Artists v fascists, Khmer Rouge horrors, fab flowers and an eye-popping nude – the week in art

This week's art roundup from The Guardian features a major exhibition at Towner Eastbourne titled 'Comrades in Art: Artists Against Fascism,' which examines how artists, poets, and intellectuals used their work to resist the rise of extremism in 1930s Europe, drawing on the history of the Artists International Association (AIA). Other highlights include 'Hidden: Photography and Displacement Under the Khmer Rouge' at The Wiener Holocaust Library in London, a show of early Netherlandish drawings at the British Museum, Katharina Grosse's colorful installations at White Cube, and a flower-themed survey at Kettle's Yard. The image of the week is Sylvia Sleigh's 1963 portrait 'The Bridge (Johanna Lawrenson),' part of a new exhibition of the Welsh artist's work. The article also covers news items such as Lydia Ourahmane's Venice Biennale installation, a Holbein portrait mystery, a restored stained-glass window by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, and Anish Kapoor's call to exclude the US from the Venice Biennale due to 'politics of hate.'

‘Of course I accepted!’ Angel Otero on Bad Bunny – and bringing some Puerto Rican flair to Somerset

Angel Otero, a Puerto Rican artist based in Somerset, discusses his emotional collaboration with musician Bad Bunny on the stage set "La Casita" for his 31-show residency in Puerto Rico. Otero's new solo exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Somerset features large-scale, semi-abstract paintings that draw from his childhood memories in Santurce, San Juan, including motifs like a pink vanity cabinet, birdcages, and a turbulent sea. His signature technique involves applying paint skins—dried sheets of oil paint on Perspex—to canvas, creating layered, sculptural surfaces. The show includes a diptych based on a photograph of Otero and his grandmother, marking his most figurative work to date.

Here’s How Stars at the 2026 Met Gala Nodded to Art History

The 2026 Met Gala, themed "Fashion Is Art," saw celebrities and fashion figures wearing outfits directly inspired by or referencing iconic artworks and art historical movements. Notable nods included Chloe Malle in a gown referencing Frederic Leighton's *Flaming June*, Lauren Sánchez Bezos in a Schiaparelli dress echoing John Singer Sargent's *Madame X*, and Hunter Schafer channeling Gustav Klimt's portrait *Mäda Primavesi*. Other attendees like Anne Hathaway, Hailey Bieber, and Karan Johar also drew from specific paintings, sculptures, and poems, while stylist Law Roach wore a hand-painted piece by Gabonese artist Naïla Opiangah.

David Hockney : tout savoir sur la superstar de la peinture exposée à la galerie Lelong

Beaux Arts Magazine has published a comprehensive dossier on David Hockney, coinciding with his current exhibition at Galerie Lelong in Paris. The article presents a multi-episode series covering the British artist's career, from his iconic "Pool Paintings" like *A Bigger Splash* (1967) to his recent works created on iPad in Normandy. It highlights his ongoing exhibitions at multiple venues, including a major retrospective at the Centre Pompidou starting June 21, a dialogue with Matisse at the Musée Matisse in Nice, a show at the Van Gogh Museum, and a loan from Tate Britain to the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence. The piece also explores Hockney's fascination with Old Masters, his use of technology, and his enduring status as a pop art and hyperrealist superstar.

Nicholas Pope, sculptor whose career came in two acts, 1949–2026

Nicholas Pope, a British sculptor known for his organic, post-minimalist works, has died at age 76. His career unfolded in two distinct acts: an early phase in the 1970s producing roughly-hewn wooden columns like *Oak Tree Column* (1973) and *Drooping Column* (1975), which earned him a spot in the British Pavilion at the 1980 Venice Biennale, followed by a decades-long hiatus after contracting viral encephalitis in Tanzania. He later returned to sculpture with brighter, brasher works in ceramic, glass, and felt, including *The Apostles Speaking in Tongues Lit By Their Own Lamps* (1993–96) and collaborations like *The Conundrum of the Chalices of the Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Virtues* (2015) with James Maskrey.

Barry X Ball’s Wild Sculptures Are Perfectly at Home at Venice’s Grand Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore

New York-based artist Barry X Ball's exhibition "The Shape of Time" has opened at the Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, featuring 23 sculptures centered on the elaborate silver and gold piece *Pope Saint John Paul II* (2012–24). The show, organized by curator Bob Nickas, includes many works shown publicly for the first time, such as *Pietà* (2011–22) inspired by Michelangelo and *Saint Bartholomew Flayed* (2011–20). The sculpture of John Paul II, cast in collaboration with Italian jewelry house Damiani, contains hidden references to the pope's life, including his nemeses Hitler, Stalin, and Lenin, as well as a bullet from the 1981 assassination attempt.

Amy Sherald Dresses As Her Own Award-Winning Painting for Met Gala

Amy Sherald attended the 2025 Met Gala dressed as the subject of her own award-winning painting, *Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance)* (2014). The work, which won the Outwin Boochever Prize at the National Portrait Gallery and appeared on a *New Yorker* cover, depicts a young girl holding an oversized teacup. Sherald collaborated with designer Thom Browne to recreate the painting's look, including a red fascinator, as part of the gala's theme “Fashion Is Art,” which also aligns with the Costume Institute's exhibition “Costume Art.” Sherald served on the gala's committee alongside artists Anna Weyant and Tschabalala Self.

Soft armour, pert nipples: how London design team made Kim Kardashian’s Met Gala breastplate

Kim Kardashian wore an orange fibreglass breastplate to the 2024 Met Gala, created by the east London design duo Whitaker Malem (Patrick Whitaker and Keir Malem) in collaboration with British pop artist Allen Jones. The breastplate was cast from a mould derived from Jones's 1969 sculpture "Hatstand," finished by car bodyshop MPS Body and Paint in Kent, and paired with a hand-painted leather skirt. Kardashian directly contacted the duo in early April, flew to the UK for fittings, and chose the piece to interpret the gala's "fashion is art" dress code, which explored the dressed and undressed human body.

Claude Monet’s Market Triumph: 12 Record‑Smashing Paintings That Define an Era

Claude Monet's market dominance is analyzed through twelve record-breaking paintings sold at auction over the past decade, led by *Meules (Haystacks)* (1890), which achieved $110.7 million at Sotheby's New York in 2019—a record for any Impressionist work. The article highlights key sales including *Le Bassin aux Nymphéas* (1919) at $80.45 million, *Nymphéas* (1906) at $54 million, and *Le Pont du chemin de fer à Argenteuil* (1873–74) at $41.4 million, tracing how Monet's serene yet radical landscapes have consistently commanded top prices across Christie's and Sotheby's.

See Some of the Most Outrageous, Stylish Looks at the 2026 Met Gala

The 2026 Met Gala raised $42 million for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, surpassing last year's $31 million. The event, themed "Costume Art" with a dress code of "Fashion is Art," featured honorary chairs Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, whose involvement sparked protests. Co-chairs included Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour, with artists Anna Weyant, Tschabalala Self, and Amy Sherald on the host committee. The gala precedes the Costume Institute's spring exhibition, also titled "Costume Art," opening May 10.

Sound-based Holy See pavilion opens at Venice Biennale as Vatican’s contemporary art ambitions grow

The Holy See's pavilion at the Venice Biennale has opened, featuring a sound-based exhibition titled "The Ear is the Eye of the Soul" (9 May–22 November). The show, inspired by the medieval Benedictine nun Saint Hildegard of Bingen, includes commissioned audio works by high-profile artists and musicians such as Brian Eno, FKA Twigs, Patti Smith, Jim Jarmusch, and Precious Okoyomon. The exhibition takes place across two Venetian sites—the Mystical Garden of the Discalced Carmelite and the Santa Maria Ausiliatrice complex—and is co-organized by Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director of the Serpentine Gallery, and curator Ben Vickers, in collaboration with Soundwalk Collective.

‘A remarkably tenacious motif’: the many faces of Marilyn Monroe revealed in new book and show

The National Portrait Gallery in London will open "Marilyn Monroe: a Portrait" next month, accompanied by a book edited by curator Rosie Broadley in association with the Marilyn Monroe estate. The exhibition and book feature works by Andy Warhol, Pauline Boty, Marlene Dumas, James Gill, Rosalyn Drexler, and others, exploring Monroe as a persistent subject in visual art beyond film. Highlights include Warhol's 1962 silkscreen "Green Marilyn", de Kooning's 1954 portrait, and lesser-known works by Joseph Cornell and Alex Margo Arden.

Sketches of Spain at arms: Sim, the anarchist illustrator who drew the civil war from the frontline

The Guardian reports on José Luis Rey Vila, known as Sim, an anarchist illustrator who documented the Spanish Civil War from the frontlines in Catalonia. His bold, colorful sketches captured street battles, militias, nurses, and milicianas, and were widely reproduced in booklets and exhibitions, raising international awareness before Picasso's Guernica. After the war, Sim fell into obscurity and died in near-anonymity in 1983. Now, on the 90th anniversary of the conflict, Barcelona's Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC) is exhibiting 40 recently acquired Sim illustrations, highlighting his role as a key visual chronicler of the conflict.

Ed Ruscha | A Particular Kind Of Heaven (1983) | Art & Prints

Ed Ruscha's 1983 work "A Particular Kind Of Heaven" is being offered at auction through Tate Ward, with current bidding at £100. The piece is an exhibition poster from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, measuring 61 x 92 cm, and is part of Tate Ward's Urban and Contemporary Art London sale. The listing also shows multiple other Ruscha works available from various sellers, including posters and prints from EHC Fine Art Auction, Blond Contemporary, and Baldwin.

Ed Ruscha | Vintage Ed Ruscha exhibition poster - Mountain serie… (2010) | For Sale

This is a listing for a vintage Ed Ruscha exhibition poster from his "Mountain series" (2010), offered for sale by Baldwin Gallery (London/Dubai) on Artsy. The offset lithograph on paper measures 39.4 × 27.2 inches, is from an unknown edition, unsigned, and includes a certificate of authenticity. The price is £3,250, with shipping available from London.

The Artist Who Turned Kim Kardashian Into a Living Sculpture Has an Exhibition in Paris

The Sceners Gallery in Paris is hosting “Forms and Temptations,” an exhibition of works by British Pop Art pioneer Allen Jones, coinciding with Kim Kardashian wearing a Jones-inspired fiberglass breastplate at the 2026 Met Gala. The show features Jones’s eroticized female mannequins and sculptures, including “Red Refrigerator” and “Cover Story 4/4,” displayed alongside high-end decorative furniture from designers like Carlo Bugatti and Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann. Jones, now 88, collaborated with Kardashian on her Met Gala look, which re-edited a cast from 1967/68.

May Things to Do: Visual Art

This article from a Seattle arts publication rounds up May visual art events, including the Seattle Art Book Fair (May 9–10) at Washington Hall featuring over 85 artists and free admission; Timothy White Eagle's exhibition "Once Wild River" (May 9–June 21) at Mini Mart City Park, culminating his EPA artist-in-residency; "Monochrome: Calder and Tara Donovan" (May 13–Jan 17, 2027) at the Seattle Art Museum, where Donovan responds to Alexander Calder's black works; "Rebels + Icons: The Photography of Janette Beckman" opening May 15 at MoPOP, the largest collection of her iconic musician portraits; and Drie Chapek's "Then Is Now" (May 21–June 27).

Radiohead Spectacle in Brooklyn Teems with World-Building Paintings, Sculpture, and Film

Radiohead has launched a multimedia installation, exhibition, and screening experience titled "Motion Picture House KID A MNESIA" at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, running through June 28. The immersive event features artwork related to the band's albums Kid A and Amnesiac, including screenprints, a video array with vintage TVs, and a 25-foot-tall sculpture of the band's recurring "Stickman" figure. The centerpiece is a hour-plus film set in a black-and-white woods, accompanied by the band's music, with no dialogue or wall text, allowing visitors to freely explore the darkened space. Tickets are $72, and the experience will travel to Chicago, Mexico City, and San Francisco.

Master of Madonnas and the Market

Meister der Madonnen und des Marktes

A major exhibition titled "Raphael: Sublime Poetry" has opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, exploring how the Renaissance master Raphael's work was deeply intertwined with money, prestige, and patronage. The show traces his career from early mentorship under his father and influences from Leonardo da Vinci to his rivalry with Michelangelo, highlighting commissions from wealthy supporters like the aristocrat Elena Duglioli and Pope Leo X, who commissioned Raphael's extravagant tapestries for the Sistine Chapel.

The Best and Worst of the Stars at the 2026 Met Gala Inspired by Art History

Le meilleur et le pire des stars au Met Gala 2026 inspiré par l’histoire de l’art

On May 4, 2026, the Met Gala brought together 450 guests at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York under the theme "Fashion is Art," tied to the exhibition "Costume Art." Attendees were asked to draw inspiration from specific artworks, resulting in standout looks: Madonna channeled Leonora Carrington's "The Temptation of Saint Anthony" (1945) in a Saint Laurent gown, Kim Kardashian wore a custom piece by Allen Jones extending his "Cover Story 4/4" (2021), Hunter Schafer embodied Gustav Klimt's portrait "Mäda Primavesi" (1912-1913) in Prada, and Tessa Thompson referenced Yves Klein's "Anthropométries" in Valentino. Gracie Abrams also paid homage to Klimt's "The Kiss."

National Portrait Gallery to stage landmark Marilyn Monroe exhibition.

The National Portrait Gallery in London will open a landmark exhibition this June celebrating Marilyn Monroe's 100th birthday. The show features portraits by artists including Andy Warhol, Pauline Boty, and Marlene Dumas, alongside works by over twenty major 20th-century photographers such as Cecil Beaton, Richard Avedon, and Eve Arnold. Monroe's personal effects, including books, scripts, and clothing, will also be displayed.

'I wanted to catch the desperation': Dries Verhoeven on turning the Dutch pavilion into a bunker for the Venice Biennale

Artist Dries Verhoeven has transformed the Dutch pavilion at the Venice Biennale into a bunker-like space by covering its iconic glass-and-steel structure with metal shutters. Inside, visitors experience a gradually darkening environment and a raw vocal performance by 13 rotating performers, intended to evoke desperation and confusion about contemporary global crises. The work critiques the modernist ideals of openness and optimism embodied by the pavilion, designed by Gerrit Rietveld in 1953.

‘It’s a tiny bit of joy!’ How trinket swapping is making the world a happier place, one china sheep at a time

Trinket exchange boxes, where people swap small items like pins, stickers, and ceramic animals, are rapidly spreading across the UK and US. The phenomenon, which began in Philadelphia in autumn 2024, has grown from 800 to nearly 1,500 installations in two months, according to Portland-based artist Rachael Harms Mahlandt, who tracks them on a world map. In Edinburgh, pet-sitter Sam Stevens runs a popular pink box outside Argonaut Books, inspired by a San Francisco exchange, and has seen her follower count jump overnight as locals trade trinkets for fun.

Ready for their close-ups: celebrity passport photos

Dave Sharkey, a former professional boxer, and his wife Ann founded a photographic studio on Oxford Street in London in 1953, offering passport photos with a 10-minute turnaround. The studio, later run by their son Philip, became a popular spot for celebrities including Muhammad Ali, Mick and Bianca Jagger, David Hockney, and Tilda Swinton. A new book titled 'Passport Photo Service,' published by Phaidon Press, compiles over 300 of these celebrity passport portraits from the 1950s to the 2010s.

Andy Warhol | Cow II.11A (1971) | For Sale

Andy Warhol's screenprint "Cow II.11A" (1971) is being offered for sale by Composition.Gallery, priced at $15,200. The work is a color screenprint on wallpaper, printed by Bill Miller's Wallpaper Studio, Inc., New York, and published by Factory Additions, New York, for a Warhol exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art from May 1 to June 13, 1971. It is part of a limited edition of 100, stamped by the artist's estate, and includes a certificate of authenticity.

Tuguldur Yondonjamts’s Animalistic Realm

Mongolian artist Tuguldur Yondonjamts explores the habitat of the saker falcon through a series of accordion-style books titled *The Secret Mountain of Falcons* (2011–14), created during fieldwork across Mongolia. The drawings, presented in Perspex vitrines at his solo exhibition *Wolf Loving Princess* at Gallery Ver in Bangkok, depict the falcon's perspective as imagined by the artist, blending black-and-white film-like imagery with abstract textures. The work responds to the falcon trade, particularly to the Middle East, and the species' declining population, which led to its designation as Mongolia's national bird in 2012.

Thinking small and dreaming big in Isabel Nolan’s imaginary world

Dublin-born artist Isabel Nolan discusses her Ireland pavilion exhibition "Dreamshook" at the Venice Biennale, developed with curator Georgina Jackson. The show explores the liminal state between dreaming and waking, weaving a fictional narrative around Renaissance humanist Aldo Manuzio, who popularized portable books. Nolan draws on late Medieval and early Renaissance visual language, using intimate forms like textiles to tackle big ideas about cosmology, religion, and humanism. She describes her ambivalent relationship with European cultural inheritance and the need to recover occluded voices.

The Only Guide to This Year’s Venice Biennale You Will Ever Need

The 61st Venice Biennale opens amid significant turmoil. The entire jury of the International Art Exhibition resigned after a statement about withholding prizes from countries with leaders charged with crimes against humanity by the ICC, leading to the cancellation of the Golden Lion awards in favor of 'Visitors' Lions' to be given at the exhibition's end. The event has been further marred by the sudden death of artistic director Koyo Kouoh from liver cancer in early 2025, and the death of artist Henrike Naumann, who was set to debut work in the German pavilion. Additionally, the selection process for the American pavilion artist, Mexico-based sculptor Alma Allen, sparked controversy after a delayed grant application process.

What It Takes to Build the Venice Biennale

Three weeks before the Venice Biennale opens on May 5, the city remains a construction site, with the Giardini closed and parts of the Arsenale requiring special access. Artist Faustin Linyekula rehearses his performance *The Galeazze Project* in a 16th-century roofless complex, working with the existing gravel, natural light, and lagoon acoustics rather than imposing a structure. Geopolitical conflicts, supply chain disruptions, and the sudden resignation of the Biennale’s international jury via Instagram add pressure to the already challenging logistics of mounting the global exhibition.

The Good, the Bad, and the Fugly From the 2026 Met Gala

Cultured magazine's 2026 Met Gala coverage features a roundtable of critics and writers offering candid, often humorous takes on celebrity looks from the red carpet. Emma Chamberlain's hand-painted Mugler gown is widely praised as the most on-theme, while Troye Sivan's Prada homage to Robert Mapplethorpe and Chase Infiniti's Thom Browne trompe-l'œil dress also earn acclaim. Gabrielle Richardson calls for more color, noting the theme is about art, and criticizes the monochromatic trend. Mackenzie Thomas pans Alysa Liu's look as "prom" and "quinceañera," while others celebrate Naomi Osaka's Robert Wun Couture and Connor Storrie's Saint Laurent ensemble. The article is structured as a series of short, punchy quotes from multiple contributors, each focusing on specific attendees' fashion choices.