paint drippings art industry news jan 26

This week's art industry roundup covers major developments across auctions, galleries, and institutions. Christie's will auction René Magritte's 'Les grâces naturelles' (ca. 1961) as the star lot of its Art of the Surreal evening sale in London on March 5, with an estimate of £6.5–9.5 million. Zona Maco in Mexico City has announced 241 exhibitors for its 22nd edition, including a new section called Forma. The London Art Fair reported strong sales for British women abstract painters, while Vienna's Spark Art fair canceled its 2025 edition for a strategic pause until 2027. In gallery news, Amy Sherald signed with Creative Artists Agency, and several other artist-gallery representation changes were announced. The U.K. government pledged £1.5 billion to support cultural organizations from 2025 to 2030, and Tarek Atoui was named the next Turbine Hall commission artist at Tate Modern.

2025 art obituaries

Artnet News has published its annual roundup of art world figures who died in 2025, honoring a diverse range of individuals including museum directors, painters, curators, philanthropists, and an archaeologist. Among those remembered are Julia Alexander, former director of the Yale Center for British Art; Sylvain Amic, recently appointed to lead the Musée d'Orsay; philanthropist Wallis Annenberg; abstract painters Timothy App and Jo Baer; curator Leonid Bazhanov; and Tony Bechara, painter and former director of El Museo del Barrio.

5 rising artists defined 2025

Artnet News published a roundup of five rising artist profiles that defined 2025, highlighting interviews with Alexandra Metcalf and Chase Hall. Metcalf, a British-American artist, blends 1960s psychedelia, 2000s pop music, and Victorian literature in her multimedia works, and debuted at Art Basel with London's Ginny on Frederick. Chase Hall, a painter who uses hot coffee on cotton, explores race and fatherhood, with a solo exhibition "Momma's Baby, Daddy's Maybe" at Galerie Eva Presenhuber in Vienna.

collectors reveal key advice

Collectors share advice for aspiring art patrons in a two-part series, recounting their early mistakes and lessons learned. Diana Bowes, board chair of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, recalls buying her first pieces at Art Basel in 2006 and warns against purchasing art online without seeing it in person, as well as protecting works from water, children, and house painters. Mana Jalalian, an interior designer based in Dubai with over 400 works by Iranian artists, emphasizes following instincts, continuous learning, and the value of working with an art advisor.

The Wild Nine-Month Journey that Led to Nathaniel Mary Quinn Designing the Rolling Stones’ New Album Cover

Nathaniel Mary Quinn was commissioned to create the cover art for the Rolling Stones' new album *Foreign Tongues*, due July 10, after a three-way call with Mick Jagger and producer Andrew Watt. Over nine months, Quinn developed a composite portrait merging the faces of Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood, and also redesigned the band's iconic tongue-and-lips logo. The process involved regular conversations with Jagger and Richards, a private rehearsal session, and a lunch at the Baccarat Hotel, culminating in the band choosing Quinn's original composite over a second option featuring a vintage sports car.

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.

The village where Van Gogh spent his final days celebrates its most distinguished visitor

An exhibition titled "Van Gogh, Influencer: Legacies in Motion" has opened at the Château of Auvers-sur-Oise, the village near Paris where Vincent van Gogh spent his final 70 days and died by suicide in July 1890. The show, running until 3 January 2027, features nearly a hundred works by artists influenced by Van Gogh, including Léonide Bourges, Charles-François Daubigny, and Léo Gausson, though no original Van Gogh paintings are included. Curated by Wouter van der Veen, the exhibition explores visual parallels and stylistic contrasts between Van Gogh’s iconic works—such as *Church at Auvers* and *Wheatfield with Crows*—and those of his contemporaries and followers.

painting female old master artemisia gentileschi sells 2 million

Artemisia Gentileschi's 17th-century painting 'Lucretia' sold for €1.88 million ($2 million) at Dorotheum's Old Master sale in Vienna, more than double its high estimate. The work, previously unseen in public, was acquired by an Australian collection, continuing a trend of strong auction results for the Baroque artist.

jenny saville get under the skin

Jenny Saville, the British painter known for her monumental depictions of flesh, is the subject of her first major U.S. museum exhibition, "Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting," now on view at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas. The show, which previously opened at London's National Portrait Gallery in June, brings together 45 works from across her career, including charcoal drawings and large-scale oil paintings. In a rare interview, Saville discusses seeing older works like *Plan* again and how the Fort Worth museum's architecture suits her largest canvases. The exhibition runs through January 2026, ahead of a major 2026 showcase in Venice.

christopher kulendran thomas moma gagosian new museum

Christopher Kulendran Thomas, an artist who has been building his own neural networks for over a decade, is showing new paintings and a video installation at Gagosian's Upper East Side location, with concurrent exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art and upcoming at the New Museum. His series 'Peace Core' uses AI trained on Sri Lankan painters to generate compositions that are hand-painted onto canvas, depicting Mullivaikkal beach—the site of a 2009 massacre of Tamil civilians during the Sri Lankan civil war. The Gagosian show also features a 24-screen video installation that algorithmically remixes American TV footage from the morning of September 11, 2001, before the attacks became visible.

jenny saville national portrait gallery

British artist Jenny Saville has received her first major solo exhibition at a London museum, titled "Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting" at the National Portrait Gallery. The show spans three decades of her practice across some 50 paintings and drawings, tracing her evolution from a Young British Artist (YBA) known for vast, sensitive paintings of women's bodies to her recent digital-era heads. The exhibition will travel to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas in October. The article also highlights Saville's record-breaking 2018 sale of *Propped* for $12.4 million at Sotheby's London, which made her the highest-selling living female painter at the time, and notes recent auction results including *Juncture* selling for $7.3 million.

Bodies, Bodies, Bodies: Artists Revisit the Nude in Shows Across New York

This spring in New York, multiple exhibitions are revisiting the nude as an artistic genre, with artists exploring themes of flesh, harm, aging, and political oppression. Notable shows include Seung Ah Paik's "Self Configuration" series at Bortolami, where she paints distorted self-portraits that recall Surrealist and feminist traditions, and Joan Semmel's self-portraits at Alexander Gray Associates, which continue her decades-long focus on the nude body. These shows are part of a broader trend that also includes the New Museum's "New Humans: Memories of the Future."

Georg Baselitz, German artist who turned figurative painting on its head, has died, aged 88

Georg Baselitz, the influential German painter and sculptor, died on 30 April at age 88. Born Hans-Georg Kern in 1938 in Deutschbaselitz, he grew up amid the ruins of Nazi Germany and later adopted his surname from his birthplace. Expelled from the East Berlin Academy for "sociopolitical immaturity," he moved to West Berlin, where he rejected both gestural abstraction and Expressionism. His first solo exhibition in 1963 was shut down for obscenity. In 1969 he pioneered his signature inverted paintings, turning subjects upside down to sever image from representation. He also created large carved sculptures using axes and chainsaws. His later series, from 2014 onward, are considered his most astonishing work, culminating in a sustained focus on his wife, artist Elke Kretzschmar.

A brush with... Sanya Kantarovsky—podcast

Artist Sanya Kantarovsky is the subject of a podcast interview. He discusses his artistic practice, influences, and the guiding principle of 'ostranenija' or 'making strange' in his figurative paintings, which blend bodies, animals, and plants in atmospheric, often threatening scenarios.

Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, Painter Who Used Her Art to Fight for Justice, Dies at 46

Acclaimed American painter Celeste Dupuy-Spencer has passed away at the age of 46 at her home in Los Angeles. Known for her visceral and politically charged figurative works, Dupuy-Spencer rose to prominence through her inclusion in the 2017 Whitney Biennial and the 2018 Made in L.A. biennial. Her death was announced by the Jeffrey Deitch gallery just ahead of a scheduled exhibition of her new work in Los Angeles.

abstract expressionists women christian levett

The American Federation of the Arts (AFA) has launched a major touring exhibition titled "Abstract Expressionists: The Women," featuring nearly 50 works from the collection of Christian Levett. Currently on view at the Muscarelle Museum of Art in Virginia, the show highlights 32 artists who were pivotal to the movement but often overshadowed by their male peers. The exhibition includes masterpieces by celebrated figures like Helen Frankenthaler and Lee Krasner alongside rediscovered works by lesser-known painters such as Emiko Nakano and Yvonne Thomas.

must see fall gallery shows new york

The article highlights four must-see fall gallery shows in New York City for September-October 2025. It features Mercedes Matter's first solo show at Berry Campbell, reviving the overlooked Abstract Expressionist; Julio Torres's theatrical debut "Color Stories" at Performance Space New York; Gabrielle Garland's first New York solo exhibition at Miles McEnery Gallery, showcasing surreal suburban paintings; and Omar Ba's exhibition "Promises and Glory" at Templon, presenting fantastical mixed-media works.

matthew wong paintings venice biennale show

A rare exhibition of works by the late artist Matthew Wong, including never-before-exhibited pieces, will open in Venice during the 2026 Biennale. Titled “Matthew Wong: Interiors,” the show is curated by John Cheim and organized by the artist’s foundation, run by his mother Monita Wong. The 35-work exhibition focuses on interior spaces, both physical and psychological, and highlights Wong’s vibrant color palette and expressive brushwork, which he developed before his death by suicide at age 35 in 2019.

marley freeman karma

Marley Freeman is preparing for her new exhibition "no when" at Karma's Chelsea gallery, running through July 18, 2025. The article delves into her background as the daughter of a textile dealer, which deeply influences her abstract paintings made from gesso, acrylic, and oil. Freeman's career includes breakout shows with Karma in 2019 and 2022, and her works are held by LACMA, the Hammer Museum, and the Whitney Museum. She has collaborated with artists Lukas Geronimas and Jared Buckhiester, and her current show features collaborative pieces.

r h quaytman robert de niro sr award

Actor Robert De Niro announced that artist R.H. Quaytman has won the 2016 Robert De Niro Sr. Prize, awarded to a mid-career painter for excellence and innovation. Quaytman, represented by Gladstone Gallery and Miguel Abreu Gallery, is known for mixed-media works on wood panels that blend photography, printmaking, and technology, often organized into series called "chapters." She will receive a $25,000 prize at a ceremony in New York on December 14. The selection committee included curators from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Whitney Museum.

antonia showering new york debut

Artist Antonia Showering is making her long-awaited New York solo debut with the exhibition “In Line” at Timothy Taylor in Tribeca, on view from May 8 to June 21, 2025. The show follows her London solo debut “Mixed Emotion” with the same gallery in 2022. Showering, known for dreamy, richly colored figurative oil paintings that blend abstraction and figuration, has seen her works command high prices at auction, including a 2017 painting that sold for nearly $300,000 at Phillips London. She discusses the deeply personal nature of the new work, which reflects major life changes including moving to rural Somerset, becoming a mother, and losing both grandmothers.

‘What a fascinating challenge for an artist’: how Monet captured Venice in his twilight years

A major exhibition at San Francisco's de Young Museum, titled 'Monet and Venice,' brings together over 100 works, focusing on the two dozen paintings Claude Monet created during his only visit to the city in 1908. The show contextualizes his Venetian output with works by contemporaries like J.M.W. Turner, John Singer Sargent, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, revealing that the trip was almost cancelled and was initially planned as a brief holiday.

The exhibitions to see in New York during Art Week 2026

Le mostre da vedere a New York durante l’Art Week 2026

The article highlights a selection of must-see exhibitions in New York during the 2026 Art Week, spanning major museums and galleries. At MoMA, three shows explore memory, identity, and artistic experimentation: Elizabeth Murray's retrospective on fragmented painting, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa's works addressing Guatemala's civil war, and Arthur Jafa's curated connections across the museum's collection. The Whitney Museum presents the 82nd Whitney Biennial, featuring 56 artists questioning what it means to be 'American,' alongside an Andy Warhol exhibition of rarely seen polaroids from 1972-73. Hauser & Wirth debuts its first Carol Rama show, highlighting six decades of her experimental, anticonformist art.

1969 gallery space zero one wet paint

The New York art scene is witnessing a shift in the Tribeca gallery landscape as 1969 Gallery, a fixture known for championing emerging painters, has shuttered its physical space at 39 White Street. Founder Quang Bao confirmed the closure following the building owner's decision to sell the property, noting that he is currently operating from Barcelona with plans to pivot toward collaborations and residencies rather than the traditional gallery model. Meanwhile, the itinerant Ward Gallery continues to gain traction by hosting pop-up symposia at institutions like the International Center for Photography, signaling a broader trend toward real-estate-free dealership.

Re-Air: The Young Painter Curators Are Rushing to Work With

Artnet News resurfaces an interview with painter Taína H. Cruz, who is featured in both the Whitney Biennial and MoMA PS1's Greater New York exhibition. Cruz, born in 1998 and a recent MFA graduate from Yale School of Painting, creates moody paintings often depicting Black female figures, drawing on African American and Caribbean folklore, horror, fantasy, and personal imagery. The interview, conducted by Ben Davis, explores her influences and her response to the sudden surge of attention from major institutions.

Are We Too Reverent of Marcel Duchamp?

The Museum of Modern Art has launched a major retrospective of Marcel Duchamp, co-organized with the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The exhibition tracks the artist's evolution from his early Cubist experiments and the scandal of 'Nude Descending a Staircase' to his radical invention of the readymade, exemplified by the infamous urinal, 'Fountain'. The show presents a comprehensive look at 'The Duch' through a reverential, church-like atmosphere, concluding with his later years as a dapper, enigmatic figure of the avant-garde.

figurative painting trend boom bust market politics zombie jennifer packer salman toor louis fratino

The article examines the narrative that figurative painting died and made a comeback, arguing instead that it never truly disappeared. It traces the art market's pendulum swing from zombie formalism around 2014 to a surge in figurative painting by 2015, fueled by collectors seeking new, affordable works to flip quickly. The piece highlights emerging painters like Gina Beavers, Mira Dancy, Jamian Juliano-Villani, and Greg Parma Smith, and notes that the boom created auction stars whose prices later crashed, as reported in a 2024 New York Times article.

Waddington’s Spring Sale Spotlights Canadian Masters

Toronto-based auction house Waddington's will hold its Major Spring Sale on May 28, 2026, marking its 176th anniversary. The sale comprises three sessions: Canadian & International Fine Art, First Nations Art, and Inuit Art. Highlights include works by Lawren Stewart Harris (Lake Superior Sketch, VI, est. $700,000–$800,000 CAD), David Brown Milne (Heavy Forms, 1913, est. $80,000–$120,000), Rudolf Ernst (Finishing Touches, est. $100,000–$150,000 CAD), Emily Carr (Somewhere, ca. 1942, est. $350,000–$450,000), and Norval Morrisseau (Young Shaman with Powers, 1978, est. $100,000–$150,000 CAD). The sale spans diverse periods and mediums, with a focus on Canadian masters and Indigenous art.

getty luis de morales christ painting restoration

The Getty Museum in Los Angeles has acquired and restored Luis de Morales's "Christ Carrying the Cross" (c. 1565), a 16th-century Spanish Renaissance painting. The work, which had been covered in discolored varnish and enlarged with wooden strips, was carefully conserved by Getty conservator Kari Rayner, who removed non-original paint to reveal the artist's original composition. The painting first appeared at auction in 2021 at Nagel Auktionen, initially attributed to Morales's studio with a €10,000 estimate, but later sold for €1.2 million before the Getty acquired it from the Daniel Katz Gallery.

michael werner gordon veneklasen end gallery partnership

Michael Werner and Gordon VeneKlasen, partners at Michael Werner Gallery for 35 years, are dissolving their partnership at the start of next year. Werner will continue operating Galerie Michael Werner in Berlin, while VeneKlasen will launch a new international gallery called VeneKlasen, taking over the current New York, London, and Los Angeles locations. The changes take effect in February, with VeneKlasen announcing his program early next year.