Art Basel Curbs Pre-Fair Sales—and More Art Industry News

Art Basel has launched a "Basel Exclusive" initiative to curb pre-fair PDF sales, encouraging galleries to withhold works from previews to drive in-person discovery at its flagship Swiss event (June 16–21). Around 170 of 232 exhibitors have opted in. Meanwhile, Volta returns to Basel with a new "5,000 Edit" section for works under CHF 5,000 to attract younger collectors, and the alternative fair Esther will hold its third edition in New York during Frieze Week. In other news, Sotheby's set a U.S. record for design auctions with the Jean and Terry de Gunzburg collection totaling $96 million, and billionaire collector Mitchell P. Rales pledged $116 million to the National Gallery of Art to fund loans to smaller museums. The Smithsonian American Art Museum named Lynda Roscoe Hartigan as its new director, and Gladstone Gallery plans a new Seoul space for 2026.

Lynda Roscoe Hartigan Named Director of Smithsonian American Art Museum

Lynda Roscoe Hartigan has been appointed as the new director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in Washington, DC, effective September 8. She returns to SAAM, where she began her career and later served as chief curator, from her current position as executive director and CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. She succeeds acting director Jane Carpenter-Rock, who will remain as deputy director.

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David Byrne, the multi-talented artist best known as the frontman of Talking Heads, discusses his visual art practice in a new interview with Artnet News. He reveals plans for a solo exhibition at Pace Gallery in New York this fall, featuring his drawings and photographs. Byrne also talks about his immersive project 'Theater of the Mind,' which explores neuroscience and perception, traveling to Chicago's Goodman Theatre in 2026, and reflects on his early art school experiences at Rhode Island School of Design and Maryland Institute College of Art.

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A New York judge has ruled against billionaire investor and art collector Ronald O. Perelman in his attempt to collect $400 million from insurers for five paintings allegedly damaged in a 2018 fire at his East Hampton estate. Justice Joel M. Cohen of State Supreme Court in Manhattan found no visible damage to the works—two by Andy Warhol, two by Ed Ruscha, and one by Cy Twombly—and nothing traceable to the fire that would reduce their value. Perelman claimed the fire robbed the paintings of their 'spark' and 'oomph,' but insurers including Lloyd's of London, Chubb, and AIG countered that the works were unscathed and accused Perelman of filing claims under severe financial pressure after a collapse in Revlon stock.

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A scientific paper published in PNAS reveals that Jackson Pollock's 1948 masterpiece *Number 1A* contains an extinct variety of manganese blue paint. Using Raman spectroscopy, researchers from Stanford University, City College of New York, and MoMA's conservation department identified the synthetic pigment, which was popular in the 20th century but phased out in the 1990s due to environmental concerns.

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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.

How Caravaggio’s Dark Masterpieces Mirror the Crimes in Netflix’s Ripley

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The Netflix series Ripley, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel, utilizes the works of Caravaggio as a central narrative and aesthetic device. The show follows Tom Ripley, a grifter who travels to Italy and eventually adopts the identity of a wealthy acquaintance after committing murder. Throughout the series, Ripley encounters several of Caravaggio's masterpieces, including The Seven Acts of Mercy and David with the Head of Goliath, which serve as dark mirrors to his own descent into violence.

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The Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris has opened a new exhibition titled "The Empire of Sleep," curated by neurologist Laura Bossi and museum director Sylvie Carlier. The show gathers 130 artworks from the 19th and 20th centuries, exploring how artists have depicted sleep, dreams, nightmares, and the bed as a site of birth, love, illness, and death. Featured artists include John Everett Millais, Eugène Delacroix, Jean Cocteau, Giovanni Bellini, Gabriel von Max, Evelyn De Morgan, Odilon Redon, Gustave Courbet, Francisco de Goya, and Claude Monet, whose painting *Camille on Her Deathbed* is a centerpiece.

Thomas Zipp, artist with a sideways sense of history, 1966–2026

German artist Thomas Zipp, known for his dark, punk-infused explorations of history and science, has died at age 60. Throughout a career spanning painting, sculpture, and immersive scenographic installations, Zipp blended a Dadaist sensibility with a deep interest in politics, neuroscience, and the nuclear age. His work often challenged viewers with complex, opaque environments, such as his notable 2013 Venice Biennale installation that transformed a palazzo into a psychological sanatorium.

What’s on now at San Francisco museums, July 2025

The article provides a roundup of current and upcoming exhibitions at San Francisco museums and galleries in July 2025. Highlights include 'People Make This Place: SFAI Stories' opening July 26 at SFMOMA, 'Jess Young: Return' at 500 Capp Street, and 'Ferlinghetti for San Francisco' at the Legion of Honor. Shows closing soon include 'Yuan Goang-Ming: Everyday War' at the Asian Art Museum and 'Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art' at the Legion of Honor. The gallery scene is covered with mentions of Voss Gallery, Incline Gallery, and Hosfelt Gallery, along with ongoing exhibitions like 'Kunié Sugiura: Photopainting' and 'Ruth Asawa: Retrospective' at SFMOMA.

Gearing Up for Venice

The 2026 Venice Biennale's awards jury has announced it will not consider artists from countries whose leaders are charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, specifically naming Israel and Russia. In other news, satellite imagery confirms Azerbaijan demolished an Armenian church in Artsakh, the World Press Photo of the Year was awarded to Carol Guzy for an image of ICE detaining a father, and Argentine abstract painter Ides Kihlen died at age 108. Hyperallergic also published a guide to the Biennale by Hrag Vartanian and reported on Lynda Roscoe Hartigan's appointment as director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

A new director for the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Une nouvelle directrice pour le Smithsonian American Art Museum

Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, 75, has been appointed director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), succeeding Stephanie Stebich after a vacancy of nearly 17 months. Hartigan, who began her career at SAAM in the 1970s and rose to chief curator before leaving in 2003, most recently served as executive director of the Peabody Essex Museum, becoming its first woman to lead the institution. She will assume her new role on September 8.

You’ll Need a Magnifying Glass to Read Some of the World’s Smallest Books at the V&A

You’ll Need a Magnifying Glass to Read Some of the World’s Smallest Books at the V&A

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London is showcasing a collection of the world's smallest books, many of which require a magnifying glass to read. The highlights include miniature volumes from Queen Mary's Dolls' House library, such as a tiny 1896 Bible, a Quran, and works by authors like Robert Burns, alongside even smaller modern creations like a 2002 book measuring just 2.4 by 2.9 millimeters.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 to Lenny Henry: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

The Guardian's weekly entertainment guide highlights two major art exhibitions opening in May 2025: 'Aleksandra Kasuba' at Tate St Ives (2 May to 4 October) and 'Zurbarán' at the National Gallery, London (2 May to 23 August). The Kasuba show is the first UK presentation of the Lithuanian American artist's proto-immersive 'spatial environments,' featuring early paintings, mosaics, and installations focused on utopian social harmony. The Zurbarán exhibition presents a blockbuster survey of the 17th-century Spanish Baroque master, known for his intense religious subjects and dramatic chiaroscuro.

Simply divine: the extraordinary supernatural visions of Francisco de Zurbarán

Francisco de Zurbarán, one of the three great Spanish 17th-century painters alongside Velázquez and Murillo, is finally receiving his first solo exhibition in the UK at the National Gallery in London. The show highlights his distinctive style of religious painting, characterized by stark chiaroscuro, sculptural realism, and a meditative stillness that makes the immaterial seem tangible. Works such as his crucified Christ and The Apparition of Saint Peter to Saint Peter Nolasco exemplify his ability to depict visions and inner spirituality, often commissioned by powerful religious foundations in Seville during the Counter-Reformation.

Get ‘Super/Natural’ Inside Judith Schaechter’s Stained Glass Sculpture

Judith Schaechter's large-scale stained glass sculpture "Super/Natural" has opened in a solo exhibition at Claire Oliver Gallery in Harlem. The immersive, eight-foot-tall installation, resembling a secular chapel, is filled with intricate depictions of flora and fauna and is designed for a single viewer to contemplate nature.

What’s on now at San Francisco museums, November 2025

San Francisco museums are presenting a wide array of exhibitions in November 2025, with several closing soon and others opening in the coming months. At SFMOMA, major shows include "Alejandro Cartagena: Ground Rules" (through April 19), "KAWS: Family" (through May 3, 2026), the photography exhibition "(Re)Constructing History" featuring Carrie Mae Weems, Nona Faustine, Carla Williams, and Dawoud Bey, and "Suzanne Jackson: What is Love," the artist's first retrospective. The Institute for Contemporary Art hosts "Midnight March" by Masako Miki and "stay, take your time, my love" by David Antonio Cruz, both closing Dec. 7. The Asian Art Museum presents "Rave into the Future: Art in Motion" closing Jan. 12, and the Legion of Honor will open "Drawn to Venice" from Jan. 24 to Aug. 2, 2026. The Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Art Awards Exhibition, a collaboration with the San Francisco Foundation and SOMarts, closes Dec. 7.

Introducing Julia Day, the Frick’s new chief conservator

The Frick Collection in New York has appointed Julia Day as its new chief conservator, a role she assumed upon the retirement of Joseph Godla, who had held the position since 2005. Day, a Frick veteran who left in 2022 to become a senior conservator at the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, returned this spring to lead the museum's expanded conservation efforts. Her appointment coincides with the reopening of the Frick's renovated 1914 mansion, which now features a new 1,200-square-foot conservation studio—the Sherman Fairchild Center for Art Conservation—designed by Samuel Anderson Architects, along with a radiography room and exhibition preparation spaces.

Lu Yang at Kunsthalle zu Kiel

Lu Yang's solo exhibition "Electromagnetic Brainology" opened at Kunsthalle zu Kiel, running from January 30 to March 15, 2026. Curated by Muriel Meyer, the show features a new body of work from the Shanghai-based multimedia artist, known for immersive installations blending digital avatars, neuroscience, and pop culture iconography.

Residencies, Exhibitions, and Events: Here are the Programs for the New Società delle Api Foundation in Rome

Residenze, mostre ed eventi. Ecco i programmi della nuova fondazione Società delle Api che ha aperto a Roma

The Società delle Api foundation, established by collector Silvia Fiorucci in 2018, has officially inaugurated its new permanent headquarters in Rome on Via Gregoriana. The move marks a strategic shift for the organization, which previously operated across a decentralized network of locations in Monaco, France, and Greece. The 2026-2027 program focuses on artistic production as a shared process, featuring residencies and exhibitions by artists such as Pol Taburet, Chiara Camoni, and Francis Offman, alongside multidisciplinary public programs covering poetry and architecture.

5 Standout Shows to See at Small Galleries This March

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Researchers in the Netherlands, led by neuroscientist Blanca Spee and neurologist Bas Bloem at Radboudumc Medical Center, have been studying the link between creativity and improved health outcomes for Parkinson's disease patients. A study of 800 patients found that 41% reported changes in creativity, with those on dopamine agonists especially likely to experience increases. A subsequent 10-week creative 'playground' involving painting, music, and writing led to reduced anxiety, increased well-being, and slight cognitive improvements. On November 17, the Michael J. Fox Foundation awarded Bloem its Pritzker Prize, including a $200,000 grant, to fund a new 18-month study in partnership with Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. That study will compare three groups: one exploring the museum's art collection, one making art, and a control group with no art exposure.

Smithsonian’s American Art Museum Appoints New Director Amid Turbulent Moment

The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) has appointed Lynda Roscoe Hartigan as its new director, concluding a 17-month search. Hartigan, who is leaving her position as executive director and CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum, will begin her role in September, succeeding acting director Jane Carpenter-Rock. She previously worked at SAAM as a curator in the 1970s and has held senior leadership roles at the Peabody Essex Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum.

Ancient Egyptian Papyrus Reveals 3,300-Year-Old White-Out Fluid

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Researchers at the Fitzwilliam Museum have discovered evidence of 3,300-year-old "white-out" used to correct an artistic error on an ancient Egyptian papyrus. While preparing for an upcoming exhibition, curators identified a modification on a copy of the Book of the Dead belonging to the royal scribe Ramose, where a mixture of calcite and huntite was applied to slim down the figure of a jackal deity.

Has A.I. Solved the Mystery of This El Greco Painting?

New research using artificial intelligence has challenged the long-held belief that El Greco's altarpiece *The Baptism of Christ* was largely painted by his son and workshop assistants. A machine-learning model called Patch, developed by researchers at Western Reserve University, analyzed the painting's microscopic surface texture and found underlying connections suggesting El Greco himself painted the majority of the work, with only a small region at the bottom attributed to other hands.

Historic Architecture Emerges from Stone in Matthew Simmonds Ethereal Sculptures

Historic Architecture Emerges from Stone in Matthew Simmonds Ethereal Sculptures

Sculptor Matthew Simmonds meticulously carves miniature, hyper-realistic architectural interiors—including gothic cathedral arches, vaulted ceilings, and stairwells—directly into hunks of Carrara marble and limestone. His recent works, often based on real sites like Bamberg Cathedral or Tuscan cities, reveal ornate, smooth interiors that contrast with the stone's raw exterior, and he is currently using a quieter period to experiment with how light and space within the sculptures can express a sacred quality.

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Self-taught artist Jet Le Parti has launched Sibyl, a Los Angeles-based cultural platform and research-led advisory that operates outside the traditional gallery system. Drawing on his background in neuroscience and philosophy, Le Parti developed Sibyl as an extension of his independent practice and previous ventures like Base 36 and Relaispunkt. The platform functions as a private collection and advisory service, leveraging direct relationships with collectors to bypass traditional intermediaries and formalize a network built on artistic trust.

Antonia Papatzanaki: Unseen Brought to Light Exhibition Opens May 22

Mosaic ArtSpace in Long Island City, NY, presents Antonia Papatzanaki: Unseen Brought to Light, a solo exhibition running from May 22 to September 30, 2025. The show features Papatzanaki's stainless steel light sculptures, inspired by microscopic imagery such as cellular formations and plant tissues, creating immersive environments that blend art, science, and technology. The opening reception is on May 22, 5-8 PM.

What’s on now at San Francisco museums, May 2026

San Francisco museums are navigating a mix of upcoming exhibitions and financial challenges in May 2026. SFMOMA is closing "KAWS: Family" on May 3 and opening "Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal" from May 16 to September 13. The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts has suspended operations due to funding issues, and SOMArts is also facing a budget gap. Meanwhile, the Museum of Craft and Design presents "Video Craft" through August 16, and the Letterform Archive hosts "Black Memory Scholar: The Language of Storytellers" and "Piet Zwart: Brand Architect." SFMOMA has announced three SECA award winners—CrossLypka, Em Kettner, and Chanell Stone—who will exhibit from December 2026 to May 2027, and the museum continues to showcase "Reimagined: The Fisher Collection at 10" and new installations by Alexander Calder, Claes Oldenburg + Coosje van Bruggen, and Rose B Simpson.

Zurbarán at the National Gallery - an unmissable show of baroque genius

The National Gallery in London presents a landmark exhibition of Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664), the first major retrospective of the Spanish Baroque master in Britain. In collaboration with the Louvre and the Art Institute of Chicago, the gallery has assembled over 40 works from institutions worldwide, including Seville and San Diego. The show features Zurbarán's electrifying religious paintings and radiant still lifes, displayed in darkened galleries that echo the chiaroscuro of his compositions. Highlights include the shattering *The Crucifixion* (1627) and *Saint Peter Nolasco's Vision of Saint Peter the Apostle* (1629), which demonstrate his hyper-real, sculptural approach to sacred subjects.