À Bâle, la foire Art Basel a plus d’un tour dans son sac pour rester la plus attractive

Art Basel's flagship fair in Basel, Switzerland, is opening with 290 galleries from 43 countries, reinforcing its position as the premier global art market event. To maintain its appeal amid competition from its own Paris edition, the fair has introduced new initiatives including 'Basel Exclusive,' which requires select galleries to keep their top works secret until the VIP opening, and has opened its 'Unlimited' sector for monumental works to non-exhibiting galleries. The fair will also highlight artists from the Venice Biennale, such as Alma Allen (US Pavilion) and artists represented by Sfeir-Semler Gallery.

BRUSK, un nouveau centre d’art à visiter dans le cœur historique de Bruges

A new art center called BRUSK opened on May 8 in the historic heart of Bruges, Belgium, near the Groeningemuseum. Housed in a contemporary building by Robbrecht en Daem Architecten and Olivier Salens Architecten, it features a monumental fresco by Laure Prouvost titled "The Whispering Walls Rêve" and two temporary exhibition spaces. The inaugural show "Vision large" explores Bruges' medieval golden age, while a second space presents a generative AI installation by Refik Anadol. BRUSK also includes the BRON research center, storage for Musea Brugge's collection, and a public café.

The problem with the Venice Biennale stems from the fact that the art world has become the space within which politics acquires its exhibition value

« Le problème de la Biennale de Venise provient du fait que le monde de l’art est devenu l’espace au sein duquel la politique acquiert sa valeur d’exposition »

Just days before the official opening of the Venice Biennale on May 9, the exhibition's jury collectively resigned in protest over the reopening of the Russian national pavilion. This echoes the 2022 resignation of Documenta's committee amid antisemitism accusations tied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The article argues that both incidents reveal a deeper syndrome: the art world has been reduced to a stage for political display. It criticizes the selective outrage that targets Israel's pavilion while ignoring Russian airstrikes on civilians, China's erasure of Tibetan culture, or Senegal's anti-LGBTQ+ laws, and questions why artists are expected to represent their governments rather than themselves.

An Invitation into Joan Miró’s Imagination

The article invites readers into the imaginative world of Joan Miró, the Catalan painter, by recounting his successful 1941 retrospective at MoMA and his 1945 exhibition with dealer Pierre Matisse. It highlights Miró's first visit to the United States in 1947 and his inclusion in the New American Paintings show at MoMA in 1991, with a charming anecdote from MoMA conservator Jean Volkmer about Miró blowing kisses at the artworks. The piece also notes an upcoming exhibition at The Phillips Collection from March 21 to July 5, 2026.

Katherine Bernhardt, Hank Willis Thomas among artists creating soccer-ball sculptures in New York for FIFA World Cup 2026.

Twenty-three artists, including Katherine Bernhardt, Hank Willis Thomas, and Tomokazu Matsuyama, will create soccer-ball sculptures for a public art project tied to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The sculptures will be displayed across New York City and New Jersey. Artists were nominated by museum leaders from institutions such as MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, El Museo del Barrio, and the Brooklyn Museum. The project is organized by ARTS 14C, a non-profit focused on arts access.

MoMA announces Mondrian ‘Boogie Woogie’ show for 2027.

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York has announced a major exhibition titled "Mondrian Boogie Woogie," opening March 21, 2027, and running through July 31, 2027. The show will focus on Piet Mondrian's final years, highlighting the influence of boogie-woogie music on his late works. It will feature over 30 artworks, archival materials, and immersive audio installations, exploring the Dutch artist's four-year period in New York from 1940 to 1944.

Haegue Yang at MOCA Grand Avenue

Haegue Yang's solo exhibition at MOCA Grand Avenue in Los Angeles is documented through 34 images and 2 videos, showcasing the artist's work in a major institutional presentation. The exhibition brings together Yang's signature mixed-media installations, which often incorporate everyday objects, textiles, and sensory elements like light and scent, reflecting her ongoing exploration of abstraction, migration, and cultural hybridity.

Paul Thek at Pace Gallery

Pace Gallery is presenting an exhibition of works by Paul Thek, the influential but often overlooked American artist known for his provocative sculptures and installations that blend the sacred and the profane. The show brings together pieces from different periods of his career, including his famous "Technological Reliquaries"—glass cases containing wax casts of body parts—alongside drawings and other works that explore themes of mortality, spirituality, and the human condition.

Audain Art Museum Celebrates Takao Tanabe's Centennial with Landmark Retrospective

The Audain Art Museum is opening "Takao Tanabe 100: Inside Passage," a landmark retrospective celebrating the 100th birthday of Canadian painter Takao Tanabe on September 16, 2026. The exhibition features over fifty works spanning six decades, including his iconic coastal and prairie landscapes as well as lesser-known series like the "White Paintings" and "Emperor" paintings. Co-organized with the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the show will travel to Ottawa and Victoria through 2027.

What Does a ‘Queer’ Art Collection Look Like? Here Are 10 Answers.

Cultured magazine's Pride month feature profiles 17 queer collectors, highlighting how their personal collections—ranging from art and fashion to found objects—reflect queer identity and community. The article spotlights couples like Bobbi Salvör Menuez and quori theodor, who collect everyday items from New York streets, and Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka, who acquire provocative works. It also features the Icy Gays (Rob and Eric Thomas-Suwall), who built their collection from a remote location in North Dakota, and Jeremyn Lee, who amasses museum-quality fashion pieces.

Citing Financial Trouble, Charleston’s International African American Museum to Furlough Staff

Charleston’s International African American Museum (IAAM) will furlough its entire staff, including senior leadership, through a 20-day staggered program running from July 1 into December, citing ongoing financial difficulties. The museum will remain open during this period, with officials stating the move is intended to reduce expenses and avoid layoffs while refocusing on sustainable revenue growth and fundraising. The furlough announcement comes just before the museum’s third anniversary on June 27, and follows a 2024 operating deficit of $883,273 despite increased revenue of $11.1 million.

How Björk Turned Collaboration Into an Art Form

A new exhibition at the National Gallery of Iceland, titled "Echolalia," showcases Björk's visual and collaborative artistry across three rooms, featuring video installations, a choral work, and an immersive audio-visual experience. Works include "Sorrowful Soil" (2022), a tribute to her mother with a 30-speaker choir installation, and "Ancestress" (2022), a video directed by Andrew Thomas Huang with masks by James Merry. A new piece, "Nerve Bloom" (2026), created with painter Natalia Kleszczewska and digital artist Natalie Liu, uses dual-sided LED screens and projection. Concurrently, the museum hosts "Metamorphlings," a retrospective of Merry's work, which originally prompted the exhibition before Björk offered her contribution.

Gaudí goes viral: TikTok partners with Sagrada Familia to livestream inauguration of finished tower

On 10 June, Pope Leo XIV will bless the Sagrada Familia's newly completed Tower of Jesus Christ at a mass, marking the symbolic completion of the cathedral's tallest central tower. The event coincides with the centennial of architect Antoni Gaudí's death. TikTok has partnered with the Sagrada Familia to livestream the inauguration, offering exclusive content series including live sessions, tours, interviews with architects, and a concert. The livestream will be available on TikTok and the Sagrada Familia website.

‘Pioneering photography’: early images of Newhaven’s fishers – in pictures

A new book titled 'Hill & Adamson’s Fisherwomen and Men of the Firth of Forth' by Sara Stevenson compiles pioneering photographs taken between 1843 and 1847 by Scottish photographers David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, with collaborator Jessie Mann. The images document the lives of the fishing community of Newhaven, a village near Edinburgh, capturing fishwives, sailors, and daily life using early calotype techniques. The book argues these works may represent the first social documentary series, highlighting the community's resilience during economic hardship and the photographers' technical innovations.

Steve Martin and Ann Philbin Team Up to Present Unsung Artist’s Oeuvre

Comedian and art collector Steve Martin is collaborating with Ann Philbin, the recently retired director of the Hammer Museum, to organize a museum exhibition dedicated to the late actor and musician Martin Mull's painting practice. Titled "Martin Mull: The Joys of Indoor/Outdoor Living," the show will open at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in June 2026 and run through October, featuring over 50 drawings and paintings—many on loan from Mull's estate and collectors including Jennifer Tilly and the Greenspuns. This marks Mull's first museum survey since 2006, highlighting his lifelong but often overlooked career as a visual artist, which began with a BFA and MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design.

Art Students League Seeks the Next Generation of Public Artists

The Art Students League of New York is accepting applications through July 12, 2026, for its Works in Public fellowship, a fully funded two-year program that trains artists to create large-scale public sculptures. Formerly known as Model to Monument and launched in 2010 with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, the fellowship selects four artists per cohort, providing tuition, a stipend, and production costs. Participants develop proposals in the first year and fabricate approved works in the second, with sculptures displayed for a year in Manhattan’s Riverside Park and eligible for permanent installation on the Florida Keys Sculpture Trail.

Art News, Indeed: NBA Star Victor Wembanyama Prepped For Finals Game By Sketching in Gramercy

NBA star Victor Wembanyama was spotted sketching a statue of Edwin Booth in Gramercy Park, a private park in New York City, hours before a crucial Game 3 of the 2026 NBA Finals. The San Antonio Spurs player, who is also a visual artist, shared a video of his drawing session on Instagram, and later led his team to a 115-111 victory over the New York Knicks with a standout performance.

Notes from New York: The Art of War

The article describes two recent exhibitions in New York that confront war and conflict. The first, 'Distortion / Memory / Resilience,' is a pop-up show by artist Giles Duley in an Upper East Side penthouse, featuring installations that evoke the experiences of war victims, including Ukrainian children's drawings, portraits of former child soldiers, and a darkened room simulating a bombardment. The second, 'Office of War Information (O.W.I.)' at Pioneer Works, is presented by the Khajistan archive and recreates a US wartime propaganda office, displaying copies of leaflets dropped into Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya.

Pasadena Gallery Opens Exhibition Tracing City’s Role in L.A. Art History

A new exhibition titled "Pasadena: L.A.'s Art Legacy" opens at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts in Pasadena, featuring 70 works by nearly 60 artists. The show highlights Pasadena's overlooked role in establishing Los Angeles as a major international art center, with pieces by Hans Burkhardt, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp, and others, all accompanied by labels noting provenance and past museum exhibitions. The opening reception is June 7, and the exhibition runs through August 29.

‘He outlived four of his doctors’: David Hockney’s lifelong love of smoking – and the 2,000 cigarettes he kept at home ‘for emergencies’

David Hockney, the celebrated British artist, died this week at age 88. The Guardian article explores his lifelong love of smoking, which he defiantly maintained despite medical advice and public health regulations. It recounts how his 2025 self-portrait 'Play within a Play within a Play and Me with a Cigarette' was banned from Paris Metro advertising for glamorizing smoking, and how he kept 2,000 cigarettes at home 'for emergencies.' Hockney outlived four of his doctors who urged him to quit, and he saw smoking as a matter of personal freedom, even protesting at the Labour conference in 2005.

One art dealer brought impressionism to America. Now his great-great-granddaughter is bringing it to Geelong

The Geelong Gallery in Australia is hosting "Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand-Ruel, art dealer among artists," an exhibition of over 70 paintings that once passed through the hands of the pioneering French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. Co-curated by his great-great-granddaughter Claire Durand-Ruel and art historian Marianne Mathieu, the show features works by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, and lesser-known impressionists such as Albert André and Georges d’Espagnat. Most works are on loan from private collections and rarely exhibited publicly.

How Zurich's cultural ecosystem grows thanks to Zurich Art Weekend

Come cresce l’ecosistema culturale di Zurigo grazie allo Zurich Art Weekend

Zurich Art Weekend (ZAW) has grown steadily in recent years, expanding beyond a traditional exhibition program to include performances, artist dinners, guided tours, talks, and meetings that connect audiences with contemporary art through its producers, curators, collectors, and scholars. The event benefits from Zurich's high density of museums, galleries, off-spaces, and private collections, all easily accessible on foot or by efficient public transport, creating an informal atmosphere that fosters spontaneous encounters and conversations.

Share your tributes and memories of David Hockney

The Guardian has published an article reporting the death of David Hockney, the world-renowned British artist, at age 88. Hockney rose to fame as a pop artist in the 1960s, best known for his iconic swimming pool paintings that helped define the Los Angeles aesthetic. Over a six-decade career, he produced portraits using photo-collage, experimented with abstract landscape painting, and explored 3D technology in his later years. The article invites readers to share their tributes and memories of Hockney through a secure online form.

How A.I. Helped Identify a Lost Scottish Masterpiece

A painting purchased for under $100 at a White Plains, New York thrift store in the 1960s has been identified as a lost masterpiece by Scottish Colorist F.C.B. Cadell, thanks to Google's A.I. assistant Gemini. The portrait, titled "Interior: The Lady in Black" (mid-1920s), was bought by art history major Helene Plotkin, who admired its Fauvist style. Decades later, her son Barry uploaded a photo to Gemini, which detected Cadell's signature and led them to Lyon & Turnbull auction house. The work sold at Lyon & Turnbull in June 2025 for £189,200 ($254,000), within its presale estimate.

Former director of Rio’s Museu de Arte Moderna ordered to pay breach-of-contract fine

Fábio Szwarcwald, former director of the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro (Mam Rio), has been ordered by a Brazilian court to pay a 100,000 reais (around $20,000) fine for breach of contract. Szwarcwald, who served as director from 2020 to 2022, resigned after publicly raising concerns about the museum's safety and infrastructure, including the lack of fire insurance from 2006 to 2022. The museum argued that his statements, even if true, damaged its credibility with donors, artists, and the art market. Szwarcwald plans to appeal, claiming the information did not violate confidentiality clauses.

New film about Leonora Carrington blends fact with fiction

A new film titled *Leonora in the Morning Light* blends fact and fiction to tell the story of British Mexican Surrealist painter Leonora Carrington (1917-2011). Directed by Thor Klein and Lena Vurma, the non-linear narrative moves between 1950s Mexico and 1930s Paris, depicting Carrington's relationships with artist Max Ernst, patron Edward James, and Surrealist figures like André Breton and Salvador Dalí. The film draws on two novelized accounts of her life—Elena Poniatowska's *Leonora* (2011) and Michaela Carter's 2021 novel—and highlights Carrington's feminist critiques of the Surrealist movement's idealization of women. However, the article notes significant factual divergences, including the omission of Carrington's gang rape by Francoist soldiers and a misattribution of her breakdown solely to Ernst's arrest.

Sagrada Família, Gaudi’s eccentric homage to Catalonia – archive, 1983

This archival article from The Guardian, originally published in 1983, examines Antoni Gaudí's Sagrada Família in Barcelona, highlighting the polarizing reactions it has provoked. George Orwell called it one of the world's most hideous buildings, while Salvador Dalí praised its 'supremely creative bad taste.' The article traces Gaudí's life, from his early dandyism to his later ascetic devotion to the cathedral, where he worked, ate, and slept for the last 12 years of his life. It notes that construction began in 1882 and was expected to take generations, with Gaudí leaving few drawings and constantly modifying his plans from models.

Faithful line streets for Pope Leo’s Sagrada Família blessing on centenary of Gaudí’s death

Pope Leo XIV will bless the Sagrada Família basilica in Barcelona on the centenary of Antoni Gaudí's death, marking the completion of the Jesus Christ tower—the tallest of 18 spires—which brings the church to its full height of 172.5 meters. Thousands of faithful lined the route hours ahead, and the pope's busy schedule also includes a visit to a high-security prison and a plea for Catalan unity.

‘It’s not about heroes and villains’: the triumphant return of long-lost indie I Shot Andy Warhol

Mary Harron's 1996 directorial debut, *I Shot Andy Warhol*, is returning to cinemas this summer in a new 4K restoration from Janus Films. The film chronicles the life of Valerie Solanas, who shot Andy Warhol in 1968, and has long been out of circulation due to bankrupt distributors, surviving mainly through a battered YouTube upload. Harron notes she had been trying for six or seven years to get the film back into theaters.

Museum Rietberg’s A Kind of Paradise: Colonial-Era Photography in Contemporary Art is Balm for the Scars of European Conquest

A new group exhibition titled *A Kind of Paradise: Colonial-Era Photography in Contemporary Art* has opened at Museum Rietberg in Zurich, featuring twenty artists from the diasporas of Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Oceania. The show examines how colonial-era photography was used as a tool of mythmaking and objectification, and presents contemporary artworks that reinterpret, critique, and heal the scars left by these historical images. The exhibition is organized into four thematic sections—'Shapeshifters,' 'Confrontation,' 'Care,' and 'In the Photo Fantastic'—each exploring different strategies for recovering silenced narratives and challenging dominant colonial perspectives.