Latest
‘Easily recognisable fakes’ among artefacts repatriated to Italy from the US
Forged objects have been identified among the 60 antiquities returned amid much fanfare earlier this year
Smithsonian picks architect for $130m Bezos Learning Center on Washington, DC's National Mall
The new education annex of the National Air and Space Museum will be funded through a $200m gift from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos
Vermeer blockbuster officially breaks record at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum
The recently-closed exhibition drew 650,000 visitors in its four month run
Venice Biennale artist Sonia Boyce and Simon Lee Gallery part ways after just two years
The London-based gallery is also subject to a Companies House notice to be dissolved, though owner says tax dispute has now been resolved
Phyllida Barlow's final, irreverent public art project takes form in New York
At the time of her death in March, the British sculptor had been working on a major Public Art Fund exhibition
Museums & Heritage
China is waging a restitution campaign against Taiwan’s Forbidden City treasures
The artefacts held in Taipei’s National Palace Museum have become a political pawn in an increasingly heated conflict across the Taiwan Strait
The British Museum and BP's sponsorship deal will end after 27 years
The museum has been under pressure for more than a decade to break off its affiliation with the oil and gas corporation
As Israel is rocked by protests, a West Bank cultural centre seeks to 'represent the Palestinian struggle'
The artistic institution Dar Jacir was established by the Bethlehem-born artist Emily Jacir to give creatives from Palestine an outlet
Munstead Wood, a masterpiece of Arts and Crafts, is acquired by the National Trust
Government funding helps acquire Surrey house and garden that launched the global careers of the architect Edwin Lutyens and the garden designer Gertrude Jekyll, whose home it was for nearly 40 years
Museum of Modern Art acquires more than 200 works by experimental film-maker Ken Jacobs
The museum has also restored Jacobs’s first film, “Orchard Street” (1955), which will be displayed in a gallery in November
Exhibitions
Phyllida Barlow's final, irreverent public art project takes form in New York
At the time of her death in March, the British sculptor had been working on a major Public Art Fund exhibition
Big Review: Georg Baselitz: Naked Masters at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna ★★★★★
Bold pairings of paintings by the contemporary German artist with those of the Old Masters are both provocative and elegiac
'Pablo Picasso, like our audiences, can handle complexity'
Hannah Gadsby's take on the (in)famous artist at the Brooklyn Museum is all about engaging in difficult dialogues, says the museum's director Anne Pasternak
Joe Tilson: the Pop artist who dodged Hitler’s torpedoes and life on a building site
The nonagenarian talks about why Italy is more welcoming to artists, how meaning is always in the eye of the beholder, and his displeasure in learning that Boris Johnson is a fan
Art market
Venice Biennale artist Sonia Boyce and Simon Lee Gallery part ways after just two years
The London-based gallery is also subject to a Companies House notice to be dissolved, though owner says tax dispute has now been resolved
Sotheby’s will pay $100m for the Whitney Museum’s Marcel Breuer building
The auction house expects to move into the Madison Avenue building in 2025, vacating its current York Avenue headquarters
For just the third time this century, a Fra Angelico work heads to auction
Rediscovered panel painting comes to Christie’s evening sale in London next month with an estimate of £4m-£6m
French actor Alain Delon’s art collection heads to auction
"The Leopard" star’s collection could bring in as much as €5m at Bonhams in Paris
Diary
Visitors gripe over missing Girl with a Pearl Earring
Masterpiece was returned to the Mauritshuis in March
Taylor Swift’s cat painting pops up in New York museum show
Museum of Arts and Design exhibition is a feast for Swifties (namely devotees of the Shake It Off singer)
Margate gallery PR post catches Tracey Emin’s eye
Artist (cheekily) asks on Instagram if she can apply for marketing job at Turner Contemporary
Hannah Gadsby discusses provocative Picasso show at The Brooklyn Museum, wading into a row about a certain family...
'There’s not a billionaire on this planet that is not fucked up,' says the Nanette comic
Obituaries
'The real departure will occur on its own, in its own time': pioneering artist Ilya Kabakov has died, aged 89
The chronicler of life in the Soviet Union was known for his "total installations", including a devastated room in a Communist apartment
Kenneth Anger, creator of visionary and transgressive films, has died, aged 96
The film-maker and moving image artist was best known for his boundary-pushing (and, according to some, blasphemous) 1963 film “Scorpio Rising”
Remembering Myriam Ullens, art collector, and philanthropist, who launched the first contemporary art museum in China
Belgian entrepreneur in fashion, food and art, co-founded the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, in Beijing, with her husband, Guy Ullens
Thomas Kong, who transformed a Chicago convenience store into an art environment, has died
Beloved in Chicago, the artist worked in a small corner shop that doubled as his studio
Harry Belafonte, singer, actor and civil rights champion inspired by artists' involvement in social causes, has died, aged 96
Belafonte cited Pablo Picasso and his artist friend Charles White among the visual and performing artists whose support of social justice movements inspired his activism
Careers at The Art Newspaper
We're hiring: art market editor (maternity cover)
We are looking for an experienced London-based journalist to step in while our current art market editor is on maternity leave
Art & Technology
News, background and analysis on the latest tech developments—artificial intelligence tools; Web3, the blockchain, NFTs; virtual and augmented reality; social media platforms—and how they affect the art market, museums, artists and curators.
Pioneering AI artist wins inaugural $100,000 award from New York's Guggenheim and LG
Stephanie Dinkins wins prize that celebrates excellence in works at the intersection of art and technology
From Frank Stella to the quilters of Gee's Bend: how Artists Rights Society is working in the world of NFTs
An NFT drop with Stella was the debut for ARS's digital platform, Arsnl. Now it brings bold patterns to the blockchain with a show of NFTs generated by the coder artist Anna Lucia working with the quiltmakers of Gee's Bend, Alabama
New US copyright rules protect only AI art with ‘human authorship’
The US Copyright Office has eased its stance in new guidelines, and a decision on a comic book created using artificial intelligence
'In the age of AI, putting creativity at the heart of education is more important than ever'
The UK Labour Party is gearing up for the next election and should be talking about how we are educating children
Press officers move over: Gagosian employs ChatGPT to announce new exhibition
The artificial intelligence chat bot was credited with creating the text for Alex Israel's show in Rome
The Week in Art
A podcast bringing you the latest news from the art world, every week
New York's Spring art bonanza: the shows, the sales, the fairs
Plus, the Richard Prince copyright case and Sarah Sze in London
Trigger warning
Trigger Warning is a fortnightly blog by our chief contributing editor Gareth Harris that drills down on current censorship sagas, analysing the implications for artists and the art world and how such cases inform the debate around issues that dominate contemporary discourse.
Are we more prudish about Michelangelo’s David in 2023 than we were in 1564?
The ousting of a Tallahassee principal after school children were shown images of the famous Renaissance sculpture reveals a rather zealous mindset
Book Club
Anna Atkins and the algae: how the first photobook was made in the mid-1800s
In an extract from an essay accompanying a newly published facsimile, Peter Walther tells the story of how this remarkable publication came about
Opera singer Peter Brathwaite tells us why he reinterpreted Black portraiture using household items
In his book inspired by the Getty Museum Challenge, Brathwaite recreated portraits by artists such as Georges Trubert and Sonia Boyce
An expert's guide to Keith Haring: four must-read books on the US Pop artist
All you ever wanted to know about Haring, from his personal journals to interviews with the likes of Roy Lichtenstein and Madonna—selected by the curator Sarah Loyer
The story behind Sol LeWitt’s rarely seen wall drawings in a medieval tower
An extract from an essay by the art historian Rye Dag Holmboe explains how the US artist’s works ended up in the Umbrian city of Spoleto
Books
Stephen Shore's drone with a view delivers a different side of America
A book of the US photographer's aerial images, created during the Covid-19 pandemic, offers an original take on the US’s lived reality
Adventures with Van Gogh
Adventures with Van Gogh is a weekly blog by Martin Bailey, our long-standing correspondent and expert on the artist. Published every Friday, his stories range from newsy items about this most intriguing artist to scholarly pieces based on his own meticulous investigations and discoveries.
Inspired by the Seine: an ambitious exhibition with Van Gogh’s Parisian landscapes opens in Chicago
Only one photograph of Vincent as an adult survives, drinking at a riverside café—but he turns his back on the camera
A brush with... podcast
A podcast that asks artists the questions you've always wanted to
A brush with… Phyllida Barlow
We sat down with the late artist earlier this year to discuss her cultural experiences and greatest influences, from Louise Nevelson to Fyodor Dostoevsky
'TikTok, TikTok… It’s time the art world stopped being so uptight and joined the world's most entertaining app'
Big museums are missing a trick by refusing to embrace the youth- and fun- oriented platform
Digital shadows: what happens to an artefact's data after it is restituted?
Museums are stepping up efforts to return physical objects to their original owners—but repatriation policies often do not consider the digital information associated with them