitors can climb a 20-foot scaffold in the Sala delle Asse to see conservators restoring the unfinished wall and ceiling painting, which was begun around 1498 and long hidden under plaster. The castle has also launched a new multimedia installation on the room's history and reopened a gallery dedicated to Leonardo's students and followers, the Leonardeschi.

hard choices can you hack contemporary art curator 1234770076

Art-world consultants Chen & Lampert present a satirical quiz for contemporary art curators who came of age in the mid-2000s and now face the challenges of middle age—mortgages, school-age children, and dwindling energy for the nightlife that once fueled their careers. The quiz poses ten multiple-choice questions testing whether a curator can stay relevant without partying every night, touching on topics like referencing artists in talks, responding to young artists, and keeping up with art news and trends.

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A new BBC documentary, *L.S. Lowry: The Unheard Tapes*, will mark the 50th anniversary of the artist's death in 1976. The film features never-before-heard recordings of conversations between Lowry and a young fan, Angela Barratt, recorded in his living room—the last and longest interview he ever gave. These tapes will be brought to life through dramatic reenactments, with Ian McKellen lip-syncing Lowry's words and Annabel Smith portraying Barratt. The documentary is produced by Wall to Wall Media and aims to reveal intimate insights into Lowry's thoughts, ambitions, regrets, and humor.

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The New Museum in New York has announced that its OMA-designed expansion will open to the public on March 21, following nearly a decade of planning and a two-year closure. The 60,000-square-foot addition, located next to the original flagship on Bowery Street, doubles the institution's footprint and features new residency studios, exhibition spaces, a restaurant, a forum, and a Sky Room. The inaugural exhibition, "New Humans: Memories of the Future," will showcase 150 artists including Sophia Al-Maria, Meriem Bennani, Hito Steyerl, Tau Lewis, and Jamian Juliano-Villani, alongside permanent commissions by Tschabalala Self and Sarah Lucas. The building, designed by Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas of OMA with executive architect Cooper Robertson, is one of the few museums worldwide designed by two Pritzker Prize winners.

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The New Museum in New York will reopen on March 21, 2026, after a two-year closure for a major expansion. Designed by OMA / Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas, the project adds 60,000 square feet to the existing SANAA-designed building, bringing the total footprint to nearly 120,000 square feet. New features include expanded exhibition space, a 74-seat Forum, an enlarged Sky Room, artist commissions by Tschabalala Self, Klára Hosnedlová, and Sarah Lucas, a larger bookstore, and a restaurant by Henry Rich with executive chef Julia Sherman. The reopening weekend will offer free admission funded by trustee Charlotte Feng Ford, and the museum will debut the exhibition “New Humans: Memories of the Future,” featuring over 200 artists including Francis Bacon, Salvador Dalí, and contemporary figures like Meriem Bennani and Hito Steyerl.

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In 1975, artists Red Grooms and Mimi Gross created "Ruckus Manhattan," a monumental multimedia recreation of New York City landmarks from Lower Manhattan to Times Square, built in a vacant lobby at 88 Pine Street with a team of 20 to 30 artists called the Ruckus Construction Co. Half a century later, the Brooklyn Museum is exhibiting excerpts from the project, and for the first time properly credits Gross as co-creator, correcting decades of obscuring her role when the work was shown at Marlborough Gallery, which represented only Grooms.

british taxpayers to underwrite 1 billion loan to cover bayeux tapestry while its shown in the uk 1234768203

France’s Bayeux Tapestry will be loaned to the British Museum in 2026, with the UK Treasury providing an indemnity guarantee of approximately £800 million ($1 billion) to cover potential damage or loss during transport and display. The guarantee, part of the UK government’s indemnity scheme, is a contingent liability—no upfront payment is required unless something goes wrong. The tapestry will travel by truck via the Channel Tunnel in a specially designed crate, displayed behind protective screening, and remain in London until July 2027. The loan is part of a broader cultural agreement between Britain and France, announced by President Emmanuel Macron during his July state visit to London.

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In 2025, a series of major art restorations unveiled transformative discoveries in masterpieces by Caravaggio, Raphael, and Artemisia Gentileschi, among others. Caravaggio's final work, *The Martyrdom of St. Ursula* (1610), owned by Intesa Sanpaolo, was cleaned ahead of Rome's "Caravaggio 2025" exhibition, revealing hidden faces and a soldier's helmet previously only visible by x-ray. At the Vatican Museums, a decade-long restoration of the Raphael Rooms concluded with the revelation that two allegorical figures in the Hall of Constantine were painted by Raphael himself, not just his assistants, rewriting art history. Meanwhile, Artemisia Gentileschi's *Hercules and Omphale* (ca. 1635–37), damaged in the Beirut explosion, underwent emergency conservation by the Getty.

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On December 15, 2025, the Musée du Louvre in Paris was forced to close as approximately 400 of its 2,100 employees went on strike, picketing outside the museum's glass pyramids and turning away visitors. The strike follows a series of crises at the institution, including a $102 million jewel heist in broad daylight two months prior, a flooding incident from a burst water pipe in November, and ongoing concerns about deteriorating facilities, long lines, and substandard restrooms and dining areas. Workers are demanding higher wages and better conditions, with three trade unions—CGT, SUD, and CFDT—warning in an open letter that staff feel like "the last bastion before collapse."

renoir painting missing for a century sells in paris for 2 million 1234763955

A Renoir painting that had been missing for a century sold for $2 million at auction in Paris. The work, titled *L’enfant et ses jouets – Gabrielle et le fils de l’artiste, Jean* (circa 1910), depicts the artist’s young son Jean with his nursemaid Gabrielle. It had never been published or exhibited and was discovered in remarkably good condition. Auction house Joron-Derem offered the painting in its Tableaux Modernes sale at Hôtel Drouot on November 25, where an international collector secured it for a hammer price of €1.45 million ($1.68 million), with buyer’s fees bringing the total to about €1.8 million ($2 million). The painting had been gifted by Renoir to his pupil and close friend Jeanne Baudot, then passed to her adopted son Jean Griot, who kept it in his bedroom until his death in 2011.

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A four-minute bidding war erupted at Christie’s 20th-century evening sale in New York on November 17 over John Singer Sargent’s watercolor *Gondolier’s Siesta* (1902–03). The work sold for $7.4 million with fees, more than double its $3 million high estimate, setting a new auction record for a work on paper by the artist. Another Sargent painting, *Capri* (1878), also performed strongly in the same sale, fetching $11.5 million with fees.

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Last week's New York marquee auctions saw record-breaking sales and billions of dollars in transactions, providing a much-needed boost of confidence after nearly three years of market contraction. The article reviews top sales and notable flops from the week, analyzing how these results are shaping the current market outlook.

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Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana announced that its exhibition “From the Heart to the Hands” will travel to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, opening February 6, 2026, and running through June 14. Curated by fashion historian Florence Müller, the show features over 300 pieces from the brand’s archival and recent collections, including its Alta Moda, Alta Sartoria, and Alta Gioielleria lines, displayed in immersive rooms inspired by art, architecture, folklore, and the dolce vita. The exhibition also includes collaborations with visual artists such as Quayola, Alberto Maria Colombo, Obvious, Vittorio Bonapace, and Felice Limosani.

ed ruscha collaborating andsons holiday chocolate bar 1234760928

Ed Ruscha has collaborated with Los Angeles-based boutique chocolatier andSons to create a limited-edition chocolate bar. The bar is molded to resemble California's Central Valley topography and contains Peruvian dark chocolate, sea salt from Tomales Bay, and blood orange olive oil from Sonoma County. Packaged in an orange box with a reproduction of Ruscha's 1971 lithograph *Made in California*, only 300 bars will be produced, priced at $295 each, available starting early December 2025.

erwin olaf freedom retrospective stedelijk 1234760428

The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam has opened "Erwin Olaf—Freedom," a major retrospective of the late Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf, who died in 2023 at age 64. The exhibition spans over a dozen rooms, showcasing his diverse output from subcultural documentation and commercial work to staged tableaux, self-portraits, and club ephemera, alongside video and sculpture. It juxtaposes formally refined portraits, such as Queen Máxima, with provocative early works like "Joy" (1985), refusing to impose a single narrative on his career.

leading artists call for nationwide resistance against authoritarian forces 1234757308

Visual artist Dread Scott, playwright Lynn Nottage, and dozens of cultural figures have launched "Fall of Freedom," a nationwide weekend of creative demonstrations scheduled for November 21–22, 2025, to protest rising authoritarianism under the Trump administration. The project invites arts communities to organize independent actions—such as storefront readings, pop-up performances, exhibitions, and workshops—at museums, galleries, classrooms, comedy clubs, or any community gathering space. Participating institutions include the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, which will host a "Wear Your Rights" silk-screening workshop, and New York's Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, which will turn a gallery into a library of queer art activism books. Other notable participants include artists Marilyn Minter, Robert Longo, and Amy Sherald, who recently canceled a Smithsonian exhibition after concerns over her painting of a Black transgender Statue of Liberty.

musee dorsay manet mock trial dejeuner sur lherbe 1234755595

The Musée d'Orsay in Paris staged a mock trial of Édouard Manet and his model Victorine Meurent for his 1863 painting *Déjeuner sur l'herbe*, which caused scandal at the Salon des Refusés for its nude female figure. The event, part of the museum's Orsay Live program for 18-to-25-year-olds, featured real lawyers, a sitting judge, and students from the Fédération française de Débat et d'Éloquence, with speeches reviewed by Manet specialist Isolde Pludermacher. The trial aimed to explore historical debates about morality, indecency, and artistic freedom in a courtroom format.

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Michael Rakowitz's survey exhibition "Allspice" at the Acropolis Museum in Athens explores themes of cultural displacement, looting, and historical narrative through works like his series "The invisible enemy should not exist" (2007–), which reconstructs looted artifacts from Baghdad's National Museum of Iraq using Arabic food wrappers and newspapers. The show also features his 2004 video "Return," documenting his effort to import Iraqi dates labeled as "product of Iraq" to the US after decades of sanctions, and includes interventions with the museum's own collection, such as a Cypriot head he linked to Assyrian art.

sothebys karpidas sale white glove smashes estimate 1234752603

Sotheby's achieved a white-glove sale of Pauline Karpidas's collection on Wednesday night, far exceeding its $53 million high estimate to reach $100 million. All 55 lots sold, with 70% surpassing their high estimates, marking the highest total for a designated auction held in London. Two additional sales from the collection are ongoing: a day auction of 193 lots and an online sale of 97 lots, with a combined presale estimate of $80 million. The auction featured 23 Surrealist works, including pieces by René Magritte, and replicated Karpidas's London home in the salesroom.