Arts news

• Five Essential Books About Pop Art

  20-10-2026 19:37 via ARTnews.com
  
  Pop Art arrived in the middle of the 20th century, as artists experimented with pictures and processes borrowed from mass media. Their high-low mashups, nostalgic references, and high-octane colors remain alluring, relevant, and surprisingly misunderstood. In time for the Whitney Museum of American Art’s retrospective on Roy Lichtenstein, read these five books to revisit the significant cultural movement and track its continual reinvention.
  
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• Works From Agnes Gund’s Collection Head to Christie’s, Led by $8 M. Vija Celmins Painting

  28-10-2026 17:15 via ARTnews.com
  
  Christie’s will sell a group of works from the collection of the late philanthropist and collector Agnes Gund during its November auctions in New York, with proceeds benefiting the Gund Art Foundation.Leading the group is Vija Celmins’s 1990 picture Untitled (Ocean), a photorealistic painting of the ocean’s surface estimated at $6 million to $8 million. It will be offered in Christie’s 21st Century Evening Sale on November 19.Other highlights include Alexander Calder’s 1963 mobile The
  
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• Outsider Artist Josef Hofer, Whose Developmental Disability Made Him a Target in Nazi-Occupied Austria, Has Died at 80

  28-10-2026 16:54 via ARTnews.com
  
  Outsider Austrian artist Josef Hofer, who was hidden as a child from Nazi forces by his parents due to a speech and developmental disability, has died at 80, reports Le Quotidien de l’Art. Gallery Christian Berst in Paris, where the artist had his last show this fall, said he passed away in the western Upper Austrian town of Ried im Innkreis on Friday, October 23, shortly after he was hospitalized for complications related to a pulmonary infection.Hofer, who signed his works “Pepi,” rarely
  
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• New Report Says UK Art Market Growth Slower Than Competitors, Outsider Austrian Artist Josef Hofer, Has Died at 80, and More: Morning Links for October 28, 2026

  28-10-2026 14:20 via ARTnews.com
  
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  A new study shows the UK art market remains the world’s second-largest in terms of sales, but its growth has slowed compared to top competitors.Outsider artist Josef Hofer, who was hidden from Nazi forces by his parents due to a speech and developmental disability, has died at 80.About 250 construction workers were evacuated on Monday from the Kanal-Centre Pompidou in Brussels
  
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• New Report Says UK Art Market Growth Slower Competitors, Outsider Austrian Artist Josef Hofer, Has Died at 80, and More: Morning Links for October 28, 2026

  28-10-2026 14:20 via ARTnews.com
  
  To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.Good Morning!
  A new study shows the UK art market remains the world’s second-largest in terms of sales, but its growth has slowed compared to top competitors.Outsider artist Josef Hofer, who was hidden from Nazi forces by his parents due to a speech and developmental disability, has died at 80.About 250 construction workers were evacuated on Monday from the Kanal-Centre Pompidou in Brussels
  
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• 2,500-Year-Old Mesoamerican Observatory Discovered in Sierra Norte Mountains of Mexico

  27-10-2026 22:27 via ARTnews.com
  
  A team of researchers at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in Mexico recently announced the discovery of a 2,500-year-old structure that they believe functioned as a solar observatory.The structure is part of the pre-Hispanic Teteles de Ávila Castillo archaeological site in Sierra Norte de Puebla and has been under excavation by INAH since 2015. Alberto Diez Barroso Repizo, Teteles’s archaeological project director, told the Art Newspaper that Teteles “flourished dur
  
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• A Painting Owned by Dutch Jewish Collector Once Hung in Hitler’s Home, New Research Finds

  27-10-2026 22:26 via ARTnews.com
  
  A Nazi-looted painting that once belonged to a Dutch Jewish family, and at one point hung in Adolf Hitler’s home, has been traced in new research, the Dutch newspaper Het Parool reports.The work in question is German painter Carl Gottlieb Peschel’s Joseph Sold by His Brothers (1831), which shows the biblical scene of Joseph being sold into slavery in Egypt.The painting belonged to Bob Nijkerk, whose family had made its fortune in the iron and scrap-metal business in the 19th century. Nijkerk
  
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• Even German Bidders Can Now Pitch In to Support US Public Television, with the Country’s First Auction of a Bob Ross Painting

  27-10-2026 21:26 via ARTnews.com
  
  For the first time, a Bob Ross painting will come to auction in Germany. The painting comes to the block on December 5 at auctioneer Ketterer Kunst in Munich, from the collection of American Public Television (APT). Proceeds will benefit the organization as part of a charitable initiative dreamed up by Joan Kowalski, president of Bob Ross, Inc., to support public television stations in the US following cuts of $9 billion to previously approved government funding by a Republican-dominated Congres
  
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• Researchers Trace Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ to a Specific Dark Sky in 1889

  27-10-2026 21:24 via ARTnews.com
  
  The storied Starry Night that has mesmerized countless eyes since Vincent van Gogh painted it may have been cribbed from an actual night sky over France in July 1889.As reported by the Associated Press, “A South Korean team reported Thursday that after years of forensic astronomy and research into the Dutch artist, they have matched his masterpiece to a predawn sky over France’s Saint-Remy de Provence right around July 22, 1889. That’s a month later than the long-accepted time frame for th
  
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• Christie’s First Abu Dhabi Art Auction to Be Accompanied by Exhibition of $60 M.–$80 M. Kandinsky

  27-10-2026 21:23 via ARTnews.com
  
  The competition in the art world for business in the Gulf is heating up. Next week Christie’s is set to host its first fine art auction in Abu Dhabi, featuring some 70 lots of modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art.The sale, dubbed “MAWASIM: 20 Years of Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art,” features works by Turkish abstractionist Fahrelnissa Zeid, one of the first women to attend art school in Turkey; Iraqi painter Faisel Laibi Sahi; Egyptian modernist painter Mahmoud Saïd; an
  
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• Auction of Nazi-Looted Torah Fragment Canceled After Outcry and Israeli Government Intervention

  27-10-2026 21:01 via ARTnews.com
  
  After an auction house in Norway attempted to sell a fragment of a Torah scroll looted by the Nazis, a public outcry ensued. Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar also intervened and, according to a ministry spokesperson, asked the Israeli embassy in Norway to prevent the sale, reports the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA). “Thanks to the embassy’s efforts, the auction was canceled, and the parchment will be donated to a Holocaust remembrance organization in the United States,” a foreig
  
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• Dutch Art Historian and Curator Rudi Fuchs Dies at 84

  27-10-2026 19:24 via ARTnews.com
  
  Dutch art historian and curator Rudi Fuchs has died at the age of 84 in Amsterdam. His family announced his death on Sunday to the Amsterdam daily newspaper Het Parool.Born in 1942 in Eindhoven, Rudolf Herman “Rudi” Fuchs studied art history from 1967 to 1975 at Leiden University. In 1975, at the age of 32, he was appointed director of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven; at the time he was the youngest museum director in the Netherlands. It was the beginning of a storied career as one of Europe
  
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• Pace Gallery Reports Losses of 35.5 Percent for 2024 With ‘Real Change’ Underway

  27-10-2026 19:21 via ARTnews.com
  
  It has been a summer of change for Pace Gallery, and its 2024 accounts that were filed 10 months late with Companies House, the British government’s business register, reflect that. The group’s turnover totaled $67.69 million in 2024, a 35.5 percent drop from 2023, which cashed in $104.95 million. A pre-tax loss of $2,429 was recorded for 2024 compared to a $6.8 million profit for 2023. (The mega-gallery’s UK registered company, The Pace Gallery Limited, serves as the umbrella company for
  
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• Scientists Figure Out How That Mysterious Ancient Roman Cup Changes Color

  27-10-2026 19:01 via ArtsJournal
  “Depending on where a light source is positioned, the Lycurgus Cup changes colour, from jade green under normal lighting to ruby red when lit from behind – a feat of optical engineering that has confounded historians and glassmakers for centuries. Now scientists from the University of Sheffield have replicated its optical behaviour.” – The Guardian
  
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• Christie’s Will Offer $8 M. in Works from Mickey Cartin’s Collection, from Netherlandish Painting to Contemporary Art to Rare Books

  27-10-2026 19:00 via ARTnews.com
  
  Widely respected Connecticut collector Mickey Cartin will offer selections from his collection, begun in 1988, at Christie’s. Upward of 80 objects, estimated to fetch as much as $8 million, will be spread over more than 10 auctions in London, Paris, and New York, from this November until July 2027.In 1971, Cartin began working at Connecticut’s Capitol Light and Supply Company, which had been started by his grandfather in 1918. He ultimately became the company’s president and grew it from a
  
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• Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Is A Juggernaut. So How Does It Work?

  27-10-2026 18:44 via ArtsJournal
  
  Things are going so well for the Trust that, in recent years, it has made some of the tinier theater spaces it owns and manages available free of charge to individual artists and small arts organizations. And yet, mentioning the Cultural Trust to some Pittsburgh artists can bring a wince. – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
  
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• Lincoln In Opera — A Different Portrait

  27-10-2026 18:31 via ArtsJournal
  The composer Missy Mazzoli and the librettist Royce Vavrek, one of the hottest creative teams in opera, conjure a darker, more conflicted president in “Lincoln in the Bardo,” which premiered on Oct. 19 at the Metropolitan Opera. – The New York Times
  
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• AI Will Upend Culture. How Should AI Companies Be Regulated?

  27-10-2026 18:31 via ArtsJournal
  What should the government do? We asked a panel of experts to assess the risks A.I. presents and the tools of governance that could be adopted to address them. – The New York Times
  
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• Study Upends Understanding Of How Language Works

  27-10-2026 18:15 via ArtsJournal
  
  A groundbreaking study challenges 70 years of assumptions about how human language works. By analyzing billions of word uses, scientists discovered that meaning is organized around power, danger, and order rather than emotion alone. – ScienceDaily
  
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• Layoffs At UK Newspaper The Telegraph As Owner Aims To Make It “AI-Powered Business”

  27-10-2026 18:04 via ArtsJournal
  “Staff were told the title would rely increasingly on technology, data and AI to ‘reinvent the reader experience’. Newsroom insiders said they expected as many as 100 people to lose their jobs.” The move comes four months after The Telegraph was acquired by German media conglomerate Axel Springer. – The Guardian
  
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• Soprano Martina Arroyo, 90

  27-10-2026 17:44 via ArtsJournal
  Arroyo, who has died aged 90, was one of the generation of black American opera singers – others were Marian Anderson, Leontyne Price, Shirley Verrett and Grace Bumbry – who in their early careers faced institutionalised racial prejudice before achieving international recognition. – The Guardian
  
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• The Elvis Estate Sues Anthropic For Copyright Violation

  27-10-2026 17:26 via ArtsJournal
  “The Elvis plaintiffs bring this action to enforce these exclusive rights against the defendant that has built its entire business model based on copyright infringement at a scale never seen before,” the lawsuit said. – The New York Times
  
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• Why Has The Bayeux Tapestry Become A Pop Culture Hit?

  27-10-2026 17:15 via ArtsJournal
  In the first hour that the second round of tickets to view the tapestry were available last Wednesday, payments from Monzo cardholders to the British Museum reached £14,100 and were 48 times that of a normal Wednesday morning. More than half (55%) of those buyers were aged under 35. – The Guardian
  
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• A Civil War Inside Netflix

  27-10-2026 17:02 via ArtsJournal
  “Increasingly, tensions have flared between the L.A.-based executives dedicated to movies and TV shows and its engineers and technologists in Silicon Valley. Internal disputes have erupted over how best to expand the business and promote content on the platform to boost audience engagement.” – Los Angeles Times (MSN)
  
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• We’re Enhancing Real Life as a Cinematic Experience

  27-10-2026 16:44 via ArtsJournal
  The result is that cinematic, as a descriptor, now connotes not a break from regular life but an enhancement of it. – The Atlantic
  
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• Sotheby’s Dinosaur ‘Jodi’ Sells for $47.3 M., More Than Five Times Its High Estimate

  27-10-2026 16:38 via ARTnews.com
  
  The dinosaur market has produced another monster sale.“Jodi,” a 67-million-year-old Nanotyrannus skeleton, sold Tuesday at Sotheby’s New York for $47.3 million, including fees, more than five times its $9 million high estimate. The skeleton hammered at $40.5 million, making it one of the most expensive dinosaur fossils ever sold at auction.The result comes just three months after Sotheby’s sold “Gus,” a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, for a record $50.1 million. That July sale, which car
  
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• Critics Pan Elon Musk’s AI Version Of “The Odyssey”

  27-10-2026 16:29 via ArtsJournal
  Xavier Collins, the co-founder of Wonder Studios, said the first episode was made in less than two weeks with a creative team of three, including the US-based director Dev Walker. It is understood to have cost tens of thousands of dollars.  – The Guardian
  
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• Ursula von Rydingsvard, Sculptor of Gigantic Cedar Forms, Dies at 84

  27-10-2026 16:24 via ARTnews.com
  
  Ursula von Rydingsvard, a sculptor who responded to the austerity of Minimalism with monumental cedar sculptures that had a distinctly human touch, died in New York on Tuesday following a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was 84, according to the New York Times.Frequently using 4×4 cedar beams, von Rydingsvard crafted towering forms that appear to undulate and shift. Made of organic material, they at times even looked as though they were alive, spinning through the air like mysterious anim
  
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• Why Does Music Feel So Fake Right Now?

  27-10-2026 16:15 via ArtsJournal
  
  “Is it real?” That’s the most pressing question in music right now, and it’s one that feels impossible to adequately answer, in almost any context. Mainstream pop, seemingly falling out of fashion though it still fills stadiums and streaming playlists, is riddled with stories of chicanery and poison artifice. – NPR
  
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• In a New Video, Mayor Mamdani Touts the Met Museum as an Early Voting Site

  27-10-2026 16:06 via ARTnews.com
  
  Ahead of a hotly contested group of midterm elections that include a heated gubernatorial race for New York State, New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani shared a new video on social media encouraging voters to vote early—with a twist.“Only in New York City can you vote in places like the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” Mamdani says as he walks through the recently refurbished Rockefeller Wing, home to its holdings of art from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.“I just voted here on the fi
  
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