PreviewThe Year Ahead 2021
Our guide to the top biennials and triennials coming up in 2021
Previews of the 34th Bienal de São Paulo, Prospect.5 and the 11th Liverpool Biennial—plus, lots of dates for your diary
NewsTracey Emin
'All clear': Tracey Emin says she is finally free of cancer
Artist also slams government decision to re-open museums in England next month
BlogBook Club
April’s book bag: how four lesbians shaped Modernism, why we love to hate biennials, and a photographic history of African women
A roundup of the latest art publications
NewsSocial media
'Stuffy and dusty' no more: Uffizi builds on new-found social media savviness with Clubhouse appearance
Florence museum director Eike Schmidt will discuss the fate of museums in the wake of Covid-19 on the audio app following successes on Facebook and TikTok
FeatureBook Club
Extract | The day Anthony van Dyck received ‘wise advice from the words of a blind woman’—the 17th-century artist Sofonisba Anguissola
New book by Jennifer Higgie gives astute insights into brilliant women artists shut out of art history
NewsRestitution
London’s Horniman Museum—home to 15 Benin bronzes—announces new ‘transparent procedures’ for looted object requests
South London museum has released new policies on restitution but says it will need to seek legal advice about the right to return artefacts
FeatureBook Club
Extract | How Sandro Botticelli brought Dante’s Divine Comedy to life
New book by Martin Kemp considers the impact of poet’s vision of divine light on artists such as Michelangelo and Titian
NewsBiennials & festivals
The 'male graze': Guerrilla Girls to put up billboards across UK reasserting women's place in art history
Anti-discriminative posters are part of festival Art Night 2021, where commissions this year will have a political tone
NewsAntiquities & Archaeology
Twenty-two mummies transported in nitrogen-filled caskets across Cairo in museum move
Pharaohs opulent golden parade was streamed as part of marketing exercise
NewsMuseums & Heritage
V&A will not scrap focus on materials in restructuring U-turn
An updated proposal will keep the collection organised around mediums instead of switching to a chronological approach
NewsExhibitions
Major show of Vivian Maier—a Chicago nanny who was also a secretive street photographer—is heading to the UK
Laura Knight and Ingrid Pollard exhibitions also part of year-long women artists programme at MK Gallery in Milton Keynes
NewsNFTs
Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi—the world's most expensive work of art—to be turned into an NFT
Author Ben Lewis is minting the masterpiece to highlight the art world’s ‘age-old inequities and injustices’
NewsExhibitions
Egg hunt at the V&A: rare Fabergé treasures from the Queen and Moscow Kremlin Museums included in new show
Russia's Tsar Alexander III began the most expensive Easter tradition in history in 1885 when he began gifting bejewelled eggs to his wife
NewsBritish Museums
The cost of the cuts: what now for UK museums as the Covid-19 crisis bites?
Museum directors in London and the regions are cutting jobs and slashing budgets, raising concerns for the post-pandemic future of the sector
NewsMuseums
Musée d’Orsay in Paris renamed after late French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing
The formal name change—an administrative move—also means the Muséee de l’Orangerie will be rebranded
NewsResidencies
Looking for free artist studio space in central London? A new scheme could help out
New award backed by Spanish fashion brand Loewe will fund workspaces for seven artists at Studio Voltaire
NewsMuseums
Plans to build new Museum of Brexit move ahead with plea for funds and objects
Institution initially called the Museum of Sovereignty will present a balanced picture of the divisive EU debate, say founders
Newscoronavirus
Grayson Perry is casting a bell to ring at the end of the Covid-19 pandemic
As future of London's historic Whitechapel foundry hangs in the balance, artist’s bell will be made elsewhere
NewsDante Alighieri
'Complete ignorance': Uffizi director Eike Schmidt hits back at German journalist for criticising Dante
Arno Widmann wrote that the 13th-century Italian author, best known for the Divine Comedy, was antiquated and difficult to understand
NewsPhotography
Spencer Tunick’s nude pandemic photography project brings people together on Instagram
Naked montages uniting friends and lovers "reaffirm resilience of community"
NewsPublic art
Venice Biennale artist Sonia Boyce to unveil 2km-long wall mural in London’s East End
Longest public art piece in Europe reflects community life, charting 170 local stories
InterviewArt market
New EX.Paris fair will replace the Paris Biennale—but how will it stand out on the post-pandemic event circuit?
President Alexis Cassin tells us why he thinks the event will succeed in November
NewsBiennials & festivals
Controversial 'festival of Brexit' moves a step closer with selection of ten winning teams for 2022 event
Turner prizewinning collective Assemble will lead a project at the £120m creativity showcase
NewsTracey Emin
After delays, Tracey Emin’s massive sculpture honouring her mother will head to Oslo's Munch Museum this summer
Production of The Mother monument took longer than expected due to its size and also because of how badly the UK was hit by the pandemic, city officials say
NewsMuseums
Uffizi Galleries' Botticelli masterpieces—currently kept in storage—are bound for Medici villa in the Tuscan hills
The Uffizi Diffusi project aims to "scatter" works from the Florence museum's collection around overlooked sites across Tuscany on short term loans
NewsPublic art
Marc Quinn’s BLM protestor statue could be reinstalled on Bristol plinth that held slave trader monument
Sculpture of Edward Colston was pulled down by activists last summer and will now be placed in a museum
NewsStreet art
Street artist JR rips off the front of Florence's Palazzo Strozzi in new optical illusion work
Trompe l’oeil image called La Ferita (The Wound) reflects on the difficulties of accessing culture during Covid-19 and reveals Botticelli’s Primavera and The Birth of Venus
NewsMuseums & Heritage
Victoria and Albert Museum backtracks on plans to cut its National Art Library staff
The announcement was met with public outrage prompting more than 10,000 people to sign a petition against the cuts
NewsMarina Abramovic
Marina will release 'digital manifestation' of The Abramovic Method on WeTransfer with aim of reaching 70 million people
Artist continues efforts to bring performance art to the masses as she collaborates with file-sharing platform and its editorial arm, WePresent
NewsSocial media
Censored? Shadowbanned? Deleted? Here is a guide for artists on social media
New York-based advocacy group Don’t Delete Art's comprehensive tips on how to comply with social media platforms' rules on art include advice from Facebook and Instagram staff
NewsPainting
Artist Yan Pei-Ming makes vast pandemic painting inspired by plague scenes of the Isenheim altarpiece
“The viewer might be shocked. It is life today,” says the artist who created the Covid-19 works in isolation in his studio in Dijon
NewsLuma Arles
Frank Gehry’s twisting tower for Luma Arles to open its doors in June
Patron Maja Hoffmann is driving the ambitious cultural project in southern France
InterviewBook Club
Q&A | Why Alice Neel’s work has ‘extraordinary currency’ today
As a biography on the US painter is republished, its author Phoebe Hoban tells us why Neel’s work is more relevant than ever
BlogBook Club
March’s book bag: from a guide to decoding photographs to a survey of the world’s most celebrated museums
A roundup of the latest art publications
NewsArt market
Newly attributed Bernini drawing up for auction in France
Actéon auctioneers expect the 17th-century study of a male nude, authenticated by Ann Sutherland Harris and Louis de Bayser, to sell for €30,000 to €50,000
NewsSponsorship
‘Things have to change’: third speaker pulls out of Science Museum Group climate talk in protest against oil sponsorship
Broadcaster Robin Ince joins George Monbiot and Mark Lynas in withdrawing from the Climate Talks event over the UK institution's funding from oil companies BP and Equinor
NewsMuseums & Heritage
Wanted: £48k curator to shake up British Museum's permanent displays and ‘give greater prominence to Africa’
London institution is advertising two new job roles to help deliver a radical curatorial initiative known as 'Reimagining the British Museum'
NewsPublic art
Six artists—including Nicole Eisenman and Ibrahim Mahama—shortlisted for Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth public art commission
Winning sculptures will go on show in central London in 2022 and 2024
NewsParthenon marbles
George Clooney wades into Parthenon Marbles debate—again
The actor first stated that the Ancient Greek sculptures should be returned to their site of origin in 2014 after filming The Monuments Men
NewsMusée du Louvre
Louvre launches flurry of brand partnerships and ‘e-boutique’ in bid to make up Covid deficit
Deprived of visitors, the world’s most popular museum is striking deals with brands such as Uniqlo to reach international audiences online
NewsUK politics
UK art trade questions who benefits from England's freeport bonanza
Eight mega warehouses announced in the budget will 'unlock billions' in investment, says the government, but they have a tarnished reputation, market analysts warn
NewsExhibitions
Blockbuster Jeff Koons survey to open in Qatar this autumn
More than 60 works will be included in the US artist’s first Middle Eastern exhibition
NewsSculpture
Antony Gormley lends sculpture to fill an empty spot on the medieval façade of Wells Cathedral in England
The near-life-size contemporary work will join 300 historic depictions of saints and kings
NewsVenice
Billionaire collector Nicolas Berggruen takes steps to buy historic Venetian palace and turn it into a cultural thinktank
If the sale goes ahead, La Casa dei Tre Oci will be the Berggruen Institute's space for its European programming with plans to partner with major museums such as Tate and MoMA
NewsRedevelopment
Debenhams department store may become huge gallery as Covid-19 decimates London's Oxford Street
‘Oxford Street Art House’ would house studios and galleries across seven floors, say councillors
NewsArts funding
UK Budget 2021: further £408m boost for struggling culture sector
Chancellor Rishi Sunak digs deep, adding £300m to the £1.57bn Cultural Recovery Fund, £90m more for museums, and £18m for cultural community projects
NewsCensorship
Governments are ‘weaponising’ Covid-19 to silence dissident artist voices, report says
Seventeen artists were killed, 82 imprisoned and 133 detained over the past year in 26 countries, according to new Freemuse study
NewsPolitics
Keep your distance, former culture ministers warn UK government
Independence of museums and heritage bodies is at risk, say Ed Vaizey and Chris Smith, as Johnson’s government pushes ‘anti-woke’ agenda
NewsFelix Gonzalez-Torres
Works by pioneering queer artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres to be displayed around Barcelona
New exhibition, organised by MACBA, aims to situate Gonzalez-Torres in relation to postcolonial discourse between Spain and the Americas
NewsBooks
Calling all (digital) bookworms: virtual art book fair gives publishers a lifeline during the pandemic
Printed Matter's online venture offers new, rare and out of print publications alongside panels, trailers and prints
NewsMuseums & Heritage
From Goya to Goldin: new museum puts Spanish city of Cáceres on the art world map
Dealer Helga de Alvear has donated her entire collection of 3,000 works, which include pieces by Tacita Dean, Louise Bourgeois, Olafur Eliasson and Wassily Kandinsky
NewsMuseums
Are museums as Covid-risky as saunas? Culture leaders outraged over late reopening of English art spaces
Commercial galleries, non-essential retail, and even gyms have been given the green light to open before museums under the UK government's "roadmap" to lift coronavirus restrictions
NewsControversies
Bank of England wades into UK's escalating culture war on controversial monuments, saying it will remove images of slave owners
“Retain and explain” or restrain and refrain? Culture chiefs raise the alarm on government’s policy to keep problematic statues ahead of crucial meeting
NewsMuseums & Heritage
Officials confirm: museums in England can reopen from 17 May under Boris Johnson’s lockdown roadmap
Commercial galleries will be permitted to open from 12 April under the new plan to gradually lift Covid-19 safety measures
NewsDiscoveries
Munch vandalised own Scream painting, declaring himself a ‘madman’, new research finds
Infrared scans indicate that the phrase, "Can only have been painted by a madman", matches the artist’s handwriting
NewsBrexit
Huge fee hikes for EU students who want to study art in the UK come into force from September
Visa issues and increased red tape could also deter European Union applicants, warn university leaders
NewsCollections
Radical plan could move UK's national art collections into former IKEA store in Coventry
The five-storey building will house nearly 17,000 works from the Arts Council and British Council collections, under proposed scheme
NewsVideo, film & new media
Fill your boots: Dr. Martens gives £60,000 for new video commissions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London
Grants will be given to artists to create moving image works to premiere at the ICA's Image Behaviour 2021 forum
NewsStatues
Keep problematic monuments and ‘explain them’, UK government to tell cultural leaders
Opponents argue that some public statues reinforce racism, chauvinism, sexism and homophobia
BlogBook Club
February’s book bag: Jesus as muse, tips from Douglas Coupland and a reassessment of Mary Wollstonecraft
The latest art publications rounded up in our new book bag section
NewsArchaeology
Body of archaeologist who died defending Palmyra from Isis has been found, Syrian media reports
Khaled al-Asaad was killed “because he would not betray his deep commitment to Palmyra”, said Unesco chief
NewsMonuments
Actor Riz Ahmed and Chisenhale director Zoé Whitley selected for new commission to diversify London's public monuments
New 15-member body will focus on the capital’s statues, street names and memorials
NewsAcquisitions
Uffizi acquires first 'street art' work—a mash-up of Gilbert & George and a crotch-grabbing Mark Wahlberg
Mixed-media montage by UK artist Endless was donated to the Florence museum
NewsExhibitions
Britishness, belonging and Blackness: artists reflect on complexities of cultural identity in new London show
In the wake of Black Lives Matter movement, new exhibition at Lisson Gallery will feature 11 women and non-binary artists tackling issue of Britain’s colonial legacy
NewsWallace Collection
Art library and archives at London's Wallace Collection could close to public as part of cost-cutting plans
Petition claims management want to ‘orientate the museum to income generation’
NewsObituaries
'Constantly curious, uninterested in the market-led view': pioneering curator and writer Guy Brett has died, aged 78
His influential texts and exhibitions looked beyond Europe and the US to art from Latin America and Asia
InterviewBook Club
Q&A | Philip Guston’s daughter Musa Mayer on her new book and the uproar surrounding the artist’s postponed show
Although Guston's paintings of Klansmen “remain controversial today” they are also “deeply relevant”, she says
NewsExhibitions
Damien Hirst’s shipwreck treasure trove to go on show beside Galleria Borghese's classical works in Rome
Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable divided the critics when the sprawling exhibition launched in Venice in 2017
NewsMuseums & Heritage
Spanish government signs deal securing €1bn Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection
New arrangement, to last 15 years, means key works by Gauguin, Monet and Picasso have been saved for the nation
NewsArt market
‘The ultimate dealer of Old Master paintings’: New York dealer Richard Feigen has died, aged 90
The Met director Max Hollein pays tribute to the late gallery owner and collector, who also promoted artists from Max Beckmann to Peter Saul
NewsEducation
Postgraduate art history students in UK say they are being encouraged to produce ‘less rigorous and ambitious’ research in light of pandemic
As the funding body, UK Research and Innovation, restricts additional funding, students are being asked to rethink projects
FeatureMiddle Eastern & North African art
Street art, social media, visibility: how the Arab Spring has changed art and culture, a decade on
We ask artists, writers and experts on Middle Eastern art about their memories of the revolutionary movements—and what they think the lasting legacies are
NewsArt schools
Goldsmiths art school—alma mater of Sarah Lucas and Damien Hirst—‘on edge of a precipice’
Lecturers have stopped assessing students after management consultants propose mass overhaul
NewsFunding
National Library of Wales—home to a 12,000-strong art collection—‘cannot survive’ if further job cuts are made
Petition calls on Welsh Government to increase funding for institution which holds works by Turner and Gainsborough
NewsGiuseppe Penone
Arte Povera sculptor Giuseppe Penone donates more than 200 works on paper to Castello di Rivoli
Archival materials relate to significant sculptures and installations around Piedmontese region in Italy
NewsArtists
New website offers lifeline for UK artists struggling during the pandemic
ArtULTRA provides key information on grants, residencies, studio spaces and business matters
News US politics
Biden's repeal of US travel ban ‘changes the game’ for artists coming from Muslim-majority countries
Artistic Freedom Initiative group says the new executive order, overturning Trump's controversial rule, also allows artists to visit home “for the first time in years”
NewsStatues
City of London to remove statues of politicians with slavery links
The decision to take down historic William Beckford and John Cass sculptures could go against new UK government policy
NewsAcquisitions
Trove of Surrealist publications and paintings donated to Dutch museum
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen's gift from collectors Laurens Vancrevel and Frida de Jong “opens up new horizons on surrealist activities”, says expert
NewsArt market
New York art dealer Helly Nahmad pardoned by Trump
Hours before leaving office, former US president granted a pardon to Nahmad, who pleaded guilty to a federal gambling charge in 2014 and owned an entire floor of Trump Tower
Newscoronavirus
Museums around the world step up to be transformed into vaccination centres
London's Science Museum and a West Midlands museum where Peaky Blinders was filmed are just some of the venues doubling up as Covid-19 vaccine hubs
NewsAwards
Singer RM from Korean boyband BTS named 'art sponsor of the year'
The Bangtan Boys musician was recognised for donating $90,400 to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul last September
NewsPublic art
UK government announces new laws to protect controversial historic monuments from 'woke worthies and baying mobs'
Proposed plans have been criticised as distraction tactics from the state's "lethally failed response to the pandemic and the consequences of a disastrous Brexit"
NewsHeritage
From mummies to mosques—new Google Arts & Culture initiative brings Egypt’s archaeological treasures to the masses
New online platform aims to turn traditionally scholarly subject into something "easily digestible and fun to explore"
NewsAuctions
Rejected Tintin cover design sets record for comic book art with €3.2m auction price
Sale of controversial 1936 painting criticised by organisation behind artist Hergé’s estate
NewsPablo Picasso
Saga of Picasso murals ripped from Oslo building continues as heirs head to court
Family of artist Carl Nesjar—who collaborated on the works with Picasso—say they have a copyright claim and should help decide where the pieces are relocated
NewsGeorge Floyd
Giant painting of George Floyd murder displayed on Los Angeles billboard after being cancelled in Minneapolis
Advertising firms in Minneapolis—where Floyd was killed by police—refused to show the work saying it was too violent, but advocacy group says it will try again
NewsCelebrities
Cate Blanchett is building her own art gallery at her English country home
Old outbuildings on the actor's estate will be knocked down to make way for the studio—and provisions will be made for the protected bats that live there
News US politics
Storming of US Capitol: art world condemns police hypocrisy in pro-Trump riot
Artists Dread Scott and Glenn Ligon among cultural figures pointing out stark contrast in how law enforcement handled the mob compared with Black Lives Matter protestors
NewsMuseums
Closure of London's Florence Nightingale Museum fuels fears that the pandemic will force smaller UK institutions to shut
Williamson Art Gallery & Museum in Birkenhead is also under threat of closure as part of cost-cutting measures by local council
NewsDiscoveries
Is this ‘enormously powerful’ painting of Jesus Christ by El Greco? Spanish expert questions new attribution
Art history scholars disagree over possible discovery of work by Renaissance master, which is owned by private collector
NewsAnniversary
Remembering Dante—Uffizi unveils online exhibition of 'Divine Comedy' drawings by Federico Zuccari
Florence gallery also planning vast exhibition dedicated to the poet in Forlì featuring works by Michelangelo
PreviewBook Club
A selection of 2021 art publications—Musa Mayer on her father, Philip Guston; Jean Dubuffet in the spotlight
A monograph on Catherine Opie, an analysis of museums in the 21st century and an overview of Joseph Beuys also make the grade
NewsObituaries
In memoriam: remembering art world figures who died in 2020
John Baldessari, Beverly Pepper, Irina Antonova and Christo were among those who died last year
NewsAcquisitions
A 'milestone' moment—US National Gallery of Art acquires 40 works by Black Southern artists
Works were purchased from Souls Grown Deep Foundation in a move that could ‘alter the canon of American art'
NewsMuseums
Spanish government sets January deadline to break deadlock over Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum collection
Culture minister wants to move the ‘red lines’ in negotiations with Baroness Carmen Cervera
NewsAwards
UK New Year’s Honours 2021: awards for artists Michael Landy and Denzil Forrester
Former Tate Britain chief Stephen Deuchar is knighted; curator Lesley Fitton and ceramicist Jennifer Lee also recognised
NewsMonuments
Vilified statue of Abraham Lincoln and kneeling slave removed from Park Square in Boston
Artist’s campaign and petition prompted dismantling of ‘Emancipation Group’ piece—but original still stands in Washington DC
NewsBrexit
Art specialists pore over the Brexit trade deal—and deliver their verdict
Artist’s resale right, import VAT, red tape, and smuggling directives are addressed by our experts
NewsObituaries
Artist David Medalla—the kinetic art pioneer known for his Cloud Canyons foam sculptures—has died, aged 82
Tributes paid to Manila-born trailblazer who co-founded hugely influential Signals gallery in 1960s London