Rare sketches by Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, created during her 1940 confinement in a Spanish psychiatric hospital, have been reunited and are on display at London's Freud Museum. The exhibition, "Leonora Carrington: The Symptomatic Surreal," features sketchbooks that reimagined the hospital as a mythological underworld and served as preparatory studies for her seminal painting Down Below.
Artist Camille Henrot has premiered her first new film in nearly a decade, titled "In the Veins" (2026), at the newly reopened New Museum in New York. The 35-minute work, which is featured in the exhibition "New Humans," explores the intersection of domestic caretaking and the global climate crisis. Through Henrot's signature associative editing style, the film juxtaposes scenes of children growing up with footage from wildlife rehabilitation centers, highlighting the cognitive dissonance of raising children surrounded by animal imagery while facing mass extinction.
French contemporary artist Claire Tabouret has been commissioned to create six new stained-glass windows for the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, replacing six existing 19th-century grisaille windows designed by architect Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. The project, announced by President Emmanuel Macron and the Archbishop of Paris as a "contemporary gesture" following the 2019 fire, has sparked a major public and institutional controversy, with a petition against it gathering over 335,000 signatures.
German artist Anne Imhof will present her first solo exhibition in Asia at the Tai Kwun culture complex in Hong Kong from September 26, 2025, to January 3, 2027. The ambitious show will feature a survey of key works and a new commission, converging performance, image, sound, and architecture to create immersive encounters.
This week's episode of The Art Newspaper podcast covers three major art world events. A landmark Henri Matisse exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris focuses on his final, explosive 13 years of work, including his famous cut-outs. In Hong Kong, Art Basel opens amid economic uncertainty, with analysis on whether the market is turning a corner. Meanwhile, London's Victoria and Albert Museum unveils a show on Elsa Schiaparelli, featuring a Salvador Dalí painting that directly inspired her iconic fashion designs.
Donatello's monumental 1453 bronze equestrian statue, Gattamelata, has been moved from its outdoor plinth in Padua to a nearby indoor hall for a major €1 million restoration. This marks only the third time the statue has been moved indoors in nearly 600 years, prompted by severe corrosion known as "bronze cancer" and structural concerns about its stone pedestal. The restoration is funded by two American non-profit organizations, Friends of Florence and Save Venice.
The Art Angle podcast, hosted by Ben Davis and Kate Brown with guest Eileen Kinsella, recapped major art stories from March 2026. The discussion centered on three key developments: the opening of the 2026 Whitney Biennial, the rising art historical prominence of 17th-century Flemish painter Michaelina Wautier, and a new investigation claiming to have definitively unmasked the identity of the anonymous street artist Banksy.
Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 showcased a vibrant array of talent, with standout presentations across its curated sectors like Discoveries and Insights. Highlights included Vin Gallery's ceramic skeleton shadow puppets by Ako Goto, Lucie Chang Fine Arts' case for the late painter Zhu Xinjian, and gdm's pairing of Kongkee's lightbox sculptures with abstract works by Thai modernist Tang Chang. The fair also featured a monumental, self-sabotaged neon sign by Kongkee reading "Price / Value."
The Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania is courting controversy by consigning a major 1891 painting by Ottoman artist Osman Hamdi Bey, titled "At the Mosque Door," to Bonhams London with an estimate of $2.7–$4 million. Although the museum purchased the work directly from the artist in 1895, it was never formally accessioned into the collection, allowing the institution to bypass strict industry regulations that typically prohibit using art sale proceeds for anything other than new acquisitions or collection care. The museum intends to use the funds to establish a permanent endowment for the long-term maintenance of its vast archaeological holdings.
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has launched a major retrospective of Carol Bove, filling the iconic Frank Lloyd Wright rotunda with approximately 100 works spanning her career. The exhibition showcases Bove’s evolution from her early assemblages of driftwood, peacock feathers, and vintage books to her more recent large-scale, brightly colored steel sculptures. A defining feature of the show is Bove’s inclusion of "para-artworks"—pieces by other artists such as Lionel Ziprin, Agnes Martin, and Arnaldo Pomodoro—integrated into her own installations to highlight the influences and histories that inform her practice.
The Venice Biennale is facing intense international backlash following its decision to allow Russia to return for the 2026 edition after a hiatus caused by the invasion of Ukraine. High-ranking politicians from 22 European nations, along with thousands of artists and curators, have signed open letters condemning the move as a platform for state-directed cultural diplomacy and war-crime whitewashing. The Biennale has defended its stance by claiming a policy of non-censorship, asserting that it accepts any nation recognized by the Italian government.
raphael met museum retrospective review
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has launched "Raphael: Sublime Poetry," the first major retrospective of the Renaissance master ever staged in the United States. Curated by Carmen C. Bambach, the exhibition features 237 works, including rare loans of drawings and monumental tapestries that have not left Madrid since the 16th century. While some of his most famous paintings remain in Europe, the show provides an exhaustive look at the artist's development from a teenage prodigy to a papal favorite.
A newly authenticated painting by Amedeo Modigliani, "Jeune femme brune" (1917–18), is being offered for sale by Pace gallery at Art Basel Hong Kong with a price tag of €11.5 million ($13.3 million). The work, the highest-priced piece at the fair, was only recently included in art historian Marc Restellini's forthcoming Modigliani catalogue raisonné after decades of authentication disputes and legal battles.
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.
The article examines the largely overlooked curatorial work of poet Frank O'Hara during his tenure at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It details his role in organizing significant exhibitions, championing emerging artists like Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, and his influential collaborations with artists such as Larry Rivers.
Adrian Cheng, a key figure in Hong Kong's art world, identifies major trends shaping the city's art scene ahead of Art Basel Hong Kong. He highlights the convergence of major art fairs, auction house sales, and new gallery openings during the 'Art March' period, drawing a global audience with high-profile exhibitions by international artists like Mary Weatherford, Nicole Eisenman, and El Anatsui.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is preparing a major spring retrospective dedicated to Raphael, the Italian Renaissance master who died in 1520 before his 40th birthday. This will be his first such exhibition in the United States, aiming to reassess an artist traditionally viewed as a facile, efficient prodigy rather than a deep intellectual.
A replica of a Christopher Columbus statue was installed on the White House grounds under the direction of the Trump administration. The sculpture is a reproduction of a monument that was toppled and thrown into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor by protesters during the 2020 racial justice movements. Created by artist Will Hemsley using scans of the original fragments, the project was previously funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and has now been placed near the West Wing as part of preparations for the 250th anniversary of American independence.
An exhibition titled "Churchill the Artist" has opened at Chartwell, Winston Churchill's former home in Kent, England. The show features personal artifacts like his paint-spattered Savile Row overalls and spectacles, alongside paintings, including the first U.K. display of his work "Quiet Waters," a gift to his friend Lord Beaverbrook.
The Stedelijk Museum Schiedam in the Netherlands has opened an exhibition titled 'Yves Klein and His Artist Family,' which presents the work of the iconic French artist Yves Klein alongside that of his father Fred Klein, his mother Marie Raymond, and his widow Rotraut Klein-Moquay. The show features 30 works by Yves and over 40 pieces by his family members, highlighting their distinct artistic contributions within 20th-century Modernism.
Czech Culture Minister Oto Klempíř has dismissed Alicja Knast from her position as director of Prague's National Gallery. The move has generated significant scrutiny, with critics questioning the lack of a formal explanation and the abrupt manner of her removal, which was announced without a joint press conference.
The Brooklyn Museum is deaccessioning approximately 200 objects from its collection, including American furniture, artworks, and textiles, through a sale hosted by Brunk Auctions on April 9. Highlights include a rare circa 1690 walnut dressing table, estimated at $80,000–$120,000, and a late 17th-century oak cupboard. The museum states the sale is part of an ongoing effort to convert storage spaces into galleries and that proceeds will fund collection care and new acquisitions.
A collection of 206 sold-out estate prints by photographer Vivian Maier is being offered as a single lot in Artnet's Important Photographs auction, with an estimate of $1–1.5 million. The trove, which includes gelatin silver and archival pigment prints from the 1950s to 1980s, represents a rare opportunity to acquire a comprehensive group of her work that is no longer available through primary market galleries.
ARTnews has expanded its list of iconic feminist works by women artists, adding 15 new entries to a previous selection. The article highlights specific pieces, such as Edmonia Lewis's *The Death of Cleopatra* (1876), Mary Cassatt's *The Reader* (1877), and Alice Pike Barney's *Medusa* (1892) and *Lucifer* (1902), providing historical context for each artist and their contribution to feminist discourse through art.
Artist Miljohn Ruperto's exhibition at Stanford's Cantor Arts Center features works that critically engage with AI and technology. His piece *Fathoms (Tartarapelagic)* uses AI to generate images of deep-sea creatures from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, while highlighting that mining the minerals essential for that same AI technology is destroying their real-world habitats.
Powerhouse Arts, a nonprofit creative production facility in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood, has appointed Liz Munsell as its new Vice President of Curatorial and Arts Programs. Munsell, who previously held senior curatorial roles at the Jewish Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, succeeds Diya Vij following Vij's appointment as New York City’s cultural affairs commissioner. Alongside Munsell, the organization hired Constanza Valenzuela, formerly of High Line Art, as associate curator to support the expansion of its exhibition and residency programs.
The New Museum in New York has announced a major $80 million capital campaign to double its physical footprint on the Bowery. The expansion will utilize an adjacent building already owned by the institution, increasing the total space from 58,000 to over 100,000 square feet. The museum has already secured $43 million of its goal, bolstered by a record-breaking undisclosed donation from longtime supporter Toby Devan Lewis.
Massimiliano Gioni and Beatrice Trussardi have launched the Beatrice Trussardi Foundation, a nomadic art initiative that debuted with an installation by Polish artist Paweł Althamer in a remote 17th-century hut in Switzerland's Engadin Valley. The project, featuring a sculpture of St. Francis and a series of happenings, marks a new chapter for the duo who previously spent two decades staging ephemeral public art projects in Milan. The foundation aims to operate without a permanent home, bringing site-specific contemporary art to unexpected global locations.
Over 200 cultural figures, including musician Brian Eno and writer Laleh Khalili, have signed an open letter condemning the British Museum for allegedly removing the word "Palestine" from labels in its Ancient Levant gallery. The letter, published in March, accuses the museum of historical revisionism and links the action to pressure from the advocacy group UK Lawyers for Israel, while also criticizing the museum's broader ties to Israel.
A major exhibition titled "Miró and the United States" opens at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, exploring the profound artistic dialogue between Catalan artist Joan Miró and the United States. The show features Miró's paintings, sculptures, and works on paper alongside pieces by American contemporaries like Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, and Alexander Calder, tracing how his visits and exposure to the New York art scene influenced his work and, in turn, inspired a generation of post-war American artists.