Arts news

• Remembering Jonathan Lear: "He wanted to understand what it meant to be human, and he simply followed that question wherever it took him"

  04-11-2025 00:52 via thepointmag.com
  Remembering Jonathan Lear: "He wanted to understand what it meant to be human, and he simply followed that question wherever it took him"
  
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• Theaster Gates Tapped for Obama Presidential Center Installation Celebrating Ebony and Jet Image Archives

  16-12-2025 23:07 via artnews.com
  The Obama Foundation has tapped a local talent with its latest commission for its highly anticipated Obama Presidential Center (OPC), set to open on Chicago’s South Side in 2026. Artist Theaster Gates will create an expansive frieze drawing drawing from the Johnson Publishing Company image archive and the Howard Simmon and photographic collections. The new installation will occupy the Pendleton Atrium at the forthcoming OPC and celebrate the visual archives of the Chicago legacy magaz
  
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• Top Ukrainian Art Historian Believes Italian Museum Holds 14 Fake Russian and Ukrainian Modernist Works

  16-12-2025 21:51 via artnews.com
  Konstantin Akinsha, a top curator and art historian of Russian and Ukrainian art, said he believes 14 artworks attributed to Russian and Ukrainian modernists in the collection of the Palazzo de Nordis, a museum in the northern Italian town of Cividale del Friuli, are not authentic.In a Substack post published in late September, Akinsha analyzed the De Martiis Collection, a cache of 64 modern and contemporary works donated to the palazzo in 2015 by the late local collector Giancarlo De Martiis. T
  
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• Art Institute of Chicago’s 2025 Acquisitions Include a Painting by Kay WalkingStick and a 17th-Century South Asian Textile

  16-12-2025 18:56 via artnews.com
  The Art Institute of Chicago announced the top lots among its more than 1,000 acquisitions in 2025, with special notice going to key paintings and other holdings now in the collections of departments including prints and drawings, photography and media, textiles, and architecture and design.The paintings include Kay WalkingStick’s The Silence of Glacier (2013), a two-panel work that overlays a Northern Chayenne beadwork pattern over top a landscape scene from Glacier National Park in Monta
  
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• “Little Foot” Hominin Fossil May Be a Formerly Unknown Species of Human Ancestor

  16-12-2025 17:59 via artnews.com
  As reported by the Guardian on December 14, one of the world’s most famous hominin fossils may be a previously unidentified species of human ancestor. Nicknamed “Little Foot,” the skeleton was discovered between 1994 and 1998 in the Sterkfontein cave system in South Africa. It is the most complete specimen ever found of the genus Australopithecus, from which humans are descended.Little Foot was a bipedal like humans, but likely foraged and slept in trees like primates, while th
  
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• For the First Time, Hong Kong Selects Not One But Two Artists to Go to the Venice Biennale

  16-12-2025 17:57 via artnews.com
  Hong Kong has typically sent a single artist to represent the special administrative region at the Venice Biennale, but in 2026, artists Angel Hui and Kingsley Ng, both Hong Kong natives who live in the city, will jointly take up the mantle. The Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA) and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) are collaborating for the first time on the presentation in La Serenissima. The artists will explore “the poetic rhythms of daily life,” per an announcement, i
  
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• Malba Founder Eduardo Costantini Acquires Daros Latinamerica Collection in Major Expansion Ahead of Museum’s 25th Anniversary

  16-12-2025 17:52 via artnews.com
  The Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires is set to nearly double the size of its holdings following founder Eduardo F. Costantini’s acquisition of the Daros Latinamerica Collection, a trove of 1,233 works by 117 artists created primarily between the 1950s and 2010s. The deal brings the combined collection to roughly 3,000 works, positioning the institution as among the world’s most significant repositories of modern and contemporary Latin American art.According to the museum,
  
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• Tuan Andrew Nguyen Selected for Next High Line Plinth Commission

  16-12-2025 16:44 via artnews.com
  The High Line in New York has selected artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen to produce its next plinth commission, scheduled to open next spring.Titled The Light That Shines Through the Universe, the commission will see Nguyen present a re-created version of one of the two Bamiyan Buddhas that once stood on a cliff in central Afghanistan. Dating to the 6th century CE, the Bamiyan Buddhas are typically seen as symbols of the syncretism of cultures along the Silk Road.  The Buddha’s hands were los
  
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• Time for a Right-Size Art Market, National Museum of Libya Reopens, Somerset’s Cultural Awakening: Morning Links for December 16, 2025

  16-12-2025 16:12 via artnews.com
  The HeadlinesIF THE RIGHT SIZE FITS. One could be forgiven for thinking, at various points over the past year, that the global art industry was approaching an existential breaking point, Tim Schneider writes in the Art Newspaper. A steady drumbeat of gallery closures and a handful of underwhelming auction results has created an atmosphere of persistent unease. It’s natural to worry that the downturn might be permanent. After two decades in the business, however, Schneider is conf
  
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• Sotheby’s Is Selling a Watch Gifted to Admiral Nelson Before His Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar

  16-12-2025 15:26 via artnews.com
  The clock is ticking on Sotheby’s final watch sale of the year, scheduled for Wednesday. A total of 51 timepieces are being sold in the online auction, titled “Fine Watches,” with the historical “Victory Watch” being one of the sale’s top lots. Legendary British naval officer Admiral Horatio Nelson was presented with the gilt metal, gold, and enamel watch by officers on the HMS Victory in 1805. Weeks later, Nelson etched his name into the history books by defe
  
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• Somerset’s Unlikely Contemporary Art Scene is a Welcome Departure from the UK’s London-Centric Thinking

  16-12-2025 12:10 via artnews.com
  Knocking back fine wine, fermented potato brioche, and smoked eel in a Michelin-starred restaurant is not a traditional West Country endeavor. Nor is wandering around a mega-gallery. But I was recently at Hauser & Wirth Somerset in Bruton with a bellyful of Osip’s tasting menu, looking at Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely’s joint exhibition, “Myths & Machines.” Tinguely’s scrapyard sculptures were juxtaposed with de Saint Phalle’s bold, colorful v
  
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• Somerset’s Unlikely Contemporary Art Scene is a Welcome Departure from the UK’s London-Centric Thinking

  16-12-2025 12:10 via artnews.com
  Knocking back fine wine, fermented potato brioche, and smoked eel in a Michelin-starred restaurant is not a traditional West Country endeavor. Nor is wandering around a mega-gallery. But I was recently at Hauser & Wirth Somerset in Bruton with a bellyful of Osip’s tasting menu, looking at Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely’s joint exhibition, “Myths & Machines.” Tinguely’s scrapyard sculptures were juxtaposed with de Saint Phalle’s bold, colorful v
  
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• The Most Expensive Works Sold at Auction in 2025

  16-12-2025 11:00 via artnews.com
  Take a look at the top ten auction results of 2025 and you’d be forgiven for thinking the art market had been magically transported back to the halcyon post-pandemic years. Cumulatively, those lots totaled a robust $757 million—the highest figure since 2022’s $1.1 billion, and well above 2024’s $512.6 million and 2023’s $660 million.Much of the credit belongs to the specialists at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips. After a first half of 2025 that looke
  
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• A Landmark Show Brings Masterpieces of Korean Art to America’s Capital

  16-12-2025 11:00 via artnews.com
  The National Museum of Asian Art planned to open “Korean Treasures: Collected, Cherished, Shared” on November 8—right as the longest federal government shutdown in US history brought the Smithsonian to a standstill. Visitor services halted, publicity froze, and the museum lurched into crisis management. Yet behind locked doors, curators and art handlers—who were still allowed to work—continued quietly installing celadons, Buddhist paintings, palace screens, and mode
  
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• Luigi Pirandello is a half-forgotten castaway of European letters. Are we living in his world?

  15-12-2025 23:48 via thenation.com
  Luigi Pirandello is a half-forgotten castaway of European letters. Are we living in his world?
  
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• Edward Gorey’s macabre art is enigmatic, allusive, silly, somber, and haunted by the miseries of childhood

  15-12-2025 23:48 via wapo.st
  Edward Gorey’s macabre art is enigmatic, allusive, silly, somber, and haunted by the miseries of childhood
  
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• Anthony Appiah: “I don’t think encouraging people to resent everything they think is a moral mistake made by everybody else is a good way to prepare yourself for a happy life”

  15-12-2025 23:48 via chronicle.com
  Anthony Appiah: “I don’t think encouraging people to resent everything they think is a moral mistake made by everybody else is a good way to prepare yourself for a happy life”
  
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• Mattress Factory Names Anthony Elms, Onetime Whitney Biennial Curator, as Artistic Director

  15-12-2025 22:11 via artnews.com
  The Mattress Factory, a contemporary art museum and residency program in Pittsburgh, has named Anthony Elms as its artistic director, beginning next February.At the Mattress Factory, Elms will oversee the institution’s entire artistic programming, from its exhibitions and commissions to its residency program to public engagement and interpretative strategies. His appointment, after a national search, comes as the museum prepares for its 50th anniversary in 2027.“Anthony is the p
  
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• Trump Says Building ‘Triumphal Arch’ in D.C. Is Top Domestic Policy Priority

  15-12-2025 21:33 via artnews.com
  Amid a steep rise in health-insurance premiums and persistent concerns over affordability, President Donald Trump has clarified the top priority of his domestic policy chief: the construction of a triumphal arch in Washington, D.C.While speaking at a White House holiday party, Trump praised Vince Haley—his former speechwriter and a longtime Newt Gingrich aide who now runs the Domestic Policy Council—for his “unbelievable” policy chops, according to a report in the Guardia
  
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• Bianca Censori Dips Her Toes Into Furniture Design and Performance Art

  15-12-2025 20:55 via artnews.com
  However legitimate her background in architecture and jewelry design may be, Bianca Censori is first and foremost known for her distinctive, revealing fashion choices and for being Ye’s—né Kanye West’s—wife and muse. On Dec. 12 and 13, Censori debuted BIO POP (The Origin), the first in what will be a series of seven performance art pieces spread out over the next several years.BIO POP took place at an unnamed venue in Seoul, South Korea; Censori’s website has
  
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• Christie’s Power Broker Alex Rotter Opens Up About Market Confidence, Private Auctions, and his Beloved Jets

  15-12-2025 20:39 via artnews.com
  Editor’s Note: This story is part of Newsmakers, an ARTnews series where we interview the movers and shakers who are making change in the art world.For Christie’s Global President Alex Rotter, November was a vindication. After an up-and-down year, the auction house kicked off New York’s fall marquee sales week with a double-header that brought in $690 million with fees on 79 lots—up more than 40 percent on the equivalent sale in May—with sell-thr
  
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• Banksy’s Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem Reopens For the First Time Since October 7 Attacks

  15-12-2025 20:17 via artnews.com
  Banksy’s Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, which closed following the October 7 attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, has reopened as a “cultural platform that carries the narrative of Palestine.”The British street artist opened the guesthouse across from the West Bank barrier in 2017; nearly every window looks out onto the 30-foot-high concrete wall capped with barbed wire, advertised on its website as “the worst view in the world.” The nine-room hote
  
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• Louvre Closed as Workers Begin Strike, in Latest Blow to French Museum

  15-12-2025 19:30 via artnews.com
  The Louvre Museum in Paris was forced to close on Monday after hundreds of employees went on strike to protest “increasingly deteriorated working conditions.” Around 400 of the museum’s 2,100 staffers participated in the strike, blocking the museum’s iconic pyramid entrance, according to the New York Times. The three major unions representing Louvre workers—the CGT, CFDT, and Sud—announced the strike last week in a notice to France’s Ministry of Culture.
  
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• A New Jersey Auction House Is Selling Jeffrey Epstein’s Art Collection—But Don’t Expect Any Masterpieces

  15-12-2025 19:28 via artnews.com
  New Jersey’s Millea Bros. auction house has sold artworks and furnishings owned by the late convicted sex offender and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, to the tune of some $100,000 in sales so far, according to reporting in the New York Post, which adds that more items are still on their way to the auction block. The Post reports that more than two dozen decorative items from the sales appear in photos of the financier’s Upper East Side mansion published by federal authorities. T
  
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• London’s Barbican Centre Will Close for One Year for $321 M. Renovation

  15-12-2025 19:22 via artnews.com
  The Barbican Centre, which plays home to three gallery spaces in London, will close for a year starting in June 2028 for an extensive renovation marked by what a press release describes as “a major investment that will secure the future of the internationally renowned creative powerhouse for the next 50 years.” The restoration of existing and new infrastructure will further enable “creative programming, learning, and community engagement—reaffirming the Barbican’s r
  
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• The National Museum of Asian Art Returns Three Sculptures to the Kingdom of Cambodia

  15-12-2025 17:53 via artnews.com
  On December 11, the National Museum of Asian Art, an art museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., announced it was returning three Khmer period sculptures in its collection to the Kingdom of Cambodia. The return was made after research, undertaken in collaboration with Cambodian authorities, determined that the works were likely looted during Cambodia’s civil war (1967–1975).Each of the three sculptures—two from the 10th century depicting the Hindu deities Uma
  
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• Whitney Names 56 Artists For 2026 Biennial That Promises Not to Simplify ‘Strangeness of Our Times’

  15-12-2025 17:46 via artnews.com
  The Whitney Biennial has named 56 artists for its 82nd edition, slated to open on March 8 next year. Curated by Marcela Guerrero, the Whitney’s DeMartini Family Curator, and Drew Sawyer, the Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography, the show will examine “various forms of relationality, including interspecies kinships, familial relations, geopolitical entanglements, technological affinities, shared mythologies, and infrastructural supports,” per the Whitney’s website. Among t
  
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• Whitney Releases Artist List for Biennial, Banksy’s Walled Off Hotel Reopens, and More: Morning Links for December 15, 2025

  15-12-2025 16:04 via artnews.com
  To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.Good Morning!The Louvre was forced to close on Monday after staff launched strike action. The Whitney Museum of American Art released the artist list for its closely watched biennial, set to open in March.Banksy’s Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem has reopened for the first time since 2023.The Headlines A CURSED YEAR. The Louvre just can
  
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• The Most Discussed Art Heists of 2025

  15-12-2025 14:26 via artnews.com
  While the Louvre heist in October captured global attention, 2025 was seemingly a record year for art theft. Close to a dozen museums and institutions—from Brazil to France—were targeted, with hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of artworks and artifacts stolen.Many have rightly wondered why so many robberies appear to be occurring this year. Several experts have pointed to inadequate or outdated security measures at the affected institutions. But there may also be an elemen
  
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• Why Modern Art Foundry Is the Art World’s Go-To Shop for Bronzes

  15-12-2025 13:00 via artnews.com
  Founded in 1932, Modern Art Foundry is one of the oldest foundries in the United States. Located in Astoria, Queens, since 1944, the foundry has a history in producing well-known sculptures, from José de Creeft’s Alice in Wonderland monument in Central Park to Louise Bourgeois’s “Spiders” (and just about everything else she made in bronze or aluminum from the early 1980s onward). The company’s clients have included modernists like Jacques Lipchitz and Maria M
  
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