Arts news

• How Toni Morrison’s Courage And Daring Shaped The Way We Think

  16-02-2026 14:45 via theguardian.com
  “She became the only black woman ever to win the Nobel prize in literature. But the facts remain: she is difficult to read. She is difficult to teach. Notwithstanding the voluminous train of profiles, reviews and scholarly analysis … she is difficult to write about.” – The Guardian (UK)
  
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• Otto Muehl Retrospective at Vienna Actionism Museum Courts Controversy in Advance of September Opening

  31-08-2026 21:58 via artnews.com
  
  The Vienna Actionism Museum (WAM) has been controversial since it opened in March 2024, which is perhaps not an entirely surprising outcome given the postwar movement’s penchant for violent, graphic performance art.  A new scandal is brewing as the museum prepares for its fall exhibition, dedicated to the work of Otto Muehl, one of the co-founders of Viennese Actionism. The show “Otto Muehl: Art on the Precipice” will feature 150 paintings, objects, film, and prints, some
  
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• Auction Houses Won’t Sell a Keith Haring Drawing That Faced a Lawsuit

  31-08-2026 21:25 via artnews.com
  
  A Keith Haring drawing deemed authentic by a Superior Court judge but lacking sufficient provenance records to sell at Christie’s and Sotheby’s was the subject of a trial in Connecticut. The gallery that sold it ended up proving victorious.As reported by Greenwich Time, Nevada businessman Vernon Hartung bought the drawing of flying saucers from Martin Lawrence Galleries for $165,000 in 2018. But when he inquired about selling it at Christie’s and Sotheby’s, the two a
  
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• City of Gwangju Attributes Biennale’s Taiwan Pavilion Controversy to ‘Insufficient Communication’

  31-08-2026 20:39 via artnews.com
  
  The South Korean city of Gwangju has issued an apology for controversy that surrounded the Gwangju Biennale’s Taiwan Pavilion, whose name was initially altered in promotional materials for the show, only to be returned to its current name following an outcry from its participants.The Taiwan Pavilion, one of many national pavilions that appears alongside the biennial’s main exhibition, was at one point billed as the NTMoFA Pavilion, a reference to the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Ar
  
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• Shakira to Shake Up Egypt’s Pyramids of Giza During World Tour

  31-08-2026 20:33 via artnews.com
  
  Shakira will be shaking up Egypt’s Pyramids of Giza with a concert on November 28, promoter Rabih Mokbel told the National. It is the only stop in the region during her ongoing world tour.The “Hips Don’t Lie” singer was previously slated to headline Abu Dhabi’s Offlimits Music Festival on November 21. Her November 18 concert at Doha’s Stadium 974 was also canceled.“The only worry we have is that, production-wise, flying 200 people in Shakira’s
  
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• Jonathan Crockett, Phillips’ Outgoing Asia Chairman, Discusses the State of Asia’s Art Market

  31-08-2026 18:30 via artnews.com
  
  The auction house Phillips is currently going through a major executive shake-up as several high-profile senior leaders have exited the company this summer, as ARTnews reported last week. Among them is Jonathan Crockett, Phillips’ outgoing Asia chairman who will step down on September 2 after leading the firm’s regional expansion for over a decade.An accomplished athlete of English, Irish, and Chinese heritage, Crockett previously worked at Sotheby’s in both London and Hong Kon
  
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• George W. Bush Made a New Series of Paintings to Mark the 25th Anniversary of 9/11

  31-08-2026 18:30 via artnews.com
  
  George W. Bush, the former US President who has become an artist since leaving the White House, created a new body of work to mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11 this September.Debuting in an exhibition at his Dallas-based George W. Bush Presidential Center on Tuesday are 16 new paintings grouped under the title “Remembering 9/11.” On view through September 30, these paintings “reflect on the courage, sacrifice, and resilience that emerged from one of the most defining moments in
  
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• Collectors Marc Andreessen and Ken Griffin Among Biggest Donors to Midterm Elections

  31-08-2026 18:26 via artnews.com
  
  Some $1.2 billion have been funneled into this year’s midterm elections, with just over 12 percent of that being linked to two of the world’s top collectors: Marc Andreessen and Kenneth C. Griffin.Both Andreessen and Griffin rank among the top 20 of megadonors to the midterms, a group that leans heavily Republican, according to a report published by the New York Times on Friday. As the Times put it, these megadonors are “the ones that can turn around candidates’ fortunes
  
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• Lavinia Fontana Altarpiece Acquired by National Museum in Stockholm

  31-08-2026 18:22 via artnews.com
  
  An altarpiece by Italian Mannerist painter Lavinia Fontana has been purchased by the National Museum in Stockholm, the museum announced today. The work has largely gone unseen by the public until now.Titled The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria (1607), the altarpiece is set in a palatial interior and shows the moment when the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child appear in a vision to Saint Catherine of Alexandria, with the child placing a ring on Catherine’s finger. Catherine, w
  
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• Alexa West Toes the Line Between Dance and Labor

  31-08-2026 18:11 via artnews.com
  
  Choreographer Alexa West wants to see you work. “So much of dance is supposed to hide how hard it is,” she told me. “All the dancers I work with are interested in pushing themselves, so we play with making material that allows them—or doesn’t allow them—to do the dance successfully. The labor has to be shown.” In the past five years in New York, West’s uncanny, Rube Goldberg-esque dances have made her one of the stars of the city’s exper
  
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• Met Museum Cancels John Galliano Exhibition Amid Controversy over Designer’s Antisemitic Comments

  31-08-2026 15:14 via artnews.com
  
  In a surprising turnabout, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has canceled a John Galliano exhibition that was due to open next spring, in what would’ve been the Costume Institute’s big May show for 2027.The show had faced controversy from the start as many fixed on antisemitic and anti-Asian comments by Galliano from more than a decade ago. He was convicted of a hate crime in France in 2011.The designer previously apologized for those comments and sought mental health counseling, and th
  
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• Tech Billionaire Gets VIP Viewing of the Bayeux Tapestry, London’s Science Museum Ends 25-Year Relationship with BP, The Met Faces Backlash Over Planned John Galliano Exhibition, and More: Morning Links for August 31, 2026

  31-08-2026 14:44 via artnews.com
  
  To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.Good Morning!
  Ahead of its public opening, the British Museum privately hosted billionaire tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel for a VIP viewing of the Bayeux Tapestry.London’s Science Museum is ending its 25-year relationship with oil giant BP. The Met’s decision to honor fashion designer John Galliano with its 2027 Costume Institute exhibition ha
  
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• 84 Museum Exhibitions and Biennials to See This Fall

  31-08-2026 10:00 via artnews.com
  
  Want to know which way the winds of the artistic moment are blowing? A reliable way to answer that question is to look at what museums are exhibiting. In the shows on tap for the fall, there’s a clear interest in how best to survive the turbulence and violence in much of the world. “The World-Chaos” is the subtitle given this season to a Kurt Schwitters retrospective at Paris’s Musée Picasso, but it could just as well be applied to shows for Inji Efflatoun, Annemir
  
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• New York’s Arts Ed Programs Are A Powerhouse For The City

  30-08-2026 20:31 via crainsnewyork.com
  Across the city, community-based arts education organizations employ thousands of music educators, teaching artists, arts therapists, accompanists and administrators — together, one of the city’s largest employers of working artists. New York’s real competitive advantage is the ability to attract and retain creative talent. But artists need reliable employment, benefits, professional networks and room to grow. – Crain’s New York
  
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• The Ridiculous Claims For Trump’s Ballroom

  30-08-2026 20:01 via substack.com
  
  The design is rapidly descending into parody—even as Sauer told the court it has been built so solidly that it cannot be demolished, should the court (correctly) so rule. Just like the “unsinkable” Titanic. The ridiculous grand stair from nowhere to nowhere has reappeared on the prominent elevation facing President’s Park. – Architecture and the City
  
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• YouTube’s Growing TV Presence

  30-08-2026 19:01 via variety.com
  
  Love it or hate it, with its viewing figures fast overtaking traditional broadcasters’, YouTube is now undeniably a part of the U.K.’s broadcasting ecosystem. – Variety
  
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• NY Governor Cancels Law Requiring Licenses To Dance

  30-08-2026 18:31 via yahoo.com
  “Dancing? Banned? In New York?! Not anymore,” Hochul said. “Thanks to my administration, you can now cut loose, footloose and kick off your Sunday shoes.” – New York Daily News (Yahoo)
  
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• How Social Media Changed The Ways We Remember

  30-08-2026 18:01 via thewalrus.ca
  
  There were ups and downs in the stories I saw people telling, but the trajectory I observed most frequently was an upward one. Growth, expansion, improvement, overcoming. Vacations as burnishments to the image. Illnesses as stress tests, ways of ultimately proving fitness. – The Walrus
  
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• AI Paul Gigot Responds To WSJ Opinion Page Editor Paul Gigot

  30-08-2026 17:30 via theatlantic.com
  
  “I have been thinking about this for close to 20 minutes, and I have concluded that human writing is finished.” – The Atlantic
  
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• The Problem That Can’t (Currently) Be Fixed At The Kennedy Center

  30-08-2026 17:01 via theatlantic.com
  
  Each new development and court filing in opposition makes the same structural problem clearer: A judge can restrain the board’s actions time and time again, but “if the problem is a governance problem, there is not much that a court can do.” – The Atlantic
  
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• Why Dictators Fear “Common Knowledge”

  30-08-2026 16:44 via persuasion.community
  
  The difference between private knowledge, even when widely shared, and common knowledge is not a mere logical nicety. It can unify knowers in coordinated action and sometimes explode a social status quo. – Persuasion
  
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• Why We Love Trashy Movies

  30-08-2026 16:15 via newyorker.com
  
  The movies in the good-because-bad canon are not forgettably bad, like cheesy Hallmark fare or the thousandth predictable sequel in a superhero franchise; they are not skillfully and expensively bad, like botched Oscar bait. – The New Yorker
  
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• Why “Star Trek” Still Resonates 60 Years Later

  30-08-2026 16:01 via theconversation.com
  
  From its very first broadcast episode on September 8 1966, Star Trek established that its true subject was the exploration of humanity itself.  – The Conversation
  
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• Kennedy Center Board Says It Will Delay Putting Trump’s Name Back On The Building

  30-08-2026 15:44 via artnews.com
  
  The announcement followed an emergency court hearing prompted by a Justice Department filing this week warning that the Kennedy Center could be demolished and potentially replaced with an outdoor amphitheater if the board is not allowed to close the building for two years for repairs. – ARTnews
  
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• Leader Of Sydney’s Biggest Culture Project This Century, Resigns Ten Weeks Before Opening

  30-08-2026 15:35 via artnews.com
  
  Since her 2018 appointment, Havilah has been overseeing the $915 million build of Powerhouse Parramatta—the city’s most significant cultural infrastructure project since the Sydney Opera House, which opened in 1973 for an estimated cost of AU$102 million. – ARTnews
  
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• How Dolly Parton Became An Empire

  30-08-2026 15:15 via wsj.com
  She starred in movies and invested in property and wrote children’s books, sold cake mix and jeans and doggy toys. Dollywood, the theme park she launched in 1986, was an economic engine that generated thousands of jobs in the Eastern part of Tennessee. – The Wall Street Journal
  
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• Robert Indiana’s Home To Be Sold

  30-08-2026 15:01 via nytimes.com
  After Indiana’s death, the Star of Hope Foundation began to transform the old lodge as a public art space. But now it plans to put the building and another one he owned on the market as the foundation shifts from focusing on managing the properties into directly supporting art and cultural initiatives on Vinalhaven. – The New York Times
  
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• Making Books The Old Fashioned Way

  30-08-2026 14:44 via nytimes.com
  Arion bills itself as the only printer in the country that makes books entirely by hand under one roof, from casting metal type to printing pages to binding them together into exquisite volumes prized by collectors. – The New York Times
  
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• Critics Blast Met Museum For Honoring Disgraced Fashion Designer

  30-08-2026 14:31 via nytimes.com
  John Galliano, who transformed Dior into a global powerhouse before his disgrace, is scheduled to be the subject of a nine-month exhibition sponsored by the Met’s Costume Institute. – The New York Times
  
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• What Happened To Philadelphia’s Arts Funding?

  30-08-2026 14:15 via thephiladelphiacitizen.org
  “Philadelphia experienced the greatest contraction of all of the cities that we were looking at. It has gone from 7 percent of local government coverage of expenses in 2019 down to 1 percent in 2024.” – Philadelphia Citizen
  
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