Art News. Vasari Codex

article news schedule Dec 9, 2025 visibility 11 link 5 artists

louvre leak strike 2725275

A water pipe burst at the Musée du Louvre in Paris on November 26, damaging 300 to 400 archival documents related to Egyptian history in the Mollien Pavilion. The leak, which also posed a fire risk due to a nearby electrical cabinet, was followed by a smaller leak days later. Employees, represented by a coalition of unions including CGT, CFDT, and Sud, have voted unanimously to begin a rolling strike next Monday, demanding urgent renovations and the hiring of 200 new staff to restore the workforce to 2014 levels. The Louvre's director Laurence des Cars had previously warned that the museum's buildings were in "poor condition" and "no longer water tight," and a major renovation was announced, but pipe repairs were not scheduled until September 2026.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 9, 2025 visibility 16 link 11 artists

studio museum harlem reopening 2709803

The Studio Museum in Harlem reopened its newly rebuilt, seven-story space on 125th Street after nearly eight years without a permanent home. A press preview on November 6, 2025, showcased the $300 million, 82,000-square-foot building designed by Adjaye Associates with Cooper Robertson, which more than doubles the museum's exhibition space. The public reopening is set for November 15 with a free community celebration. Inaugural exhibitions include "From Now: A Collection in Context," works by over 100 alumni of the artist-in-residence program, and a solo show of Tom Lloyd, whose work was featured in the museum's first exhibition in 1968. The building features a grand staircase, a cantilevered auditorium called the "Stoop," a roof terrace, and prominent works by David Hammons and Glenn Ligon.

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candle obituary schedule Dec 8, 2025 visibility 25 link 6 artists

cultural figures remember late frank gehry internationally renowned museum starchitect 1234765638

Frank Gehry, the visionary architect behind iconic cultural landmarks such as the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, died on December 5 at age 96. Over the weekend, art and architecture figures including artist Rob Pruitt, Serpentine Galleries artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist, and leaders of institutions like the Guggenheim Bilbao, LACMA, and the J. Paul Getty Trust shared personal remembrances and tributes, highlighting his groundbreaking designs, enduring friendships, and profound influence.

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article news schedule Dec 8, 2025 visibility 25 link 33 artists

artists homes los angeles fires 2597327

On January 7, 2025, the Palisades and Eaton Fires erupted in Los Angeles, fueled by drought and Santa Ana winds exceeding 90 mph, destroying over 12,000 structures. The fires devastated Pacific Palisades and Altadena, including the homes and studios of numerous artists, collectors, and art professionals. The Getty Center and Getty Villa were under evacuation but remained safe. Artist Paul McCarthy lost three family homes and his son's editing studio, while many others like Christina Quarles, Analia Saban, and Ruby Neri also suffered losses.

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trending_up market schedule Dec 8, 2025 visibility 16 link 1 artist

rembrandt print old master record 2724728

A rare Rembrandt drypoint print, *Arnout Tholinx, Inspector* (ca. 1656), sold for £3.1 million ($4.1 million) at Christie’s London on December 3, setting a new world auction record for an Old Masters print. The work, commissioned by a medical inspector during Rembrandt’s financial struggles, was part of the Sam Josefowitz collection and last appeared at auction 101 years ago. The sale, dedicated to over 100 Rembrandt prints from Josefowitz’s collection, totaled £8.6 million ($11.4 million), with other notable lots including *Christ presented to the People* and *Christ healing the Sick*.

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person people schedule Dec 8, 2025 visibility 20 link 6 artists

ralph lemon artnews awards 2025 lifetime achievement 1234763082

Ralph Lemon has been awarded the 2025 ARTnews Lifetime Achievement Award for his multidisciplinary practice spanning dance, drawing, painting, installation, sculpture, and writing. The article highlights his career trajectory from founding the Ralph Lemon Dance Company to disbanding it in 1995 to focus on broader artistic collaborations. Central to his work is the Geography Trilogy (1996–2004) and his long-term collaboration with Walter Carter, a former Mississippi sharecropper, whose life and family became a recurring subject. Lemon's recent exhibition "Ceremonies Out of the Air: Ralph Lemon" at MoMA PS1 (November 14, 2024–March 24, 2025), curated by Connie Butler and Thomas Lax, featured videos, found African sculptures, drawings, and a four-channel performance piece, Rant (redux), with Kevin Beasley and Okwui Okpokwasili.

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person people schedule Dec 8, 2025 visibility 19 link 7 artists

wafaa bilal artnews awards 2025 established artist 1234762916

Wafaa Bilal has been named the recipient of the 2025 ARTnews Award for Established Artist, recognizing his survey exhibition “Wafaa Bilal: Indulge Me” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (February 1–October 19, 2025). The show is the first major retrospective for the Iraqi American artist, featuring works that put his body at risk, including the iconic performance *Domestic Tension* (2007), in which remote participants fired a paintball gun at him over the internet, and *Virtual Jihadi* (2008), a modified video game that blurs the lines between aggressor and victim. Curated by Bana Kattan, the exhibition restages elements of Bilal’s original performance and presents his ongoing critique of U.S. involvement in the Middle East, particularly the Iraq War and the use of drone warfare.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 8, 2025 visibility 18 link 4 artists

legacies asian american artists 2025 artnews awards 80wse 1234762882

The article reviews "Legacies: Asian American Art Movements in New York City," an exhibition at 80WSE in New York, curated by Howie Chen, Jayne Cole Southard, and christina ong, running from September 11 to December 20, 2024. Billed as the first institutional survey of Asian American artists in New York City, the show features 90 artists and spans the period from 1969 to 2001, centering on three key organizations: Godzilla: Asian American Art Network, the Basement Workshop, and the Asian American Arts Centre. The exhibition highlights how many of these artists did not solely make work about their race, complicating the link between identity and art, and includes lesser-known pieces such as David Diao's 1974 painting "Odd Man Out" and a provocative 1985 photograph by Hanh Thi Pham.

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article news schedule Dec 8, 2025 visibility 27 link 38 artists

artnews awards 2025 jury 1234764592

The second annual ARTnews Awards have announced their 2025 winners, selected by a jury of five esteemed US-based curators: Ryan N. Dennis (Co-Director & Chief Curator, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston), Anne Ellegood (Executive Director, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles), Rosario Güiraldes (Curator of Visual Arts, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis), Ruba Katrib (Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, MoMA PS1, New York), and Victoria Sung (Phyllis C. Wattis Senior Curator, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive). These jurors reviewed exhibitions held between August 2024 and July 2025, meeting twice alongside two ARTnews senior editors to nominate and select winners across six categories.

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article culture schedule Dec 8, 2025 visibility 21 link 4 artists

burton the meeting on the turret stairs 2723484

The article explores Frederic William Burton's iconic Victorian watercolor *Hellelil and Hildebrand, the Meeting on the Turret Stairs* (1864), held at the National Gallery of Ireland. It recounts the tragic medieval Danish ballad that inspired the painting, in which the noblewoman Hellelil and her guard Heldebrand are doomed lovers. Burton, an Irish painter influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, worked exclusively in watercolor and gouache, making this delicate piece a technical marvel. The museum displays it only one hour twice weekly to protect it from light damage.

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article news schedule Dec 8, 2025 visibility 19 link 9 artists

chief curator leaves george lucas museum 2724582

Pilar Tompkins Rivas, chief curator and deputy director of curatorial and collections at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, has left the museum less than a year before its scheduled September 2026 opening. The museum stated it has no immediate plans to replace her, with George Lucas continuing to oversee curatorial direction. This departure follows a series of staffing issues, including the exit of director and CEO Sandra Jackson-Dumont in March 2025, layoffs of 22 staff members in May, and the earlier losses of curator Amanda Hunt and curator-at-large Dan Nadel. The $1-billion museum, first announced in 2017, has faced repeated delays due to the pandemic and supply-chain shortages.

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article culture schedule Dec 8, 2025 visibility 13 link 9 artists

art bites facts holiday small talk 2711443

Artnet News offers a lighthearted holiday guide with seven art-historical conversation starters designed to deflect awkward family small talk. The article reveals quirky facts such as a secret apartment atop the Eiffel Tower, the Surrealists' party game 'Exquisite Corpse,' Leonardo da Vinci's role as a wedding planner for Milan's nobility, Marcel Duchamp paying his dentist with a fake check, and Frank Lloyd Wright inspiring Lincoln Logs.

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trending_up market schedule Dec 5, 2025 visibility 18 link 7 artists

gene hackman collection auction bonhams 2700910

Selections from actor Gene Hackman's personal collection, including artworks and film memorabilia, were sold across a series of auctions at Bonhams in New York from November 19 to December 4. The three sales collectively realized $3 million, with all 400-plus lots finding new homes. Highlights included a Milton Avery painting that fetched $508,500, a Richard Diebenkorn etching that sold for $419,600, and Hackman's Golden Globe awards, with his trophy for *The Royal Tenenbaums* bringing in $51,200. Hackman, who died in February at age 95, was also an artist himself, having studied at the Art Students League of New York and maintained a studio in Santa Fe.

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candle obituary schedule Dec 5, 2025 visibility 20 link 13 artists, 1 gallery

frank gehry dead guggenheim bilbao 1234765549

Frank Gehry, the award-winning architect whose revolutionary museum designs reshaped the art world, died on Friday in Santa Monica, California, at age 96 due to a brief respiratory illness. Best known for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1997), Gehry's signature style—featuring sloping, incongruous forms clad in titanium—transformed the architectural landscape of art institutions worldwide. His other major museum projects include the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and an upcoming Guggenheim museum in Abu Dhabi.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 5, 2025 visibility 23 link 19 artists, 7 galleries

design miami exhibitors art craft design 1234765505

At Design Miami 2025, artist Nicole Cherubini presented monumental ceramic sculptures at Friedman Benda's booth, alongside Molly Hatch's installation of 288 ceramic plates at Todd Merrill's booth. The fair, curated under the theme "Make.Believe" by Glenn Adamson, saw 15 previous exhibitors drop out due to President Trump's tariffs—including a 50 percent tariff on steel and aluminum—while eight more booths appeared overall, dominated by younger, emerging talent and organic, pastel-hued designs. Established galleries like Donzello, Patrick Seguin, and Sarah Myerscough did not return, while first-time exhibitors included Arte y Ritual and Mass Modern Design.

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article news schedule Dec 5, 2025 visibility 14 link 5 artists

lucas museum of narrative art pilar tompkins rivas departs 1234765433

Pilar Tompkins Rivas, chief curator and deputy director of curatorial and collections at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, has left her post, as first reported by the Los Angeles Times. Her departure is the latest in a series of leadership exits at the institution, which is set to open on September 22, 2026. The museum was founded by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, and Rivas was one of six women of color appointed to high-ranking roles in 2020 by then director and CEO Sandra Jackson-Dumont, who left in February. The museum laid off 15 employees in May, and CEO duties are now held on an interim basis by Jim Gianopulos, while Lucas himself oversees curatorial content.

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trending_up market schedule Dec 4, 2025 visibility 14 link 14 artists, 1 gallery

marianne faithfull art collection auction bonhams 2719054

Bonhams auctioned 29 lots from the collection of late musician and actor Marianne Faithfull in its recurring 'Sound & Cinema' online sale, which concluded on November 24. The lots included eight artworks personally owned by Faithfull, such as an intimate portrait by South African painter Marlene Dumas that sold for $5,806—exceeding its estimate—and works by Anita Pallenberg, Martin Sharp, and others. The entire Faithfull consignment brought in $85,723, with proceeds going to her son Nicholas Dunbar.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 4, 2025 visibility 18 link 5 artists

london national gallery to raise 1 billion project domani 1234765319

London's National Gallery has announced Project Domani, a nearly $1 billion initiative to collect 20th- and 21st-century art and build a new wing to house it. The institution has shortlisted six architectural firms—including Foster + Partners, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, and Kengo Kuma and Associates—from 65 entrants in an international competition, with a winner to be announced in April. About half the funds have been raised, with major pledges from Crankstart, the Julia Rausing Trust, and the National Gallery Trust. The wing will be built on the last undeveloped portion of the campus at 30 Orange Street and is projected to open in the early 2030s.

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article news schedule Dec 4, 2025 visibility 10 link 1 artist, 1 gallery

claes oldeburg yale lipstick sculpture vandalized 1234765176

Claes Oldenburg's 1969 sculpture *Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks* was vandalized in October when the letters "ATB" were etched into its metal base. Yale University is relocating the 24-foot-tall work from the Morse College courtyard to the Yale University Art Gallery for conservation and care, following the discovery of the defacement. The sculpture, a beloved campus landmark originally installed in Beinecke Plaza, has a history of being removed and restored due to weather damage and graffiti.

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article culture schedule Dec 4, 2025 visibility 18 link 13 artists

art nouveau renaissance mucha jugendstil paris metro 1234748578

The article recounts the author's personal rediscovery of Art Nouveau, sparked by encountering an iron doorknob shaped like a Belgian endive at the Bröhan Museum in Berlin. It explores the movement's history, its German variant Jugendstil, and the philosophical debate between Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno over its merits—Benjamin criticizing it as a superficial escape from industrial reality, Adorno defending its utopian desire to reconcile art, nature, and technology. The piece also notes a contemporary resurgence of interest in the style.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 4, 2025 visibility 19 link 6 artists

m f husain museum qatar 2723322

Qatar has unveiled a new museum dedicated entirely to the late Indian Modernist artist M.F. Husain, titled Lawh Wa Qalam: M.F. Husain Museum. Located in Doha's Education City, the museum houses over 150 artworks spanning from the 1950s to his death in 2011, including paintings, poetry, photography, tapestries, sculptures, and installations. The museum, opened on November 28 by the Qatar Foundation chaired by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, fulfills a long-held dream of the artist, who was granted Qatari citizenship in 2010 after self-imposed exile from India. The building was designed by architect Martand Khosla based on a sketch Husain himself created for his envisioned museum.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 3, 2025 visibility 16 link 7 artists

elizabeth browning jackson 2722343

Elizabeth Browning Jackson, a pioneering artist in the art-furniture movement, was rediscovered in 2021 after a phone call from Stephen Markos, founder of Superhouse Gallery, who had long admired her 1982 sculptural couch "Gloria." Markos urged Jackson to open a barn on her Rhode Island property, where she found her early works—hand-tufted rugs, cut-aluminum furniture, drawings, and prototypes—sealed away for 35 years. This rediscovery culminates at Design Miami 2025, where Superhouse presents Jackson as a foundational voice in the art-furniture movement, alongside contemporaries like Dan Friedman and Wendy Maruyama. Jackson's new exhibition "Re/construct" is also on view at Superhouse's Tribeca space through December 20, featuring reconstructed rugs based on her original 1980s designs.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 2, 2025 visibility 19 link 11 artists

leonora carrington les distractions de dagobert 2718627

In September 1945, exiled Surrealist painter Leonora Carrington completed her masterpiece *Les Distractions de Dagobert* (also known as *The Pleasures of Dagobert*), a densely layered canvas teeming with mythical figures, ritual fires, and medieval references. The painting, loosely inspired by the 7th-century Merovingian king Dagobert, depicts the monarch in a red robe on a cow-headed cart surrounded by enigmatic scenes. After a fierce 10-minute bidding war at Sotheby’s New York in May 2024, the work sold for $28.5 million to Argentine collector Eduardo F. Costantini, shattering Carrington’s previous auction record of $3.3 million. The painting is now on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art as part of the exhibition “Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100,” the show’s only North American stop.

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trending_up market schedule Dec 2, 2025 visibility 15 link 20 artists

okeeffe seurat phillips collection deaccession 2715082

The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. has deaccessioned eight major works by artists including Georges Seurat, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Anish Kapoor at Sotheby's fall sales. O'Keeffe's "Large Dark Red Leaves on White" (1927) sold for $7.9 million, a Seurat drawing fetched $4.9 million, while a painting by Arthur Dove fell short of expectations and a Kapoor sculpture failed to sell. The plan, devised by director Jonathan Binstock, aims to fund future contemporary art commissions and collection care, but has sparked an 18-month dispute between museum leadership and the Phillips family descendants over the interpretation of founder Duncan Phillips's legacy.

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article culture schedule Dec 2, 2025 visibility 14 link 9 artists

roman sculpture 2710619

This article explores the rediscovery of Roman sculpture during the Renaissance and its profound influence on artists like Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci. It details how Roman sculptors, inspired by Greek methods after the conquest of Greece in 146 B.C.E., created highly realistic works that served both artistic and political purposes, glorifying emperors and reinforcing imperial power. The piece highlights six iconic Roman sculptures—including the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius, the Colossus of Constantine, Trajan's Column, and the Augustus of Prima Porta—describing their historical context, artistic features, and enduring legacy.

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article news schedule Dec 2, 2025 visibility 16 link 4 artists

jennifer gilbert lumana detroit 2720447

Entrepreneur and art collector Jennifer Gilbert has founded Lumana, a new non-profit arts organization in Detroit's Little Village neighborhood. Housed in a repurposed 21,000-square-foot former shipbuilding and storage facility at Stanton Yards, the space is being adapted by SO–IL architectural firm with landscape design by OSD. Slated to open in Fall 2027, Lumana will feature two exhibition halls, a café, bookstore, auditorium, and educational spaces, and will house Gilbert's foundation. Gilbert plans to draw on her private art collection for exhibitions, including an inaugural show focused on Cranbrook Art Museum's Detroit collection, and is considering curatorial fellowships to commission new site-specific work.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 2, 2025 visibility 13 link 7 artists

nybg holiday train show whitney museum 2714502

The New York Botanical Garden's 34th annual "Holiday Train Show" features miniature replicas of New York landmarks crafted from natural materials by the botanical artists of Applied Imagination. This year's edition adds two new models: the recently renovated Delacorte Theater in Central Park and the Whitney Museum of American Art's Meatpacking District flagship, designed by Renzo Piano. The Whitney replica, built over three months by artist Ava Roberts and fabrication director Kaitlin Schmidt, uses a new two-way mirrored acrylic glass technique for the windows and incorporates materials like purple smoke bush branches, horse chestnut bark, and fallen Zelkova bark. The company, founded by Paul Busse in 1991 and now run by his daughter Laura Busse Dolan, creates whimsical versions of landmarks using leaves, sticks, fungi, and other dried plant materials.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 2, 2025 visibility 11 link 5 artists

moma carlo rambaldi centennial screening series 2720449

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York will host a two-week screening series starting December 10, featuring 15 films that showcase the special effects work of the late mechatronics maestro Carlo Rambaldi. Co-curated with Rome's Cinecittà studios, the series spans Rambaldi's career from Italian arthouse and exploitation films to Hollywood blockbusters like *Alien* (1979), *E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial*, *King Kong* (1976), and *Dune* (1984). The screenings include films directed by Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Dario Argento, and David Lynch, among others. Rambaldi, who would have turned 100 this autumn, was also honored earlier this year with an exhibition at Long Island City Culture Lab and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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trending_up market schedule Dec 2, 2025 visibility 23 link 8 artists

paula modersohn becker degenerate doubles auction record 1234764548

A 1906 self-portrait by German modernist Paula Modersohn-Becker, titled *Selbstbildnis nach halblinks (Self-Portrait Looking Slightly Left)*, sold for €1.3 million ($1.5 million) at Berlin's Grisebach auction house on Thursday—more than quintupling its low estimate and more than doubling the artist's previous auction record. The work was acquired by an unnamed European private collector. The painting had previously been seized by the Nazis as "degenerate" art from the St. Annen Museum in Lübeck and was later acquired by the collector Bauer, who aimed to rehabilitate persecuted artists.

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article news schedule Dec 2, 2025 visibility 21 link 11 artists

hong kong fire arts groups asian art news 2721884

A devastating fire in Hong Kong's Tai Po neighborhood, which killed at least 151 people, has prompted a period of mourning and led several major cultural institutions to cancel or postpone public events. The Hong Kong Arts Festival and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust cancelled a press conference for the "No Limits" program, while M+ rescheduled its "Night: Festive Play" event. Meanwhile, art fairs and galleries continue to announce developments: Kiaf Seoul will run concurrently with Frieze Seoul in 2026, Contemporary Istanbul will introduce a new Focus Asia section, and Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 will feature new sectors Echoes and Zero 10. In the market, On Kawara's "NOV. 27, 1984" sold for HK$8.5 million at Bonhams Hong Kong, and standout results were seen at Sotheby's Hong Kong.

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