Arts news

• ‘Monkey Christ’ is as good as a Picasso | Brief letters

  05-01-2026 18:54
  Reappraisal of Cecilia Giménez’s work | In praise of quarter-zips | When nothing happened in Isle Abbotts | Time traveller’s plaque | At sixes and sevensI was intrigued by the similarity between two paintings recently featured in the Guardian: the Ecce Homo as restored by Cecilia Giménez (Cecilia Giménez, famed for ‘Monkey Christ’ mural mishap, dies at 94, 30 December) and Tête de Femme by Pablo Picasso (€1m Picasso portrait up for grabs fo
  
  Read more

• Kenneth Turan: I Lost My Library In The LA Fires. Should I Start Collecting Again?

  08-01-2026 19:15 via theatlantic.com
  My entire collection of something like 4,000 volumes, acquired one by one over all those decades, had turned to smoke and ash in the Palisades Fire. The question before me was not just about this particular book, but about whether it made sense, in my late 70s, to begin collecting all over again. – The Atlantic
  
  Read more

• Kurt Vonnegut Estate Joins Lawsuit Against Utah For Banning Books In Schools

  08-01-2026 19:03 via publishersweekly.com
  The estate of the author of Slaughterhouse-Five (one of the banned books) joins three (living) novelists and two anonymous high school students as plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU of Utah, in a complaint challenging the state’s “sensitive material review” law. – Publishers Weekly
  
  Read more

• Renee Nicole Good Merch Pops Up On Amazon And Etsy

  08-01-2026 18:44 via fastcompany.com
  Less than 24 hours after the horrifying shooting of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis, merchandise related to the slain U.S. citizen is already proliferating on e-commerce shopping sites, including on Amazon and Etsy. – Fast Company
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Renee Nicole Good Was A Poet. Here’s Some Of Her Work

  08-01-2026 18:31 via lithub.com
  The bio from a now-private Instagram account belonging to Good describes her as a “Poet and writer and wife and mom and shitty guitar strummer from Colorado; experiencing Minneapolis, MN.”  – LitHub
  
  Read more

• The Mythology Of The Friend Group

  08-01-2026 18:15 via theatlantic.com
  If friend groups seem ubiquitous, so does a quiet underclass of people like me, bemoaning their lack of them. – The Atlantic
  
  Read more

• French Researchers Have Used AI To Write A Molière Play

  08-01-2026 18:01 via nytimes.com
  Mind you, this script wasn’t just spit out by a bot after one prompt. The French AI collective Obvious spent two years developing the script with the Théâtre Molière Sorbonne: training the software on the playwright’s structure and themes, then producing new drafts after feedback from scholars and actors. – The New York Times
  
  Read more

• AI-Created Novel Loses Publication Prize After Being Voted Winner In Reader’s Choice

  08-01-2026 17:44 via automaton-media.com
  Contest-winning AI novel loses physical publication and manga adaptation after guidelines were updated to ban AI-generated works. – Automation
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Are We Living In An Age Of Bad Painting?

  08-01-2026 17:31 via theartnewspaper.com
  Walking through Frieze London’s carpeted aisles in October, a long-developed hunch was confirmed emphatically: we are amid a deluge of bad painting. – The Art Newspaper
  
  Read more

• So How Are Libraries Going To Get Their Books Now?

  08-01-2026 17:15 via npr.org
  The company faced several challenges in recent years, including a data breach in 2022 – after the company was acquired by a private investment group in 2021 – that put it in what independent library consultant Marshall Breeding called “a weak financial position.” – NPR
  
  Read more

• Broadway Production Will Rework “The Fantasticks” As Gay Love Story

  08-01-2026 17:06 via deadline.com
  “In the re-envisioned Fantasticks, the central romantic pair – traditionally Matt and Luisa – are now Matt and Lewis, reinterpreting the story’s ‘allegory of love, longing, and reconciliation through a gay lens,’ according to producers. The show’s original pair of fathers, who secretly orchestrate the clandestine love affair between their children, are now mothers.” – Deadline
  
  Read more

• Béla Fleck Talks About Why He Canceled His Kennedy Center Concerts

  08-01-2026 16:34 via msn.com
  “As this thing became more and more charged, it wasn’t any longer something where I’m under the radar playing this gig. I am actually taking a position by playing at the Kennedy Center now. By not canceling, I’m taking a position, and I don’t want to take that position.” – The Washington Post (MSN)
  
  Read more

• Thoughts While Not Thinking

  08-01-2026 16:13 via artsjournal.com
  <a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2026/01/thoughts-while-not-thinking.html" title='Thoughts While Not Thinking‘ rel=”nofollow”><img width="150" height="150" src="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/P1310432-cropped-400-150×150.jpg" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" alt="Untitled © by Gerard Bellaart" link_thumbnail="1" decoding="async" srcset="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/P
  
  Read more

• Bruce Crawford, Ad Exec Who Led Metropolitan Opera And Lincoln Center, Has Died At 96

  08-01-2026 16:02 via nytimes.com
  In his primary career, he ran agencies BBDO Worldwide and Omnicon. As the Met’s general manager, he erased the company’s big deficits and stabilized operations; he also served twice as board chairman. As chair of Lincoln Center, he established peace among feuding resident organizations and set big projects in motion. – The New York Times
  
  Read more

• Did Someone Just Figure Out How To Decode The Voynich Manuscript?

  08-01-2026 15:30 via livescience.com
  Not exactly, no, but science journalist Michael Greshko may have taken a big step toward that goal. No one had yet figured out a workable approach to even attempt reading the famously indecipherable 15th-century codex, but Greshko has demonstrated that a medieval-style cipher using cards and dice is plausible. – Live Science
  
  Read more

• What’s The Ultimate Goal Behind The Trump Administration’s Attacks On The Smithsonian? To Finally Win The Culture Wars

  08-01-2026 15:05 via theguardian.com
  Charlotte Higgins: “’The goal,’ as one senior employee of the Smithsonian told me, ‘is to reframe the entire culture of the United States from the foundation up.’” – The Guardian
  
  Read more

• Smithsonian Faces New Ultimatum From Trump Administration

  08-01-2026 14:33 via nytimes.com
  “After a monthslong lull in tensions, the Smithsonian is facing an ultimatum from the White House to comply next week with a demand” to produce a very long list of internal documents for “a comprehensive review of the institution’s content and plans — or risk potential cuts to its budget.” – The New York Times
  
  Read more

• Another Former Student At Richmond Ballet Sues For Abuse

  08-01-2026 14:01 via wtvr.com
  “A former Richmond Ballet student is suing the performance organization for $11.5 million, alleging sexual, emotional and psychological abuse at the hands of staff members during her eight years (there). The 85-page complaint … is the third lawsuit filed by a former student … in the past five years.” – WTVR (Richmond)
  
  Read more

• “Ur Kind of Music?”

  08-01-2026 05:44 via artsjournal.com
  I cannot think of a better conversationalist about music, and about the state of things musical today, than the conductor Kenneth Woods. Ken is an American based in the UK, where he conducts the English Symphony Orchestra in Worcester and resides in Wales. He programs bravely and insightfully. He presides
  
  Read more

• How Hard Is The Training To Become A Peking Opera Star? This Hard.

  07-01-2026 21:02 via apnews.com
  Zhang Wanting spent an entire semester practicing standing on one foot on a three-inch chair handle while lifting her other leg backward and leaning forward with an arched back. And that was maybe the easiest of the tricks she had to learn just with the chair, leaving aside all the other skills necessary. – AP
  
  Read more

• Insider Art Market Predictions For 2026

  07-01-2026 20:27 via artnews.com
  If nothing else, the new year will likely reveal whether the art world’s pivot to the Gulf, and auction houses’ deepening emphasis on luxury categories, were good choices. – ARTnews
  
  Read more

• New Vision For Your Car: An AI Companion

  07-01-2026 20:15 via fastcompany.com
  Across the show floor, the car emerged less as a machine and more as a companion as automakers and tech companies showcased vehicles that can adapt to drivers and passengers in real time — from tracking heart rates and emotions to alerting if a baby or young child is accidentally left in the car. – Fast Company
  
  Read more

• America’s Only Weather Museum May Have To Close Down

  07-01-2026 20:05 via artnews.com
  “The National Weather Museum and Science Center in Norman, Oklahoma, the only US museum dedicated to weather artifacts, said late last month that it is at risk of closing. The nonprofit, launched in the early 2000s, has relied completely on donations, grants, and partnerships for funding, and receives no federal funding.” – ARTnews
  
  Read more

• Australia Post apologises for losing Aboriginal artist’s painting worth $4,000

  07-01-2026 07:09
  Bobbi Lockyer says she sent the item express post with tracking as the national postal service says the search continuesFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastJust before Christmas, Aboriginal artist Bobbi Lockyer packed up a precious painting she had spent more than a hundred hours on and sent it to her client.What arrived at the other end was an empty package. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Art could save your life! Five creative ways to make 2026 happier, healthier and more hopeful

  07-01-2026 06:00
  Engaging in creativity can reduce depression, improve immunity and delay ageing – all while you’re having funFor some reason, we have collectively agreed that new year is the time to reinvent ourselves. The problem, for many people, is that we’ve tried all the usual health kicks – running, yoga, meditation, the latest diets – even if we haven’t really enjoyed them, in a bid to improve our minds and bodies. But have any of us given as much thought to creativity
  
  Read more

• Artists decry dismantling of Belgium’s oldest contemporary art museum

  06-01-2026 18:30
  Cost-saving plan to transfer Antwerp museum’s entire collection to another city described as ‘simply insane’Prominent artists have spoken out against an “arbitrary reshaping” of Belgium’s museum landscape, as the Flanders region seeks to cut public spending by dismantling the country’s oldest contemporary art museum and transplanting its entire collection to another city.At a press conference in Antwerp on Tuesday, the directors of the city’s Museu
  
  Read more

• The most exciting US art exhibitions in 2026

  06-01-2026 18:17
  The next 12 months promise blockbuster surveys of noted greats and introductions to intriguing lesser-known artistsFrom old masters to pop artists, contemporary greats and even a major Mexican film-maker, art museums and galleries across the US have some dazzling shows coming up in 2026. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Molly Parkin obituary

  05-01-2026 18:46
  Artist, writer, fashion editor and raconteur whose bohemian lifestyle inspired her bonkbuster novelsThough she accomplished much else, Molly Parkin has died, at the age of 93 after suffering from Alzheimer’s, as an acknowledged artist, which is what she had really wanted from life. She had passed through fashion, journalism, writing fiction and nonfiction, notoriety and foulmouthed fame, on television and off, plus more than 50 dwelling places, two husbands, and encounters with men beyond
  
  Read more

• Schools Stopped Teaching Cursive. These Kids Learn It For Fun

  05-01-2026 18:21 via washingtonpost.com
  If boomers and Gen X are puzzled by the fact that many youngsters are not required to endure the same painstaking labor of mastering cursive that they were, they might be even more surprised — perhaps, even delighted — to hear that some are learning the craft entirely for fun. – Washington Post
  
  Read more

• Hollywood Jobs Are Just… Disappearing

  05-01-2026 18:02 via wsj.com
  It’s not like the frog boiling in the water. It’s a dramatic drop-off. It happened very suddenly. Broadly speaking, in LA, if you’re involved in the entertainment industry, this has been a very rough two years. Very, very rough. – The Wall Street Journal
  
  Read more

Follow @ArtsUK1 on Twitter!