The Art of ‘The Christophers’: How the Film Created an Artist’s Fabled Oeuvre

Steven Soderbergh’s new film, The Christophers, explores the complexities of artistic legacy and authenticity through the story of Julian Sklar, a fictional washed-up artist played by Ian McKellen. The plot follows Sklar’s children as they hire an art restorer, played by Michaela Coel, to secretly finish their father’s legendary unfinished series to capitalize on his market value. To ground the film in reality, screenwriter Ed Solomon consulted with art world figures like dealer George Barker and artists Jann Haworth and Derek Boshier, while production designer Antonia Lowe and painter Barnaby Gorton created the physical artworks seen on screen.

Revisiting One of Fauvism’s Wildest Painters

The Parisian gallery Helene Bailly Marcilhac is hosting a comprehensive monographic exhibition dedicated to the Dutch-French painter Kees van Dongen. The show traces the artist's career from his early days as a leading figure of the Fauvist movement through his later developments in portraiture, still life, and genre painting. Spanning several decades, the exhibition highlights Van Dongen's evolution from the "terrifying" bold colors of his youth to the more nuanced, expressive works of his later years, such as his 1950s floral studies and racing scenes.

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Van Doren Waxter in New York is hosting "Portraits," a solo exhibition dedicated to the late American abstract painter Jackie Saccoccio. The show features five paintings and seven works on paper that showcase Saccoccio’s mature style, characterized by a physically demanding process of dragging, pressing, and dripping paint. These works bridge the gap between gestural abstraction and the psychological depth of traditional portraiture, drawing inspiration from both Abstract Expressionism and Roman Baroque aesthetics.

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The U.K. government has placed a temporary export bar on Howard Hodgkin’s painting "Mrs Acton in Delhi" (1967–71) following its record-breaking £1.7 million sale at Bonhams. The move by the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport is intended to provide British institutions or domestic collectors the opportunity to match the price and keep the work within the country. The painting is considered a national treasure due to its aesthetic importance and its role in documenting Hodgkin's transition from Pop art to his signature emotive abstraction.

ACA Galleries Presents 100 Years of Black Art

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ACA Galleries in New York is hosting "Continuum: Over 100 Years of Black Art," an expansive group exhibition running through March 7, 2026. The show features a diverse array of media—including painting, sculpture, textiles, and collage—by more than a dozen pioneering Black artists. Spanning from the 19th century to the present day, the exhibition highlights key figures such as still-life painter Charles Ethan Porter, collagist Romare Bearden, and contemporary textile artist Helen McBride Richter.

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Nahmad Contemporary is presenting a new exhibition at Tarmak22 in Gstaad, Switzerland, focusing on Pablo Picasso's 1963–65 series 'Le Peintre et Son Modèle' ('The Painter and His Model'). The show features 14 paintings that explore the artist's gaze, power dynamics, and the relationship between painter and sitter. Uniquely, British supermodel Naomi Campbell contributes her personal reflections on the works, drawing from her own experience of being photographed and observed throughout her career.

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Tristan Unrau, a 36-year-old Los Angeles-based painter originally from Canada, creates works that deliberately avoid a singular style, instead copying or channeling a vast range of art historical sources—from Old Masters and Modernists to cartoons and photorealism. His pluralistic approach has earned him a dedicated following, and David Kordansky Gallery announced representation of the artist this fall, planning a major solo exhibition in Los Angeles in March 2026. Unrau, who earned his MFA at UCLA, is currently preparing for that show in his East Hollywood studio, producing paintings that reference artists such as Bruegel, Jean-Luc Godard, František Kupka, Emil Nolde, and Willem de Kooning.

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The article profiles Lucia Wilcox, a nearly forgotten Surrealist painter born in 1899 who lived an extraordinary life—raised in Beirut, partying with Surrealists in Paris, fleeing to New York in 1938, and becoming a doyenne among expatriate artists in the Hamptons. She painted joyful, mythical women and was shown by major dealers Sidney Janis and Leo Castelli, but after her death in 1974 she faded into obscurity. Now, a tightly curated exhibition titled "Lucia Wilcox: LUCIA" at Berry Campbell in New York (through June 28) reintroduces her work, focusing on over 20 paintings from the 1940s, including the vibrant "Untitled (Jungle)" (1944).

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London Gallery Weekend (LGW) returned for its fifth edition from June 6 to 8, 2025, drawing art enthusiasts across 126 participating spaces despite dark clouds and drizzle. The event showcased cutting-edge performances, digital experiments, and bold textile art, but faced challenges as several trendy younger galleries—including Union Pacific, Guts Gallery, The Sunday Painter, and Xxijra Hii—chose not to participate this year. The weekend also overlapped with the debut London edition of South by Southwest (SXSW), a tech and arts conference that brought 20,505 pass-holders from 77 countries, including King Charles III, and featured visual art offerings such as LDN LAB curated by Alex Poots. While SXSW included works by Andy Warhol and Beeple, coordination between the two events was minimal, though a hastily planned SXSW VIP gallery tour occurred before LGW officially began.

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Artist Antonia Showering is making her long-awaited New York solo debut with the exhibition “In Line” at Timothy Taylor in Tribeca, on view from May 8 to June 21, 2025. The show follows her London solo debut “Mixed Emotion” with the same gallery in 2022. Showering, known for dreamy, richly colored figurative oil paintings that blend abstraction and figuration, has seen her works command high prices at auction, including a 2017 painting that sold for nearly $300,000 at Phillips London. She discusses the deeply personal nature of the new work, which reflects major life changes including moving to rural Somerset, becoming a mother, and losing both grandmothers.

‘I wanted my work to be shameless’: 93-year-old artist Joan Semmel on her trailblazing nudes

Nonagenarian painter Joan Semmel is preparing for a major career moment with a retrospective at the Jewish Museum and a dual-city exhibition, 'Continuities', at Alexander Gray Associates in New York and Brussels. At 93, Semmel continues to produce large-scale, vibrant works from her SoHo studio that focus on the aging female nude, using her own body as a primary reference. The new works, including 'Here I Am' (2025), maintain her lifelong commitment to depicting the female form through a non-idealized, authentic lens that rejects the traditional male gaze.

Perspectives on a collection: why you should explore New Asian Art at the National Gallery of Australia

The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra is currently presenting 'New Asian Art,' a permanent collection display featuring recent acquisitions and highlights from across Asia. The exhibition includes a significant suite of works by Thai-born artist Korakrit Arunanondchai, featuring video and sculptural elements, as well as pieces by Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake, the artist collective teamLab, and painter Yoshitomo Nara, exploring themes of globalization and cultural exchange.

Pilar Corrias now represents Alexis Ralaivao

London gallery Pilar Corrias has announced the representation of French painter Alexis Ralaivao in partnership with New York-based Olney Gleason. The announcement coincides with Ralaivao’s debut UK solo exhibition, "Flirter avec l’abstrait," which is currently on view at the gallery’s Conduit Street location in Mayfair. Ralaivao is recognized for his intimate, diaristic oil paintings that blend 17th-century Dutch technical precision with contemporary emotional depth.

Exhibitions to see during Art Basel Hong Kong

Hong Kong's gallery scene is hosting a series of major solo exhibitions to coincide with the 2026 edition of Art Basel Hong Kong. Key highlights include Qiu Anxiong’s Daoist-inspired animations at Pearl Lam Projects, Mary Weatherford’s Asian debut at Gagosian featuring neon-infused canvases inspired by the myth of Persephone, and Walter Price’s first solo show in the region at David Zwirner. These exhibitions showcase a mix of established Chinese contemporary art and high-profile international painters entering the Asian market.

Rose Wylie: ‘It’s very, very fragile where a painting ends. All the time it sits on a precarious edge’

British artist Rose Wylie is currently the subject of a major career survey at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, titled "The Picture Comes First." At 91 years old, Wylie is the first woman painter to occupy the institution's main galleries, showcasing over 90 works that span her idiosyncratic career. The exhibition highlights her signature style of large-scale, exuberant figurative paintings that draw from a vast range of influences, including cinema, celebrity culture, and art history.

The 10 Most In-Demand Artists on Artsy in 2025, from David Lynch to Amy Sherald

Artsy has released its list of the 10 most in-demand artists of 2025, based on year-over-year surges in artwork inquiries on its platform from January to November. Topping the list is filmmaker and artist David Lynch, whose inquiries surged 2,940% following his death in January, followed by Spanish painter Guim Tió Zarraluki (1,350% increase) and British painter Danny Fox (1,210% increase). Other artists include Amy Sherald, whose inquiries rose 710% after her 2018 portrait of Michelle Obama. The article notes that demand often spikes due to major publications, institutional shows, art fairs, or career milestones.

A brush with… Luc Tuymans—podcast

This podcast episode features an in-depth conversation with Belgian painter Luc Tuymans, born in 1958 in Mortsel and based in Antwerp. Tuymans discusses his transformative approach to painting, which draws from photographs, film, and media to explore subjects ranging from contemporary politics and historical events to everyday objects. He shares insights into his meticulous process, his influences including Piet Mondrian, Léon Spilliaert, Francisco de Goya, and David Lynch, and his concept of "authentic forgeries." The episode also highlights his current exhibitions: "Luc Tuymans: The Fruit Basket" at David Zwirner in New York and Los Angeles, and a presentation at the Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice.

A brush with… Peter Doig—podcast

The article is a podcast interview with renowned painter Peter Doig, who discusses his upcoming exhibition "House of Music" at Serpentine South in London, running from October 10, 2025, to February 8, 2026. Doig reflects on his career, his evolving body of work informed by memory, personal photographs, art history, and music, as well as his time living in Trinidad and Canada. He delves into specific paintings in the show, his influences including Edward Burra, Henri Matisse, and Caravaggio, his collaboration with poet Derek Walcott, and the repertory cinema he founded in Port of Spain.

Georg Baselitz: A Life in Print

The article reviews "Georg Baselitz: A Life in Print," a comprehensive survey of the German painter's printmaking at Kode in Bergen, Norway, running from October 2025 to February 2026. Featuring 244 prints from 1964 to 2024, the exhibition showcases Baselitz's mastery of traditional techniques like etching, woodcut, and linocut, revisiting motifs from his paintings such as deer, eagles, and distorted figures. The show aims to correct the perceived neglect of prints by museums, as Baselitz himself lamented after his 2021 Centre Pompidou retrospective.

Who made ancient Egyptian art? Plus, Michaelina Wautier, Robert Rauschenberg’s ‘Bed’—podcast

This episode of The Art Newspaper's podcast 'The Week in Art' covers three major art stories. Alexander Morrison visits the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge to explore 'Made in Ancient Egypt,' an exhibition revealing the untold stories of the craftspeople and techniques behind ancient Egyptian objects. Ben Luke speaks with Katlijne Van der Stighelen about the largest-ever exhibition of Baroque painter Michaelina Wautier at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, which will travel to the Royal Academy of Arts in London. The episode also features Robert Rauschenberg's iconic work 'Bed' (1955), part of the exhibition 'Five Friends' at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, which brings together artists John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Cy Twombly.

Lovers to friends: the intimate story of Van Gogh's sister-in-law and the artist Isaac Israëls

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has published 103 letters from Dutch Impressionist painter Isaac Israëls to Jo Bonger, Vincent van Gogh's sister-in-law, revealing a previously secret romantic relationship between them. The museum is also presenting an exhibition titled "Captivated by Vincent: The Intimate Friendship of Jo van Gogh-Bonger and Isaac Israëls" (through January 25, 2026), which explores their brief physical relationship in the 1890s and its aftermath, including how Israëls incorporated Van Gogh's paintings into his own portraits—a practice he called "Vincenting." Twelve of these portraits are on display for the first time.

2025 Fall Preview: Six Texas Art Exhibitions to See this Year

Brandon Zech and Jessica Fuentes preview six highly anticipated Texas art exhibitions for fall 2025. Highlights include "Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting" at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the first major U.S. museum survey of the British figurative painter; "Robert Rauschenberg: Fabric Works of the 1970s" at the Menil Collection in Houston, exploring the artist's innovative use of textiles; "Constellations: Contemporary Jewelry at the Dallas Museum of Art," featuring over 350 wearable works; and "HOST: Raul De Lara" at The Contemporary Austin, showcasing the sculptor's surreal wooden forms.

From imps and goblins to the glitchy digital world: Flora Yukhnovich on her ‘cacophony’ of inspirations

Flora Yukhnovich, the British artist known for her large-scale gestural paintings that blend Rococo and Abstract Expressionism with digital aesthetics, discusses her inspirations and recent move from London to New York. Her works have achieved record auction prices, including £2.7m at Sotheby's in 2022, but she prefers to focus on the art itself. She has upcoming exhibitions at The Frick Collection in New York and Hauser & Wirth in Los Angeles, and her new series 'Four Seasons' references François Boucher's 18th-century paintings while incorporating glitchy, pixelated effects from digital collages created on her iPad and phone.

Fort Worth Museum Only U.S. Venue to Host Major Jenny Saville Retrospective

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth has announced it will be the only U.S. venue to host the touring retrospective "Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting," honoring the English artist known for revitalizing figurative art in the 1990s. Organized by the National Portrait Gallery in London, the exhibition opens October 12, 2025, and runs through January 18, 2026, featuring nearly 50 works spanning Saville's career from her student days at the Glasgow School of Art to recent abstracted portraits. The show includes monumental oil paintings, charcoal drawings, and a new series, accompanied by a publication with contributions from curators and critics.

Van Gogh’s love of Hiroshige, the Japanese master of the landscape, is reflected in a British Museum exhibition

The British Museum's exhibition "Hiroshige: Artist of the Open Road" (through September 7) showcases over 100 prints by the Japanese master Utagawa Hiroshige, including rare loans that highlight his influence on European avant-garde artists. A key display is Vincent van Gogh's own copy of Hiroshige's "The Plum Garden at Kameido" (1857), on loan from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, along with Van Gogh's squared-up tracing used for his painting. New research by British Museum senior scientist Capucine Korenberg reveals a short pencil line on the print that confirms Van Gogh used this exact copy as a guide for his tracing and subsequent painting.

Amy Sherald Withdrew 'American Sublime' Exhibition From Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Citing 'Culture of Censorship'

Amy Sherald has withdrawn her exhibition 'American Sublime' from the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, citing a 'culture of censorship' after the museum raised concerns about including her painting 'Trans Forming Liberty' (2024), a portrait of a trans woman posed like the Statue of Liberty. The show, slated to open in September, would have been the first solo exhibition of a Black female artist at the museum since it opened in 1968. Sherald stated that institutional fear shaped by political hostility toward trans lives influenced the museum's request to remove the work, and she decided to cancel the show to preserve the integrity of her vision.

Jenny Saville: ‘You are having a conversation with the paint, as well as with the sitter’

British artist Jenny Saville, known for her monumental paintings of the female form, is the subject of a major survey exhibition titled "The Anatomy of Painting" at the National Portrait Gallery in London, which opened in June. The show traces her practice from the 1990s to the present day, featuring portrait heads and figures that push the boundaries of portraiture. Saville, who broke the auction record for a living female artist in 2018 when her self-portrait "Propped" (1992) sold for £9.5m at Sotheby's, discusses her influences—including Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, and Frank Auerbach—and her ongoing exploration of corporeality and painterliness in an interview with The Art Newspaper.

Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting

The National Portrait Gallery in London is hosting a major exhibition of Jenny Saville's work, titled "Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting," running from 20 June to 7 September 2025. The show brings together some of Saville's most monumental paintings, including works like "Hyphen" (1999) and "Reverse" (2002-03), drawn from private collections and courtesy of Gagosian. The article traces Saville's career from her early days as a committed child artist, through her studies at Glasgow School of Art and the University of Cincinnati, to her breakthrough when collector Charles Saatchi purchased her entire degree show in 1992, enabling her to create large-scale works for a solo exhibition.

Hot new artist: Jadé Fadojutimi, a colour genius

The article profiles painter Jadé Fadojutimi, highlighted as a "colour genius" by curator and advisor Hervé Mikaeloff in Numéro art's series on hot new artists during the 56th edition of Art Basel. Fadojutimi's large-format, near-abstract compositions feature rich fuchsias, indigos, and yellows with expressionist brushstrokes and oil pastel marks, evoking plant worlds and musical scores. Her work has been shown internationally, including at the Hayward Gallery, Kunstmuseum Bonn, the 59th Venice Biennale, and the National Art Museum in Osaka, and she is represented by Gagosian, Galerie Gisela Capitain, and Taka Ishii. Her first Gagosian solo show in New York in 2024 incorporated a soundtrack, underscoring the role of music, fashion, and animation in her practice.

Basel native Irène Zurkinden makes a long-overdue return

Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger has opened a two-room exhibition dedicated to Basel native Irène Zurkinden (1909-87), her first major hometown show since the 1980s. The exhibition spans portraits, self-portraits, still-lifes, landscapes, drawings, and several sketchbooks on public view for the first time. Zurkinden studied fashion illustration in Basel before finishing her training at Paris’s Académie de la Grande Chaumière, inspired by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. She lived between Paris and Basel and was close friends with Meret Oppenheim, whose portrait by Zurkinden, Meret à l’orange (1932-35), is in Kunstmuseum Basel’s permanent collection and included in the show.