Art News. Vasari Codex

museum exhibitions schedule May 1, 2025 visibility 22 link 1 artist

megastar artist kent monkman is rewriting colonial narratives on canvas

Kent Monkman, a member of the Fisher River Cree Nation and a leading contemporary painter based between Toronto and New York, is the subject of a feature article discussing his career and his first major U.S. museum exhibition, "History is Painted by the Victors," opening at the Denver Art Museum. Monkman is known for epic, genre-bending canvases that subvert classical European painting traditions, particularly 19th- and 20th-century history painting, to expose colonial distortions and omissions. Central to his work is Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, his time-traveling alter ego who queers history and repositions Indigenous presence and agency. The article includes an interview where Monkman reflects on his upbringing in Winnipeg, his relationship to museums, and how painting serves as both a political tool and a method for processing historical trauma.

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trending_up market schedule May 1, 2025 visibility 18 link 17 artists

impressionism auction industry

This year marks the 150th anniversary of Impressionism, which began in 1874 when 31 artists including Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, and Berthe Morisot staged a groundbreaking exhibition in Paris. To commemorate the sesquicentennial, international institutions are hosting exhibitions such as the Musée d'Orsay's "Paris 1874: Inventing Impressionism," while Artnet and Morgan Stanley have collaborated to analyze auction data from 2014 to 2023, examining the market for works by approximately 120 Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists. Despite perceptions that Impressionism has lost its luster, the number of lots offered at auction has remained steady, averaging 6,091 annually over the decade.

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trending_up market schedule May 1, 2025 visibility 23 link 48 artists

state of the art market understanding regional differences in the globalized art market

Artnet News and Morgan Stanley have released an analysis of the global art market, examining auction performance by artists from different regions over the past decade. The report breaks down sales by region—North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East—and by genre categories including Old Masters, Impressionist and Modern, Postwar and Contemporary, and Ultra-Contemporary. Key findings show that North American and European artists dominate the market, while African-born artists have seen notable but uneven growth, and Asia-Pacific-born artists have experienced a marked decline.

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article news schedule May 1, 2025 visibility 20 link 3 artists

museums bet major paintings on super bowl win

The Seattle Art Museum and the Clark Art Institute in New England have placed a wager on the Super Bowl, each betting a major landscape painting from their collection on their respective home teams. Seattle Art Museum director Kimerly Rorschach has offered Albert Bierstadt's "Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast" (1870), while Clark Art Institute director Michael Conforti has put up Winslow Homer's "West Point, Prout's Neck" (1900). The losing museum will loan its painting to the winner for three months, covering all shipping and expenses.

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rate_review review schedule May 1, 2025 visibility 16 link 4 artists

jack whittens 9 11 01 moma

Jack Whitten's monumental mosaic-painting "9.11.01" (2006) is the focus of this article, which examines the work on view at the Museum of Modern Art. The painting, created in response to the September 11 attacks, uses abstract forms—a cracked black pyramid with dagger-like spines and bootprints—to evoke the trauma of that day. Whitten, who witnessed the first plane strike from his studio in Manhattan, embedded ash and wreckage fragments into the surface, blending abstraction with historical memory.

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article news schedule May 1, 2025 visibility 11 link 5 artists

american civil liberties union of texas artists in residence

The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas (ACLU of Texas) has named Houston-based painter Vincent Valdez and Austin-based author KB Brookins as the recipients of its artists-in-residence program for 2025–26. Each artist will receive $30,000 to fund individual projects and will collaborate with the ACLU of Texas and community leaders to advocate for civil rights. Valdez plans to paint portraits of local community leaders and create poster packets combining Know Your Rights information with archival research for statewide distribution. Brookins will address pretrial detention in Texas jails through original compositions, workshops, and public presentations, focusing on mass incarceration issues in Harris County. The pair were selected from roughly 200 applicants following a statewide open call, succeeding artist Kill Joy, who led an immigrants' rights tour with large puppets.

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article news schedule May 1, 2025 visibility 11 link 10 artists

top 6 accidents in museums

This article from Artnet News compiles a list of notable accidents in museums, where visitors, children, or even curators have inadvertently damaged valuable artworks and artifacts. Incidents include a four-year-old boy shattering a $15,000 Lego sculpture of a Zootopia character, a 12-year-old boy punching a $1.5 million Baroque painting by Paolo Porpora at Huashan 1914 Creative Park in Taipei, a Cy Twombly sculpture knocked over at the Menil Collection in Houston, and a visitor breaking a 4,000-year-old Minoan vase at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum in Crete. The article is framed as a lighthearted yet cautionary look at the fragility of museum objects and the human errors that lead to their damage.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 30, 2025 visibility 19 link 5 artists

kevin beasley storm king acoustic mirror

Kevin Beasley has created a large-scale acoustic mirror for Storm King Art Center, opening May 7. The 11-foot-tall, 100-foot-wide four-part sculpture is inspired by World War I–era concrete acoustic mirrors used for detecting enemy aircraft. Unlike those obsolete relics, Beasley's work is made from recycled clothes cast in resin and will amplify visitors' voices and outdoor sounds. The piece engages with the history of the Hudson River School painters and themes of colonialism, Manifest Destiny, and contested land, while also celebrating agricultural cycles through its seasonal titles: Proscenium| Rebirth, Growth, Harvest, and Dormancy.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 30, 2025 visibility 15 link 7 artists

emily fisher landau picasso sothebys

Pablo Picasso's 1932 painting *Femme à la montre*, depicting his lover Marie-Thérèse Walter, sold for $139.4 million (including fees) at Sotheby's New York during the highly anticipated Emily Fisher Landau sale. The work, estimated at $120 million, was the centerpiece of the auction, with bidding starting at $95 million and concluding after a two-minute standoff among three phone bidders, including one from Asia. Brooke Lampley, Sotheby's head of global fine art, secured the winning bid on behalf of a client. The sale was handled by Sotheby's, which won the right to auction the estate of Landau, a longtime Whitney Museum board member and private collector.

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article news schedule Apr 29, 2025 visibility 18 link 3 artists

texas police new york spree sally mann

Texas police officers traveled to New York museums in February as part of a failed child pornography investigation against photographer Sally Mann and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The investigation stemmed from Mann's photographs of her nude underage children, displayed in the exhibition "Diaries of Home," which some local viewers and officials deemed harmful. The officers visited the Guggenheim, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, and Whitney Museum, spending nearly $7,000 on the trip. A grand jury declined to take action in March, and the photos were returned. Museums reported no recent communication with the police and stated Mann's works had not been on view for years.

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article news schedule Apr 29, 2025 visibility 14 link 3 artists

what is the dubai collection art

The Dubai Collection, launched in 2021 under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is billed as the emirate's first institutional collection of modern and contemporary art. However, it has no physical location, does not acquire artworks, and exists primarily as a digital platform where top Dubai collectors list their holdings. At Art Dubai 2025, the Collection presented its third exhibition, "Common Grounds," organized by Zayed University students, featuring works from 1949 to 2024. The initiative also includes research, education, and cultural preservation programs, along with events like Dubai Collection Nights.

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article news schedule Apr 29, 2025 visibility 12 link 2 artists

child scratches mark rothko dutch museum

A child made small scratches on Mark Rothko's painting *Grey, Orange on Maroon, No. 8* (1960) at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. The incident occurred in the museum's Depot, a publicly accessible storage facility, during an unguarded moment. The work sustained superficial but visible damage to its unvarnished paint layer, and the museum is consulting conservators within and outside the Netherlands for treatment.

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article news schedule Apr 28, 2025 visibility 13 link 6 artists

vatican museums sistine chapel closed conclave new pope

The Vatican Museums, including the Sistine Chapel, have closed to the public as Vatican City prepares for a conclave to elect a new pope following the death of Pope Francis on April 28. The reopening date is uncertain, as conclaves have historically lasted from days to weeks, though modern elections for Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI closed the city for less than a week. The Museums house a vast collection of Renaissance and Baroque art, as well as modern works by artists like Paul Gauguin, Salvador Dalí, and Pablo Picasso, and attracted 6.8 million visitors in 2024.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 28, 2025 visibility 14 link 3 artists

caraggio rome barberini review rare

A major exhibition titled "Caravaggio 2025" at Rome's Palazzo Barberini brings together two dozen of the artist's roughly sixty known works, drawn from Italian and international collections. The show spans Caravaggio's career from his arrival in Rome in 1595 to his death in 1610, and includes rediscovered paintings such as *Ecce Homo* (c. 1606–1607), which resurfaced at a Spanish auction in 2021, and a newly attributed portrait of Maffeo Barberini (c. 1595). Visitors can now see nearly two-thirds of Caravaggio's surviving oeuvre in a single trip to Rome, with the exhibition running through July 6.

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article news schedule Apr 28, 2025 visibility 18 link 2 artists

fort worth police spent 7 k visiting new york for sally mann investigation

The Fort Worth Police Department spent nearly $7,000 to send five officers to New York City to investigate child pornography allegations against photographer Sally Mann. The officers visited four major museums—the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art—to examine Mann's photographs in their collections and speak with curators. The trip, which cost $6,988.77, came after Mann's works were seized from a group exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth following complaints from locals and elected officials who deemed the images "grossly inappropriate." The investigation was later dropped and the photographs returned.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 28, 2025 visibility 18 link 3 artists

kent monkman interview

Kent Monkman, a contemporary artist from the Fisher River Cree Nation, is preparing for his first major U.S. museum exhibition, “Kent Monkman: History is Painted by the Victors,” at the Denver Art Museum. In an interview, Monkman discusses his career-long practice of reimagining Western art history from an Indigenous perspective, using beauty, humor, and theatricality to expose colonial violence and systemic injustices. The exhibition, which began planning in 2018 and was delayed by the pandemic, will later travel to Canada, and Monkman reflects on the rare opportunity to see his dispersed works reunited and the liberating experience of trusting curators with the presentation.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 26, 2025 visibility 21 link 12 artists

rare basquiat sothebys contemporary auctions in new york

Sotheby's will auction a rediscovered early Jean-Michel Basquiat painting from 1981, unseen for 36 years, with a $10–15 million estimate at its Contemporary Evening Auction in New York this May. The sale also features major works from three tightly held private collections: the estate of Barbara Gladstone, the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, and Daniella Luxembourg's 'Im Spazio' group, alongside top lots by Lucio Fontana, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, and Ed Ruscha. The Modern Evening Auction includes a Pablo Picasso musketeer portrait and a Georgia O'Keeffe painting, with combined estimates for both sales reaching up to $525.2 million.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 26, 2025 visibility 19 link 4 artists

museums of tomorrow roundtable 2025

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) will host the 2025 Museums of Tomorrow Roundtable (MTR) from May 11-17, bringing together 14 global museum leaders and technology firms including Adobe, Anthropic, Bloomberg, and Salesforce. Participants include directors such as Marion Ackermann (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz), Stephanie Rosenthal (Guggenheim Abu Dhabi), Eike Schmidt (Museo di Capodimonte), Mami Kataoka (Mori Art Museum), and others, alongside Bay Area museum heads and AI artist Refik Anadol, who will speak in a free public program at the de Young Museum. The forum aims to bridge the museum and technology communities, exploring how advanced technologies can enrich operations and visitor experiences while supporting artists working with technology.

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article policy schedule Apr 25, 2025 visibility 15 link 13 artists

national endowment for humanities sculpture garden trump

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has announced a new grant program to fund statues for President Trump’s National Garden of American Heroes, a sculpture garden first proposed in 2021. The garden will feature life-size statues of 250 notable Americans, with a location still to be determined. Selected artists, who must be U.S. citizens, can receive up to $200,000 per statue, which must be made of traditional materials like marble or bronze and depict figures in a realistic style. The application deadline is July 1, and the project is jointly funded by the NEH and the National Endowment for the Arts with a total of $34 million, drawn from federal grants originally allocated to other cultural programs but later canceled by the administration.

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gavel restitution schedule Apr 25, 2025 visibility 18 link 3 artists

fort worth police return photographs seized from sally mann exhibition

Fort Worth police have returned photographs by Sally Mann that were seized from the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in January. The artworks were taken from the group exhibition “Diaries of Home” following complaints from locals and elected officials who characterized Mann’s work as “grossly inappropriate” and “child porn.” The seizure sparked national condemnation, with the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), and the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas (ACLU of Texas) intervening to demand the works’ return. Charges against the museum were dropped, and the photographs have now been returned, bringing closure to the investigation.

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article culture schedule Apr 24, 2025 visibility 13 link 2 artists

re air how textiles took over the art world

This episode of Artnet News's podcast "The Art Angle" re-airs an interview between host Ben Davis and curator and writer Elissa Auther, author of "String Felt, Thread: The Hierarchy of Art and Craft in American Art." They discuss the recent surge in interest in fiber art, from textile-based works at the Venice Biennale to the major traveling exhibition "Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction," which has just opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Auther, chief curator at the Museum of Arts and Design, provides historical context on how tapestry was once as revered as painting and explains the factors driving the current boom.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 23, 2025 visibility 13 link 14 artists, 3 galleries

lawrence watson oasis paul weller photographer print sale

Lawrence Watson, a British music photographer who has captured icons like David Bowie, Morrissey, Oasis, and Run-D.M.C. over four decades, is releasing exclusive signed prints through the platform Print Matters. The collection includes previously unseen images of David Bowie, Pulp, the Clash, and Oasis, with prices starting at £575 ($762). Twenty percent of net sales will benefit the mental health charity Rethink Mental Illness. Watson's career began in 1988 when Paul Weller chose his black-and-white photos for the Style Council's album 'Confessions of a Pop Group,' leading to a long collaboration.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 23, 2025 visibility 13 link 13 artists

bloomsbury group wild child dora carrington

The article examines the life and work of Dora Carrington, a painter associated with the Bloomsbury Group, whose bohemian lifestyle and complex relationships—particularly with writer Lytton Strachey—have long overshadowed her artistic output. A new exhibition at Pallant House Gallery, the first dedicated to Carrington in three decades, aims to refocus attention on her paintings, including early pencil studies and academic female nudes, which impressed her peers but received little critical acclaim during her lifetime.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 23, 2025 visibility 11 link 5 artists, 3 galleries

mexico francisco toledo dobel tequila

Francisco Toledo, the renowned Mexican artist, collaborated with Maestro Dobel Tequila on a limited-edition luxury tequila vessel before his death. The Dobel Tequila Grandes Maestros Collection: The Francisco Toledo Edition features the world's first extra añejo tequila finished in mezcal barrels, housed in a hand-engraved bottle with a sculptural wooden cube display. Only 15 of the 281 editions are available in the U.S. market, each priced at $5,000, and are now being auctioned via Artnet.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 23, 2025 visibility 17 link 10 artists, 8 galleries

in london sadie coles expands amid stark drop in profits

Sadie Coles, a prominent London contemporary art gallery, announced plans to open a new 6,000-square-foot location in Mayfair this fall, despite reporting a steep 46 percent drop in revenue for 2024, from £52.3 million to £28.3 million. Pre-tax profits plunged 93 percent to £400,000, down from £5.5 million the prior year. Coles attributed the downturn to a slowdown at the high end of the art market, but noted the gallery carries no debt and has seen a 20 percent increase in total assets over five years, growing from £23.9 million to £28.8 million.

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article culture schedule Apr 23, 2025 visibility 10 link 8 artists

lucy dacus singer art museums barnes foundation interview

Singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus discusses her new album "Forever Is A Feeling" and its deep connections to visual art, including a cover portrait by artist Will St. John and a song titled "Modigliani" inspired by visits to the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. In an interview with ARTnews at the Barnes, Dacus explains how museums serve as creative spaces for her songwriting and how the Barnes's unique salon-style arrangement without title cards allows her to make personal connections with artworks.

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article news schedule Apr 23, 2025 visibility 8 link 2 artists

mauritshuis museum rembrandt paintings copies

The Mauritshuis museum in The Hague has reclassified three paintings previously attributed to Rembrandt as copies or studio works: *Portrait of Rembrandt with a Gorget* (ca. 1629), *Study of an Old Man* (ca. 1655–60), and *‘Tronie’ of an Old Man* (ca. 1630). The first was identified as a copy in 1999, the second was found to be by a student despite a genuine signature, and the third may have been painted by a student or Rembrandt himself. The museum now lists 11 works as authentic Rembrandts, including *The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp* (1632), and seven works whose authenticity has been questioned.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 22, 2025 visibility 14 link 5 artists

ai weiwei rebel retrospective seattle

The Seattle Art Museum has opened “Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei,” the largest U.S. retrospective ever for the Chinese dissident artist. The exhibition features iconic works such as the neon sign *FUCK* (2020), the sculpture *Middle Finger* (2000), and the photographic series “Study of Perspective” (1995–2011), alongside pieces that remix art history—from Duchamp-inspired readymades to Lego versions of Old Masters. Curated by Ping Foong, the show spans Ai’s career, including his politically charged responses to the Sichuan earthquake and his infamous 1995 performance *Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn*.

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article news schedule Apr 22, 2025 visibility 11 link 5 artists

kehinde wiley new sexual assault complaint

Artist Ogechi Chieke has filed a legal complaint against Kehinde Wiley, accusing him of sexual assault stemming from an incident in 2007. Chieke alleges that after a New York exhibition she was included in, Wiley groped her and made unwanted sexual advances, causing her to leave New York and abandon her art career. Wiley denies the allegations, calling them a "blatant money-grab" and stating he has never met Chieke. The suit was filed under New York City's Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law just before the statute of limitations window closed on March 1, 2025.

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article culture schedule Apr 22, 2025 visibility 15 link 14 artists

brutalist adrien brody architect

Adrien Brody won the Best Actor Oscar at the 97th Academy Awards for his role in *The Brutalist*, a film directed by Brady Corbet that premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, where it won the Silver Lion for best director. The epic, three-and-a-half-hour film follows Bauhaus-trained Hungarian Jewish architect László Toth, a Holocaust survivor who emigrates to America and struggles to rebuild his career, drawing on the lives of real architects like Louis Kahn, Mies van der Rohe, and Marcel Breuer. Shot in Budapest on celluloid for under $10 million, the film was acquired by A24 after a 12-minute ovation at Venice.

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