What We Miss When We Talk About Giacometti

This article explores a critical reevaluation of Alberto Giacometti’s career, specifically focusing on the decade between 1935 and 1945. While Giacometti is globally recognized for his spindly, post-war 'Existentialist' figures, art historian Joanna Fiduccia’s new book, *Figures of Crisis*, argues that his mid-career departure from Surrealism to study human likeness was not a mere transition but a profound response to the political crises and nationalism of interwar France.

5 Highlights of Art Düsseldorf

5 Highlights der Art Düsseldorf

The Art Düsseldorf contemporary art fair has opened its latest edition, showcasing a diverse range of works that balance humor with urgent political and global themes. Highlights from the fair include Christian Jankowski’s monumental sculptures based on children's clay models at Galerie Crone, Julian Charrière’s environmentally conscious installations at Dittrich & Schlechtriem, and Jody Korbach’s satirical paintings that reference German art history and pub culture at Petra Martinez.

French Engineer Snags $1 Million Picasso With $116 Raffle Ticket

French engineer Ari Hodara has won a 1941 Pablo Picasso painting titled 'Tête de Femme' through a charity raffle after purchasing a single €100 ticket. The draw, held at Christie’s Paris, sold 120,000 tickets globally and raised €12 million for the Alzheimer’s Research Foundation. The artwork was sourced from the Opera Gallery, which will receive approximately €1 million of the proceeds.

Marcel Duchamp at MoMA: Five Revelations From the Artist’s First North American Survey in Over 50 Years

The Museum of Modern Art in New York has launched a major retrospective of Marcel Duchamp, marking the artist's first comprehensive North American survey in over half a century. The exhibition traces Duchamp’s evolution from his early satirical drawings and avant-garde paintings to his revolutionary experiments with movement and mechanization, featuring iconic works like "Nude Descending a Staircase" and "L.H.O.O.Q." alongside technical diagrams and studies for "The Large Glass."

A Berkeley couple’s collection of women artists showing at BAMPFA

Penny Cooper and Rena Rosenwasser, a Berkeley-based couple, are debuting their private collection of women artists at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA). Titled "Rhapsody: Works from the Cooper Rosenwasser Collection," the exhibition features highlights from a half-century of collecting, including works by Marlene Dumas, Nicole Eisenman, and Jacqueline Humphries. The show coincides with the couple's significant donation of nearly 150 artworks to the museum, marking the first time these pieces have been displayed outside their home.

Paula Rego review – tantalising drawings with the shoeprints left on them

Victoria Miro is hosting the largest exhibition of Paula Rego’s drawings to date, curated by the artist’s son, Nick Willing. Spanning from the 1950s until her death in 2022, the show features intimate pencil sketches, pastels, and ink drawings that reveal the foundational narratives of her career, including her early childhood sketches, her fierce opposition to the Salazar dictatorship, and her advocacy for women's rights.

MoMA PS1’s “Greater New York” Is Gritty, Stunning, and Gutting

MoMA PS1 has launched the sixth edition of "Greater New York," a quinquennial survey featuring over 50 artists living and working in the city. Coinciding with the museum’s 50th anniversary, the 2026 iteration focuses on artists in the formative stages of their careers, emphasizing a gritty, raw aesthetic over the polished, market-driven surfaces often found in major biennials. The exhibition highlights photography and installation work that reflects the city's complex immigrant narratives and evolving urban identity.

Picasso and Africa in dialogue at Beijing museum - China Daily

The National Art Museum of China in Beijing has launched "Wood and World," an exhibition that juxtaposes Pablo Picasso’s 1970 painting "Man and Woman with a Vase of Flowers" with dozens of traditional African wooden sculptures. By placing these works side-by-side, the show highlights how the exaggerated and deconstructed forms of African art served as a foundational influence for Picasso’s African period and the eventual birth of Cubism.

The evolution of agriculture tells the story of the world in an unmissable exhibition at Fondazione Prada

L’evoluzione dell’agricoltura racconta il mondo in un’imperdibile mostra alla Fondazione Prada

The Fondazione Prada in Milan is hosting "Dash," a comprehensive solo exhibition by Chinese artist Cao Fei that explores the intersection of ancient agricultural rituals and cutting-edge technology. The exhibition features installations like 'Land Ceremony,' where an agricultural drone is treated as a ritualistic rice dragon, alongside VR experiences and documentary films that investigate the automation of farming in China and Southeast Asia.

'I’m interested in breaking binaries, barriers and boundaries': Sarah Rosalena on her new LACMA commission

Artist Sarah Rosalena has completed a monumental 27-foot tapestry titled "Threading the Boundless: Omnidirectional Terrain" (2025), commissioned for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s (LACMA) new David Geffen Galleries. The work utilizes an industrial-scale jacquard-rapier loom to weave complex patterns that distort NASA satellite imagery of Earth and Mars. By blending her Wixárika maternal weaving traditions with computational craft, Rosalena transforms scientific data into a tactile, atmospheric landscape that challenges traditional methods of planetary mapping.

LA museums to check out this Earth Month

Los Angeles museums are marking Earth Month with a series of exhibitions and events focused on sustainability and environmental consciousness. Highlights include the Hammer Museum’s exhibition, "Several Eternities in a Day: Form in the Age of Living Materials," which features works by 22 artists using organic substances like avocado, cochineal dye, and volcanic rock. Meanwhile, the Fowler Museum is hosting an immersive look at the indigenous rice cultivation practices of the Ifugao people in the Philippines.

Suspended Labyrinth of Woven Pathways Invites Visitors To Wander in Midair

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) has reinstalled Ernesto Neto’s monumental site-specific commission, "SunForceOceanLife," in its Cullinan Hall. The immersive installation consists of a massive, hand-woven crochet labyrinth suspended 12 feet in the air, featuring a vibrant color palette that symbolizes the cyclical relationship between the sun, sea, and earth. Visitors are invited to walk through the spiral pathways, which are filled with soft plastic balls designed to challenge their balance and induce a meditative state.

'Park Seo-Bo' at White Cube, Paris, France on 15 Apr–30 May 2026

White Cube Paris is hosting a major retrospective of Park Seo-Bo’s 'Ecriture' paintings, covering five decades of the artist’s career. The exhibition notably features the debut of his 'Newspaper Ecritures' in Paris—a series he originally conceived in the city during the late 1970s—presented alongside the final works completed before his death in 2023.

Annette Messager Enters the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature with Her Entire Bestiary

Annette Messager entre avec tout son bestiaire au musée de la Chasse et de la Nature

The Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris is hosting a major exhibition dedicated to the animal-themed works of Annette Messager. Titled "Une hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps," the show integrates Messager’s diverse practice—including drawings, sculptures, and her signature use of plush toys—into the museum’s permanent collection of taxidermy and hunting artifacts. Curated by Colin Lemoine, the exhibition spans three floors and features works ranging from a ceramic cat from the artist's own kitchen to provocative installations like a taxidermied dachshund wearing a surgical mask.

Take a walk on the wild side with the Haas Brothers' fantastical new show

The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York has opened "Uncanny Valley," a major exhibition dedicated to the Los Angeles-based duo Nikolai and Simon Haas. The show features 85 works spanning 15 years of their practice, showcasing their signature blend of art, furniture, and craft through zoomorphic sculptures and kooky forms. Organized in collaboration with the Cranbrook Art Museum, the exhibition places these physical objects against surreal, algorithmically-generated backdrops that explore the intersection of human craftsmanship and digital technology.

Norwich gallery hosts 'In Full Bloom' spring art show

The River Studio Gallery in Norwich is set to host a spring group exhibition titled "In Full Bloom" on April 18. The show features a diverse range of media including painting, photography, and multimedia works from seven local artists, notably featuring a posthumous tribute to Donald Vorhees alongside works by Serena Potter and gallery owner Michael David Brathwaite.

The Humboldt Forum is Already Under Fire

"Das Humboldt Forum wird schon beschossen"

The architectural firm J. Mayer H. and partners Jürgen Mayer H. and Hans Schneider have won the eighth 'Kunst-am-Bau' competition for Berlin’s Humboldt Forum. Their winning installation, titled "Südpfeil" (South Arrow), features a 3.6-meter-long abstract arrow embedded high in the building's facade. The work references the 19th-century discovery of 'Pfeilstörche'—migratory storks that returned to Europe with African arrows in their bodies—which provided the first scientific proof of global migration routes.

A young artist has designed exhaust pipes to be played like trumpets: A traveling concert in Milan

Un giovane artista ha progettato delle marmitte da suonare come trombe. A Milano il concerto itinerante

Emerging artist Aronne Pleuteri will debut a mobile performance titled "Mototrombe!" during Milan Art Week on April 17, 2026. The event features a parade of sound sculptures crafted from salvaged automotive exhaust pipes, which have been welded and reconfigured into hybrid instruments. Led by composer Dario Buccino, the procession will travel from Milan’s Central Station to the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, where the sculptures will remain on display through April 26.

Diverse Materials and Perspectives in Upstairs Artspace’s Two Spring Shows

Upstairs Artspace in Tryon is launching two concurrent exhibitions, "Fight or Flight" and "Birds of a Feather," opening April 19. The solo show by Asheville-based artist Erika Diamond features textile sculptures crafted from bulletproof Kevlar and mirrored vinyl, exploring themes of queer safety, resilience, and survival. The accompanying group show, curated by Diamond, brings together eight artists whose works in photography, glass, and painting examine identity and the human body's relationship to the natural world.

Zipcy exhibits in Paris: "The Sweet Fortress" at the Goldshteyn-Saatort Gallery.

South Korean artist Zipcy is set to debut her first solo exhibition in France, titled "The Sweet Fortress," at the Goldshteyn-Saatort Gallery in Paris from April 24 to June 4, 2026. The exhibition showcases a new body of work that utilizes traditional Korean hanji paper, natural pigments, and marouflage techniques to explore themes of intimacy, vulnerability, and human connection.

Philanthropist and Patron Emmanuele Emanuele Dies; Creator of Rome's Palazzo Sciarra and Palazzo Cipolla Museum Spaces

È morto il filantropo e mecenate Emmanuele Emanuele. Fautore a Roma degli spazi museali di Palazzo Sciarra e Palazzo Cipolla

Emmanuele Francesco Maria Emanuele, a prominent Italian philanthropist, jurist, and patron of the arts, has passed away in Rome at the age of 86. Born in Palermo, Emanuele dedicated the latter half of his life to cultural promotion, most notably serving as the President of Fondazione Roma and the Fondazione Terzo Pilastro – Internazionale. His leadership was instrumental in transforming Rome's Palazzo Sciarra and Palazzo Cipolla into significant museum spaces, hosting both permanent collections and major temporary exhibitions.

New Williamson Art Gallery exhibition celebrates ‘The Garden as Muse’

The Williamson Art Gallery and Museum in Birkenhead has announced a major upcoming exhibition titled 'The Garden as Muse,' scheduled to open in May 2026. The show explores the garden as a profound source of artistic inspiration, featuring a mix of prominent loans and rarely seen works from the gallery’s permanent collection. A centerpiece of the exhibition is E. A. Hornel’s 'The Wounded Butterfly,' which exemplifies the artist's signature style of blending naturalism with decorative, textured surfaces.