Arts news

• The Books That Won the 2026 Pulitzer Prizes

  04-05-2026 23:53 via NYT > Arts
  “We the People,” by Jill Lepore, won the history prize, and Daniel Kraus received the fiction prize for “Angel Down.”
  
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• Gabriela Lena Frank’s ‘Picaflor’ Wins Pulitzer for Music

  04-05-2026 23:31 via NYT > Arts
  Gabriela Lena Frank’s “Picaflor: A Future Myth,” premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra, has won the prestigious award for music.
  
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• The Met’s Costume Institute Needs an Art History Lesson

  04-05-2026 23:02 via ARTnews.com
  Anyone who’s ever taken an art history course knows the drill: put two artworks side by side, and figure out where they intersect and diverge. The exercise involves IDing those objects, stating who made them and why, and accounting for formal innovations across time and cultural differences. Essentially, the discipline is predicated upon a gussied-up game of compare-and-contrast.“Costume Art,” the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s big Costume Institute show for the spring seas
  
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• ‘Liberation,’ a Memory Play About ’70s Feminism, Wins Drama Pulitzer

  04-05-2026 22:49 via NYT > Arts
  The prize board called the playwright Bess Wohl’s work “a striking blend of comedy and sincerity.”
  
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• AI Helps UK Researchers Identify Unknown Subject in Hans Holbein Drawing as Anne Boleyn

  04-05-2026 22:46 via ARTnews.com
  Using artificial intelligence, researchers may have identified the previously unknown subject of a sketch by Northern Renaissance artist Hans Holbein, and reidentified the sitter for a related Holbein drawing. The study, carried out by Karen L. Davies and Hassan Ugail, was published in the journal npj Heritage Science.Holbein was born in Germany but moved to England to escape the European Reformation, initially under the patronage of Oliver Cromwell and Henry VIII’s ill-fated second wife,
  
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• Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni Settle ‘It Ends With Us’ Lawsuit

  04-05-2026 22:41 via NYT > Arts
  Ms. Lively had accused Mr. Baldoni of waging a smear campaign against her after she complained of harassment when making a film together. He had denied her accusation.
  
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• Pulitzer Prizes 2026: A Guide to the Winning Books and Finalists

  04-05-2026 21:38 via NYT > Arts
  “We the People,” by Jill Lepore, won the history prize, and Daniel Kraus received the fiction prize for “Angel Down.”
  
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• Review: Out, Damned Patriarchy! A Revisionist Ballet ‘Macbeth’

  04-05-2026 21:29 via NYT > Arts
  In Akram Khan’s new full-length work for Danish National Ballet, Lady Macbeth is a pure-intentioned heroine.
  
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• Streisand, LuPone, Holliday, Menzel: Broadway’s Biggest Voices

  04-05-2026 20:34 via NYT > Arts
  Lea Michele, Christine Ebersole, Jennifer Hudson, Kristin Chenoweth, Adam Lambert and 10 others reflect on their favorite belters.
  
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• Trump’s Gold Statue Arrives at Doral After Artist Withheld It Over Crypto Dispute

  04-05-2026 20:27 via ARTnews.com
  A gold-leafed statue of Donald Trump is now standing at his Trump National Doral golf club in Miami after a drawn-out payment dispute.The 15-foot bronze sculpture, which rises to about 22 feet with its pedestal, was finished with gold leaf after the artist, Ohio-based sculptor Alan Cottrill, proposed the upgrade to Trump’s team. “It [was] like pitching ice water to a man dying of thirst,” Cottrill told the Daily Beast. The addition helped push the cost of the project,
  
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• Gold Statue of Trump Arrives at Doral After Artist Withheld It Over Money Dispute

  04-05-2026 20:27 via ARTnews.com
  A gold-leafed statue of Donald Trump is now standing at his Trump National Doral golf club in Miami after a drawn-out payment dispute.The 15-foot bronze sculpture, which rises to about 22 feet with its pedestal, was finished with gold leaf after the artist, Ohio-based sculptor Alan Cottrill, proposed the upgrade. “It [was] like pitching ice water to a man dying of thirst,” Cottrill told the Daily Beast. The addition helped push the cost of the project, commissioned by a gro
  
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• Venice Showcases an Array of Global Art Stars During the Biennale

  04-05-2026 19:44 via NYT > Arts > Art & Design
  Marina Abramovic, Lorna Simpson, Arthur Jafa, Richard Prince and Peggy Guggenheim are among those being featured at museums and foundations during this year’s international art exhibition.
  
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• A Dutch Art Studio Lights Up Venice’s Grand Canal

  04-05-2026 19:43 via NYT > Arts > Art & Design
  Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta of Studio Drift have brought their kinetic light sculptures outdoors at the Venice Biennale.
  
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• For the Painter Michael Armitage, Art Comes With a ‘Sense of Responsibility’

  04-05-2026 19:36 via NYT > Arts > Art & Design
  The Kenyan British artist Michael Armitage, who is showing his paintings and studies in Venice, reflects on his Kenyan roots and his recent move to Indonesia.
  
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• Electrical Fire at Broadway Theater Closes ‘Book of Mormon’ Indefinitely

  04-05-2026 19:35 via NYT > Arts
  The New York Fire Department said there was “substantial damage” to a room containing lighting equipment at the Eugene O’Neill Theater in Manhattan.
  
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• At 90, the Korean artist Lee Ufan Finds Energy in His Art

  04-05-2026 19:35 via NYT > Arts > Art & Design
  The Korean artist Lee Ufan continues to work every day, and has three exhibitions on the horizon, including a display of his pivotal paintings at the Venice Biennale.
  
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• In Venice, an Ocean-Inspired Exhibition Takes Visitors Under the Sea

  04-05-2026 19:30 via NYT > Arts > Art & Design
  Inside a former convent on an island, immersive artworks invite visitors to “stretch their sense of self to include the vastness of the ocean.”
  
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• A Show in Rome Sheds New Light on Francesca Woodman’s Haunting Images

  04-05-2026 19:13 via NYT > Arts > Art & Design
  The American photographer died at just 22, and yet the beautiful, unsettling work she created continues to influence art and artists. Why?
  
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• Hugh Jackman in ‘New Born’ and 17 Other Off Broadway Shows to See in May

  04-05-2026 19:02 via NYT > Arts
  “Little Shop of Horrors” has some new stars. Romeo and Juliet bring their love to the Delacorte. And Hugh Jackman stars in “New Born” at the Minetta Lane Theater.
  
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• Britney Spears Pleads Guilty to Reckless Driving After D.U.I. Charge

  04-05-2026 18:50 via NYT > Arts
  As part of a plea deal, the pop star will serve 12 months probation, complete a three-month substance abuse program and pay a modest fine.
  
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• Unrealized Artwork by Christo and Jeanne-Claude Will Take Over Gagosian in London

  04-05-2026 18:34 via ARTnews.com
  Gagosian gallery in London will present an artwork conceived by Christo and Jeanne-Claude in 1968 but never realized before the artists’ deaths—Jeanne-Claude in 2009 and Christo in 2020.The exhibition “Christo: Air,” opening May 21 and running through August 21, will feature rare works by Christo as well as Air Package on a Ceiling, a work that Christo and Jeanne-Claude planned for the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia but never mounted due to technical limita
  
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• Iran Abruptly Drops Out of Venice Biennale as US and Israel’s War Continues

  04-05-2026 18:28 via ARTnews.com
  Iran has dropped out of the Venice Biennale, the world’s most important recurring art exhibition, as the United States and Israel’s war continues on.“Regarding the National Participations at the 61st International Art Exhibition, In Minor Keys by Koyo Kouoh (9 May – 22 November 2026), La Biennale has been informed that the Islamic Republic of Iran will not participate,” the Biennale said in a statement, noting that there are now an even 100 countries with
  
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• In Venice, Meditating on Time and Place on a Leisurely Bar Crawl

  04-05-2026 18:27 via NYT > Arts > Art & Design
  “You can’t escape drink in Venice,” one patron noted. “It’s a ritual.” An adopted Venetian, a reporter and a photographer wandered the city’s watering holes over one long aperitivo hour.
  
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• Chanel and Guggenheim Launch Transatlantic Curatorial Fellowship

  04-05-2026 18:24 via ARTnews.com
  Chanel is teaming up with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation on a new curatorial fellowship that will move between New York and Venice, tying one of the art world’s biggest institutions more closely to one of its busiest international stages—and to a growing network of cultural initiatives backed by the fashion house. The announcement will come at the very start of the Venice Biennale.Launching in fall 2026, the Chanel Culture Fund Fellowship will be a one-year progr
  
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• Broadway’s Belters: Michele on Streisand, Hudson on Holliday and More

  04-05-2026 18:21 via NYT > Arts
  Ten insiders (and five Times writers) testify to the thrill of the big Broadway sound of songs like “Defying Gravity,” “I Got Rhythm” and “Wheels of a Dream.”
  
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• Britney Spears Pleads Guilty to D.U.I.

  04-05-2026 18:08 via NYT > Arts
  The pop star was arrested in March after officers in California observed her driving erratically. She later checked herself into a treatment facility.
  
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• Henrike Naumann Stared Down a Divided Germany’s Past While Eyeing Our Troubled Present

  04-05-2026 16:50 via ARTnews.com
  Henrike Naumann found expressions of power, personal desire, and political will in the objects of our lives. She was an avid collector of the secondhand—in the sense of used furniture, which features prominently in almost all her work, but also in how rhetoric and belief appear in the design of things we consume, and which we in turn use to represent ourselves.I doubt I could ever fully follow Henrike’s extended scavenger hunt for the intricacies of political extremism in her home of
  
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• Bard President Leon Botstein (Finally) Resigns, Following Epstein Revelations

  04-05-2026 16:22 via ARTnews.com
  Leon Botstein, who has led Bard College since 1975 and shaped it into one of the art world’s most influential liberal arts institutions, announced Friday that he will retire, after an independent report found he had not been “fully accurate” in his public accounts of his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the New York Times reported.The review, conducted by the law firm WilmerHale and commissioned by Bard’s board of trustees, was released Friday alo
  
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• This Professor Won the ‘Bauhaus Bathroom’ Design Competition for the Gropius House

  04-05-2026 15:48 via NYT > Arts > Art & Design
  Announcing the winner of a competition to create a public restroom at the historic Gropius House.
  
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• Sellers at the May Marquee Auctions Revealed, Bogotá’s MAMBO Museum Loses Its Director, and More: Morning Links for May 4, 2026

  04-05-2026 13:05 via ARTnews.com
  MAY MARQUEE MASS. The spring auction season is an upon us, and ARTnews has done some sleuthing into who’s selling what. For one, there’s Jean-Michel Basquiat’s monumental panting Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown), from 1983, set for Sotheby’s contemporary art sale on May 14, estimated at $45 million. According to sources, the consignor is Joahn Sayegh-Belchatowski. And if you’re wondering who’s behind the mystery collection dubbed “A Matter of Seeing:
  
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• 10 Shows Around Venice Not to Miss During the Biennale

  04-05-2026 11:39 via ARTnews.com
  Every two years, Venice is activated with more art than is possible to see in a week. While much attention this year will be on “In Minor Keys,” the central show curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, as well as a slew of intriguing—and controversial—pavilions in the Arsenale and Giardini, Venice will also have on view a number of exhibitions elsewhere in the city that are worth checking out. Some will be held at the city’s main art institutions, like the San Marco Art Cen
  
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• They Went Viral Online as Dancing Prodigies. Here’s What They’re Up to Now.

  04-05-2026 11:02 via NYT > Arts
  Performers who wowed us online as children are coming of age. But they have few obvious career paths.
  
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• Ken Griffin Acquires Second Original Printing of the Constitution

  04-05-2026 11:02 via NYT > Arts
  The document, purchased in a private sale for an undisclosed amount, will be on view in New York for the 250th anniversary of American independence.
  
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• A ‘Lord of the Flies’ for the ‘Adolescence’ Era

  04-05-2026 11:02 via NYT > Arts
  A new TV series based on the William Golding classic, written by Jack Thorne, explores how boys are susceptible to the influence of others.
  
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• The Met Makes a Statement With 9 New Mannequin Bodies

  04-05-2026 11:01 via NYT > Arts
  The latest Costume Institute exhibition expands its ideas of who, exactly, belongs in fashion. Will the gala follow suit?
  
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• Chasing Stardom in Korea Nearly Destroyed Ejae. Then Came ‘KPop Demon Hunters.’

  04-05-2026 11:01 via NYT > Arts
  Ejae, the movie’s breakout star, was the face of K-pop in 2025. Facing questions of art, national belonging and authenticity, she wants to be much more.
  
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• Trippy Film by British-Ethiopian Artist Theo Eshetu Hits the Venice Biennale

  04-05-2026 11:00 via ARTnews.com
  Theo Eshetu has made mesmeric films for cinema, television, and exhibitions for more than four decades, often with an eye to the multiple ways films can be shown. In Brave New World (1999), the viewer is presented with a mirror box with a continuous loop of bisymmetrical clips. In the 2015 video installation The Slave Ship (The Law of the Sea), the film unfolds in an ovoid frame. His 2017 commission for Documenta 14 includes two versions of the film Atlas Fractured, one projected on a cave wall
  
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• The Zen of Peter Frampton

  04-05-2026 11:00 via NYT > Arts
  Grappling with a progressive muscular disease and making a new album with his son, the onetime British guitar hero may be happier than ever.
  
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• Surreal, Cryptic and Just Plain Strange: 4 Fantastical Places in Italy

  04-05-2026 11:00 via NYT > Arts
  Artists, an architect and a secretive commune built these otherworldly marvels — and you can visit them.
  
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• 5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Belting

  04-05-2026 11:00 via NYT > Arts
  Michele on Streisand. Hudson on Holliday. Chenoweth on Menzel. Ten insiders (and five Times writers) testify to the thrill of the big Broadway sound.
  
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• What It Takes to Build the Venice Biennale

  04-05-2026 09:30 via ARTnews.com
  Last month, Faustin Linyekula stood at the edge of the lagoon beside the Arsenale, looking out over the water. He bent down and ran his hand along the moss that clings to the concrete docks, then began to sing. His voice carried across the basin, past the bell towers and into the empty military warehouses, the sound echoing through spaces that, in a matter of weeks, would be filled with art and people.For now, though, Venice was quiet. Three weeks before the Venice Biennale opens to press and in
  
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• What Does It Take to Build a Show During the Venice Biennale?

  04-05-2026 09:30 via ARTnews.com
  Last month, Faustin Linyekula stood at the edge of the lagoon beside the Arsenale, looking out over the water. He bent down and ran his hand along the moss that clings to the concrete docks, then began to sing. His voice carried across the basin, past the bell towers and into the empty military warehouses, the sound echoing through spaces that, in a matter of weeks, would be filled with art and people.For now, though, Venice was quiet. Three weeks before the Venice Biennale opens to press and in
  
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• Derrick Adams to Install Monumental Portrait of Koyo Kouoh in Venice During the Biennale

  04-05-2026 09:14 via ARTnews.com
  The untimely passing of curator Koyo Kouoh, the artistic director of the 2026 Venice Biennale, has been deeply felt throughout the art world for the past year. Now, artist Derrick Adams will pay tribute to Kouoh via a monumental installation in Venice this week.A banner version of his collage Heavy is the head that wears the crown (2026) will be installed on the facade of the Palazzetto dello sport Giobatta Gianquinto, facing the Rio della Tana, near the Arsenale, one of the Biennale&r
  
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• ‘Lord of the Flies,’ and 7 More Things to Watch on TV This Week

  04-05-2026 07:00 via NYT > Arts
  A new adaptation of the 1954 novel comes to Netflix, and “Outlander” wraps up its eight-season run.
  
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• ‘The Comeback’ Season 3, Episode 7 Recap: Anywhere Else

  04-05-2026 05:10 via NYT > Arts
  Valerie gets answers about the leak. Mark gets a troubling tattoo.
  
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• A $35 M. Warhol, a $45 M. Basquiat, and More: Who’s Selling The Top Works in the May Sales?

  04-05-2026 01:57 via ARTnews.com
  It’s springtime in the art world, and that can mean only one thing. Not the Venice Biennale, though that is no doubt where many dealers, collectors, and artists are this week. No, we’re talking about the May marquee sales.This year’s sales arrive, as always, at something of an inflection point for the market. Following two years of sales declines, the global art market returned to modest growth of 4 percent last year, according to the most recent Art Basel & UBS Art Market
  
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