‘Money! Glamour! Yachts! But not for me!’ Adrian Searle relives 30 glorious years as our chief art critic

Adrian Searle, the outgoing chief art critic for The Guardian, reflects on his 30-year career by recounting a vivid, personal montage of the art he has witnessed. He describes unforgettable encounters with works ranging from Vermeer's intimate paintings to Fiona Banner's suspended jet fighter, Roger Hiorns's crystal-filled flat, and Emily Jacir's poignant project on Palestinian displacement, highlighting how these experiences blend memory, story, and direct observation into a critic's life.

Twombly Foundation to Exhibit Rare Rauschenberg Works at Gagosian

The Cy Twombly Foundation is presenting six rarely seen early works by Robert Rauschenberg at Gagosian's new Upper East Side gallery in New York. The exhibition includes a fragile 1950 assemblage of twigs and glass, a cyanotype made with his then-wife Susan Weil, a 'Black Painting' from around 1952, and a 1961 assemblage, offering a unique glimpse into a period of the artist's output that he largely destroyed.

Gagosian to Open New Upper East Side Gallery with a Duchamp Show, a Rarity in a Commercial Setting

Gagosian is set to inaugurate a new ground-floor gallery space at 980 Madison Avenue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side with a major exhibition of Marcel Duchamp opening April 25. The show features rare replicas of the artist’s most famous readymades, including the 1964 versions of 'Fountain' and 'Bicycle Wheel,' the latter of which is noted as the only version not currently held by a museum. The exhibition returns Duchamp to the same building where he showed with Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery in 1965 and coincides with a major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art.

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The New Museum in New York will reopen on March 21 after a two-year closure, following a major expansion designed by OMA’s Shohei Shigematsu with Rem Koolhaas that adds 60,000 square feet, nearly doubling exhibition space. The reopening weekend offers free admission and features new commissions by Tschabalala Self, Klára Hosnedlová, and Sarah Lucas, along with the inaugural exhibition “New Humans: Memories of the Future” showcasing over 200 artists. Separately, Phillips will auction the collection of former US Ambassador to Denmark John L. Loeb Jr., comprising the largest private trove of Danish art, with highlights by Vilhelm Hammershøi, Bertha Wegmann, P. S. Krøyer, and Anna Ancher, expected to exceed $12 million.

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Gagosian Gallery, in collaboration with Castelli Gallery, will present a landmark survey of Jasper Johns's crosshatched paintings at its 980 Madison Avenue flagship from January 22 to March 14, 2026. The exhibition marks the 50th anniversary of the series' debut in 1976 and includes rarely seen works from 1973 to 1983, lent by major museums such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Broad, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, as well as from Johns's personal collection. Key works include pieces from the "Corpse and Mirror" series, "Weeping Women" (1975), "Dancers on a Plane" (1980–81), and all six "Between the Clock and the Bed" paintings (1981–83).

Go Time! Gagosian Christens New Madison Avenue Space With Duchamp Readymades

Larry Gagosian is set to inaugurate a newly overhauled ground-floor gallery at 980 Madison Avenue on April 25, marking a major expansion within his long-time New York headquarters. The debut exhibition features the iconic readymades of Marcel Duchamp, including a rare version of 'Bicycle Wheel' and 'Fountain.' This move follows a period of uncertainty for the dealer after Bloomberg Philanthropies acquired the building, prompting Gagosian to invest significant resources into securing and transforming the street-level space.

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Gagosian will host a survey of Jasper Johns's "Crosshatch" paintings at its Madison Avenue gallery in New York from January 22 to March 14, 2026. Titled "Between The Clock and The Bed," the exhibition is organized in partnership with Castelli Gallery and marks the 50th anniversary of the series, focusing on works from 1973 to 1983. It includes loans from major museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Broad, and the National Gallery of Art, as well as works from Johns's own collection. Highlights include pieces from his "Corpse and Mirror" series, "Weeping Women," and all six "Between the Clock and the Bed" paintings.

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Larry Gagosian has opened a major exhibition of Jasper Johns's crosshatch paintings from 1973 to 1983 at his Upper East Side gallery in New York. In a forthcoming Gagosian Quarterly interview, Gagosian explains his motivation simply: he wanted to look at the works. The show features key pieces including all six versions of "Between the Clock and the Bed" (1981), borrowed from top-tier collectors and museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the National Gallery of Art. Gagosian recounts first encountering the crosshatch paintings in 1976 at Leo Castelli's gallery, before he had met Johns, through his connections with Merce Cunningham and John Cage.

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Christie's London will auction a major collection of modern and contemporary art from Belgian collectors Roger and Josette Vanthournout during its March marquee sales week. The collection, estimated at £40 million ($53.8 million), spans six decades of collecting and includes works by René Magritte, Henry Moore, Pablo Picasso, Yayoi Kusama, Lucio Fontana, Agnes Martin, and Max Ernst. It will be offered across three sales: a March 5 evening sale, a March 6 daytime sale, and an online sale from February 25 to March 12. Highlights include Magritte's 'La plaine de l'air' (1940) and Moore's 'Goslar Warrior' (1973–74), each estimated at £3.5–5.5 million.

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Rosemarie Trockel, the elusive German artist known for her wildly varied and conceptually challenging work, is the subject of a rare profile in ARTnews. The article traces her emergence from the 1980s Cologne art scene, where she became notorious for refusing interviews and producing art that defies easy categorization—spanning knitting machines, video, sculpture, and drawing. A key photograph from her teenage years, showing her in a room plastered with celebrity cutouts, is presented as a rare origin story, though its authenticity is left ambiguous. The piece highlights her declared constants of "woman, inconsistency, reaction to fashionable trends" and her insistence that art should remain a process of discovery rather than a vehicle for fixed meaning.

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Billionaire financier and collector Steven Cohen has been revealed as the owner of one of Maurizio Cattelan's golden toilet sculptures, *America* (2016), which he purchased from Marian Goodman Gallery in 2017. Sotheby's will auction the 18-karat gold work on November 18 with an opening bid of about $10 million. Separately, Sotheby's Paris achieved €18.6 million ($21.5 million) from the collection of late real estate mogul Manny Davidson across two sales, the highest total for a single-owner sale in France this year. In other news, Gladstone Gallery now represents the estate of Robert Colescott, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art is planning a major Vincent van Gogh exhibition titled "Van Gogh's Sunflowers: A Symphony in Blue and Yellow" for 2026.

Paint Drippings: Art Industry News November 21

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The Philadelphia Museum of Art has appointed Daniel H. Weiss, former head of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as its new director and CEO to provide stability following the controversial dismissal of Sasha Suda. The transition occurs amid a legal battle, with the museum filing court documents alleging Suda misappropriated funds and falsified records. Meanwhile, the auction market saw a historic moment at Sotheby’s, where Gustav Klimt’s 'Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer' sold for $236.4 million, setting a new record for the artist and becoming the most expensive Modern work ever sold at auction.

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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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This week's art industry roundup covers major sales and developments across art fairs, auction houses, and galleries. At Art Basel Miami Beach, strong sales were reported, including an $18 million Warhol at Lévy Gorvy Dayan's booth, while NADA Miami featured around 140 exhibitors. The Art Dealers Association of America announced a new ADAA Fair at the Park Avenue Armory for November 2025, and Design Miami will expand to Dubai in 2027 with Alserkal. In auctions, Fabergé's 'Winter Egg' sold for $30.2 million at Christie's London, becoming the most expensive Fabergé egg ever auctioned, and Rembrandt's etching 'Arnout Tholinx, Inspector' set a world record for an Old Master print at $4.1 million. A rare 15th-century triptych also sold at Sotheby's for $7.6 million. Gallery news includes the formation of Pace Di Donna Schrader Galleries, Hauser and Wirth's acquisition of a Palermo palazzo, and several artist representation changes.

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Sotheby's achieved a record-breaking $706 million auction night at its new global headquarters in the Breuer Building, New York, the highest total in the auction house's 281-year history. The sale was propelled by the collection of late art patron Leonard A. Lauder, whose 24 pieces sold for $527.5 million, led by Gustav Klimt's *Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer* (1914–16) which fetched $236.4 million, becoming the second-priciest artwork ever sold at auction. A subsequent contemporary and ultra-contemporary art sale added $178.5 million.

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Sotheby's is offering Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer" (1914-1916) from the estate of the late collector and philanthropist Leonard Lauder with an asking price exceeding $150 million. The consignment also includes two Attersee landscapes valued at over $70 million and $80 million respectively, potentially generating over $300 million from just three lots. This sale follows Ronald Lauder's record-setting $135 million private purchase of Klimt's "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" in 2006, and is guaranteed to set a new auction record for the artist, surpassing the current $108.8 million benchmark.

Dealers at TEFAF Maastricht Report Robust Sales, Offering Works Ranging from Two Inches to Room-Size

Dealers at TEFAF Maastricht Report Robust Sales, Offering Works Ranging from Two Inches to Room-Size

Dealers at the TEFAF Maastricht art fair reported strong sales, defying concerns over global unrest and geopolitical tensions that limited some collectors' travel. The fair, featuring 277 dealers from 24 countries, saw a high caliber of international collectors engaging with works ranging from monumental 18th-century sculptures to minuscule, intricately detailed pieces. First-time exhibitors and veterans alike expressed satisfaction, with one rare books dealer calling it his best year in three decades of participation.

Van Gogh Museum Acquires Only Third Painting by a Female Artist at TEFAF

Van Gogh Museum Acquires Only Third Painting by a Female Artist at TEFAF

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has acquired Virginie Demont-Breton's 1887-88 painting *L'homme est en mer* at the TEFAF Maastricht fair. The work, depicting a woman and child awaiting a sailor's return, becomes only the third painting by a female artist in the museum's collection and was purchased for a sum between $543,000 and $1.1 million.

Mary, Queen of Scots Final Letter on View; French Artist Adds Armor to Dalida Sculpture: Morning Links for March 10, 2026

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Perth Museum has unveiled the final letter written by Mary, Queen of Scots, marking the document's first public display in Scotland in three decades. Penned hours before her execution in 1587, the letter to Henry III of France frames her death as a religious martyrdom and is subject to extreme conservation protocols that limit its exhibition frequency. Meanwhile, in Paris, artist Luz has installed a spiked, mirror-encrusted bodice on the famous Dalida bust in Montmartre to protest the tradition of tourists rubbing the sculpture's breasts for luck.

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Christie’s London achieved a robust £197.5 million ($265 million) across a triple-header of evening sales, including the 20th/21st Century, Art of the Surreal, and the Vanthournout Collection auctions. The evening was headlined by a record-breaking £26.3 million sale of Henry Moore’s bronze sculpture 'King and Queen', alongside new auction highs for Surrealist artists Toyen and Dorothea Tanning. Despite some pre-sale withdrawals and a marathon four-hour runtime, the house achieved a 96 percent sell-through rate by lot.

Collaborations: Robert Rauschenberg, Laurie Anderson, Trisha Brown, and Merce Cunningham at BAM

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The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is hosting "Dancing with Bob," an international tour celebrating the centennial of Robert Rauschenberg’s birth. The program features restagings of seminal avant-garde dance collaborations, most notably the 1983 masterpiece "Set and Reset," which combined the choreography of Trisha Brown, the music of Laurie Anderson, and the visual design of Rauschenberg. The tour also includes a rare professional restaging of the 1977 piece "Travelogue," a collaboration between Rauschenberg and Merce Cunningham.

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Phillips has unveiled the lineup for its upcoming Modern and Contemporary art sales in London, scheduled for March 5 and 7. The auctions are headlined by a significant group of Scandinavian masterworks from the collection of former US Ambassador John L. Loeb, led by Vilhelm Hammershøi’s "Interior of Woman Placing Branches in Vase on Table" (1900), estimated at up to £2 million. Other major highlights include a rare Andy Warhol "Mao" painting, a Banksy work formerly owned by Robin Williams, and pieces by Tracey Emin, El Anatsui, and Donald Judd.

Louise Nevelson Sculpture at Long Island Synagogue for Sale

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Temple Beth El, a synagogue in Great Neck, New York, has announced the sale of a monumental 55-foot-long Louise Nevelson sculpture titled "The White Flame of the Six Million." Commissioned in the 1960s as a Holocaust memorial and functional Torah ark, the white-painted wood installation has served as the centerpiece of the congregation's sanctuary for over 50 years. Due to dwindling membership and a decision to sell the synagogue property, the congregation is seeking a new home for the massive work.

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A significant number of New York art galleries, including major players like Pace Gallery, David Zwirner, and Marian Goodman, will close on January 30 to join a nationwide general strike protesting expanded Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. The strike is a response to allegations of federal overreach, including the use of deadly force against protestors and the detention of Native Americans, which have fueled widespread outrage.

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Sotheby's held its inaugural Abu Dhabi Collectors' Week at the St. Regis Island Resort on Saadiyat Island, transforming the venue into a luxury showcase with handbags, diamonds, watches, a non-selling art display worth $500 million, and rare cars. The week culminated in open-air auctions under a full moon, netting $133 million—far exceeding the $17 million from Sotheby's first Middle East luxury sale in Saudi Arabia earlier this year. Highlights included a 1994 McLaren Formula 1 car sold for $25.3 million, a Jane Birkin Hermès handbag that fetched $2.9 million, and a 31.68-karat pink diamond called The Desert Rose that went for $8.8 million. A jewelry and timepieces sale achieved white-glove status, taking $25.4 million.

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The New York Gallery History Project, a partnership between Independent and Contemporary Art Library, has launched the digital archives of Jay Gorney Modern Art, a seminal New York gallery that operated from 1985 to 1998. The archive includes documentation of landmark exhibitions such as Lari Pittman's first New York solo show, Nan Goldin's first prints of "The Ballad of Sexual Dependency" (1985), and shows by Catherine Opie, Barbara Bloom, and others. The project also collects material from other closed galleries like Foxy Production, Off Vendome, and Paradise Garage to preserve art history that might otherwise be lost.

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Newly released emails from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein reveal that he discussed a plan by billionaire art collector Leon Black to purchase a Picasso painting from Gagosian gallery for $100 million. In a 2015 email to Melanie Spinella, a representative for Black, Epstein questioned the lack of a written contract for the overseas transfer, calling it 'fishy.' The emails also show Epstein advising Black on broader art purchasing strategies, including assigning agreements to family members, and offering opinions on Artspace, the online art marketplace acquired by Black's publishing house Phaidon.

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced its spring 2026 Costume Institute exhibition, titled "Costume Art," which will explore the relationship between fashion and the dressed body within the context of visual art history. Curator Andrew Bolton explained that the show aims to correct the longstanding tendency to separate fashion from the body in order to elevate it to art. The exhibition will inaugurate the new 12,000-square-foot Condé M. Nast galleries and will pair historical and contemporary garments with paintings, drawings, and objects from across the museum's 16 curatorial departments, spanning 5,000 years.

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute announced its spring 2026 blockbuster exhibition, "Costume Art," which will explore the relationship between fashion and the dressed body across visual art history. Curator Andrew Bolton explained that the show aims to correct the long-held belief that fashion must be disembodied to be considered art. The exhibition will inaugurate the new 12,000-square-foot Condé M. Nast galleries and will pair historical and contemporary garments with paintings, drawings, and objects spanning 5,000 years from the Met's other curatorial departments.

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Sotheby's will auction Jean-Michel Basquiat's 1981 painting *Crowns (Peso Neto)* this fall in New York with a high estimate of $45 million, the highest estimate ever for a Basquiat work from that pivotal year. The painting, never before sold at auction, marks the artist's transition from street artist to international art star. Separately, Art Basel released the exhibitor list for its inaugural fair in Qatar, featuring 87 galleries including heavyweights like Hauser & Wirth, Gagosian, and David Zwirner, with a focus on solo presentations and artists from the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia.