NewsAuction Report
Sotheby's American Art auction saw some prices soar, while Christie's remained grounded
A museum sells art to balance its budget, a gorgeous Sargent goes unwanted, and a painting of a giraffe reaches high.
AnalysisArt market
Lockdown home decorators boost New York's Americana week auctions
Chippendale-style furniture, elephant tureens and a broadside edition of the Declaration of Independence were in demand at the sales series last week
AnalysisAmerican art
'Comatose' pre-war American art market gets a digital jolt
Forced online due to Covid-19, this year's American Art Fair boasts more exhibitors as auction houses see new records set for late 19th century works
ReviewExhibitions
The Big Review: Félix Fénéon at the Museum of Modern Art
A collaboration between New York and Paris explores the dealer who championed both Neo-Impressionism and home-grown terrorism
NewsInterview
Kaywin Feldman on how America's National Gallery of Art will 'attract the nation and reflect it, too'
The Washington museum's first female director is breaking down old silos and diversifying the staff, collection and exhibitions
News US politics
The unsung agency working to maintain museum and library access in the US
The leader of the Institute of Museum and Library Services tells us what his organisation is doing to help spaces reopen
ReviewExhibitions
The Big Review: Andy Warhol at Tate Modern
Can yet another Warhol retrospective tell us anything new about the Pop Art icon?
NewsAuctions
Sale prices soar past estimates at auction of decorator Mario Buatta's estate at Sotheby's
Christie's also holds its own at an auction of American furniture and folk art
ReviewExhibitions
Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana show at the Prado is as much about biography as it is about the art
The Madrid exhibition compares the two artists who were successful in their time but whose reputations later waned
AnalysisArt market
Randomness rules New York's $42m American art sales
Small works won out at Sotheby's and Christie's as top lots went for their low estimates or were withdrawn
NewsSmithsonian Institution
Interview | Lonnie Bunch on founding the Smithsonian's African American history museum and drawing inspiration from Lincoln
As his new book is released, the new secretary of the Smithsonian Institution talks of extending its reach beyond Washington
ReviewEdouard Vuillard
A mini magnificence: Edouard Vuillard at Bath's Holburne Museum
Odd points of view and tense interior scenes feature in an exhibition of small, precious works from early in the artist's career
ReviewExhibitions
How Renoir’s nudes helped the Clark get its groove back
An exhibition sheds refreshing new light on the artist’s development
AnalysisAuctions
Edward Hopper's over-priced ode to Shakespeare goes unsold as market for American art proves capricious
Christie's American art sales this week realise a new record for Hartley but Sotheby's struggles to get the pricing right on Hopper's Shakespeare scene
Feature
Mass Moca, the museum that almost wasn't, celebrates 20 years
The art historian Brian Allen reflects on the rich history of the once inconceivable project that is now thriving
ReviewExhibitions
Harvard’s sublime show makes you see Bauhaus everywhere
The university has a long history with the movement’s artists, many of whom fled from Germany to Cambridge, and has drawn from its impressive archive for a 100th anniversary exhibition
ReviewExhibitions
Two shows that lost the plot
Joan Miró at MoMA and the Neue Galerie’s self-Portrait survey are both filled with great works, but they forget to stick to their themes all the way through
NewsArt market
Bigger is not always better at New York's Photography Show
Although down a few exhibitors, Aipad's annual photo fair delivers with both large-format and intimately scaled photos
ReviewExhibitions
Hockney-Van Gogh exhibition is ‘a tame,though colourful, bit of fluff’
The British artist dominates the Van Gogh Museum’s dubious doubleheader, which offers little to connect the pair
CommentVisitor Figures 2018
Exhibitions are a numbers game, whether we like it or not
Today's directors are focused on figures—and not always for the right reasons
ReviewExhibitions
Dawoud Bey brings viewers on an evocative journey along the Underground Railroad
The artist’s new series of nocturnal photographs, on show at the Art Institute of Chicago, vividly imagine the kinds of scenes escaping slaves might have seen
ReviewExhibitions
Madrid's small but perfectly formed Bartolomé Bermejo show is 'art history at its best'
Museo del Prado’s show on the 15th-century Spanish painter is elegant, intellectually incisive and rich in both news and rarely seen art
ReviewExhibitions
Essential viewing: Warhol from A to B and Back Again at New York’s Whitney Museum
The sprawling show is a needed revisit for those who remember Warhol as a living, brilliant savant, taste-maker and oddball
InterviewMuseo del Prado
Prado at 200: director Miguel Falomir on the museum's reinvention and the death of the blockbuster
Released from the shackles of state control in 2003, the Madrid institution has reason to celebrate its bicentenary
ReviewExhibitions
Skip the art history lesson—experience Picasso ‘intuitively’ at Musée d’Orsay's Blue and Rose blockbuster
The show promises a continuum in Picasso’s work, a gentle slide, rather than rigidly compartmentalised episodes
News
The new director of America’s oldest university museum has big plans for its future
Stephanie Wiles, who took up the reins at the Yale University Art Gallery six months ago, wants to expand the institution's engagement with New Haven and the international art world
AnalysisArt market
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
ReviewExhibitions
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
NewsArt market
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
ReviewExhibitions
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
Comment
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
ReviewExhibitions
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
ReviewExhibitions
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
Comment
The problem with artist-driven museum boards
Brian Allen explains how artists can hurt rather than help museums like MoCA Los Angeles
NewsAuctions
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
ReviewExhibitions
The Met unpacks its Souls Grown Deep gift
An excellent show add new strands to our understanding of what makes American art uniquely American
Comment
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
CommentDeaccessioning
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
ReviewExhibitions
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
Comment
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
AnalysisArt market
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
NewsExhibitions
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
Comment
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
CommentNews
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
CommentCensorship
'Museum directors have lost panache and grit': 30 years on, the legacy of the Corcoran's Robert Mapplethorpe cancellation
New exhibition at the George Washington University looks back the censorship of the photographer's work—but what impact did it have on the art world?
Brian Allen