Vasari Art Codex

trending_up market schedule Feb 5, 2026 visibility 13 link 9 artists, 3 galleries

mnuchin gallery to close 2742558

Mnuchin Gallery, a blue-chip art gallery on Manhattan's Upper East Side, will close at the end of February after 34 years, following the death of its founder Robert Mnuchin in December at age 91. The gallery, known for museum-quality exhibitions of Modern and postwar art, concluded its final show—a survey of Julian Schnabel's plate paintings—on Saturday. Partner Michael McGinnis said the decision to close was made to end on a high note, honoring Mnuchin's passion and vision.

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trending_up market schedule Jan 23, 2026 visibility 9 link 2 artists, 4 galleries

nicolas partys new miniature paintings are a hit will they reset his struggling auction market 2737867

Nicolas Party's exhibition "Dead Fish" at Karma gallery in Chelsea, New York, features approximately 40 postcard-sized oil-on-copper works and a mural of three dead fish, a departure from his usual large-scale pastel paintings. Only 10 of the works were for sale, priced between $165,000 and $205,000, and all sold quickly. The show includes replicas of his earlier compositions, described as a "retrospective in miniature," with many pieces drawn from his archive and not available for purchase.

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trending_up market schedule Jan 21, 2026 visibility 8 link 6 artists, 2 galleries

rebecca salsbury james 2729784

Rebecca Salsbury James, an artist who mastered reverse painting on glass and colcha embroidery, is gaining renewed attention. Born in 1891 in London to parents involved in the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show, she later moved to Taos, New Mexico, where she lived until her death in 1968. She was married to photographer Paul Strand, a close friend of Georgia O'Keeffe, and exhibited at Alfred Stieglitz's gallery. Recent milestones include her inclusion in the 2025 Site Santa Fe International, a new acquisition by the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, and a record auction price for her work at Christie's in 2016.

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article news schedule Jan 21, 2026 visibility 14 link 18 artists, 10 galleries

paint drippings art industry news jan 19 2738212

This week's art industry roundup covers a flurry of developments across art fairs, auction houses, galleries, and museums. A new boutique fair called Enzo will launch alongside Frieze Los Angeles in an Echo Park warehouse with 10 New York galleries, while Felix Los Angeles returns to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with 50 exhibitors. Art Cologne's revived Palma Mallorca fair announces 88 exhibitors for its April debut. At auction, Christie's London will offer the Vanthournout collection of modernist and Surrealist works, including a Magritte painting estimated at $4.7 million, while Bonhams sells rare Oscar Wilde materials and three Bob Ross paintings. In gallery news, Roland Augustine steps down at Luhring Augustine, Lehmann Maupin opens a London space, and several galleries announce new artist representations. Museums see leadership changes at the Park Avenue Armory and Wrightwood 659, and the Rijksmuseum plans a new sculpture garden.

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trending_up market schedule Jan 5, 2026 visibility 10 link 5 artists, 5 galleries

top auction lots helen frankenthaler paintings 2693574

Artnet News reports on the top five most expensive Helen Frankenthaler paintings sold at auction, all from the 1970s and all sold within the past five years. The list includes "Basin" (1979, $4.53M at Christie's New York in May 2025), "Carousel" (1979, $4.74M at Sotheby's New York in 2020), "Circe" (1974, $4.77M at Sotheby's New York in 2022), and "Dream Decision" (1976, $5.89M at Sotheby's New York in 2021), with the top lot yet to be fully detailed. The article highlights Frankenthaler's soak-stain technique, her influence on Color Field painting, and the role of Gagosian Gallery in elevating her market after her death in 2011.

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article culture schedule Dec 31, 2025 visibility 6 link 8 artists, 3 galleries

art bites robert rauschenberg talking heads album cover 2709771

Robert Rauschenberg designed the cover for Talking Heads' 1983 album *Speaking in Tongues*, creating a limited-edition LP package with three plastic discs featuring cyan, magenta, and yellow designs that produced a full-color, kinetic composition when overlaid on the spinning record. The project stemmed from a friendship between Rauschenberg and frontman David Byrne, who met after Byrne saw Rauschenberg's photo collages in a New York gallery. Despite production challenges that limited the design to a special edition, the album won a Grammy for best album cover.

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article culture schedule Dec 26, 2025 visibility 9 link 12 artists, 2 galleries

10 art historical deep dives 2715835

Artnet News published a roundup of 10 art historical deep dives from 2025, curated by an editor who expresses a deep passion for art history. The article highlights several featured stories, including the eccentric tale behind Carl Kahler's monumental cat painting "My Wife's Lovers" (1891), commissioned by Gilded Age patron Kate Birdsall Johnson; the record-breaking sale of Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer" for $236.4 million at Sotheby's New York, with its rich symbolism and Imperial Chinese motifs; the online resurgence of August Friedrich Schenck's obscure 19th-century painting "Anguish" (ca. 1878), popularized by TikTok; and the centenary of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" with a deep dive into Francis Cugat's iconic cover art "Celestial Eyes" (1924).

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article culture schedule Dec 22, 2025 visibility 6 link 10 artists, 2 galleries

these trends defined art in 2025 2722999

Artnet News recaps the defining trends of 2025 in the art world, highlighting five key stories. These include the resurgence of elaborate frames in contemporary art ("Bordercore"), the rise of "red-chip art" favored by a new breed of flashy collectors, a "para-pastoral" movement that twists idyllic rural scenes into unsettling visions, and the growing popularity of small-scale paintings driven by intimacy and market shifts.

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person people schedule Dec 18, 2025 visibility 10 link 15 artists, 2 galleries

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.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 16, 2025 visibility 12 link 9 artists, 2 galleries

gloria klein anat ebgi crisis management 2728311

Gloria Klein, a late New York-based painter known for anxious acrylic arrangements and methodical mathematical systems, is the subject of a new solo exhibition titled "Crisis Management" opening January 9, 2026, at Anat Ebgi New York. The show presents many of her later paintings for the first time, and coincides with the announcement that Anat Ebgi now represents her estate. Klein, born in Brooklyn in 1936, was a queer artist who participated in the feminist publication HERESIES, created portraits of critics Arlene Raven and Lucy Lippard, curated the 1977 exhibition "10 Downtown: 10 Years" at PS1, and was a member of the Criss Cross art cooperative. Despite a recent sale of her work for $30,000 at Frieze Los Angeles in 2023, she remains relatively unknown.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 12, 2025 visibility 14 link 12 artists, 3 galleries

ufo contemporary art 2722708

Two concurrent exhibitions in New York explore the intersection of art and UFOs, paranormal phenomena, and extraterrestrial life. "Voice of Space: UFOs and Paranormal Phenomena" at the Drawing Center (through February 1, 2026) features some three dozen works from artists including René Magritte and Isa Genzken, with Magritte's 1931 painting "Voice of Space" as the conceptual centerpiece. Meanwhile, "Paintings Made for Aliens Above" at P.P.O.W (through December 20, 2025) presents new works by Romanian artist Hortensia Mi Kafchin, probing technofuturism's promises and failures. The shows include historical pieces like Paulina Peavy's multimedia works co-credited to her personal UFO, and contemporary works by Char Jeré that interrogate technology and consumerism.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 11, 2025 visibility 17 link 27 artists, 12 galleries

must see fall gallery shows new york 2682575

The article highlights four must-see fall gallery shows in New York City for September-October 2025. It features Mercedes Matter's first solo show at Berry Campbell, reviving the overlooked Abstract Expressionist; Julio Torres's theatrical debut "Color Stories" at Performance Space New York; Gabrielle Garland's first New York solo exhibition at Miles McEnery Gallery, showcasing surreal suburban paintings; and Omar Ba's exhibition "Promises and Glory" at Templon, presenting fantastical mixed-media works.

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trending_up market schedule Dec 3, 2025 visibility 13 link 23 artists, 2 galleries

10 most expensive women artists 2722693

A Frida Kahlo painting, *El Sueño (La Cama)* (1954), sold at Sotheby’s New York for $54.7 million, setting a new auction record for the most expensive artwork by a female artist. The article, using data from the Artnet Price Database, lists the ten most expensive women artists at auction, including Lee Krasner ($11.6 million for *The Eye is the First Circle*), Jenny Saville ($12.4 million for *Propped*), Marlene Dumas ($13.6 million for *Miss January*), and Agnes Martin ($18.7 million for *Grey Stone II*).

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 2, 2025 visibility 9 link 10 artists, 1 gallery

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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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 2, 2025 visibility 8 link 5 artists, 1 gallery

joan miro constellations 3 things to know 2027830

Spanish Surrealist Joan Miró created the "Constellations" series of 23 paintings on paper between January 1940 and September 1941, during the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Fleeing to Normandy and later Palma de Mallorca, Miró used oil and tempera on small sheets, producing joyful, abstract works filled with floating forms reminiscent of music and the cosmos. The series was shipped to New York in 1944 and exhibited in 1945 at Pierre Matisse's gallery, where it captivated exiled European artists and may have influenced Jackson Pollock's all-over drip painting style.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 28, 2025 visibility 5 link 5 artists, 2 galleries

rediscovered renoir auction 2720230

A rediscovered Renoir painting, *L'enfant et ses jouets – Gabrielle et le fils de l'artiste, Jean* (created before 1910), sold for over €1.8 million ($2 million) at Hôtel Drouot in Paris on November 25. The intimate portrait of Renoir's young son Jean with his nursemaid Gabrielle had remained in the same private collection for over a century, never before published or exhibited. It was offered by auctioneer Christophe Joron-Derem in the "Tableaux Modernes" sale and purchased by an international buyer, with the hammer price of €1.45 million falling within the presale estimate.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 25, 2025 visibility 5 link 2 artists, 1 gallery

work of the week sargent gondoliers 2716827

A four-minute bidding war erupted at Christie’s 20th-century evening sale in New York on November 17 over John Singer Sargent’s watercolor *Gondolier’s Siesta* (1902–03). The work sold for $7.4 million with fees, more than double its $3 million high estimate, setting a new auction record for a work on paper by the artist. Another Sargent painting, *Capri* (1878), also performed strongly in the same sale, fetching $11.5 million with fees.

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person people schedule Nov 24, 2025 visibility 9 link 6 artists, 3 galleries

emerging artist aiza ahmed up next 2716359

Emerging artist Aiza Ahmed, a 28-year-old Pakistani-born painter and sculptor who recently completed her MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design, is having a breakout moment in New York. Her first solo show, "The Music Room," is on view at Sargent's Daughters, while she participates in two prestigious residencies: Silver Art Projects at 4 World Trade Center and the Fire Station residency in Doha, directed by Wael Shawky. Ahmed's work explores themes of migration, belonging, and identity, drawing on her family's experience of Partition and her own upbringing across Dubai, London, and the U.S. She will also be the youngest artist at the inaugural Art Basel Qatar in February 2025.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 21, 2025 visibility 8 link 14 artists, 1 gallery

frida kahlo el sueno sothebys auction 2690737

Frida Kahlo's painting *El sueño (La cama)* (1940) sold at Sotheby's New York for $54.7 million on Thursday night, setting a new auction record for any artwork by a female artist. The sale, which lasted under five minutes, exceeded the previous record held by Georgia O'Keeffe's *Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1* ($44.4 million in 2014). The painting was backed by an irrevocable bid and came from the collection of Selma Ertegun, offered as part of a Surrealist group titled "Exquisite Corpus." Anna Di Stasi, Sotheby's head of Latin American art, placed the winning bid on behalf of a client.

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museum exhibitions schedule Nov 19, 2025 visibility 13 link 7 artists, 3 galleries

page nyc machteld rullens 2710646

Machteld Rullens, a Dutch artist based in The Hague, is presenting her second solo exhibition with Page (NYC) titled “Beacon Road,” jointly staged at Andrew Kreps Gallery in New York. The show features works created during a residency at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Connecticut, using discarded cardboard boxes that Rullens collects from recycling bins and other sources. Her sculptures, which initially appear ceramic or metallic, are actually intricate assemblages of cardboard, exploring form, commodity, and waste. The exhibition marks a departure from her earlier work, with crushed and folded forms and exposed bolts conveying a sense of restrained energy.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 19, 2025 visibility 4 link 2 artists, 2 galleries

basquiat crowns peso neto sothebys auction 2697577

An early Jean-Michel Basquiat painting, *Crowns (Peso Neto)* (1981), sold for $48.3 million at Sotheby’s contemporary evening sale on Tuesday night, exceeding its pre-sale estimate of $35–45 million. The work, making its auction debut, was created when Basquiat was 21 and features his signature motifs of crowns, black faces, and cartographic lines. Bidding lasted five minutes, with Sotheby’s chairman for China Jen Hua winning on behalf of a phone client. The painting had been held in three private collections over four decades and was previously exhibited at Basquiat’s first solo show at Annina Nosei, documenta 7, the Whitney Museum, and the Fondation Louis Vuitton.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 18, 2025 visibility 5 link 7 artists, 2 galleries

norman rockwell president white house paintings auction 2 2704973

A four-panel suite of paintings by Norman Rockwell, titled *So You Want to See The President!* (1943), sold for $7.2 million at Heritage Auctions on November 14. The work, which hung in the White House for decades, was bought by the White House Historical Association, marking its most expensive acquisition to date. The sale followed a bitter ownership dispute among descendants of the original commissioner, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's press secretary Stephen T. Early, with a federal judge ruling in favor of the current owner, William Elam, in 2023.

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article culture schedule Jul 25, 2025 visibility 5 link 7 artists, 3 galleries

pierre bonnard louvre bonnarding 2632237

French Post-Impressionist artist Pierre Bonnard was known for his compulsive habit of retouching his paintings long after they were considered finished, even allegedly sneaking into museums and collectors' homes with a hidden palette and brush to make adjustments. According to the article, Bonnard would enlist friends like fellow artist Édouard Vuillard to distract guards while he worked, and the poet Jane Hirschfield coined the term "bonnarding" to describe this obsessive practice. The article recounts a persistent rumor that Bonnard was once arrested in the Louvre while retouching his own work, though this is likely a myth.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 23, 2025 visibility 4 link 6 artists, 3 galleries

guggenheim rauschenberg 100th birthday 2670106

Two major New York museums are celebrating the centennial of Robert Rauschenberg's (1925–2008) birth this fall with exhibitions that spotlight lesser-known chapters of his career. At the Guggenheim New York, the monumental silkscreen painting "Barge" (1962–63) returns to New York in October for the first time in nearly 25 years as part of a show titled "Life Can't Be Stopped." The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) will showcase Rauschenberg's undersung photography work focused on New York City. Neither exhibition features his famous "Combines," instead highlighting other aspects of his wide-ranging practice. The Guggenheim's show is part of its new "Focus" series, launched in November 2024, which aims to highlight the museum's collection.

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article news schedule Jul 16, 2025 visibility 9 link 20 artists, 9 galleries

art galleries closing museum restaurants wet paint 2667206

Artnet News' Wet Paint column reports a wave of gallery closures and rumors in New York's art scene. Blum and Venus Over Manhattan have recently shut down, while Clearing's Bowery space temporarily became a Tank Air clothing pop-up, not a permanent closure. Micki Meng sent a cryptic 'I'm quitting' email but clarified it was a reference to Marcel Duchamp, not a business closure. Jack Barrett Gallery is relocating, not closing, and Tramps has closed its Washington Square Park location while planning a new Paris outpost. Jack Hanley, who closed his gallery in January, is now painting in the Hamptons.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 9, 2025 visibility 9 link 15 artists, 4 galleries

asia pivot art news july 2665322

Art Collaboration Kyoto announced 72 exhibitors for its fifth edition, with 25 first-time participants. Patti Wong, former Sotheby's executive, launched New Perspectives Art Partners with Ed Dolman, Brett Gorvy, and others. Art Fair Tokyo's 20th edition saw sales of ¥2.86 billion, down 10% from last year. Lisa Horikawa and Mizuki Takahashi were appointed co-curators of Japan's pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The Sharjah Art Foundation named Angela Harutyunyan and Paula Nascimento curators of the 17th Sharjah Biennial. YDP, a new non-profit space in London, will open with a solo show by Duan Jianyu. At Sotheby's London, Yu Nishimura's painting sold for £292,100. Hong Kong collector Adrian Cheng resigned from New World Development's board.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 7, 2025 visibility 6 link 9 artists, 3 galleries

maja ruznic site santa fe 2661296

Artist Maja Ruznic has created a suite of large, luminous canvases responding to early 20th-century paintings glorifying Spanish colonization at the St. Francis Auditorium in the New Mexico Museum of Art, as part of the 12th Site Santa Fe International. The exhibition, curated by Cecelia Alemani and titled "Once Within a Time," opened last week. Ruznic, a Bosnian war refugee living in Placitas, New Mexico, confronts the problematic history depicted by artist Donald Beauregard, who died at 29 before completing the commission, which was later finished by uncredited artists Carlos Vierra and Kenneth Chapman.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 7, 2025 visibility 5 link 3 artists, 1 gallery

art market minute jul 7 2664609

Artnet News reports on the rising market interest in abstract artist Jack Whitten, following his current retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The article highlights Whitten's innovative techniques, such as his "Slab" paintings made with Afro combs and his "Greek Alphabet" series, and notes that despite his long-standing reputation among fellow artists, his market is only now gaining momentum.

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article news schedule Jul 3, 2025 visibility 12 link 41 artists, 9 galleries

the scene at two essential summer art parties and a bevy of juicy art world gossip 2662367

Artnet News' Wet Paint column reports on two summer art parties. The White Columns benefit auction in New York raised $350,000, with works donated by 60 commercial galleries. Highlights included a KAWS 'Companion' piece selling for $16,500 and a Florian Krewer painting for $14,000, auctioned by director Matthew Higgs. Separately, London gallerist Sadie Coles has vacated her 1 Davies Street space after a decade and will open a new 6,000-square-foot location at 17 Savile Row, a historic townhouse that once housed the Burlington Fine Arts Club.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 3, 2025 visibility 5 link 8 artists, 2 galleries

superrare new york gallery digital art 2663363

SuperRare, the digital art trading platform, is opening a permanent New York gallery called Offline in the East Village at 243 Bowery, the former home of Salon 94. The inaugural exhibition, “Mythologies for a Spiritually Void Time,” curated by X.S. Hou and Jack Wedge, opens July 8 and features 15 artists working across animation, painting, sculpture, and networked media. The launch includes a week-long festival with dance performances, panels on art and A.I., and a choreographed NFT auction ritual.

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