Art News. Vasari Codex

trending_up market schedule May 1, 2026 visibility 53 link 36 artists, 1 gallery

The 20 Most Expensive Artworks Hitting the Auction Block This Season

The May 2026 New York auctions at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips will feature 20 high-value lots priced at $30 million or more, including works by Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Cy Twombly, Gerhard Richter, and others. The sales are staggered around the Venice Biennale and Frieze New York, with Sotheby’s holding its contemporary evening auction on May 14 and Christie’s its 20th-century sale on May 18. Notable consignments come from the estates of S.I. Newhouse, former MoMA board president Agnes Gund, and dealer Marian Goodman.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 30, 2026 visibility 49 link 16 artists, 1 gallery

Picasso Painting That Cost S. I. Newhouse a MoMA Board Position Heads to Christie’s for $55 M.

Christie’s New York will auction 16 masterpieces from the collection of late Condé Nast magnate S. I. Newhouse on May 18, with an estimated total of $450 million. The highlight is Pablo Picasso’s Cubist painting *Homme à la guitare* (1913), estimated at $35–55 million, which Newhouse acquired in 2000 for $10 million after MoMA sold it from its collection. Newhouse, then a MoMA board member, violated museum policy by buying the work and subsequently resigned from the board.

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candle obituary schedule May 5, 2026 visibility 39 link 23 artists, 1 gallery

Remembering Pat Steir, one of the 20th century’s late-blooming great artists

Pat Steir, the acclaimed American painter known for her Waterfall series, died in Manhattan on 25 March at age 87. The article traces her career from early struggles as a freelance illustrator and art director, through her transformative encounter with Sol LeWitt in the early 1970s, to her eventual emergence as a major figure in contemporary painting. It highlights her teaching at CalArts and Parsons, her involvement with feminist and artist-run institutions like Heresies and Printed Matter, and the pivotal moment in the early 1980s when she cut up a reproduction of a Jan Brueghel the Elder flower painting into 64 panels, repainting each in a different historical style.

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candle obituary schedule Jun 24, 2025 visibility 27 link 13 artists

leonard lauder cubist obituary 2657181

Leonard A. Lauder, the billionaire art collector, philanthropist, and cosmetics magnate, has died at age 92. Lauder helped grow his mother Estée Lauder's namesake business into a global cosmetics empire, serving as president, CEO, and chairman. He was also one of the most significant art philanthropists of his era, donating a Cubist art collection valued at over $1 billion—including 78 works by Picasso, Braque, Léger, and Gris—to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2014, later expanded with additional works and funding for the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art. He also made the largest gift in Whitney Museum history in 2008, worth $131 million, and amassed a collection of 130,000 historic postcards promised to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

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article news schedule Oct 20, 2025 visibility 23 link 56 artists, 4 galleries

art guide to paris art week basel

The Louvre was forced to close on Sunday after a daylight heist of jewelry that Napoleon III had given to his wife, Eugenie, an operation that took under 10 minutes. The incident has highlighted ongoing issues at the world's most-visited museum, including understaffing and a shortage of surveillance cameras, with commentators linking the problems to French political turmoil. Meanwhile, the fourth edition of Art Basel Paris is set to open at the Grand Palais, featuring 206 galleries (63 with locations in France), serving as the centerpiece of a packed Paris Art Week with exhibitions, public programs, and gallery events.

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article culture schedule Dec 22, 2025 visibility 14 link 9 artists, 1 gallery

hazel knapp 2724673

Hazel Knapp, a self-taught artist with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, painted Vermont landscapes from her wheelchair between the 1930s and 1940s, often with her mother Elsie by her side describing the terrain. Knapp exhibited at the 1939 Museum of Modern Art show alongside Grandma Moses and Morris Hirshfield, was profiled in Sidney Janis's book *They Taught Themselves*, and sold ten paintings to Gertrude Stein, who planned an unrealized Paris exhibition. Despite this promising start, Knapp fell into obscurity after her mother's death.

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trending_up market schedule May 12, 2026 visibility 20 link 68 artists, 3 galleries

The Top Collections Leading the May Marquee Auctions

The article reports that the May 2025 marquee auctions at Christie's and Sotheby's are being driven by a resurgence of major single-owner collections, reversing a period of trophy scarcity in the secondary market. Key collections include the $130 million Robert E. Mnuchin collection at Sotheby's, the personal collection of gallerist Marian Goodman at Christie's, and the S.I. Newhouse collection expected to generate around $450 million, featuring Jackson Pollock's 'Number 7A (1948)' and Constantin Brancusi's 'Danaïde (1913)'. The article notes that the ultra-high tier above $10 million rose 30% year-on-year, and single-owner collections in New York auctions totaled $730.9 million, an 89.9% increase from Q1 2025.

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article culture schedule May 14, 2026 visibility 8 link 5 artists

5 Art Novels to Read This Summer

ARTnews has published a list of five art novels to read this summer, all released within the past year. The featured books include Ben Lerner's 'Transcription,' Larissa Pham's 'Discipline,' Deborah Levy's 'My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein: A Fiction,' Stephanie Wambugu's 'Lonely Crowds,' and Luke Goebel's 'Kill Dick.' Each novel explores how art emerges through relationships—with friends, mentors, parents, lovers, and historical artists—offering a range of perspectives from anxious inner monologues to satirical critiques of the art world.

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candle obituary schedule Mar 18, 2026 visibility 23 link 4 artists

Remembering Axel Burrough, Kazumasa Nagai, and Éliane Radigue

This week's obituary column honors the recent passing of twelve significant figures from the global art and culture world. The list includes French experimental composer Éliane Radigue, Japanese graphic designer Kazumasa Nagai, British architect Axel Burrough, Indigenous Australian muralist Elizabeth Close, and Upper East Side gallerist Gertrude Stein, among other artists, patrons, and illustrators.

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rate_review review schedule Jun 16, 2025 visibility 22 link 14 artists

cubism at the met modern art that looks tragically antique 157075

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's current "Cubism" exhibition showcases masterpieces from the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection, featuring works by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris, and Fernand Léger. The show spans six galleries and presents some of the finest examples of Cubist art, including iconic pieces like Braque's *The Castle of La Roche-Guyon* (1909) and Picasso's *The Oil Mill* (1909). The exhibition is essentially a curated display of Lauder's promised gift to the Met, highlighting the "Four Horsemen" of Cubism while omitting the broader context of the movement's other pioneers, such as the Salon Cubists.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 3, 2025 visibility 15 link 14 artists

the first homosexuals queer art show 2637891

An exhibition titled "The First Homosexuals" has opened at Wrightwood 659 in Chicago, curated by queer art historian Jonathan David Katz and associate curator Johnny Willis. Spanning over 300 artworks, the show traces how the coining of the term "homosexual" by Hungarian writer Karl-Maria Kertbeny in 1868 reframed artistic expressions of identity and sexuality, featuring works by artists such as Hokusai, Utamaro, Bertel Thorvaldsen, George Catlin, Saturnino Herrán, Richmond Barthé, Romaine Brooks, and Tamara de Lempicka. The exhibition includes sections on pre-colonial indigenous cultures, colonialism and resistance, and queer art icons.

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article culture schedule Jul 31, 2025 visibility 12 link 4 artists, 2 galleries

architecture hamptons barns

The article explores the architectural and cultural significance of barns in the Hamptons, tracing their evolution from medieval agricultural structures to modern design icons. It highlights how the barn typology has been adapted in local buildings, including the Parrish Art Museum designed by Herzog & de Meuron, and features four case studies of historic barns, such as the Sayre Barn in Southampton, which was converted into an antique store and later donated to a museum.

newspaper Cultured open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule May 14, 2026 visibility 12 link 16 artists, 2 galleries

SFMOMA’s ‘Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal’ revisits an old controversy

SFMOMA has opened 'Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal,' an exhibition that revisits the 1905 debut of Henri Matisse's iconic painting at the Salon d’Automne in Paris, which sparked the Fauvist movement. The show reconstructs Gallery VII of that salon, reuniting works by all ten original artists—including Matisse, André Derain, and Maurice de Vlaminck—and places the painting in dialogue with contemporary artists to trace its lasting influence. The painting, which was purchased by collectors Leo and Gertrude Stein at the 1905 salon, entered SFMOMA’s collection in 1991 as a bequest from Elise S. Haas and never travels, making this the exclusive venue for the exhibition.

newspaper The Voice of San Francisco open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule May 16, 2026 visibility 7 link 9 artists, 3 galleries

An old hat gets a new show: ‘Matisse’s Femme au chapeau’ opens at SFMOMA

SFMOMA has opened "Matisse's Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal," a new exhibition centered on Henri Matisse's iconic 1905 painting "Femme au chapeau" (Woman with a Hat). The show recreates the atmosphere of the 1905 Salon d'Automne in Paris, where the painting first caused a scandal for its bold, fauvist colors. It reunites the work with three other Matisse paintings from that debut, alongside pieces by contemporaries like André Derain, Albert Marquet, and Jelka Rosen, and later artists inspired by the painting, such as Mickalene Thomas. The exhibition also includes a gallery dedicated to the Haas bequest, which brought the painting to SFMOMA in 1991.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 6, 2026 visibility 18 link 8 artists

Cécile Debray : « Une proposition poétique de dialogue entre trois œuvres pour une délectation esthétique »

Cécile Debray, president of the Musée national Picasso-Paris, discusses a rare collaboration with galleries to present a three-artist exhibition in Venice during the Biennale. The show brings together Pablo Picasso, Giorgio Morandi, and Claudio Parmiggiani around the theme of the object and still life, highlighting unexpected philosophical and poetic connections. Debray explains how the selection of 14 Picasso works balances iconic pieces with lesser-known ones, including sculptures, to create a dialogue with Morandi's rigorous, serial approach and Parmiggiani's metaphysical art.

newspaper Le Journal des Arts open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Jul 17, 2025 visibility 25 link 21 artists

“Berthe Weill, Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-garde” in Montreal

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) has opened a major exhibition titled "Berthe Weill, Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-garde," showcasing over 100 works that Weill exhibited in her Paris galleries between 1901 and 1940. The show highlights her role in launching the careers of artists such as Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani, and Suzanne Valadon, and includes paintings, drawings, sculptures, and archival materials. Weill, born to a poor Jewish family, opened her first gallery at age 36 using her mother's dowry, never charged for exhibitions, and often sold her own possessions to keep her spaces afloat. Despite her immense contributions, she died in poverty and has been largely omitted from art history.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 1, 2025 visibility 20 link 9 artists

‘The First Homosexuals’ showcases 300 queer artworks amid ‘rise of homophobic politics’

A major new exhibition, “The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869–1939,” has opened at Chicago’s Wrightwood 659, featuring over 300 queer artworks from 125 artists across 40 countries. Curated by Jonathan D. Katz and Johnny Willis, the show includes early photographs of drag, a painting of a late-1700s trans pioneer, and what is believed to be the first same-sex wedding depicted in art, alongside works by iconic figures like Gertrude Stein and James Baldwin. The exhibition, eight years in the making, draws loans from institutions such as the Tate and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as private collections, and runs through July 26.

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article culture schedule Apr 30, 2026 source 2 sources visibility 22 link 9 artists, 1 gallery

art criticism lynne tillman paying attention book

Lynne Tillman celebrated the publication of her new collection, *Paying Attention: Essays on Art and Culture*, from David Zwirner Books, at an event hosted by Coco’s at Colette. The article features a conversation between Tillman and the author, in which she discusses her origin story as a critic, her background in fiction writing, and her unconventional entry into art criticism through an invitation from Craig Owens at *Art in America*. She recounts writing a Madame Realism story about a Renoir exhibition after eavesdropping on museum tours, a piece that angered some art historians.

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article culture schedule May 16, 2025 visibility 12 link 9 artists

salvador dali mustache origin 2628935

Salvador Dalí's iconic mustache, voted the Most Famous Mustache of All Time in a 2010 Telegraph survey, originated in the 1940s after he initially sported a more subdued "Menjou" style in the 1930s. The artist developed his flamboyant upturned mustache, first appearing in his painting *Soft Self-Portrait with Grilled Bacon* (1941), and maintained it with meticulous daily grooming using date-based wax. Dalí treated the mustache as a personal logo and creative symbol, even co-authoring a 1954 book with photographer Philippe Halsman titled *Dalí's Mustache*, featuring 28 surreal photographs.

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museum exhibitions schedule Oct 9, 2025 visibility 18 link 7 artists, 1 gallery

Is an auction house's loss a gallery's gain? Pilar Ordovas collaborates with former Sotheby's specialists for African and Oceanic art show

Pilar Ordovas opens an exhibition at her Mayfair gallery titled *Dialogues: European, American, African and Oceanic Art from the 20th and 21st Centuries*, running from 9 October to 12 December. The show is a collaboration with Jean Fritts, former international chairman of African & Oceanic Art at Sotheby’s, and Pierre Mollfulleda, formerly head of Sotheby’s African & Oceanic Art department in Paris. It pairs Modern and contemporary Western works with African and Oceanic objects that inspired them, including pieces from the landmark 1984 MoMA exhibition "Primitivism" in 20th Century Art.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

candle obituary schedule Jul 7, 2025 visibility 22 link 30 artists, 1 gallery

Remembering John Sailer, the gallerist and champion of Austrian art, who has died, aged 87

John Sailer, the founder of Vienna's Galerie Ulysses and a key champion of Austrian avant-garde art, has died at age 87. Sailer opened the gallery in 1974 with Gabriele Wimmer in a garage space before moving to its permanent location at Opernring 21. Over five decades, the gallery showcased Austrian artists such as Hans Hollein, Maria Lassnig, Walter Pichler, Arnulf Rainer, and Fritz Wotruba, alongside American greats like Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, and Helen Frankenthaler. Sailer also worked to promote Austrian and German artists in US museums, notably organizing a Rainer exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum and the Menil Collection, and successfully introducing Lassnig to the New York market at age 70.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule May 6, 2026 visibility 23 link 14 artists

How the Arts Club of Chicago Stays Contemporary in its Second Century

The Arts Club of Chicago, founded in 1916, continues to balance its historic legacy with contemporary relevance under executive director and chief curator Janine Mileaf. The club, which gave Pablo Picasso his first solo institutional exhibition in the U.S. in 1923 and hosted figures like Gertrude Stein and John Cage, now operates as both a public space and a private membership club. Mileaf’s programming emphasizes Dada and surrealist roots while showcasing experimental, site-specific works, including a recent installation by Korean artist Haegue Yang. The club maintains a close relationship with Chicago’s arts community, aiming to expose audiences to challenging and surprising art.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 14, 2026 visibility 37 link 15 artists

Duchamp and the Museum

The Museum of Modern Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art have co-organized a major exhibition and catalogue exploring Marcel Duchamp’s complex relationship with art institutions. Despite his reputation as a skeptical iconoclast who famously claimed to avoid the Louvre, Duchamp spent decades actively reshaping how museums function through his "portable museum" projects, curatorial collaborations, and the strategic placement of his legacy within permanent collections.

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article culture schedule Apr 14, 2026 visibility 33 link 5 artists

Pablo Picasso | Biography, Cubism, Famous Paintings, Guernica, & Facts

Pablo Picasso remains the most influential figure of 20th-century art, credited with co-founding Cubism alongside Georges Braque and fundamentally altering the trajectory of Western representation. Over an eighty-year career, he produced approximately 50,000 works across diverse media, including seminal paintings like 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon' and 'Guernica,' which moved art away from Renaissance-era naturalism toward abstraction.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 15, 2025 visibility 19 link 12 artists

Rejected by Museums Around the World, This New Art Exhibition Explores the Historical Roots of the Term 'Homosexual'

An ambitious new exhibition titled “The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869-1939” has opened at Chicago’s Wrightwood 659 gallery, featuring over 300 works by more than 125 artists from 40 countries. Curated by Jonathan D. Katz, the show traces the historical roots of the term 'homosexual,' coined in 1868 by Hungarian writer Karl Maria Kertbeny, and explores the artistic and social transformations surrounding the emergence of homosexual identity up to 1939. The exhibition includes loans from major institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Musée d’Orsay, with works by artists such as George Catlin, Jean Cocteau, John Singer Sargent, and Thomas Eakins, organized into eight thematic sections.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 14, 2025 visibility 18 link 6 artists

Chicago Is The Only City To Host 'The First Homosexuals,' An Extensive Collection Of Queer Art

The article reports that 'The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869-1939,' a major international exhibition of queer art, is currently on view at Wrightwood 659 in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. Curated by art historian Jonathan D. Katz, the show features around 350 works from over 100 lenders, including private collectors and major museums, and runs through July 26. Katz notes that no other institution in the world has agreed to host the exhibition, citing widespread refusals from venues in the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia.

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rate_review review schedule May 11, 2026 visibility 14 link 2 artists

‘My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein’ by Deborah Levy, Reviewed

Deborah Levy’s latest novel, *My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein*, follows a first-person narrator who travels to Paris to research the American writer and collector Gertrude Stein. The narrative slips between the early twentieth century and the autumn of Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection, using stream-of-consciousness prose and liquid metaphors to blur past and present. The narrator’s research into Stein’s role in shaping modernity becomes a vehicle for exploring her own sense of helplessness and lack of agency in a hyperconnected, war-weary present.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 22, 2026 visibility 7 link 1 artist

Heiner Goebbels’ Landscape Plays faces an uphill battle to appeal to the public

The Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai is hosting the first solo exhibition in India of German composer Heiner Goebbels, titled 'Landscape Plays'. The exhibition, presented by the Goethe-Institut, features six slow-moving, non-narrative video installations that challenge traditional viewing habits with their meditative, plotless approach.

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person people schedule Oct 2, 2025 visibility 15 link 8 artists

Interview with Lisja Tërshana

Lisja Tërshana, co-founder of Khrais–Tërshana, an art dealership and production studio based in London with operations between Tirana and Krakow, discusses her unconventional path from law to the art world. After studying law in London and passing the Solicitor Qualifying Exam, she enrolled in Central Saint Martins' MA Innovation Management, where she met co-founder Sofian Khrais. The dealership operates across three distinct art markets: Poland's confident and institutionally anchored scene, Albania's emerging infrastructure with few international commercial galleries, and London's established yet innovative market. Tërshana emphasizes the importance of curation in her work, blending market instincts with curatorial vision, and draws on her legal background to ensure fairness and trust between artists and collectors.

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