Arts news

• Can A Play Influence The Wider Debate Around Abortion Rights?

  22-01-2017 16:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  Lisa Loomer's play "Roe," commissioned for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, opened at D.C.'s Arena Stage just days before the inauguration of Donald Trump. It's a story of the history of Norma McCorvey (the "Roe" of the court case) and her lawyer Sarah Weddington - and shifting stances on abortion in the U.S. since Roe was decided. The question now is, "Can art actually shape history as well as mine it?"
  
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• Ai Weiwei Exhibits 500 Cast-Iron Combat Helmets at Australia Museum

  25-09-2026 22:22 via artnews.com
  
  Ai Weiwei on Friday unveiled his commission for the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in Sydney: 500 cast-iron combat helmets arranged in ten orderly lines on the city’s busiest green space, Tallawoladah Lawn.The 131-foot-long installation, titled Mushrooms, recalls various 20th-century combat helmets, complete with inner padding. The installation is arranged on an elevated platform split by a pedestrian walkway, making the work difficult for visitors to the famous harbor to miss. Accor
  
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• The Best Booths at Independent 20th Century

  25-09-2026 22:19 via artnews.com
  
  It’s a big year for the Independent, the art world’s favorite contemporary art fair, and its more art-historically minded sister, Independent 20th Century. On the heels of Independent’s move earlier this year from Spring Studios in Tribeca to the much larger Pier 36 on the Lower East Side, its 20th Century edition, which opens to the public today, has also relocated, shifting from its Lower Manhattan location to Marcel Breuer’s 1960s brutalist building—formerly home
  
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• At 77, Artist Imelda Cajipe Endaya is the First Woman to Receive Top Philippine Honor

  25-09-2026 19:52 via artnews.com
  
  At 77 years of age, Filipina artist Imelda Cajipe Endaya received the Order of National Artists of the Philippines for Visual Arts. This marks the first time a woman has ever received the honor.The Order of National Artists, established in 1972, is the country’s highest national recognition for Filipinos who have made distinct and significant contributions to art in the Philippines. The distinction was conferred on September 1 on the recommendation of the Cultural Center of the Philippines
  
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• Ancient Wall Found in Paris May Solve Mystery of City’s Origins

  25-09-2026 19:41 via artnews.com
  
  The discovery of an ancient wall beneath a Paris hospital may have answered a question archaeologists have been arguing about for decades: Where, exactly, did Paris begin?The 72-foot stone-and-wood wall turned up this summer during construction at the Hôtel Dieu hospital on the Île de la Cité, the island in the Seine that sits at the center of modern Paris, according to the New York Times. Archaeologists also found a Gallic spearhead nearby. Carbon dating puts the wall somewhe
  
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• Melania Trump, Peng Liyuan Tour Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art

  25-09-2026 19:38 via artnews.com
  
  Any good host knows that when visitors are in town, a visit to the museum is top of the list. And so, on Thursday, the First Lady of the US took China’s First Lady to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C.Melania Trump toured around the museum for 45 minutes with Peng Liyuan, visiting rooms such as the Peacock Room, where Chinese porcelain takes center stage, as well as other rooms that feature Chinese artworks and Asian design. “What better place to
  
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• Steven Shearer Wins Canada’s $71,000 Audain Prize

  25-09-2026 19:35 via artnews.com
  
  Steven Shearer, a Vancouver-based artist best known for paintings that lace historically inclined portraiture with haunting contemporary sensibilities, was awarded Canada’s prestigious Audain Prize, which comes with $100,000 (around $71,000 in US currency).The annual prize, dedicated to British Columbia–based artists and last year awarded to Brian Jungen, is reserved for “a senior artist in recognition of their outstanding contributions to Canadian art.” It is given out b
  
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• How Good Are Today’s Art Market Darlings, Really? Six New York Gallery Shows Put Them to the Test

  25-09-2026 19:34 via artnews.com
  
  It may seem obvious, but it bears repeating: When it comes to what’s shown in galleries, market value and artistic merit do not always correspond. Just because an artwork is worth a lot of money doesn’t mean it’s good, and just because an artwork is good doesn’t mean it’s worth a lot of money.Such are the cruelties of the market. Not that anyone who cares about art ever forgets them, of course, but the paradox has become increasingly hard to ignore over the past hal
  
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• Heirs of a Jewish Collector Contest Sotheby’s Sale of a Pissarro Painting Possibly Looted by Nazis

  25-09-2026 18:53 via artnews.com
  
  Several heirs to Jewish banker Salomon Flavian have taken Sotheby’s to court in Paris over the auctioneer’s sale of a painting by Camille Pissarro. They maintain that the painting was looted by the Nazis and say they were left out of an agreement struck with two of their family members, reports the Art Newspaper (TAN). The case concerns the French Impressionist’s canvas Darse de pêche et bassin Duquesne, Dieppe, après-midi ensoleillée (Fishing dock and Duque
  
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• The Best Booths at the Armory Show, From Ghostly Afterimages to ‘Gentle Destruction’

  25-09-2026 18:29 via artnews.com
  
  The 32nd edition of the Armory Show opened to VIPs Thursday at the Javits Center with a seemingly slower pace than in years past. That might have something to do with its earlier start time (10 a.m., instead of the typical 11 a.m.) and a change from the week after Labor Day to the end of September. For much of the morning, the fair was relatively uncrowded, though groups of people could be seen congregating on the benches facing the Platform section. When I walked by the smallest of the fair&rsq
  
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• Descendants of Nazi-Persecuted Jewish Collector Demand Cancellation of Sotheby’s Pissarro Painting Sale, Artist Imelda Cajipe Endaya is First Woman to Receive Top Philippine Honor, and More: Morning Links for September 25, 2026

  25-09-2026 15:09 via artnews.com
  
  To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.Good Morning!
  Descendants of Jewish collector Salomon Flavian are demanding that a Paris court annul the sale of a Pissarro painting at Sotheby’s in London, which they claim was looted by Nazis.At 77, Filipina artist Imelda Cajipe Endaya just became the first woman to receive the Order of National Artists of the Philippines for Visual Arts.Germany’s culture minister said that plans
  
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• Tim Walker’s portraits of LGBTQ+ royalty – ‘the gays have killed me’

  25-09-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  The photographer’s show at the National Portrait Gallery is the result of a very personal odyssey
  
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• Alvaro Barrington talks taste

  25-09-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  The artist on 2Pac, new boxer shorts and ‘old’ New York 
  
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• 4,200 Library Books, Three Months, No Phones

  25-09-2026 00:32 via artsjournal.com
  Good Morning,Students at Pleasure Ridge Park High School in Louisville have checked out 4,200 library books in the first three months of this school year, twice last year’s total, since the school district locked phones away “bell to bell.” Noah Berry, a senior, says he had never borrowed a book there before (Aging Untold).Davi Ramos, now the Australian Ballet’s first Black principal, started ballet at 12 in Rio’s Vidigal favela. His school waived the fees, friends&
  
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• When It Comes to Armory Show Sales, Can Slow and Steady Win the Race?

  24-09-2026 23:59 via artnews.com
  
  One could argue that New York’s Armory Show has spent much of the last decade trying to figure out exactly what kind of fair it wants to be. It moved from the charmingly gritty piers on the Hudson River to the sterile but safe Javits Center on Manhattan’s West Side and changed dates. Then, in 2023, it was acquired by Frieze, which already operates one of New York’s other major fairs, down the road at the Shed, without question the worst venue of any art fair across the globe. N
  
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• New York Investigators Return 36 Artifacts to Syria, Including Relief Looted from Palmyra

  24-09-2026 22:32 via artnews.com
  
  Thirty-six antiquities, collectively valued at more than $5 million, including a stone relief looted from the ancient site of Palmyra, have been retuned to Syria, New York investigators announced on Wednesday.Among the group are 14 “extraordinary” mosaics stolen from a Roman-era villa in Syria linked to antiquities dealer Georges Lotfi, a former source for the Manhattan district attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit who was, in a dramatic turn of events, charged in 2022 with
  
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• Newly Speculated Goya Painting to Feature in 2028 Museo del Prado Show

  24-09-2026 22:27 via artnews.com
  
  A painting that well-placed observers surmise was painted by Francisco de Goya will be on view in a forthcoming exhibition timed to commence 200 years after the celebrated Spanish artist’s death.After posing a question related to whether or not the work is truly by Goya, The Art Newspaper reported, “A full technical investigation of the work has yet to be completed but everyone involved, including Spain’s culture ministry and Madrid’s Museo del Prado, is operating under t
  
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• Art Collector and Publisher Benedikt Taschen Lists Mid-Century Modern Beverly Hills Home for $25 M.

  24-09-2026 21:27 via artnews.com
  
  ARTnews Top 200 collectors Benedikt and Lauren Taschen have spent the past eight years restoring the Adelman Residence, a 5,000-square-foot mid-century modern home designed by architects Thornton Abell and O’Neil Ford in 1956. The Taschens bought the home in 2018 (it was listed for $12,750,000), and, over the years, have refurbished the tennis court, original to the property from when it was part of Charlie Chaplin’s estate; the pool, the gardens, and the guest house; as well as all
  
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• MOCA LA Names Former Public Media Executive as New Director

  24-09-2026 21:07 via artnews.com
  
  For its next director, the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles has gone with a figure whose expertise lies outside the art world.Jonathan Abbott, the former head of the public media organization GBH, was announced as the institution’s new director on Thursday, formally filling a post that was held in an interim capacity by curator Ann Goldstein. She had taken the leadership role after Johanna Burton left in 2025 to lead the Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia.It is an unconventio
  
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• Greek PM Rejects British Museum Comparison of Parthenon Marbles and Bayeux Tapestry

  24-09-2026 21:04 via artnews.com
  
  In August, British Museum Director Nicholas Cullinan told the Financial Times that the Bayeux Tapestry loan from France was “a very compelling example of international partnership,” and a successful, “reciprocal exchange.” That deal, which took years to form, might even pave the way for a Parthenon Marbles loan, he suggested.But in a provocative opinion piece in today’s The Guardian, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis responded, seizing on Cullinan’s not
  
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• Australian Ballet Gets Its First Black Principal

  24-09-2026 21:02 via danceaustralia.com.au
  
  Davi Ramos grew up in a Rio favela and didn’t start ballet lessons until he was 12. Only two years later, he competed in Youth America Grand Prix and, subsequently, the Prix de Lausanne; he studied in London and apprenticed in Amsterdam before coming to Melbourne, drawn by AD David Hallberg. – Dance Australia
  
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• Schools Report Surge In Library Book Checkouts After Cellphone Bans

  24-09-2026 20:44 via aginguntold.com
  
  Students at Pleasure Ridge Park High School are checking out books at a rate librarians say hasn’t been seen before, coinciding with a districtwide cell phone ban that took effect at the start of the 2025 school year. – Aging Untold
  
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• Lucas Museum Architects And The Building Of Fantasies

  24-09-2026 20:31 via nytimes.com
  MAD Architects is a team that has completed major cultural and residential projects in 16 countries and counting. Their signature is hard-to-believe designs that do all of the shouting — etched towers churning like hula-hooping women; a museum honed like an ancient stone; an opera house resembling a mountain, bursting from the ground. – The New York Times
  
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• At Spring/Break’s First Edition in the Old CBS Newsroom, (Almost) Everything Is Political

  24-09-2026 20:31 via artnews.com
  
  This weekend, for likely the last time, cameras are rolling at 555 West 57th Street.The longtime headquarters of CBS News’s most hallowed properties—60 Minutes and Inside Edition—was recently hollowed out in a Paramount acquisition that saw personalities and producers shuffled to a center across the street. So, perhaps fittingly, Spring/Break, New York’s most irreverent art fair, has taken residence. Its inaugural edition at 555 West 57th Street, titled “Hide and Se
  
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• BBC Is Preparing To Shut Down Some Radio And TV Channels: Report

  24-09-2026 20:04 via deadline.com
  
  “Deadline hears that the BBC is expected to unveil what one source described as ‘audience-facing’ closures next week, as the UK broadcaster ramps up efforts to save £500 million ($660M) over the coming years. … Speculation (is) rife that youth network BBC Three is at risk of being unplugged for a second time.” – Deadline
  
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• Chicago Symphony Rebrands

  24-09-2026 19:31 via wbez.org
  
  The changes come as the CSO prepares to welcome its new, buzzy music director, Klaus Mäkelä, who will officially step into the role next fall. – WBEZ
  
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• Australia’s Performing Arts Sector Is In Crisis

  24-09-2026 19:15 via artshub.com.au
  Too many of our finest performers and musicians feel compelled to leave Australia. Productions, concert seasons and festivals are being cancelled or scaled back. – ArtsHub
  
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• Author Of One Of France’s Biggest Hit Novels Of The Year Accused Of Using AI

  24-09-2026 19:03 via euronews.com
  C’était ça ou mourir (It Was That Or Die) by Thélyson Orélien has sold over 35,000 copies and been hailed in France’s literary mediasphere as a revelation. On Monday, an anonymous X (Twitter) account claimed the AI-spotting software Pangram found that “this novel was written almost entirely by an artificial intelligence.” – Euronews
  
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• How AI Is Changing The Art Of Translation

  24-09-2026 18:44 via publishersweekly.com
  Many literary translators fear that if machine-assisted translation becomes the norm in book publishing, it could fundamentally change the nature of their profession. – Publishers Weekly
  
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• Judge Granted Last-Minute Pause On Paramount/Warner Deal

  24-09-2026 18:31 via deadline.com
  
  With an 11 am PT virtual hearing before Judge Martinez-Olguin widely viewed as a rubber stamping of the September 21 antitrust settlement and hence the mega-merger itself, the granting of Block the Merger’s move makes it almost certain the deal won’t be formally approved today. – Deadline
  
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