centre pompidou fireworks display cai guo qiang 1234758447

On September 22, the Centre Pompidou in Paris closed for a five-year renovation, marking the occasion with a daytime fireworks display titled “The Last Carnival” by Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang. Organized with White Cube gallery and set during Art Basel Paris, the three-act gunpowder spectacle—The Banquet, The Dawn of AI, and The Last Carnival—was conceived using Cai’s custom AI model, cAI™, and turned the museum’s façade into a monumental painting.

Michael Armitage in Venice, monumental and disturbing. What the exhibition at Palazzo Grassi looks like

Michael Armitage is the subject of a major solo retrospective at Palazzo Grassi in Venice, marking his largest exhibition in Europe to date. Organized by the Pinault Collection, the show features monumental paintings that blend African identity, local Kenyan chronicles, and mythological narratives. Armitage’s work is noted for its physical scale and its ability to transform the chaos of human affairs into a syncretic epic, utilizing traditional materials like Lubugo bark cloth to ground his contemporary subjects.

rembrandt masterpiece undergoes conservation at germanys stadel museum 1234755009

The Städel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany, is undertaking a major conservation treatment of Rembrandt van Rijn's monumental painting *The Blinding of Samson* (1636). The project, expected to last three to four years, will address signs of aging and previous restorations, remove non-original paint, and create a historically accurate frame. The conservation follows a 2021 research seminar and technical studies published in the journal *ArtMatters*, which revealed previously unknown underdrawing techniques and adjustments to the artist's color palette and composition.

rembrandt masterpiece undergoes conservation at germanys stadel museum 1234755009

The Städel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany, is undertaking a major conservation treatment of Rembrandt van Rijn's monumental painting *The Blinding of Samson* (1636). The project, expected to last three to four years, will address signs of aging and previous restorations, remove non-original paint, and create a historically accurate frame. The conservation follows a 2021 research seminar linked to the museum's exhibition "Rembrandt in Amsterdam: Creativity and Competition," during which technical studies revealed previously unknown underdrawing techniques and adjustments to the artist's color palette and composition. Funding is provided by the Bank of America Art Conservation Project.

Edvard Munch’s Paintings for a Chocolate Factory Get a Rare Museum Outing

A series of 12 monumental paintings by Edvard Munch, created for the workers' canteen of the Freia chocolate factory in Oslo, have been temporarily removed from their original location for the first time. The works, known as the Freia Frieze, are now on display at the nearby Munch Museum in an exhibition titled "Edvard Munch and the Chocolate Factory," which also includes preparatory sketches and examines the artist's output in the 1920s.

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.

christies four paris art week 2025 auctions 1234759320

Christie's and Sotheby's both posted strong results during Paris Art Week 2025, with Christie's four auctions totaling $107.4 million—a 16% increase year-over-year—and Sotheby's two sales reaching €89.7 million ($104 million), a 50% rise from the previous year. The top lot at Christie's was Yves Klein's monumental painting *California (IKB 71)*, which sold for €18.4 million ($21.4 million), setting a record for the artist in France. Other artists including Max Ernst, Paul Signac, Lee Ufan, and Berthe Morisot also achieved new auction records in France during the week.

AI Suggests El Greco Could Be the Sole Author of 'The Baptism of Christ'

Une IA suggère qu’El Greco pourrait être l’unique auteur du Baptême du Christ

A new scientific study published in the journal Science Advances challenges the long-held belief that El Greco's monumental painting 'The Baptism of Christ' was completed by his workshop. Using a deep-learning tool called PATCH to analyze the painting's surface topography, researchers from Case Western Reserve University found a technical consistency suggesting the work was executed by a single hand, likely El Greco himself, despite visible variations in execution.

Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys’ ‘Giants’ art exhibition opens in La Jolla this weekend. Here are 5 things to see.

The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) is debuting "Giants," a major exhibition featuring over 130 works from the private collection of Kasseem "Swizz Beatz" Dean and Alicia Keys. The West Coast premiere showcases monumental paintings, sculptures, and installations by nearly 40 Black artists, including Kehinde Wiley, Mickalene Thomas, and Nick Cave. The show is organized around themes of scale and cultural impact, beginning with personal artifacts from the Deans' early careers before transitioning into significant contemporary masterpieces.

Kent Monkman Reimagines History Painting At Akron Art Museum

The Akron Art Museum will present "Kent Monkman: History Is Painted by the Victors," a major exhibition of monumental paintings by Cree artist Kent Monkman. Running from April 11 to August 16, 2026, the show reimagines history painting through a subversive, Indigenous lens, confronting colonial narratives and offering new perspectives on the past and present.

Abundance of botanical forms and monumental paintings reflects optimism at San Francisco’s Fog Design+Art fair

The 12th edition of Fog Design+Art in San Francisco opened with a record-breaking preview gala on January 21, drawing over 2,700 guests. The fair features 65 presentations from local and international dealers, with standout booths including Jessica Silverman's blue-hued works and Hauser & Wirth's $1m sale of Jack Whitten's 'Solar Space' (1971). Large-scale paintings dominate, alongside a notable abundance of botanical imagery, while geometric abstractions outnumber representational works. The fair's director, Sydney Blumenkranz, noted a particularly buoyant mood and strong attendance from tech industry leaders.

According to an AI, El Greco would actually be the sole author of the 'Baptism of Christ' in Toledo, long considered a workshop work

Selon une IA, Greco serait en réalité l’unique auteur du « Baptême du Christ » de Tolède, longtemps considéré comme une œuvre d’atelier

A new study published in Science Advances uses an AI tool called Patch to analyze the monumental painting "Le Baptême du Christ" (1608–1614) by El Greco, long believed to be a workshop piece completed by his son Jorge Manuel Theotocópuli. By mapping the 3D microtopography of the brushstrokes and comparing them with El Greco's authenticated "Christ on the Cross" at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the AI found consistent painterly gestures across the entire work, suggesting the master himself painted it despite tremors from neurological disorders in his old age.

Unbound Narratives: Embodied Language at Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta

The Atlanta Contemporary is presenting the group exhibition 'Unbound Narratives: Embodied Language,' curated by Karen Comer Lowe. It features works by artists February James, Bethany Collins, Gabi Madrid, and a’driane nieves across film, painting, and mixed media, focusing on how each translates personal and embodied experience into visual and linguistic forms. Key pieces include nieves's monumental painting on grief and rage, Collins's text-based interrogation of racial identity, James's debut stop-motion film exploring stillness, and Madrid's inscribed headboards addressing healing and cultural memory.

Symbiotic Communion Flourishes in Laura Berger’s Expansive Paintings

Chicago artist Laura Berger presents a new suite of monumental paintings exploring themes of communion and interdependence. Her signature minimal, nude figures are depicted merging with natural elements like waves, flowers, and clouds, rendered in varying states of translucence to symbolize a deep connection with the earth and each other.

Cosanti Originals Debuts New Artist Exhibition

Mesa-based artist Talia Dudley has unveiled her latest solo exhibition, “SHROUD,” at the Cosanti Originals Gallery in Paradise Valley. The collection features large-scale paintings, some measuring up to 80 by 60 inches, which were developed during Dudley’s recent artist residency at Arcosanti. The works utilize gestural strokes and heavy layering to explore the "architecture of the unconscious," drawing direct inspiration from the unique structural environment and hidden spaces of the Arcosanti site.

Arch Hades opens major solo exhibition on the Grand Canal in Venice

Artist-poet Arch Hades has opened a major solo exhibition on the Grand Canal in Venice, running concurrently with the Venice Biennale. The collateral show features monumental paintings and immersive sculptures that delve into themes of loss and vulnerability as part of a broader meditation on the human condition.

danish museum gentileschi red hook fire morning links 1234753049

A massive fire ripped through a 19th-century warehouse at 481 Van Brunt Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn, destroying artist studios and artworks. Over 200 firefighters battled the blaze, which was still smoldering by Friday. Artist Rebecca Spivack, who had worked in a third-floor studio since 2009, expressed long-held fears about fire risk in the aging buildings. Meanwhile, the Nivaagaard Collection, a small museum in rural Denmark, acquired Artemisia Gentileschi's monumental painting "Susanna and the Elders" amid stiff international competition, marking a major coup for the institution. In other news, Ai Weiwei accused Die Zeit of censoring his article, Florida's removal of street art continues to stir controversy, Thaddaeus Ropac opened a new Milan gallery, and the world's oldest synagogue paintings in Syria were confirmed safe. The Vagina Museum in London stopped shipping to the US due to Trump's trade tariffs.

Caravaggio’s ‘Judith Beheading Holofernes’ coming to Kimbell Art Museum from Rome

The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth announced on August 29, 2025, that it will display Caravaggio’s monumental painting *Judith Beheading Holofernes* (1599–1600) as a Guest of Honor loan from the Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica in Rome, where it normally hangs in the Palazzo Barberini. The canvas, approximately six feet wide and five feet tall, will be on view in the Louis I. Kahn Building from September 14, 2025, through January 11, 2026. The painting depicts the biblical moment of Judith decapitating the Assyrian general Holofernes, showcasing Caravaggio’s signature bold realism and dramatic chiaroscuro. The loan follows the museum’s 2022 Focus Exhibition “SLAY,” which featured Artemisia Gentileschi’s and Kehinde Wiley’s interpretations of the same subject.

Exhibition 'The House of Pikachu: Art, Anime, and Pop Culture' Opens October 17 at Asia Society Texas

Asia Society Texas (AST) in Houston announces its upcoming exhibition 'The House of Pikachu: Art, Anime, and Pop Culture,' opening October 17, 2025 and running through March 15, 2026. The show features 25 artists from Japan, Brazil, China, Mexico, Côte d'Ivoire, Texas, and beyond, exploring the influence of Japanese animation on contemporary art. Highlights include works by Yoshitaka Amano, Houston-based artist Gao Hang, and Monsieur Zohore, who is creating a new monumental painting titled 'Houston, We Have A Problem (2025)' that depicts a melee of postwar anime characters. The exhibition includes playful nods to classics like Astro Boy, Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, and an immersive homage to Pikachu.