Brian Allen
Downright quirky appetite for American masters at Sotheby's
A monumental painting of the American West by Emanuel Leutze breaks records while works by Rockwell and Hopper flop
Unlocking the secrets of China’s Qing dynasty empresses
From portraits to robes to jewelry, Peabody Essex Museum explores the intricate trappings of female power and influence
Record $91.9m sale of Edward Hopper’s Chop Suey buoys confidence at Christie’s American art sale
At $317.8m, the Ebsworth evening sale becomes one of the top five most valuable collections ever sold at auction
Tintoretto’s drawings bring new surprises and scholarship to his 500th birthday celebrations
An exhibition at the Morgan Library adds insight through the Venetian artist’s contemporaries
The next chapter of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection is off to a strong start
One year after Karole Vail took over the Venice museum, major exhibitions and rehangs are in the works
David Wojnarowicz was a poet, a fighter, a hustler, a survivor
The many sides of a complicated artist are explored with freshness, polish, and insight in the Whitney Museum’s retrospective
Louvre’s Delacroix exhibition uncovers France’s superstar of the Romantic era
His boundless inventiveness as a painter—and not only—shines through in this ambitious survey
The problem with artist-driven museum boards
Brian Allen explains how artists can hurt rather than help museums like MoCA Los Angeles
Berkshire Museum’s $8.1m Norman Rockwell leads American art auctions, despite deaccessioning controversy
The US artist dominated the top prices during New York sales series, where the commercial appeal of attractive subjects showed through in prices
The Met unpacks its Souls Grown Deep gift
An excellent show adds new strands to our understanding of what makes American art uniquely American
The Frick’s expansion is a sensitive, elegant plan
The New York museum has shown it is a responsive listener and found ways to add much needed space and public amenities with surgical precision
Auction houses must share the blame for university sell-offs
Christie's sale of 46 works from La Salle collection will diminish the museum and its academic programme
How the wonders of il Gesù were transported to America
A Connecticut Jesuit university aimed high when planning an exhibition to celebrate its 75th anniversary—and more museums should follow its example
New Met charges are an unfair tax on tourists
The museum’s $25 admission fee discriminates against the non-New Yorkers who subsidise its huge tax privileges
Quality as well as quantity in short supply at Sotheby's sale of American art
Where a museum's Rockwells had sparked interest in a flagging category, the removal of key lots from the sale dampened spirits
Grandma Moses: behind the folksy images, a canny operator
An exhibition in Vermont of the work of the early Outsider artist looks behind the icon of Yankee charm
Now is the time for an Italian-American museum exchange programme
With Italy’s historic reform of its museums’ leadership at risk in the courts, what we need is a more collaboration not less
Federal arts funding is on the White House’s hit list
If culture agencies dodge the fatal bullet, they should focus on collection-sharing and investment in bricks and mortar