Arts news

• New Hammer Museum Director Envisions A New Arts District

  12-10-2026 19:01 via latimes.com
  
  At an institution with a fiscal operating budget of about $30.4 million, she is seeking to place educational initiatives on equal footing with exhibitions, pursuing collaborations across the city, and positioning the Hammer as the anchor of a Westside arts district. – Los Angeles Times
  
  Read more

• Monumental Statues of Ramses II Discovered in Egypt

  14-10-2026 22:04 via artnews.com
  
  Archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered the remains of two colossal statues believed to depict Ramses II after a local landowner reported finding an inscribed stone block in the village of Behbeit El-Hagar.The discoveries were made by an archaeological mission from Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). According to Dr. Hisham El-Leithy, Secretary-General of the SCA, the first find was a stone head more than five-feet-high from a massive statue. It depicts a man wearing a double crow
  
  Read more

• Frieze London Brings 400-Year-Old Paintings and Collectors in Their 20s

  14-10-2026 22:00 via artnews.com
  
  Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in On Balance, the ARTnews newsletter about the art market and beyond. Sign up here to receive it every Wednesday.It’s fun to celebrity watch the entrance to Frieze London in Regent’s Park before the fair begins. As the floodgates opened for the VIP preview on Wednesday, Oscar-nominated actor Andrew Garfield and his girlfriend, actress Monica Barbaro, strolled in. Also present were Tilda Swinton, Bianca Jagger, London-based designer
  
  Read more

• At Frieze, an Artist Project in the Fair’s Public Toilets Confronts the UK’s Ongoing Bathroom Wars

  14-10-2026 20:02 via artnews.com
  
  At Frieze London this week, even the bathroom will be a place to see art. Gray Wielebinski’s new site-specific Production (2026) will transform the fair’s public toilets into an intimate olfactory environment, where scent, bodily function, privacy, desire, and surveillance will converge.Rather than disappearing into the functional infrastructure of the bathroom, Production announces itself as an artwork: Custom urinal cakes and toilet-rim blocks infused with two scents are housed in
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• We’re Losing Our Skills As We Lean Into Technology

  14-10-2026 19:15 via aeon.co
  We have fallen into habits that are steadily deskilling the human body, eroding capacities honed by evolution to support our wellbeing as we move through the world. Some of these capacities are weakening through disuse: we have come to rely on our phones, for example, and now, increasingly, on AI. – Aeon
  
  Read more

• Untangling The Myths Around Cormac McCarthy

  14-10-2026 19:03 via nytimes.com
  Many of those myths — that he was an outsider to the publishing world, a loner, reluctant to do press — come from a 1992 feature article published in The New York Times Magazine which was, it turns out, quite misleading. (However, McCarthy really was a lousy boyfriend and husband.) – The New York Times Magazine
  
  Read more

• Salon 94 to Open Permanent Space in Paris During Art Basel

  14-10-2026 18:58 via artnews.com
  
  New York–based gallery Salon 94 will expand its footprint to Paris, where it will open a permanent space facing the Jardin du Palais Royal on October 18. Located at 30 Galerie de Montpensier, the 323-square-foot space will be inaugurated by a solo exhibition for Deborah Roberts, running through November 28.“Artists really led us to think about a space here,” Fabienne Stephan, Salon 94’s European director who will be leading the space, told ARTnews. “Artists love pre
  
  Read more

• Congressional Commission to Consider Adding Jewish Museum to Smithsonian Network

  14-10-2026 18:53 via artnews.com
  
  The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia is being considered as a potential new member of the Smithsonian museum network, with members of a new congressional commission sworn in on Tuesday set to study the matter.As reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Philip Darivoff, a former longtime chair of the Weitzman and current chair of the new commission, and Dara Horn, a writer serving as vice chair, “said that the Weitzman joining the Smithsonian would send
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Complicating The Morality Of Colonialism?

  14-10-2026 18:44 via 3quarksdaily.com
  
  “My pessimism is reinforced by the zero-sum view of economics that typically accompanies the zero-sum view of moral agency around colonialism. A major piece of evidence for the ‘colonisation explains everything’ thesis is economic.” – 3 Quarks Daily
  
  Read more

• Getty Images Is A Giant. It Was Worth $4.8B A Few Years Ago. Now It’s In Bankruptcy. What Happened?

  14-10-2026 18:31 via fastcompany.com
  Getty Images is preparing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after years of financial struggles, a failed merger, and growing competition from technology that can create images in seconds. – Fast Company
  
  Read more

• The Awards Show That Defines Troubled: Golden Globes V Golden Globe

  14-10-2026 18:15 via deadline.com
  
  Two months after the remnants of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association sued Penske Media Corporation for its part in Dick Clark Productions‘ purchase of the Golden Globes in 2023 with allegations of monopolization and fraudulent misrepresentation, the Penske-controlled Golden Globes is going after the Golden Globe Foundation for trademark infringement and unfair competition. – Deadline
  
  Read more

• Bayeux Tapestry Exhibition Has Spectators Flocking To Battle Of Hastings Re-Enactment

  14-10-2026 18:01 via nytimes.com
  “Each fall, about 1,000 history enthusiasts gather in Battle, a town in southern England, to recreate the Battle of Hastings (the main event depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry) … on the very landscape where the conflict unfolded on Oct. 14, 1066. This year … the crowds have been more teeming than usual.” – The New York Times
  
  Read more

• Indivisible: Lee Krasner And Jackson Pollock

  14-10-2026 17:46 via newyorker.com
  
  The blockbuster that just opened at the Met, “Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous,” is probably, canvas for canvas, the best painting show in America this year. It does something I thought impossible, which is make Abstract Expressionism—the most fossilized of American art movements—seem new again.  – The New Yorker
  
  Read more

• The Essential Anne Carson: Fragments Across Time

  14-10-2026 17:31 via theconversation.com
  
  Fragmentation is frequently associated with the crisis of representation in 20th-century literature. Carson reveals that the ancient textual tradition already contains discontinuities that resist the modern desire for completeness. – The Conversation
  
  Read more

• Netflix Is Cutting 1000 Jobs As Stock Price, Customer Growth Stumble

  14-10-2026 17:14 via wsj.com
  Netflix is cutting 6% of its staff, or roughly 1,000 positions globally, its biggest round of layoffs since 2022, as it struggles with slowing growth and customer engagement. – The Wall Street Journal
  
  Read more

• Workers At La Scala Vote To Authorize One-Day Strike

  14-10-2026 17:02 via moto-perpetuo.com
  
  That day, October 20, is opening night for a new production of Gounod’s Faust, directed by Johannes Erath and conducted by Daniele Rustioni. House employees are demanding that their next contract include a 15% increase in gross pay. – Moto Perpetuo
  
  Read more

• Louvre Director Warns of ‘Disaster’ If Museum Does Not Receive Renovations

  14-10-2026 16:47 via artnews.com
  
  Christophe Leribault, who recently took the reins at the Louvre in Paris, said that the museum could close altogether if it does not receive renovations that would improve the institution’s security and aging infrastructure.“Whoever forms the next government must keep in mind that if the Louvre is not repaired, updated and transformed, it will very quickly fall behind and will eventually have to close its doors to the public,” Leribault told Le Figaro on Wednesday. “That
  
  Read more

• A Company For Lapsed Ballet Dancers To Return To Training And Performing

  14-10-2026 16:34 via nytimes.com
  “There have long been ballet classes for children, and classes for adult beginners have grown in popularity. But there are relatively few designated spaces for serious former students to practice and perform at a high level, with no dreams of going pro.” Enter the Ballet Salon. – The New York Times
  
  Read more

• 80 Books Were Banned In Minnesota Last Year. They Were All At One School.

  14-10-2026 16:06 via startribune.com
  Among the titles involved were The Handmaid’s Tale, The Kite Runner, and a cookbook. Outraged students protested. And, mind you, this was after Minnesota passed a law forbidding book bans in public schools. – The Minnesota Star Tribune
  
  Read more

• Karachi Biennale Cancelled, Shattered British Museum Porcelain Sparks Debate in China, and More: Morning Links for October 14, 2026

  14-10-2026 15:56 via artnews.com
  
  To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.Good Morning!Pakistan’s Karachi Biennale has cancelled its fifth edition due to “war conditions prevailing in the region.”A 300-year-old Jingdezhen porcelain bowl and box mysteriously shattered inside a British Museum display case, sparking a debate on Chinese social media.German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has warned of nationalist threats to “freedom of art.&rdq
  
  Read more

• Author Of France’s Hit Novel Of The Fall Denies Using AI But Admits To Past Plagiarism

  14-10-2026 15:30 via thecanadianpressnews.ca
  
  “The novel by Thélyson Orélien, C’était ça ou mourir, which translates to ‘It was either that or dying,’ came under scrutiny last month over allegations of AI use. This was followed by other news reports that raised questions about passages in the author’s previous work.” – The Canadian Press
  
  Read more

• Sculptors’ Favorite Plaster Is Being Discontinued, And They’re Freaking Out

  14-10-2026 15:05 via nytimes.com
  “The specialty plaster is a type of gypsum product known as Hydrocal, which … is durable enough for metal casting but soft enough for direct sculpting. In addition to artworks, it is used in architectural restoration projects, dental molds, orthopedic molds and the customization of prosthetic limbs.” – The New York Times
  
  Read more

• New York Public Radio’s CEO Steps Down After Only Eight Months

  14-10-2026 14:33 via gothamist.com
  
  The press release said only, “The Board of Trustees thanks Christy (Tanner) for her contributions to NYPR and wishes her well.” Her predecessor, LaFontaine Oliver, is stepping in as interim Acting President and CEO. – Gothamist
  
  Read more

• A Texas School District Cancels “Little Shop Of Horrors” Because A Girl Was Cast As Seymour

  14-10-2026 14:01 via star-telegram.com
  District officials canceled South Grand Prairie High School’s production largely out of concern about breaking Texas’s recent law banning drag performances in front of minors. Meanwhile, the student actress points out that denying her the chance to perform because she’s female violates Title IX. – Fort Worth Star-Telegram
  
  Read more

• Photography’s subversive power shines through the dross in Tate Modern’s Light and Magic

  14-10-2026 13:30 via ft.com
  A London show subtitled ‘The Birth of Art Photography’ purports to showcase pictorialism — but the best works here represent its very opposite
  
  Read more

• Théo Mercier’s world of curious things

  14-10-2026 13:00 via ft.com
  The French artist gathers rocks, relics and cast-offs to create strange sculptural worlds, exploring how objects acquire meaning — and how they might be used to tell new stories
  
  Read more

• A Long-Awaited Art Museum in a Former Renault Factory Finally Arrives on Paris’s Idyllic Île Seguin

  14-10-2026 08:00 via artnews.com
  
  To get to France’s newest contemporary art center, the journey is part of the experience. To reach Île Seguin in Boulogne-Billancourt, in the western suburbs of Paris, you must first go to Pont de Sèvres, the final stop of Métro Line 9, and then either take a 15-minute walk or a five-minute bus ride. It is worth the trek: Crossing onto the island means leaving the dense urban fabric behind for a site surrounded by water, with views toward the banks of the Seine and the
  
  Read more

• Dealer Adam Shopkorn’s Alternative Route to Frieze London With Haitian Artist Myrlande Constant

  14-10-2026 06:01 via artnews.com
  
  Dealer Adam Shopkorn of New York–based gallery Fort Gansevoort has always taken an unorthodox route when it comes to the business he cofounded in 2015 with his wife, Carolyn Tate Angel. After participating at Frieze Los Angeles this past February, he will show at the fair’s London edition this week with a solo booth dedicated to the textile flags of Haitian artist Myrlande Constant, who is living in a state of emergency in her home country.Frieze London will mark his third fair this
  
  Read more

• Stan Douglas: ‘The things AI steals are always better than the things it makes’

  14-10-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  The 66-year-old Canadian artist takes a meticulous approach to his films and photography, whose subjects range from the Ku Klux Klan to the Arab Spring
  
  Read more

• Move over New York and LA: red states are the new home for art

  14-10-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Scenes are flourishing in Texas and Georgia as professionals and creative talent head inland
  
  Read more

Follow @ArtsUKnews on Twitter!