Art News. Vasari Codex

article policy schedule Feb 23, 2026 visibility 14 link 3 artists

high vat rates art sales spain protest reina sofia 1234774135

Hundreds of artists, gallery owners, and collectors staged coordinated sit-ins at major Spanish museums, including the Museo Reina Sofía, to protest the country's 21 percent Value Added Tax (VAT) on art sales. Demonstrators gathered around Richard Serra’s 'Equal-Parallel/Guernica-Bengasi'—a replica of a work that famously vanished from storage—to symbolize the potential disappearance of the Spanish art sector under current fiscal pressures. The protests included demands for the resignation of the culture and finance ministers and calls for tax parity with European neighbors.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Feb 17, 2026 visibility 7 link 2 artists

flaming hot cheetos meme artist sunday nobody 2211046

An artist known as Sunday Nobody has created a new work consisting of a bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos encased in resin and suspended inside a 3,000-pound concrete sarcophagus, which he has buried outside Seattle with instructions for it to be opened in 10,000 years. The 28-year-old motion graphics designer, who maintains anonymity, funds his complex, labor-intensive projects through his day job and documents their creation in viral social media videos.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

article culture schedule Feb 13, 2026 visibility 18 link 3 artists

untangling the myths behind henri rousseau eccentric masterpiece 2724971

The article examines the history and critical reception of Henri Rousseau's 1897 painting *The Sleeping Gypsy*. It details the painting's creation, its initial exhibition at the Société des Artistes Indépendants, and its subsequent journey through the art market—from being lost and rediscovered at a coal dealer's to being sold by dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and collected by John Quinn, before ultimately entering the collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Feb 9, 2026 visibility 35 link 19 artists, 1 gallery

hot girl feminism chloe wise ambera wellmann sasha gordon 1234758952

A wave of paintings by women depicting women dominated New York galleries this fall, sparking a critical examination of contemporary feminist figuration. Artists like Emily Coan and Anna Weyant create images of idealized, often sexualized femininity, framing their work as a reclamation of beauty and personal expression.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Feb 5, 2026 visibility 18 link 5 artists

martin puryear mfa boston review 1234772363

Martin Puryear's 1978 sculpture *Self* opens a survey of his work at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, titled “Martin Puryear: Nexus,” which runs through Sunday before traveling to the Cleveland Museum of Art in April. Curated by Emily Liebert, Reto Thüring, and Ian Alteveer, the exhibition argues that Puryear's abstract, craft-intensive sculptures—like *A Column for Sally Hemings* (2021)—are not merely formalist exercises but carry political and historical meanings that are deliberately withheld, challenging viewers to read beyond elegant surfaces.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

trending_up market schedule Feb 3, 2026 visibility 11 link 2 artists

frank lloyd wright norman lykes house sale 2742659

The Norman Lykes House, also known as the Circular Sun House, the final residential design by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, is listed for sale at $8.8 million. Designed in 1959 for clients Norman and Aimee Lykes, the Phoenix, Arizona home was completed posthumously in 1967 and is a rare example of Wright's late-career exploration of curvilinear, organic architecture.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

article culture schedule Jan 28, 2026 visibility 17 link 8 artists

lego art sets ranked 2740878

On International Lego Day, the article ranks Lego Art sets inspired by famous artworks, including Vincent van Gogh's *Sunflowers* and *Starry Night*, Hokusai's *The Great Wave*, and others. The ranking is done by the author and their brother, an Adult Fan of Lego, who rate each set from both an art critic and a Lego builder perspective.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Jan 22, 2026 visibility 14 link 3 artists

ai weiwei buttons 2 2738989

Artist Ai Weiwei will unveil a new exhibition titled “Button Up!” at Factory International in Manchester, England, opening July 2. The show features monumental installations made from 30 tons of buttons he rescued from a shuttered British factory in 2019, along with over 3.5 million Lego pieces. Highlights include eight flags sewn with 9,000 buttons each, referencing the Eight-Nation Alliance that invaded China during the Boxer Rebellion, and a new version of his Lego work *History of Bombs*. The buttons were secretly shipped to China, where artisans assembled the works over 281 days.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Jan 20, 2026 visibility 13 link 3 artists

ming wong saint sebastian 2736754

Artist Ming Wong has created a new video installation titled "Dance of the Sun on the Water / Saltatio Solis in Aqua," currently on view at the National Gallery in London. The work reimagines the figure of Saint Sebastian, drawing inspiration from the museum's collection of classical paintings, including a 1475 altarpiece by Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo, as well as Derek Jarman's 1976 queer film "Sebastiane." Wong, the fifth artist selected for the National Gallery's Modern and Contemporary program, completed the piece during a one-year residency, exploring how the martyr's image has evolved across centuries and what it means in contemporary times.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

article culture schedule Jan 15, 2026 visibility 15 link 6 artists

ls lowry ian mckellen documentary 2737539

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.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Jan 5, 2026 visibility 25 link 15 artists

museum exhibitions shows europe 2026 2722038

Artnet News has published a preview of major European museum exhibitions opening in early 2026. Highlights include a monographic show on Paul Cézanne at Fondation Beyeler (January 25–May 25), featuring 80 works from his late career; “Yellow. Beyond Van Gogh’s Favourite Colour” at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (February 13–May 17), exploring the color yellow across art, fashion, and literature; a solo exhibition by conceptual artist Danh Vo at the Stedelijk Museum (February 14–August 2); and “The First Homosexuals” at Kunstmuseum Basel (March 7–August 2), examining the intersection of emerging homosexual identity and the arts in the late 19th century.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Dec 22, 2025 visibility 16 link 5 artists

global reach and local appeal defined artissimas latest edition 2731247

Artissima, Italy's only contemporary art fair, closed its 32nd edition on November 2, 2025, at the Oval Lingotto Fiere in Turin, drawing 34,500 visitors and 176 galleries from 36 countries. Directed by Luigi Fassi for the fourth year, the fair ran from October 30 to November 2, featuring 63 monographic presentations and 26 first-time exhibitors. The edition introduced a new 5% VAT rate on artworks in Italy, awarded 13 prizes including the new Vilnius Residency Prize, and saw the Fondazione Arte CRT Acquisition Fund acquire 26 works for GAM Torino and Castello di Rivoli, marking its 25th anniversary. Special projects included "From Japan: Anonymous Art Project" and a film screening by Basim Magdy at Parco Michelotti.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

person people schedule Dec 18, 2025 visibility 18 link 15 artists

walter robinsons legacy is celebrated with honorary doctorate new scholarship 2730182

Hundreds gathered on a cold Monday night in New York at Phillips auction house and the Metropolitan Club to celebrate the life and legacy of Walter Robinson, the beloved art-world figure who died in February 2025. The event, organized by the New York Academy of Art as part of its annual “Take Home a Nude” fundraiser, featured silent and live auctions, a posthumous honorary doctorate awarded to Robinson, and the announcement of the Walter Robinson Scholarship funded by auction proceeds. The evening raised over $800,000, with works by students and acclaimed artists like Richard Prince and Kiki Smith on offer, and Robinson’s painting *Blood on the Sun* (2018) selling for $35,000.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Dec 15, 2025 visibility 24 link 15 artists

whitney biennial 2026 artist list 1234766723

The Whitney Biennial has announced the 56 artists selected for its 82nd edition, opening March 8, 2026. Curated by Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer, the exhibition explores themes of relationality, kinship, infrastructure, and the US role in global affairs. The curators visited over 300 studios worldwide, and the list includes many emerging and lesser-known artists, with most participants under 45 and a significant number identifying as queer.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

trending_up market schedule Dec 11, 2025 visibility 23 link 13 artists

ultra contemporary chinese artists market 2717404

The article analyzes the auction performance of Chinese artists born after 1990 (post-90s) in the first half of 2025, based on data from the Artnet Price Database and the Artnet Intelligence Report. It highlights a shift from short-term speculation to longer-term competition, with the market showing more robust structure including stratified pricing and wider transactional geography. Key figures include Li Hei Di, whose large-scale painting sold for HK$2.67 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, and other artists like Zhang Zipiao, Yuan Fang, and Wang Qianyao achieving consistent mid-range prices between HK$300,000 and HK$800,000. Sales in Hong Kong reached HK$12.4 million, while artists also entered Western markets in New York and London.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Dec 9, 2025 visibility 14 link 4 artists

brazil library heist matisse 2725608

Brazilian authorities arrested one suspect after an armed robbery at São Paulo's Mário de Andrade Library on Sunday, where two thieves stole eight Henri Matisse engravings and works by Brazilian painter Candido Portinari. The artworks were displayed in a glass vitrine as part of the exhibition “From the Book to the Museum,” which was set to close November 30. The thieves held up a security guard and a couple, stuffed the items into a canvas bag, and discarded some works near a rubbish heap during their escape, partially captured by facial recognition cameras. The second suspect remains at large, and the library has not disclosed which specific works were taken.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

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.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

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.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

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.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

article local schedule Dec 1, 2025 visibility 17 link 10 artists

miami water taxis basel 2721464

Miami is expanding its free water taxi service and shuttle routes for Art Week 2024, which coincides with Art Basel Miami Beach. The city will increase the number of water taxis from four to seven, operating between Maurice Gibb Memorial Park and the Venetian Marina, with service running from December 1 to December 7. Shuttles will connect the convention center to the Design District, mid-beach, and South Beach, where fairs like SCOPE, Untitled Art, SATELLITE, and Aqua Art Miami are held. The Transit mobile app will track all services in real time.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Nov 19, 2025 visibility 18 link 2 artists

padimai art tech studio singapore olafur eliasson 1234762360

A new experimental space called Padimai Art & Tech Studio will open in November 2025 at Tanjong Pagar Distripark in Singapore. The launch features a VR work by artist Olafur Eliasson titled "Your view matter" (2022/25), commissioned by the studio's founder, technologist and collector Vignesh Sundaresan (also known as Metakovan). Sundaresan made headlines in 2021 with his record-breaking $69.3 million purchase of Beeple's "Everydays: The First 5000 Days." The work guides participants through six geometric virtual environments, with each visitor's trajectory and point of view recorded as a unique data file stored in a blockchain-based archive.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

article culture schedule Nov 19, 2025 visibility 20 link 7 artists

peter hujar day biopic ira sachs 1234762238

Filmmaker Ira Sachs has released a new film titled *Peter Hujar's Day*, based on a 1974 audio recording and subsequent book by writer Linda Rosenkrantz. The film captures a single day in the life of photographer Peter Hujar, who died of AIDS-related complications in 1987, as he recounts mundane details and artistic anxieties to Rosenkrantz. Starring Ben Whishaw as Hujar and Rebecca Hall as Rosenkrantz, the movie adapts a transcript Rosenkrantz rediscovered and published in 2021. Sachs describes the project as an exploration of portraiture, light, and emotion, contrasting with his earlier, more turbulent film *Passages*.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Nov 7, 2025 visibility 14 link 1 artist

philadelphia art museum van gogh sunflowers exhibition 1234760629

The Philadelphia Art Museum (PAM) will mount an exhibition titled “Van Gogh’s Sunflowers: A Symphony in Blue and Yellow” from June 6 to October 11, 2026, bringing together two of Vincent van Gogh’s iconic “Sunflower” paintings: PAM’s own Sunflowers (1889) with a turquoise background and the National Gallery’s Sunflowers (1888) with a yellow background. The exhibition continues a collaboration between the two institutions, following a recent loan of PAM’s painting to the National Gallery’s “Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers” show, where the two works hung in a triptych with van Gogh’s Lullaby: Madame Augustine Roulin Rocking a Cradle (La Berceuse).

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Nov 6, 2025 visibility 15 link 2 artists

doug aitken first exhibition in india nita mukesh ambani cultural centre 1234760355

Multimedia artist Doug Aitken will present his first exhibition in India, titled “Under the Sun,” opening December 6 at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in Mumbai. The site-specific show, commissioned by NMACC and curated by Roya Sachs and Mafalda Kahane of TRIADIC, spans three floors exploring past, present, and future through hand-carved wooden sculptures, embroidered textiles, a light installation, and Aitken’s film NEW ERA (2018), created in collaboration with over a dozen Indian artisans.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Oct 20, 2025 visibility 20 link 4 artists

amy sherald talks canceled smithsonian show 60 minutes 1234757994

Painter Amy Sherald has revealed in a "60 Minutes" interview with Anderson Cooper that she pulled out of her solo exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery because the museum considered removing her painting of a Black transgender Statue of Liberty, titled "Trans Forming Liberty." Sherald stated that the Smithsonian secretary, Lonnie G. Bunch III, proposed replacing the painting with a video discussing trans issues that would include anti-trans views, which she deemed unacceptable censorship. The exhibition, "American Sublime," was originally organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and last shown at the Whitney Museum; it is now expected to open at the Baltimore Museum of Art on November 2.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

trending_up market schedule Oct 16, 2025 visibility 22 link 2 artists, 3 galleries

pace japan director tokyo interview 1234757210

Kyoko Hattori, vice president of Pace Japan, expressed her desire for Tokyo to become the center of art in Asia in a recent interview with the Japan Times. This comes one month after the third edition of Tokyo Gendai art fair closed with solid but unspectacular sales. Pace, the only mega-gallery with a location in Tokyo, opened a space in the Azabudai Hills development, which has been seen as a signal of the city's arrival on the global art stage. The article notes cautiously optimistic data, with Japan seeing 2 percent growth in the art market last year while the wider market contracted by 12 percent, and competitors China and Korea saw significant drops.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Oct 10, 2025 visibility 18 link 9 artists

claude monet venice brooklyn museum review 1234756443

The Brooklyn Museum's exhibition "Monet and Venice" explores how Claude Monet's 1908 trip to Venice revitalized his creative practice, leading to 37 remarkable paintings that directly influenced his later "Water Lilies" series. The show assembles more than half of these Venice works alongside pieces by Canaletto, J.M.W. Turner, and others, tracing how the sojourn allowed Monet to see his canvases with fresh eyes after a period of creative impasse. Curated by Lisa Small and Melissa Buron, the 100-work survey opens October 11 and is the largest Monet exhibition in New York in over 25 years.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Sep 25, 2025 visibility 21 link 21 artists

aspen art museum redefining future 1234753597

The Aspen Art Museum is undergoing a strategic shift under director Nicola Lees, moving away from its reputation as a collector's clubhouse toward becoming a global institution. The museum's annual ArtCrush gala and fundraiser week, once centered on wealth-displaying collector home visits and glitzy parties, now emphasizes intellectual programming like the inaugural AIR festival, a $20 million artist-led interdisciplinary initiative featuring talks by Werner Herzog and Hans Ulrich Obrist. This change comes amid soaring local real estate prices, including a $108 million home co-purchased by Steve Wynn and Thomas Peterffy, and contrasts the area's deep pockets with the museum's free admission since 2008.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

gavel restitution schedule Sep 22, 2025 visibility 12 link 5 artists

heirs of jewish collector urge appeals court to reconsider claim to van goghs sunflowers 1234752961

Heirs of German Jewish banker and art collector Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy have urged the US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago to revive their lawsuit seeking the return of Vincent van Gogh's *Sunflowers* (1888), which they claim was sold under Nazi duress. The lawsuit, filed in 2022 against Japanese insurer Sompo Holdings, argues that the painting was purchased at a 1987 Christie's auction by Sompo's predecessor, Yasuda, despite provenance indicating Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was a Nazi victim. A lower court dismissed the case in 2024 for lack of jurisdiction, but the heirs contend that the painting's exhibition in Chicago in 2001 establishes sufficient legal ties to Illinois.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

trending_up market schedule Sep 9, 2025 visibility 17 link 15 artists

elaine wynn francis bacon lacma christies november auction 1234751189

The estate of Elaine Wynn, the late casino magnate and top art collector who died in April 2024, has announced plans for her renowned collection. Francis Bacon's triptych *Three Studies of Lucian Freud* (1969)—which Wynn purchased for a record $142.2 million at Christie's in 2013—will be donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), where she served as board cochair. The painting, the first Bacon to enter LACMA's collection, will debut in the museum's new David Geffen Galleries when they open next year. Separately, Christie's will auction 20 works from Wynn's collection across three sales in New York this November, with estimates totaling at least $75 million. Highlights include Richard Diebenkorn's *Ocean Park #40* (1971), Lucian Freud's *The Painter Surprised by a Naked Admirer* (2004–05), Joan Mitchell's *Sunflower V* (1969), and J.M.W. Turner's *Ehrenbreitstein* (1835).

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original