Arts news

• Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum Launches Augmented Reality Project On National Mall

  18-06-2026 22:42 via artnews.com
  
  The Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, a museum-without-walls whose stated mission is to center women’s history on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., has launched a new augmented reality project called “Unhidden Heroines.” Starting on June 18, anyone with a smartphone (or a computer) will be able to conjure the presence of five women who helped shape the country over the past 250 years and learn about their history and influence.The five virtual monuments wi
  
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• Helen Cammock Video Work Sparks Controversy Regarding Churchill’s Role in 1943 Bengal Famine

  18-06-2026 20:30 via artnews.com
  
  A video work by Helen Cammock that has been on view at the National Portrait Gallery in London for nine months has recently sparked controversy for its claim about former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s role in the Bengal famine of 1943.In the 40-minute video, titled Persistence (2025), Cammock, who won the Turner Prize in 2019, mentions Oliver Cromwell’s conquest of Ireland, which included a famine. In her narration, according to the Guardian, she says, Cromwell “st
  
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• At the Reykjavík Arts Festival, Poetic Perfumes Mingle with Björk and Much More

  18-06-2026 19:53 via artnews.com
  
  All arts festivals abound in sights and sounds, but the Reykjavík Arts Festival invested in a sense seldom given its due: smell. And not just any smell but, suggestively, the scent of “freshly cut grass resting by a fence post, chervil spilling across a sun-warmed sidewalk, a lawnmower shredding dandelions and sorrel, the echo of a distant party, blackcurrants dropping one by one from bare branches.”Those are some of the poetic notes appended to a special scent created for the
  
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• Numerous Prominent Art Collectors Are on the Membership List of Peter Thiel’s Invite-Only ‘Dialog’ Organization

  18-06-2026 19:17 via artnews.com
  
  Earlier this week, Swiss anarchist-hacker Maia Arson Crimew leaked information about Dialog, the secretive, invite-only organization cofounded by right-wing tech billionaire Peter Thiel in 2006. Among the figures listed on the leaked membership rolls are numerous major art collectors and arts patrons.The organization convenes wealthy and powerful figures in tech, finance, politics, entertainment, and other sectors of American life for an annual retreat to “discuss topics off-the-record.&rd
  
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• A New York Judge Gives Dealer David Nahmad 30 Days To Return Nazi-Looted Modigliani Painting

  18-06-2026 19:10 via artnews.com
  
  A legal battle that went on for 11 years over a prized painting by Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani came to a close in April, when billionaire art dealer David Nahmad and his family lost their bid to hold on to Seated Man With a Cane (1918), valued at upward of $25 million. The family had bought the painting at auction in 1996 for $3.2 million.But the Nahmads have not returned the piece, and now, a new ruling in New York Supreme Court on Tuesday, June 16 gives Nahmad 30 days to return the canvas
  
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• Penske Media Corporation Acquires Vox Media, Creating the World’s Largest Digital Media Publisher

  18-06-2026 18:43 via artnews.com
  
  Los Angeles, CA—June 18, 2026—Today, Penske Media Corporation (PMC) announced the acquisition of Vox Media and its leading brands: VOX Studios, Eater, The Verge, SB Nation, POPSUGAR, The Dodo, Punch, Thrillist and VOX Creative, along with Concert, Vox Media’s premium ad marketplace, and Forte, Vox Media’s first party data platform. PMC was Vox’s largest shareholder prior t
  
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• Three Artists Reflect on David Hockney’s Enduring Influence

  18-06-2026 17:38 via artnews.com
  
  Across a seven-decade career, David Hockney, who died earlier this month, created a singular body of work that encapsulated the feeling and the sensibility of the places he called home. Among the most famous of these are his images from the late 1960s and early ’70s of Los Angeles, capturing the sun-drenched pools of wealthy homes and the collectors who lived there. Later on, he would paint vistas of the Grand Canyon, East Yorkshire, and Normandy, to name a few. Hockney would also become k
  
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• Artist Gavin Snider Accuses Tik Tok-Famous Artist Devon Rodriguez of Stealing Knicks Artworks

  18-06-2026 16:30 via artnews.com
  
  Knicks fans across New York City may be on their way to celebrate the team’s NBA Finals win with a ticker-tape parade this morning, but at least one New Yorker won’t be celebrating just yet. Brooklyn-based artist and designer Gavin Snider has accused Devon Rodriguez—he of the viral subway drawings on TikTok—of copying two recent paintings of Knicks fans and Madison Square Garden. In an Instagram post on Tuesday, Snider said he had been hired in May by the team’s mar
  
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• Paula Cooper Wins First Art Basel Gallery Legacy Award, the Last Photographs of Martin Parr, and More: Morning Links for June 18, 2026

  18-06-2026 15:32 via artnews.com
  
  Good Morning!
  New York’s Supreme Court ordered dealer David Nahmad to return a contested Amedeo Modigliani painting to the heirs of a Holocaust victim within 30 days. Paula Cooper Gallery has won the inaugural Art Basel Gallery Legacy Award.The Louvre museum is “at the end of its rope,” said its president.The Headlines A MODIGLIANI MESS. On Tuesday, the New York Supreme Court ordered billionaire art dealer David Nahmad to return a prized Amedeo Modigliani&nb
  
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