Comment

Art marketcomment

Bubbles, sheikhs and the freeport frenzy: Georgina Adam reflects on 30 years of art market reporting

Our art market editor-at-large looks back on three decades of booming sales and soaring prices, from Middle Eastern emergence to the evolution of auction houses

Art marketcomment

What’s the ideal post-pandemic art market? One that's no longer a Disneyland for the rich

Capitalism has gobbled up the art world over the past decade—it is high time for a reset

Art marketcomment

Auctions are like dating: you can do it online, but sparks only fly in the flesh

The coronavirus lockdown is boosting lower level virtual sales, but only a major live auction will kick-start the top end of the art market and revalidate prices

As The Art Newspaper turns 30, the question is—will the A-word survive?

"Art" is a loaded term, freighted with associations of class and power

Politicscomment

'Marmite' Boris Johnson or 'deep cuts' Jeremy Hunt—which would be good for the arts?

The former UK minister for culture, Ed Vaizey, weighs in on which of the two candidates for prime minister would best serve the arts

A collection of 50 contemporary artists’ favourite works of art

Book looks at what they like and how they think it helps their own work

Datacomment

A crisis of faith: is Big Data the art world’s new religion?

The rise of Big Data means that connoisseurship is being replaced by "intel", which has far-reaching implications for the art world

Are we worried enough about the planet to give up jetsetting to art fairs?

A truly environmentally friendly art world requires that we give up the 'freedom, privilege and progress to which we are so accustomed'

How Notre Dame abounds in the collective artistic imagination

Matisse's 1900 painting of the gothic cathedral risked taking on elegiac significance before the fire was extinguished

Censorshipcomment

'Hong Kong is free—on paper'

Certain subjects have become off-limits—but no one knows exactly what can or cannot be discussed

Art in sensitive times

In the face of turbulent times the public art museum has a difficult, but essential role to hold open an open space for dissenting experiences of art and culture

Vik Muniz: My advice to fellow artists in the face of grim political times

Brazil’s cultural sector must respond to hard-right politics by reconnecting with the wider community

Art marketcomment

The all-powerful market is sounding the death knell for connoisseurship

Today, art history is increasingly being written by dealers and auctioneers to suit their own purpose

The sidelining of arts education in England is seriously out of step with our times

While this year's A-level results show a rapid decline in arts subjects in the UK, countries outside of the West are stepping up teaching of creative subjects

Letterscomment

Traffic believes the US and UK ivory sale bans are ‘vital elements in the international response’ to poaching

The official spokesman of the wild-trade monitoring organisation responds to The Art Newspaper's article on the trade in elephant ivory—and we respond to him

Rapper pays $18.5m for work at auction but the artist gets nothing—is the system in need of reform?

Anny Shaw asks if auction houses and dealers should pay their dues to the artists from whom they profit

Leaderscomment

Sydney’s flagship museum is entirely focused on building a costly extension. Why?

Unless the Art Gallery of New South Wales begins to focus more on exhibitions, there is every reason to believe that Sydney Modern will be a gigantic and costly flop

Why the French can sell arms and culture to Saudi Arabia, but the US and UK only arms

France's latest deal with the Kingdom reveals the close connection between culture and foreign affairs

Who should win, who will win, and how smartphones dominate Turner Prize shortlist

Art critic Ben Luke gives us his take on this year's nominees

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

What does a $450m Leonardo mean for the Old Master market?

Slick marketing produced stupendous sale price for Salvator Mundi, but it sparked revulsion as well as elation

Artistscomment

Forget the issue of an artist’s Native American bloodlines

It’s time to stop letting the controversy over Jimmie Durham’s ancestry overshadow his art

Brexitcomment

Can the cultural self-harm of Brexit be limited?

Britain will pay a high price if its creative industries are ignored in negotiations to leave the European Union

Protest is one thing, destroying art is another

Sam Durant’s Scaffold is a powerful work that should provoke anger about the death penalty, not the artist’s ethnicity

Fake heritage for the fake news era

Damien Hirst’s exhibition in Venice this summer is part of a long tradition of counterfeiting history—but the UK artist has added a contemporary twist

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

Olafur Eliasson: ‘There is ultimately no space in which art cannot work’

An exclusive extract from a new book about the ideas and practice of Studio Olafur Eliasson places projects including Ice Watch, Green Light and Little Sun into a bigger context

Creative workshop is just the job for Venice Biennale

Project helping migrants and refugees would be diminished if it was a sideshow

Why try to fix the Turner Prize when it ain’t broke?

There is a downside to dropping the age limit of 50 for qualifying artists