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What Will Art Basel’s No-Preview-Allowed ‘Basel Exclusive’ Initiative Offer?

Art Basel has announced the list of artists participating in its new "Basel Exclusive" initiative at its flagship Swiss fair, which opens to VIPs on June 16. The program asks exhibitors in the main Galleries sector to hold back at least one standout work from digital previews, keeping them secret until the fair opens. Over 190 of the roughly 240 galleries opted in, featuring blue-chip names like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Bridget Riley, Lucio Fontana, and Joan Mitchell, alongside emerging artists such as Frieda Toranzo Jaeger and Maia Ruth Lee. The initiative aims to restore the excitement of in-person discovery, countering the rise of digital transactions that became common during the pandemic.

Pioneering Kinetic Artist Julio Le Parc Dies Aged 97—and More Art Industry News

Argentine kinetic and optical art pioneer Julio Le Parc has died at age 97. In other art industry news, François-Henri Pinault has been appointed board chairman of Christie's; Art Basel Paris returns to the Grand Palais for its fifth edition under new director Karim Crippa; Tiwani Contemporary has permanently closed its London gallery; Gehry Partners will design a major renovation of the Getty Center; and the estate of Ansel Adams has spoken out against an unauthorized AI-colorized version of his photograph. The weekly roundup also covers auction highlights, including a T. rex fossil expected to fetch up to $30 million at Sotheby's, and the launch of new art fairs and residency programs.

Someone Stole Maurizio Cattelan’s Banana, and the Centre Pompidou-Metz Is Pressing Charges

On Saturday, the Centre Pompidou-Metz announced that Maurizio Cattelan's iconic artwork *Comedian*—a banana duct-taped to a wall—was stolen from the museum. Staff quickly replaced the fruit with a fresh banana and tape, as is routine every three days. The museum filed a legal complaint against unknown persons, marking the second such incident at the venue after a previous theft in 2024. The artwork's value resides in its certificate of authenticity and presentation protocol, not the perishable banana itself.

Seminal Lucian Freud Painting Comes to Auction for the First Time

Sotheby's will auction Lucian Freud's monumental painting *Sleeping by the Lion Carpet* (1995–96) for the first time this June in London, as part of the Joe Lewis collection sale. The work, depicting sitter Sue Tilley, carries an estimate of £25–35 million ($34–47 million) and is the last of four canvases from Freud's "Benefits Supervisor" series. The 51-lot collection, which also includes works by Gustav Klimt, Amedeo Modigliani, and Francis Bacon, is expected to exceed £150 million ($202 million) in total.

Smithsonian Women’s Museum chaos, Oliver Beer and Rufus Wainwright, Jasper Johns in Bilbao—podcast

This episode of The Art Newspaper's podcast 'The Week in Art' covers three main stories. Host Ben Luke discusses the US House of Representatives striking down a bill to build the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum on the National Mall, a setback amid broader government interference at the Smithsonian under President Trump. He also interviews artist Oliver Beer and musician Rufus Wainwright about their collaboration for Beer's exhibition 'The Sky in the Cave' at Thaddaeus Ropac during London Gallery Weekend, and examines Jasper Johns's painting 'Painting with Two Balls' (1960), featured in the retrospective 'Night Driver' at the Guggenheim Bilbao.

Jack White review – former White Stripe’s art is like a 12-year-old visiting Tate Modern for the first time

Rock musician Jack White, formerly of the White Stripes, has mounted an exhibition of his visual art at Damien Hirst's Newport Street Gallery in London. The show features customised amplifiers by Ai Weiwei and Hirst, furniture inspired by Mondrian, and works referencing American folk music, including a series based on a statuette called Ukulele Joe. The review is scathing, describing White's art as derivative, glib, and at the intellectual level of a 12-year-old visiting Tate Modern for the first time.

From Backrooms to Boards of Canada: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

The Guardian's weekly entertainment guide includes a section on art exhibitions, highlighting two shows. Camille Henrot's drawing-focused exhibition is on view at The Perimeter in London until July 25, showcasing a more personal side of the French artist known for complex video and sculpture. Pallant House in Chichester opens 'British Landscapes: A Sense of Place' from May 30 to November 1, surveying over 200 years of British landscape art by artists including Thomas Gainsborough, Paul Nash, and Barbara Hepworth.

‘I lived near a serial killer’: Steven Shearer on turning teen angst and death metal into high art

Canadian artist Steven Shearer, known for his reclusive nature, discusses his first UK exhibition since 2007 at David Zwirner Gallery in London. The show spans 40 years of his work, including paintings of long-haired teens, collages of appropriated images, and billboard-sized poetry inspired by heavy metal lyrics. Shearer, who grew up near serial killer Robert Pickton in Port Coquitlam, Vancouver, draws on suburban teenage angst, death metal iconography, and art historical references to create a unique visual language.

A century ago, Tate borrowed five Van Goghs to inaugurate its new “modern foreign” galleries

In June 1926, London's Tate Gallery opened its first rooms dedicated to modern foreign art, an event presided over by King George V and Queen Mary. To celebrate, the gallery mounted a massive loan exhibition of over 250 works, as its own collection of international art was too small. Among the loans were five works by Vincent van Gogh—four paintings and one drawing—all lent by British collectors. The article traces the provenance of each work, including Oleanders (now at the Met), Interior of a Restaurant (still in a private collection), Stairway at Auvers (now at the Saint Louis Art Museum), and a lost drawing titled The Hut. It also highlights the role of early female collectors Elizabeth Workman and Esther Sutro.

Lisson Grove's galleries collaborate to promote London's unsung art district

Lisson Gallery, The Showroom, The Bomb Factory Art Foundation, Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, and Palmer Gallery have formed the Lisson Grove Galleries initiative to promote the artistic activity of London's Lisson Grove district. The collaboration will launch during London Gallery Weekend (5-7 June 2025) with talks, tours, performances, and events, including discussions on collectivism, artist talks, and private views, with ongoing programming throughout the year.

Phoenix Art Museum gifted 185 works of Native American art

The Phoenix Art Museum has received a gift of 185 works of modern and contemporary Native American art from collector William P. Healey, the largest such donation in the museum's history. Assembled over the past decade with guidance from Diné artist Tony Abeyta, the collection will anchor a new exhibition titled "The Way We Came: A Century of Indigenous Art," opening August 26 and co-curated by Abeyta and JoAnna Reyes. Featured artists include Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Fritz Scholder, Allan Houser, T. C. Cannon, Kay WalkingStick, and Emmi Whitehorse, though only one artist, Michael Chiago, represents local Phoenix-area Tribes, and the Akimel O'odham, on whose ancestral lands the museum sits, have no representation.

Celia Paul Transcends Her Own Mythology

Celia Paul's exhibition "Innervisions" at Gladstone Gallery showcases her latest paintings, including works like "Cruciform Muse" (2025) and "Burning Painter" (2025). The show features her characteristic autobiographical approach, depicting family members, self-portraits, and ocean scenes, while also exploring themes of vulnerability and power through nude figures inspired by Gwen John. The exhibition builds on Paul's established reputation as a painter and memoirist, following her book "Letters to Gwen John" (2022) and a documentary by Jake Auerbach.

Alan Saret, Post-Minimal Sculptor of Spiritual Forms, Dies at 81

Alan Saret, the spiritually ambitious Post-Minimalist sculptor known for his ethereal wire sculptures and 'Gang Drawings,' has died at age 81. Born on Christmas Day 1944 in New York City, Saret studied architecture at Cornell University under Paolo Soleri and later studied art at Hunter College under Robert Morris. He debuted at SoHo's Bykert Gallery in 1967, participated in landmark exhibitions including Morris's '9 in a Warehouse' and 'Live in Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form,' and won a Guggenheim fellowship in 1969. After a period of obscurity, a 2007 Drawing Center exhibition reintroduced his work to a new generation. His gallery, Karma, confirmed his death, noting his pursuit of 'ensoulment' through art informed by spirituality, mathematics, nature, and the built environment.

Art Movements: Wolfgang Tillmans Wins Europe's Richest Art Prize

Wolfgang Tillmans has been awarded the Roswitha Haftmann Prize, Europe's largest monetary award for living visual artists, worth CHF 150,000 (~$191,361). The prize, established in 2001 in honor of Swiss art dealer Roswitha Haftmann and administered by Kunsthaus Zürich, recognizes Tillmans for his artistic oeuvre and social commitment. In other news, Cheryl Finley was named the 2026 recipient of the David C. Driskell Prize from the High Museum of Art, and El Museo del Barrio will honor Isabel and Agustín Coppel, J Balvin, and Estrellita Brodsky with its Tony Bechara Legacy Award. Additionally, Art Basel announced over 200 exhibitors for its Paris fair, and Jack White's first public exhibition of his visual artwork will open at Damien Hirst's Newport Street Gallery on May 29.

Alan Saret, ‘Anti-Form’ Artist Known for His Wire Sculptures, Dies at 81

Alan Saret, an artist known for his chaotic wire sculptures and colored-pencil drawings that helped define the 'anti-form' movement of the late 1960s and early '70s, died on Tuesday at age 81. His death was announced by Karma, the New York gallery that staged three exhibitions of his work since 2022. Saret's breakthrough came with a 1968 exhibition at Bykert Gallery, leading to inclusion in Harald Szeemann's landmark show 'When Attitudes Become Form' at Kunsthalle Bern in 1969. His wire sculptures, made from crushed and bent industrial materials, were collected by institutions including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum. He also created 'Gang Drawings' by dragging multiple colored pencils across paper, surveyed by the Drawing Center in 2007.

How Warsaw has become a new capital of collecting

Warsaw has emerged as a new hub for art collecting, driven by Poland's economic growth—projected to become the world's 20th largest economy by 2026. The city now hosts Art Warsaw, an art fair held in the historic Villa Róż, which attracted 56 galleries and around 11,000 visitors in its latest edition. Major collectors like Jerzy Starak and Artur Dela are fueling the scene, alongside the new Museum of Modern Art (inaugurated in 2024) and the long-running Warsaw Gallery Weekend.

Rediscovered Leonora Carrington painting to go on show for the first time at London's Freud Museum

A newly discovered painting by Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, titled *Villa Pilar* (1940), will be exhibited for the first time at the Freud Museum in London starting July 1. The work was created while Carrington was hospitalized at the Morales sanatorium in Santander, Spain, following the arrest of her partner Max Ernst and her subsequent psychological breakdown. The painting, given to her psychiatrist Luis Morales upon her departure, depicts the hospital as an underworld of hybrid creatures. It will be shown alongside its companion piece *Down Below* in the exhibition *Leonora Carrington: The Symptomatic Surreal*, which has been extended through August 10.

The 100 Best Artworks About America

ARTnews and Art in America have jointly compiled a list of the 100 best artworks about America, selected by their editors. The list spans from before the nation's founding in 1776 to the present day, featuring paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, videos, films, and digital works. Notable entries include rafa esparza's 2019 performance 'bust: indestructible columns,' which involved chiseling himself out of a concrete Ionic column on the Ellipse near the White House as a metaphor for democracy; Bureau of Inverse Technology's 1997–98 project 'BIT Plane,' a surveillance critique using a radio-controlled aircraft over Silicon Valley; and Bruce Nauman's 1981–82 neon work 'American Violence,' which combines sexual advances and white nationalist imagery.

Lost Leonora Carrington Painting Emerges After More Than 80 Years

A long-lost painting by Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, titled *Villa Pilar* (1940), has been rediscovered in Spain with the family of her former psychiatrist, Luis Morales. The work was created during Carrington's six-month stay at Morales's Peña Castillo sanatorium in Santander, where she was treated after escaping Nazi-occupied France. The painting will debut publicly at the Freud Museum in London as part of the exhibition “Leonora Carrington: The Symptomatic Surreal,” curated by Vanessa Boni, which gathers artworks from that period. The Morales family still owns the painting but is lending it to the show, which runs from July 1 to August 10, before the work travels to the Faro Santander art center in September.

Julio Le Parc, artist committed to movement and light, 1028–2026

Julio Le Parc, the Argentine artist known for his pioneering work in kinetic and Op Art, has died at age 98. Le Parc moved to Paris in 1958, where he developed a systematic, machine-like approach to abstraction, creating grid-based paintings and later sculptures using Plexiglas. He introduced light into his work in 1968 and became known for installations involving distorted mirrors and labyrinths that disoriented viewers. A founding member of the activist Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel (GRAV), he was briefly expelled from France after the 1968 social unrest. He received the International Grand Prize for Painting at the 1966 Venice Biennale and had major retrospectives at the Serpentine Galleries (2025), Palais de Tokyo (2013), and Daros Foundation (2014).

Inside the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art's major expansion

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, will open a major expansion on June 6, adding 114,000 square feet to its campus. Designed by Safdie Architects, the $100 million project includes 29,000 square feet of new galleries, ceramics and digital-art studios, a community lounge, and an outdoor playscape. The expansion will display 200 previously unseen works from the permanent collection, including new acquisitions, and features the exhibition "Keith Haring in 3D" running through January 2027.

Arthur Jafa’s Radical Theory of Readymade Art

Arthur Jafa, the acclaimed artist known for his video work and found-object art, is the subject of a new Art Angle podcast episode. The article details his rise from cinema to the art world, highlighted by his 2016 video 'Love Is the Message, the Message Is Death' and his 2019 Golden Lion win at the Venice Biennale. Currently, Jafa is featured in a two-person show with Richard Prince at the Prada Foundation in Venice, curated by Nancy Spector, and has curated 'Less Is Morbid' at the Museum of Modern Art. He is also a recipient of this year's Art Basel Award.

Post-Paintings, Pyrex Bowls, and Dollar-Store Flowers: Our Critic’s Guide to Art on the UES Right Now

Eliza Douglas makes her New York solo debut with 'Ghosts' at Gagosian's Park Avenue outpost, featuring layered paintings that incorporate UV-printed portraits of her aunt, UFO journalist Leslie Kean, over reworked canvases previously shown at the shuttered Air de Paris gallery. The exhibition runs through July 31, 2026, alongside concurrent shows at Gagosian's Madison Avenue space featuring Marcel Duchamp and Robert Rauschenberg, and a pairing of David Hammons with Jannis Kounellis at White Cube on the Upper East Side.

Art Basel Reveals More Participating Galleries and the Artists Selected for its ‘Exclusive’ Initiative, Which Withholds Artworks from Email Previews

Art Basel has announced that 193 of its 232 main-sector exhibitors (83%) have signed on to a new initiative called Basel Exclusive, which requires participating galleries to withhold at least one artwork—or their entire presentation—from emailed PDF previews sent to collectors and advisors before the fair opens. The initiative debuts at the upcoming Art Basel in Basel (June 18–21, with VIP previews June 16–17) and includes major galleries such as Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, David Zwirner, and Pace, as well as smaller venues like Bortolami and James Cohan. About 230 artists are covered, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, David Hockney, and Andy Warhol. Participating galleries will be marked on floor plans, and selected works will be highlighted by plaques.

Lucian Freud Painting He Spent Decades Denying Will Go on Public View for the First Time

A portrait long denied by Lucian Freud, titled *Man in a Black Scarf*, will go on public display for the first time this summer at London’s Garden Museum. Painted in 1939 while Freud studied at the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing, the work depicts John Jameson, heir to the Jameson whiskey family. Freud disavowed the painting in 1985 after Christie’s initially cataloged it as his, and he continued to deny it until his death in 2011. New evidence, including student records found in the Tate Britain archives, confirms Freud was working on a portrait of Jameson in 1939, matching the painting’s date and subject.

Sotheby’s Offers Art and Design From Estate of Revered Dealer Barbara Gladstone, Led by Richard Prince and a Jean Prouvé Sideboard

Sotheby's will auction 140 lots of art and design from the estate of revered dealer Barbara Gladstone, who died in 2024 at age 89. The sale, scheduled for June 9 during New York design week, includes contemporary works by Richard Prince, Alex Katz, Kai Althoff, and Yayoi Kusama, alongside midcentury modern design pieces by Jean Prouvé, Pierre Jeanneret, and Joaquim Tenreiro. The collection is estimated to bring between $6.9 and $10 million, with a public preview opening June 2 at Sotheby's Madison Avenue headquarters. A prior sale of contemporary artworks from Gladstone's collection in May achieved $18.5 million, exceeding its high estimate.

Early portrait denied by Lucian Freud shown for first time after authentication

An early portrait by Lucian Freud, titled *Man in a Black Scarf* (1939), will be exhibited for the first time after experts authenticated it, despite the artist having denied it was his for years. The painting depicts John Jameson, a friend and heir to the whiskey family, and was created while Freud was a student at the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing in Hadleigh, Suffolk. The work gained attention on the BBC's *Fake or Fortune?* in 2016, but authentication was complicated by Freud's repeated denials, which stemmed from a personal feud with the original owners, Denis Wirth-Miller and Richard Chopping. New evidence from Tate Britain archives confirmed the painting's origin, and it will now debut in the exhibition *Benton End: A Paradise of Pollen and Paint* at the Garden Museum in London.

Maurizio Cattelan’s Infamous Banana Vanishes. Again

Maurizio Cattelan's banana sculpture *Comedian* (2019) was stolen again from the Centre Pompidou-Metz in France, where it is on view in the exhibition "Dimanche Sans Fin." The thief remains at large, and the museum quickly replaced the banana per the artist's protocol. This marks the second incident at the same venue; a previous visitor ate the fruit in 2025. The work has a history of being consumed, starting with performance artist David Daturna at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019, followed by a Seoul art student, and later by crypto billionaire Justin Sun after he bought the piece for $6.2 million at Sotheby's in 2024.

Gone bananas: Cattelan's Comedian stolen from Centre Pompidou-Metz exhibition

Maurizio Cattelan's iconic artwork *Comedian* (2019)—a banana duct-taped to a wall—was stolen from the Centre Pompidou-Metz in northern France on May 30. The museum reported the theft, filed a complaint, and quickly replaced the banana, restoring the work to its original presentation. The perpetrators remain unknown, and the museum emphasized that the work's value lies in its certificate of authenticity and display protocol, not the perishable fruit.

Show celebrates legacy of the art school in Benton End—which counted Lucian Freud among its students

An exhibition at London's Garden Museum, titled "Benton End: A Paradise of Pollen and Paint," will explore the legacy of the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing and its founders, artists Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines. The school operated from the Tudor manor house Benton End in Suffolk from 1940 to the 1970s, attracting students including a young Lucian Freud and Maggi Hambling. The show features immersive reconstructions, original objects, and the portrait "Man in Black Scarf" (1939), controversially attributed to Freud, exhibited publicly for the first time.