art-report-today

A Beautiful Deep Dive Into Our Worldwide Arts + Culture


Another Progressive Failure, Pop Culture Takes Up Smoking Again; From movies and TV shows to music, the habit is no longer taboo. It’s even being celebrated...


Punk Preservation: Getty’s Glenn Phillips On Securing Raymond Pettibon’s Archive; 32 boxes and a surfboard!; Pettibon archive reflects the artist’s diverse influences, from music and surfing culture to economic theory and the global art world



Emilio González Sainz 'Tierras Altas' at Casa MB, Milan


What a Year in a Robotics Lab Taught Me About A.I. and Painting; Today’s A.I. discourse is misleading—and robotic painting reveals just how much gets lost between flashy demos and the messy reality of making art; Distinctions between virtual and physical objects


Wayne Thiebaud Curatorial Assassination


Who Was Hiroshige, the Artist Behind Japan’s Most Iconic Prints? Master of Japanese prints is admired for exquisite views of his homeland, but a new show at the British Museum reveals his lesser-known works
Artpace, San Antonio, Names Fall 2025 Artists-in-Residence: Ian Gerson, Elana Herzog, and Goldie Poblador
Book Review: Jewelry Deserves a Place in Art History; Beyond Adornment explores what the depiction of jewelry in art says about adornment, artists, and their subjects, from Charlemagne to Frida Kahlo

Be Catchy! Why Good Ideas Die Quietly and Bad Ideas Go Viral; New book, “Antimemetics: Why Some Ideas Resist Spreading,” argues that notions get taken up not because of their virtue but because of their catchiness



Photographer Hugh Holland at M+B Art


How Cory Arcangel Recovered a Late Artist’s Digital Legacy: Michel Majerus died in a plane crash, but the contents of his laptop are providing a window into his process two decades later. Arcangel says, “It’s like he just stepped out of the room.”

An Appreciation on Instagram


Edouard Manet Ring Light; Shock of Modern Full Frontal Lighting


Interview: Takashi Murakami Talks Painting, Process, and UFOs as He Opens Two Major Exhibitions



Kim Fay in Detroit: Graem Whyte 'A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe' at Spaysky Fine Art Gallery


The Line Goes on Forever: De Kooning at Gagosian; Curator Cecilia Alemani weighs in on the figuration in the artist's abstraction


BOOKS + WORDS

Stephen King Once Gave George R.R. Martin The Perfect Advice For His Writer's Block ... ... See the Video


It’s the Best of Times for Dickens Fans! A New Show Spotlights Rarities Linked to the Author; Rare portraits of a young Dickens, private letters, and personal effects will go on show in at the author's former residence

Here’s What Bothers Me About How ‘Paris in Ruins’ Rewrites Impressionist History; Review of Sebastian Smee’s 'Sebastian Smee, Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism'

Tosh Berman: 'Love, Joe: The Selected Letters of Joe Brainard', Prose writer, poet, and artist

17 SNL Writers Remember the First Sketch They Got on the Air; Live from New York, it’s an oral history featuring Colin Jost, Chevy Chase, Sarah Silverman, and more talking about their earliest days at 30 Rock


Jean-Patrick Manchette: Inside the Decades-Long Effort to Bring a Master of French Crime Fiction to American Readers


‘Completely Unworkable’: Sculpture Experts Say Trump’s $34 Million Statue Garden Has Major Problems; "America doesn’t have enough quality sculptors or museum-caliber foundries to make this happen"


LUCAS: AS HE PLEASES.

Miranda: The Billionaire Museum: What is the Lucas Museum Good For?

Mary Cassatt to Fritz the Cat: Making Sense of the Lucas Collection; "How does a museum mix the good, the bad, and the popular? I guess we'll find out next year."



This Frank Lloyd Wright Lamp Just Made Auction History; Object has become the most expensive Wright work ever offered at auction


Researchers Replicate Ancient Egyptian Blue Pigment



A Spate of Sad Girl Art Is On View In La This Spring—But Is Our Interest In Sad Girls Subversive Or Exploitative?


1935 Neutra Hollywood Hills Home Will Open To Public As Artist Residence


Which Artists Are Headed to the Venice Biennale in 2026? Henrike Naumann and Sung Tieu have been announced as the artists for the German Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale



At Least Italian American Painter Luigi Lucioni Got His Copy of Ulysses Back



Two Views From the Easel: “When the spirit moves me and the work goes well, I dance.” Dai Ban, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts and Eleni Mylonas, Soho, Manhattan


GOLIGHTLY GAUGUIN

Book Review: Do We Need to Vindicate Paul Gauguin? Sue Prideaux’s new biography of the artist reveals both a discomfort with his complex legacy and that, in 2025, redemption arcs sell

‘The Polynesians Loved Him’: The Astonishing Revelations That Cast Paul Gauguin In A New Light; He has been tarred as a French colonialist who spread syphilis to underage girls in the South Seas. But, writes the author of an acclaimed new book, fresh discoveries challenge this view of the artist – and even show him as a her

X-Ray Analysis of Gauguin Painting Reveals Hidden Details... and a Dead Beetle; Artist's feline still life harbors more than one critter



"Jeffrey Gibson: the space in which to place me" at the Broad




MALT 'Pictorial Language' at M Contemporary Art


BOOKS + WORDS

Is Dua Lipa The Best Literary Interviewer? The Houdini singer’s online book club is already a hit. Now her interviews with Pulitzer prize-winning authors are gaining new fans


Video: Dua Lipa Versus the Literary Landscape; "Dua Lipa is good at interviewing novelists"

Gloria Steinem’s “The Beach Book”; “What a tan will do is make you look good, and that justifies anything”

Book Review: The Preposterous History of Propaganda Art; 'Propagandopolis,' a Globe-Spanning Selection Of Visual Persuasions From The Early 20Th Century To Now, Is A Travelogue To Disinformation’s Past

Want to Earn Six Figures as a Writer? Try Ghostwriting. Shifts in the book industry have been a boon to writers who work quietly behind the scenes


Why Don’t We Talk About Race in Fairy Tales? Characters in fairy tales “are white not by chance, but by design,” Kimberly J. Lau writes in a new book



What Is Vielmetter Packing for Art Basel? Anchoring the booth is a suite of hard edge abstract paintings by Patrick Wilson. Including Whitney Bedford, April Bey, Nate Lewis, Kim DeJesus and a stable of art stars.



"Realms of the Dharma" at LACMA; Diversity of Buddhist art is a running theme of LACMA's "Realms of the Dharma: Buddhist Art Across Asia"


The World According to Cattelan? Jokester Maurizio Cattelan has apparently thrown some light on his most famous works in an updated version of his “autobiography”

Flush Crime Down the Drain! Man Sentenced in Plot to Steal Maurizio Cattelan’s $6.1 Million Gold Toilet; 18-karat gold loo, titled 'America,' was stolen from Blenheim Palace in September 2019



Ilana Savdie Collapses Form, Flesh and Meaning in Her White Cube Debut; "I’m using the body as an entry point to speak to something absurd that can only be materialized through the visceral”


ECON ART

Museums Cautiously Optimistic as Some Federal Grants Reinstated; Judge blocked the Institute of Museum and Library Services from carrying out Trump’s mandate to gut the agency, but the future of funding remains uncertain

Amid Breathtaking NEA Cuts, Southwest Arts Organizations are Reeling—and Rallying Support; The Trump administration’s shadowy National Endowment for the Arts grant retractions have Southwest arts organizations banding together to track the cuts and gather supporters

City and State Cultural Programs and Institutions Struggle After Trump Slashed Funding


BOOKS + WORDS

David Sedaris: A Long Way Home; Had I proposed earlier that we invite someone stranded to come with us to New York, Hugh would have said no. But now there was really no way for him to back out

One Thing Ledes to Another; Longtime New Yorker Writer Calvin Trillin Discusses His Early Years In Journalism, Humor In The Internet Era, And His New Essay Collection, The Lede

Author Coleman Hughes Offers A New Way To Reconsider Race

We Deserve More Than Novelty from the Publishing Industry

Why Are Huge Tech Companies Getting Into the Book Business? Do they want to help writers or destroy them?

How Alessandro Giardino Found His First Novel in Caravaggio’s ‘The Seven Acts of Mercy’; "The Caravaggio Syndrome," he says, combines in content and style the artist's oscillations between the sublime and the sordid



Matt Copson: Never Grow Up; “What’s living with no hope?” asks the artist’s big animated baby at KW, Berlin. One thing is certain: we can’t stop watching


GOOD GIGS

KAWS Designs the Album Cover for 'Let God Sort 'Em Out'; Produced by Pharrell; Recorded at Louis Vuitton Headquarters

Turkish Airlines and Refik Anadol's Doc 'Inner Portrait' Trailer - About First Time Travelers

Mexico’s Legendary Artist Francisco Toledo Crafted a Design-Driven Tequila Vessel Like No Other; In one of his final creative acts, Francisco Toledo partnered with Maestro Dobel® Tequila to create a sculptural ode to Oaxaca’s craft and spirit—now available as a rare collectible


Julia Friedman: The Art of Social Engineering; When British sculptor Thomas J. Price explains that his “strategy of inclusion” will counter the “endless stream of limiting tropes and identities for Black people,” he is inadvertently mimicking totalitarian injunctions


Picasso Would Not Have Blogged Dali’s Sea Urchin Photos; "...makes me hate Salvador Dalí’s attention-grabbing, money-craving, absurdist bullshit even more... I can only think of how it distracts from the news that he’d just had another audience with Franco"


Anselm Kiefer’s Amsterdam Blockbuster Pits Art Against Despair; “The Work of Art in the Age of All This Bullshit”


Flips Flop! Kenny Schachter on Auction Failures and One Collector’s Freak-Out; Plus, a blow-by-blow recap of recent market mayhem


DESIGN


She Spent her Life Hunting for Lost Vintage Wallpaper

The Push Pin Attitude; How the scrappy, ingenious founders of New York City’s Push Pin Studios revolutionized 20th-century graphic design—and left a lasting mark on the culture


How Faye Toogood Is Pushing Forward Modern Design Using Ancient Inspiration; In her striking New York exhibition, the British designer delves into timeless themes, blending historical echoes with contemporary design


Wari Tie-Dye Textiles (ca. 425–1100); Andean peoples had been perfecting a range of techniques for creating, coloring, and otherwise ornamenting textiles; Unlike anything the Europeans had seen!


Perhaps Artists Do Have Only ‘Ten Good Years’; Can happen at any time in their career



Bruce Nauman's 'Center of the Universe': Agency and Ecology in a 77-Degree October


Diva Corp: Less Than Zero, On Risk and Art in Los Angeles, "That spirit, however, has faded. LA art is staid now. Maybe all art is."


STAGE STRUCK


Catch Me, I’m Falling! Trust and Transformation in Trapeze Culture

‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow’ Review: Netflix’s Broadway Play Is An Assault On The Senses


‘Pirates! The Penzance Musical’ Review: Hilarious High-Seas Hijinks With David Hyde Pierce



STREETWISE


Bicicleta Sem Freio: Rooted in Music, Drawing the Sound


Shepard Fairey Unveils His First Arizona Mural in a City That Tried to Censor His Work

Lakers Star Luka Doncic Pays Entire Cost To Restore Vandalized Kobe Bryant Mural


Brooklyn Street Art Images of the Week



Bob Dylan Rolls Out a Show of Nearly 100 New Paintings in London; "Point Blank" presents the musical icon's most intimate series of paintings yet


Tim Schneider: The Art Business Has a Gen Z Blindspot; It's time to face up to the cultural rift dividing the under-30 crowd


Artists Brace for High Production Costs Amid Tariffs Chaos; From glass to steel to plywood, popular materials for sculptures and installations may be less accessible as Trump’s policies change day by day



New York’s Oldest Alternative Art Space, White Columns 2025 Fundraiser Print Portfolio Just Dropped; $1,000, Edition: 100


To See the Humble Work of Ruth Asawa, the Ticket Price is Extravagant; SFMOMA leads U.S. in art museum ticket prices


From Southwest Contemporary .com
Artist's Essay: A Familial Origin Story 'The Neon Guardian of Ogden'


FILM DIRECTORS WITH PHOTO SHOWS


Yorgos Lanthimos: Photographs, at Mack and Webber; First Show for the Filmmaker

How Wim Wenders Sees The World Through The Lens; Talks about his new Berlin photography exhibition, his constant travels, and future plans


Letter From Georgia O’Keeffe That Changed Yayoi Kusama’s Life; Artists maintained a years-long correspondence, one that altered the young artist's career trajectory


BOOKS + WORDS


Book Review: “Camille Pissarro: The Audacity of Impressionism” by by Anka Muhlstein; Pioneering artists like Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Frédéric Bazille, and Berthe Morisot, and later by younger colleagues like Paul Gauguin and Georges Seurat; The unlikely story behind Impressionism’s difficult origins is especially heartening for artists reading today, who are reminded that the artist’s struggle is a universal experience

New Yorker Fiction:'The Trouble with Mrs. Blynn, the Trouble with the World' by Patricia Highsmith

Think Shakespeare Left His Wife? This Newly Discovered Letter Tells a Different Story; Document suggests that Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway had more of a shared life than previously thought

New Criterion: Life Sentences: The Art Of Joseph Conrad; On Joseph Conrad’s Achievements


Tosh Berman: Calling Dr. Mabuse; The Seductive Appeal of Fantomas and Dr. Mabuse


Nate Freeman: I Asked the State Department What Was Up With the Venice Biennale. Then Things Got Interesting; Confusion has swirled around whether the Trump government would put forth an artist at next year’s edition of the art world Olympics. Now it looks to be happening, with some MAGA-fied criteria



Yves Klein’s Estate Sued Stuart Semple Over His Blue Paint—And Won; Semple didn't realize the color wars had led him to court—and that a judge had found him guilty of infringement


Less Art, Doug Harvey: A Bus Ride Tour To The Center Of The Earth

SALUTING SARGENT

How John Singer Sargent’s ‘Madame X’ Turned Paris High Society Upside Down; Wanton! Haughty! Sexual!


Tender Specificity of John Singer Sargent; What comes through most strongly in the Met Museum exhibition is his humanistic bent: Sargent loved people, and it shows


Julia Friedman: 'Exhibition Note' On "Gustave Caillebotte: Painting Men," at the Getty Center, Los Angeles


WHO IS ROBBIE WILLIAMS?

Hanging Up His Anxiety; Brit Pop Star Robbie Williams Is ‘Embracing the Chaos’ in His Candid New London Art Show


Why Robbie Williams Says Being Portrayed As a Chimp in the Recent Feature Film 'Better Man' Is 'Genius'



How to Look at Jack Whitten’s Unforgettable Painting ‘9.11.01’; It's one of the most powerful paintings of recent times. Yet it still contains much to unpack


DIGITAL ART WORLD


The Lacanian Sex-Wish of ‘Clickolding’; new viral game traps its users in a room with a mysterious figure goading them to keep clicking. Do we expect anything else from our perennially online, sexless and transactional times?

‘Mass theft’: Thousands of artists call for AI art auction to be cancelled; Letter says many of works being sold by Christie’s are made by AI models trained on pieces by human artists, without a licence


A.I. Art Generated With Text Prompts Cannot Be Copyrighted, U.S. Rules


To Gaze: "I need to remind myself every day to stop, for a second, and look at the world I’m trying to build in. That’s why I love this poem."



We Love Dog Lovers! Turns Out, Light Artist Dan Flavin Was Also a Dog Show Dad; Flavin dedicated not one but two of his huge installations to his golden retriever



On Willem de Kooning: A Conversation with Artist Albert Oehlen and Writer-Curator John Corbett


ART NOIR

Forgers and Fraudsters Trusted Him For Decades — But He Was An Undercover FBI Art Detective!


An Art Fraud Case That Is Bonkers Even by Florida Standards; Coconut Grove dealer is facing up to 30 years in prison for allegedly selling fake Warhols. And he’s been pulling these stunts for decades. Why does this stuff always go down in the Sunshine State?


Excerpt from New Book,'Warhol’s Muses': Park Avenue Princess Jane Holzer Thought Andy Warhol Could Make Her a Star. Instead, She Helped Him Reach a New Level of Fame; Winning Friends and Influencing People


Review: Collective of Lesbian Activists Is a Fierce Family; Show highlighting work by members of the collective fierce pussy presents them not out on the streets, but communing with one another, like family


CERAMICS


Must See! This Turkish Artist Duo Mines History to Create Ceramics That Probe the Present Condition; Ertuğrul Güngör and Faruk Ertekin are the subject of their first European solo show with Anna Laudel gallery in Düsseldorf


The Dark Bob 'Songs for Artists' Trucker's Cap with Mesh Air Conditioning
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A Mother and Daughter’s Joint Becoming; Magdalena Wywrot’s moody series “Pestka” captures eleven years in the life that she made with her only child, Barbara



Want a Limited Edition Artwork Tattooed On Your Skin? Berlin is the place to go; City’s tattoo studios are booming while the art world flounders. Under a new initiative, buyers receive exclusive rights to an artist’s new design, and the artist receives 50% of the profit; Certificate of Authenticity



'Appreciate Everything Endlessly' CircleArt Embroidered Apron
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New Yorker Cartoons for the Week!



New York’s Chrysler Building, a Crumbling Art Deco Masterpiece, Is Up For Sale; Abu Dhabi paid $800 million for the storied building in 2008. In 2019, it sold for $150 million

How Art Deco Shaped 100 Years of Forward-Thinking Design; To mark its 100th anniversary, these major exhibitions around the world are diving into the movement's lasting impact



Trove of 100 Napoleon Treasures Hits the Auction Block; Up for grabs are some 100 objects including garments, paintings, and of course, a bicorne hat


ARTISTS COLLABORATING


This Robert Rauschenberg Post Is Actually Mostly About Printer Bob Petersen

"The Reminiscences of Robert Petersen" from the Robert Rauschenberg Oral History Project


Why Pace Gallery is Betting Big on Berlin


A GALA FOR GALA

More Than a Muse, Gala Dalí Was a Starmaker and Star in Her Own Right


Classic Video: "The Dizzy Dali Dinner: A Surrealistic Night in an Enchanted Forest," Held in 1941 at The Hotel Del Monte in Monterey, CA

Book Review: Story of Surrealism Isn’t Whole Without Gala Dalí; In Surreal: The Extraordinary Life of Gala Dalí" (2025) Michèle Gerber Klein asks us to confront the unjust eclipse of Gala’s legacy by that of her husband, Salvador, whose career she brought to fruition


The Pineapple of Versailles; Art, Science and History



Dorothy Hood’s Landscapes of the Psyche; Labels such as “Modernism,” “Surrealism,” or “Color Field” fall away in the abstract painter’s first New York show in half a century



Once Every 36 Years, a New Gerhard Richter Squeegee Painting Comes Along That Changes Everything


Final Wishes Before His 2022 Death; Occidental Petroleum Heir Michael Hammer Wanted His Son Armie To Play Him In a Feature Film About His Art Gallery Scandal; Owned the infamous Knoedler Gallery, Manhattan’s oldest — but it closed after being accused of selling $80 million in fake art


The Billionaire Behind Japan’s Art Islands Has One Final Jewel in His Crown; Benesse Art Site Naoshima, a sprawling art constellation on three islands, adds a 10th museum by the star architect Tadao Ando that caps the cultural quest of Soichiro Fukutake


How Did William Blake, an Ancient Poet and Painter Who Died In Obscurity Come To Obsess Everyone From Oscar Wilde To David Hockney, Robert Mapplethorpe, Derek Jarman and David Bowie? The Writer Of A New Book Explains His Glorious Allure


Knight: Are Plans For The Joshua Tree Art Museum A Desert Mirage? Organizers of a new art museum in Joshua Tree announced their plans to build near the national park — but there's a hitch


See the Website for the Joshua Tree Art Museum, Click Here



Kim Fay in Detroit: Joe Davis 'Rewired Redoux' at Annex Gallery


Peter Zumthor's David Geffen Galleries From Above; "Like the cartoon antlers of Bullwinkle J. Moose"



Internationally-famed Mosaic Artist; How the Nazis' Top Interrogator Was Hired To Work On Disney Theme Parks


Justin Sun Gives $6.2 Million Banana to Notorious Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht; Maurizio Cattelan’s onceptual artwork passes into the hands of another crypto hero, fresh out of prison, with ties to president Donald Trump



Forest Lawn Rescues Modern Glass


Review: Tony Tasset Exposes the World’s Frayed Canvas; "I wanted to hate these artworks, then I wished to poke my finger through their holes, and finally they became a perfect aestheticization of the contemporary moment."


These Are the US Art Schools Most Dependent on International Students


PHOTOGRAPHY


Century of Urban Change: Photography Exhibition Explores Cities From Berlin To Kyoto


Petit Monstre tells arresting visual stories in ‘Oh Those Feels’ at Whitney Library, Las Vegas


Let It Glow: Photographer Kazuaki Koseki and the Fireflies Illuminating Japanese Woodlands; In Pictures


John Singer Sargent and the American ‘Dollar Princesses’ Who Rewrote the Rules of Power; Formidable American heiresses who married into British aristocracy weren’t just symbols of wealth—they shaped politics, society, and the arts on their own terms



Discover a Fascinating Career: 90-Year-Old Korean Artist Kim Yun Shin Is Finally Going Global; Following her debut at the Venice Biennale, she is showing in London and New York for the first time


Always Astounding, Artemisia Gentileschi Emerges Anew in Rediscovered Paintings; Paris exhibition shows there are always new discoveries to be made about the celebrated Italian Baroque painter



Early Shang Dynasty Marble Minimalist Frogs!



Kim Fay in Detroit: The House Of Tarot at The Herman Kiefer Complex


Critiquing Modernism & Capitalism, One Hauser & Wirth Show At A Time

David Hammons H&W DTLA: The Making Of; "Because a show for David is not just object-driven. He’s thinking about the space, he’s thinking about how new and existing works will interact"



Looking Back at 25 Years of Tate Turbine Hall Commissions; As London’s Tate Modern celebrates its silver jubilee, we revisit some of the most compelling works installed in its Turbine Hall

Jason Farago: Tate Modern Is the Museum of the Century (Like It or Not); The London institution, which turns 25 this week, encouraged its peers to look beyond the West. But its greatest impact was to remake the art museum into a kind of theme park


Fictive Art: Colonial Dreamscapes; An early photographer's profitable creation of an imaginary past; Precursor to Martha Stewart; Idealized domestic vision



SAGA FIT FOR A PRINCE


Richard Prince Posters in Marfa; Max Hetzler is opening a whole show' "For all their media, appropriation, and cultural content, they also show a lot of interest in scale"

Richard Prince and Photographers Settle Copyright Infringement Lawsuits Over Instagram Images (January 2024); Settlement brings the nearly decade-long dispute over Prince's "New Portraits" series to a close

Richard Prince Must Pay $650K+ to Artists for Using Their Work; Last-meeting agreement put a price on the artist’s appropriation of the works of two photographers

How an Eight-Year Copyright Suit Against Richard Prince Finally Came to an End; Artist will pay two photographers $650,000, an outcome that both sides are spinning in the press


OWNING OWENS


The Elegant Chaos of Laura Owens; Artist’s latest exhibition at Matthew Marks in New York fills bespoke rooms with a visual overload of pattern, colour and trompe-l’oeil gags


Design: Gilded Cocoons: A Laura Owens Blowout at Matthew Marks, and Printemps a Luxe New Emporium Mark a Heady Shift in Culture; The Frick Collection Renovation


“What’s Your Side Hustle?”: Hard-Earned Lessons on Artistic Survival from a Southwest Highway Town


PHOTOGRAPHY


Why Has the Getty Museum Acquired an A.I. Photograph? Work by Matias Sauter Morera will be included in the museum's upcoming show, "The Queer Lens"


The Man Who Captured the Unique Beauty of Snowflakes; Microphotographic innovator Wilson Bentley (1865–1931) believed that “every crystal was a masterpiece of design”


Photographer Dawoud Bey Asks, Can Landscapes Hold Traumas? Current exhibition at Sean Kelly Gallery


What's Going On at the Lucas? Personnel Changes, Department Staff Reductions, Alarming Behavior, Needless Scrutiny or Simply Finding the Best Foot Forward?


Attention Spans Are Dropping, Research Shows: Here’s How To Help Keep Focused



Lang’s Burdensome Bodies; Helmut Lang “What Remains Behind” at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Schindler House, Los Angeles
Billionaires’ Battle Over a Sculpture Exposes a Mysterious Art Market; David Geffen and Justin Sun’s unusually public dispute over ownership of a Giacometti sculpture valued at tens of millions of dollars gives a glimpse into a shrouded world


MUSIC + SOUND

The Politics of Ghazal Music in India; In a caste-based society, the defiant performance of songs about forbidden love challenges the dominant status of a Brahmin artform


Turn up the Volume on Hazel Scott, a Forgotten American Jazz Queen of Mid-Century Paris; Marriage to Black Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Traveling the world and becoming one of the highest-paid Black performers of her day; Pals with Billie Holiday

Secret Trove of Rare Guitars Heads to the Met; For decades, an obsessive duo of guitar guys has been amassing a definitive collection. The art these objects created changed the world.


PHOTOGRAPHY


Lemons, Cabbages and The Sea: Cy Twombly’s marvellous Polaroids (‘Le temps retrouvé, Avignon)


Review: Marilyn Monroe by Photographer Eve Arnold; Intimate, tender and witty photographs; In front of the camera Monroe was luminous, but in this reissued and sumptuous collection of pictures Arnold also captured the insecurity and pain


LOVE SONGS FOR ARTISTS


The Dark Bob Sings Love Songs For Artists; Interview by Gordy Grundy: His New Double Album "Ekphrasis Synesthesia - Songs for Artists" Tells Tales of a Life in the Arts, Devoted Inspirations, the Birth of Performance Art and What Motivates the Courageous Few


GOSSIP GETS GOOD AGAIN! ROSTER REELS! SPECULATION RAMPANT! SPLITTING HEIRS?

Is the Octogenarian Ready for Reading and Napping? Global Empire Sale Rumors? Career Change? Retirement? Larry Gagosian Buys Quaint East Hampton Bookshop Bookhampton



Doug Harvey's Less Art: Guest Columnist Steve Hurd: Field Trip Report From The Desert Lighthouse

KOYO KOUOH (1967-2025)

Koyo Kouoh: ‘Ensuring The Door Remains Wide Open For Those Who Come Next’; First African woman to curate the Venice art biennale has died. Here we publish a piece she wrote for the Guardian after taking up the role...


The Art World: What If…?!, Interview with Koyo Kouoh, Part 1; "Because I strongly believe that art is something that we only know we don't have when we don't have it. It's like health, so to speak."

The Art World: What If…?!, Interview with Koyo Kouoh, Part 2; "I think that there is this kind of disconnect that a lot of visual arts spaces globally have with the audience or with the public that a lot of people say, “I don't understand it. I don't get it."


Did Andy Warhol Exploit His Superstars? A New Book Says Yes.; Laurence Leamer, the author of “Capote’s Women” and “Hitchcock’s Blondes,” takes the measure of another powerful man and his female muses



Tony Smith's 1967 Sculpture "Smoke" Installed at Geffen Galleries


War Correspondent, Action Photographer and Fashion Model Lee Miller ‘Buried’ Frontline War Experiences; WWII PTSD: ‘Put up and shut up’; “The left-hand smoke plume on the mountain behind them is [Adolf] Hitler’s house burning; the right-hand smoke plume is a forest fire or something,” Miller wrote, “At the time the SS were still about.”



Olafur Eliasson Pattern Detection; "Looking at Olafur Eliasson’s 2024 stained glass project, 'Window for Moving Light' led to a realization..."



‘A Year of Rest and Relaxation’ Embraces Uneasy Intimacies; At Croy Nielsen, Vienna, a group show uses desire, memory and tedium to inspect the hidden realities behind everyday life


Art Keeps the Memory of Protest Movements Alive; Juliet Jacques revisits books, film and art which commemorate the 40th anniversary of the British miners’ strike and working class politics



Interview: Isaac Julien Returns to the Cutting Room Floor of History; “I want to call attention to how you look,” the artist known for his multi-channel film installations says of I Dream a World, his first US museum survey to date



Leonardo da Vinci Loved Birds; Not only did he try to unlock their secrets of flight, he also advocated for their humane treatment



Artist Ian Mwesiga Crafts Seductive, Eerie Paintings That Challenge Reality; We spoke with the Ugandan artist about his blue-hued, metaphysical paintings



Painter Gentileschi (1593-1653) and Scientist Galileo (1564-1642) Were Pen Pals; Artist's relationship with the scientist may have informed her depiction of blood



Black Holes, Luna Moths, Marfa Lights, and Dreaming: An Interview with Virginia L. Montgomery


SIMPLY SIDDHARTHA

Piprahwa Gems Auction On Hold At Sotheby’s After India Legal Threat; Government Says It Will Discuss Repatriating Gems Linked To Buddha’s Remains To India With Sotheby’s And The Sellers


Whither The Gem Relics of Piprahwa? "I’m trying to modulate the moral, ethical, and spiritual effrontery"


WEST COAST

NYT on Geffen Installation Plans


LACMA Collectors Pick $2.5 Million Worth of Art; See What's In Their Shopping Cart!

Los Angeles as Site for Diasporic Ghosts; In paintings, ceramics, and installations, Rachel Hakimian Emenaker depicts scenes of gentrification, religion, and homeland; At Grand Central Art Center, Fullerton


Fascinating Bio: John Humble, Photographer Who Captured LA’s Contradictions, Dies at 81; For five decades, Humble focused his lens on areas of the city often overlooked or dismissed, from its industrial infrastructure to its mom-and-pop storefronts


ART + COMMERCE

Artists and Their Estates Find Opportunities —and Challenges— in Licensing Deals; From Kehinde Wiley to Kara Walker, more fine artists are licensing their work to brands, navigating new opportunities and new controversies

Luxury Brands are Quietly Quitting the Art World Again; Ad buys and collabs in the arts dry up whenever high-end retailers face cash crunches

CalArts and Chanel (Fashion House) Culture Fund Launch Center for Artists and Tech With AI Focus

End of Investment Art? Why The Bottom Of The Market Is Flourishing




Kenny Schachter’s Uptown World; The Packed Townhouse of a Downtown Art-Scene Refugee



Performance Art Star Anne Imhof’s New Passion Is Sculpting in Bronze; Countless art historical precedents



Why Joseph Beuys Spent Three Days Locked Up With a Coyote; The small animal plays an outsize role in various Native American cosmologies


Why Are Hiroshige’s Woodblock Prints Still So Moving? Artist subverts the status system of 19th-century Japan, foreshadowing the impact of modernization and industrialization


ARCHITECTURE

See it! Paul Williams Designed; LA Property With Hollywood History Poised To Sell For The First Time In Decades: ‘A truly magnificent, almost fossilized home’


Founder’s Church of Religious Science Drawing on the church’s philosophy of wholeness and positivity, the architect Paul Williams designed a Modern-style, elliptically-shaped building meant to enhance feelings of inclusion


Las Vegas’ Modernist Guardian Angel Cathedral (1963) and the Legacy of Architect Paul R. Williams


Dug By Hand In Complete Secrecy; Under The Direction Of Oberto Airaudi, A Philospher And Artist; The Temples Of Humankind; In The Foothills of the Italian Alps

Hagia Sophia: Secrets of the 1,600-Year-Old Megastructure That Has Survived The Collapse of Empires


‘Cathedral of Crap’: Is This The World’s Most Beautiful Sewage Treatment Plant? "Minty green pagodas on the edge of the Irish Sea"


PERFORMANCE

Lana Del Rey Goes Country with Song About Kissing Morgan Wallen and Having 57.5 Mil Spotify Listeners at Stunning Stagecoach Show


Video: Lana Del Rey at Stagecoach 2025, in Indio, CA

Rolling Stone: Lana Del Rey Transforms Stagecoach Into a Romantic, Bayou Fairytale


Historic and Iconic Wayne Thiebaud Painting Heads to Auction for the First Time in 60 Years; "Pie a la Mode" featured in the first exhibition of Pop art in 1962



"Don Bachardy: A Life in Portraits" at the Huntington; What a Life!; Through Aug. 4, 2025


The Story of The Met's 'Missing' Banksy; Illicitly hung on the wall in 2005; New York Museum's Former Security Head Admits To Taking The Street Artist's Work



Just Eat: The Artworld’s Strange Relationship With Food; Culinary experiences in the artworld are on the rise, but why does food need to be framed as ‘art’ in order to be considered something special?



Interview: How Kent Monkman Is Reclaiming History: ‘We’ve Always Been Here, and We Will Always Be Here’; Fisher River Cree Nation artist prompts museums and audiences to confront colonial legacies they’d rather forget



Kim Fay in Detroit: Don Kilpatrick, III "Beneath The Frozen Suns" at M Contemporary


Yes, Artists Are Competitive! Why Did Leonardo and Michelangelo Have Beef? Each is an art historical legend in their own right, but what was the source of their rivalry?



Gordy Grundy: The Art of Elaine Wynn (1942 - 2025) A Life Well-Lived! An Artful Legacy!



Wow! Northern Lights: How the Boreal Forest Inspired Artists of Canada and Scandinavia
MONSIEUR NOUAR: LE FRANCAIS BUSTER KEATON


Stop Spending Your Money on Stupid Sh*t!



 

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Jerry Gogosian Logs Off (Again), But This Time, It Might Be for Keeps; Jerry Gogosian’s art world saga: memes, meltdowns, and what comes next



Matthew Rosenquist and Rob Thom 'Somewhere Else, Right Here' at M+B, Beverly Hills; Parallel visions of Los Angeles personhood


PHOTOGRAPHY


Review: Neal Slavin’s Photographic Series “When Two or More are Gathered Together” at Photographs Do Not Bend Gallery, Dallas


What Comes After The End? John Divola Asks Us: What Am I Looking At? Is It Real? Where Does That Distinction Now Lie, Given The Technology Required To Make A Photograph Now?


Perfumery and Photography Together; Chris Rusak and Amelia Konow are exploring what a photograph of a fragrance could be



15 Art Shows to See in Los Angeles This Summer; Jeffrey Gibson’s ebullient beadwork, Luchita Hurtado’s restitched canvases, Black cowboy history, Barbara T. Smith’s photocopy experimentation, and more to see this season


BANKSY IN MARSEILLE


New Banksy Mural Is a Beacon of Nope; Anonymous artist’s latest may have a personal touch, but it’s still another installment in what feels like a series of works stifled by surveillance and media fatigue; in Marseille, France

"It's A National Sport To Fight The Tags Here": The Banksy In Marseille Briefly Degraded And Then Rehabilitated


Origins of the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Tattoo


Interview: Unstoppable Film-Maker Skewering Bezos and Musk’s Macho Fantasies;‘Space travel is queer’


Landslides Leave Big Sur’s Beloved Landmarks Fighting for Survival; As California’s most majestic highway remains closed after three years, this roadside community tries to hold on. ‘It’s weird, dude’; Great photographs


Hope for Humanity! Salman Rushdie says AI won’t threaten authors until it can make people laugh; Author tells Hay festival AI has no sense of humour, but when it writes a funny book ‘we’re screwed’


STREETWISE


Artist Known for Scaling Buildings Was Arrested at His Show’s Opening; Isaac Wright took a vertiginous photograph of the Empire State Building after he climbed to the top of its spire — evidence the police used to arrest him

Photographer Isaac Wright on Being Busted by the NYPD During the Opening of His Show in Chelsea; Author profile picture; "They told Wright they delayed arresting him for a couple of hours at the opening last week because “(The police) liked my art so much that they waited a couple of hours so I could enjoy the (gallery opening) occasion.”


Lapiz Paints “Rainbow Nation” in Paderborn, Germany


Barry McGee and Margaret Kilgallen In “Place”


Video: Tagging a Train Yard with Barry McGee and Margaret Kilgallen



Kenny Nguyen’s Beautiful Refusal; People of Color Are Often Called Upon To Perform Their Identities, But Nguyen’s Lush Tapestries Largely Avoid That Trap


RAPT. TOGETHER. IN THE DARK.

Gordy Grundy: Today, we announce a new action, to bring attention to the beleaguered cinema art form. We believe our expression, "Rapt. Together. In The Dark." condenses a complex medium into a simple definition. Let's start the conversation...


EXPERIENTIAL


Devoid Magazine: How The Sphere in Las Vegas is Going to Ruin Entertainment As We Know It and Liberate the Experience

Experiential Spaces Are Getting Even Bigger; Those fake museums and gym-restaurant-spas are multiplying — and taking over even more square feet


Architect's Newspaper: Taking a Trip Through Meow Wolf’s Latest “Portal,” A Music-Themed Experiential Art Hub In Houston Called Radio Tave


The World’s Top Immersive Art Experiences; Paris, Miami, DC, Las Vegas, Denver, London, Jeddah, Tokyo, Bristol... Worldwide.



Gordy Grundy: How Does an Artist Say Goodbye To Lost Art Works?

JOHN WATERS


Tulsa Kinney: "John Waters’ Birthday Celebration: The Naked Truth" at The Wallis Theater; Generational Divide; The Comedian!?

"When I was young, there were beatniks. Hippies. Punks. Gangsters. Now you've got hacktivist. Which I would probably be if I was 20. Shuttin' down MasterCard. But there's no look to that lifestyle! Besides just wearing a bad outfit with bad posture. Has WikiLeaks caused a look? No! I'm mad about that. If your kid comes out of the bedroom and says he just shut down the government, it seems to me he should at least have an outfit for that." ~ John Waters, on the sorry style of today's rebels

From the Archives: John Waters: Subversive Success; The enigmatic auteur on his weird childhood, the sorry style of today's rebels and the social importance of bad taste

John Waters and the Relativity of Shock Value

At the Baltimore Museum of Art, the John Waters Collection Doesn’t Hate You, but Contemporary Art Still Might


ARCHITECTURE


Ai Weiwei Designs Large-Scale Camouflage Installation For New York on Roosevelt Island

The Lost Gardens of New York City

What to See at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025: This year’s must-see shows range from a Nordic Pavilion exploring transgender spaces to a compelling Lebanese project confronting the realities of ecocide

Podcast: The 15 Minute City, the New Urban Planning Concept



Our Fave Art Correspondent from Texas Rainey Knudson Has Been Counting Down Her 'Music 100,' a Love Letter to Song; While Listening to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, "Frogs," Her Short Prayer is Worth a Read
!



One Gallery Represents Four Artists with New York Museum Surveys This Season. Is That a Problem?



Art Report Today's In-House DJ Valihi Recommends This New 53-Minute Mix Featuring Jan Blomqvist with a Live Set from the Mojave Desert
!


BRAVING OPPRESSION


Texas Schools Ban Lesson Over Exposed Nipple on Virginia Flag; “Nudity on a state flag is an absurd justification to censor a history lesson,” ACLU Staff Attorney Chloe Kempf


Historic Act of Diplomacy Freed This Russian Artist. Here’s the Subtle Protest That Got Her Locked Up; Sasha Skochilenko became an international symbol of Russia's crackdown on anti-war speech


Artwork Featuring Christ Overlaid With Looney Tunes Characters Removed By Sydney Council After Threats of Violence; Online protest claimed the work mocked the Christian religion and Liverpool mayor Ned Mannoun called for it to be taken down

How the Regime Captured Wikipedia; Inside the cultural revolution at wikipedia, which pivoted it from a decentralized database of all the world's knowledge to a top-down social activism and advocacy machine



Anna Weyant’s Jewelry-Inspired Paintings Set to Shine at TEFAF New York; Gagosian is debuting the painter's new body of work in a jewel box of a booth


WOMEN'S WORK


The Giant Women Who Stomped on Art World Invisibility; One lesson of this compact, extraordinary exhibition of feminist art is that if you’re being ignored, you can do whatever you want — so take up space!

Everyday Lives of Women’s Clothing; Real Clothes, Real Lives shows that women have adapted their attire to accommodate their daily activities with resourcefulness and panache


“I Am Making the World My Confessor” Mary MacLane, the Wild Woman Writer from Butte

Pocket Guide to Women Artists Overlooked by History; Concise, pithy, and accessible, Susie Hodge’s "The Short Story of Women Artists: A Pocket Guide to Movements, Works, Breakthroughs & Themes" introduces readers to artists forgotten and obscured, many of whom are now rightly being reassessed

Older Women Artists Go It Alone As New Report Reveals How The Traditional Art World Is Failing Them; More than half of artists (55%) say they are selling work independently of galleries and advisers, with women over 65 leading the way; Meanwhile their younger counterparts struggle more acutely with living costs


Danish Women Who Made Modernism Radical; New book invites us into the tight-knit circle of women modernists in late-19th-century Denmark through quietly subversive gestures; you’ll never look at a glove the same way again



Yau: Anything Can Happen in Geoffrey Todd Smith’s Paintings; Fresh and challenging, Smith’s art sits on the cusp between eccentric abstraction and automated sci-fi figures, and contributes to Chicago’s dense art history


Podcast: Art Dirt: Reporting on the Recent Dallas Art Fairs 2025



BEWARE THE ART GURUS

Art Review: Don’t Listen to the Art Gurus; Ways of Not Seeing; Celebrity authors are rebranding themselves as philosophers of art; Extraordinary dumbing down of culture has occurred

Hard Choices With Laughs: Chen & Lampert Ask "Should You Try Guru Marina Abramović’s Longevity Method?"

Art Guru: Free Online AI Art Generator


Some Things John Waters Collected; At the Baltimore Museum of Art; Curated by Catherine Opie and Jack Pierson



Tosh Berman Discovers That Lucifer Is Very Much A Happy-Go-Lucky Guy; Kenneth Anger's Approach in "Lucifer Rising"



Kim Fay in Detroit: Detroit Artists Market at Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit



Kent Monkman Meets Albert Bierstadt at the Timken



The Eighth Wonder of the World! Watch 'The Sphere,' 24 Hour Live Stream


MIKE KELLEY's FINAL INTERVIEW

[Editor's Note: With The Dark Bob's commentary on his friend Mike Kelley, we thought it valuable to share the insights of Artillery magazine's interviews with the artist.]

Tulsa Kinney: Mike Kelley: Part One, Straight Outta Detroit


Tulsa Kinney: Mike Kelley: Part Two



What is Vielmetter Taking to the Dallas Art Fair This Weekend?



A li'l ray of sunshine from David Shrigley!



“Forerunner to the Work of Kerry James Marshall and Barkley L. Hendricks” Marcia Marcus, Painter Who Gained Late-Career Raves for Her Portraits, Dies at 97; Made off-kilter portraits of herself and others in relative obscurity


Choose Your Commisions Wisely! Artist Sarah Boardman, Who Painted ‘Worst’ Trump Portrait For Colorado Capitol, Says 41-Year Career May Be Doomed After Presiden Trump’s Criticism



Last Weekend to Get a Beuys at Track 16! Joseph Beuys 'Potential Goods'



SIZE MATTERS


Ellsworth Kelly Extra Long; Hard to Fit on a Wall


Ellsworth Kelly Extra Small



Artists David Cooper and Korey Replogle Celebrate Las Vegas’ Iconic Defunct Motels in ‘Vacancy: The Dead Motels of Las Vegas’ Exhibit; New Works on Paper and New Works in Wood, with Custom Frames


ART and HONG KONG

‘Not a First-Day Fair’: Sales Trickle In at Art Basel Hong Kong as Dealers Wait for Tentative, ‘Deliberate’ Collectors

What Will the Northern Metropolis Mean for Hong Kong’s Future?


“I Don’t Smell Fear”: The Hong Kong Art Scene Endures; Despite recent changes to the National Security Law and a troubling political climate, the city’s artworld continues to grow in new directions

In Austerity, Big Euro Luxury Brands Bet on Exhibitions to Reach China’s ‘Forgotten’ Middle Class


Michele Chu: “In Hong Kong There’s an Undercurrent of Loss”; Artist’s immersive installation facilitates moments of human connection, while ruminating on an anticipatory sense of grief


Forge’ Review: Game of Cat-and-Mouse in the Miami Art World Makes for a Thrilling Directorial Debut; SXSW: A portrait of an underground forgery artist whose desire for recognition brings her too close to the sun, this Florida-set thriller should establish Jing Ai Ng as a director to watch


See Vija Celmins Collage'd Postcard to Wallace Berman


The Building Blocks: Artists Amanda Williams and Alteronce Gumby; Jordan Carter, curator at Dia Art Foundation, sits down with artists Alteronce Gumby and Amanda Williams to speak about the profound significance of color in their work, as well as the intersections between art and architecture



Nate Lewis 'Tuning The Signals' at Vielmetter Los Angeles


Steve McQueen Is an Art Doer; On the virtues of doing stuff instead of thinking about doing stuffSteve McQueen Is an Art Doer; On the virtues of doing stuff instead of thinking about doing stuff



On the Road with Ed Ruscha


‘The Art Institution of Tomorrow’ by Fatoş Üstek, Reviewed; "There’s no doubt that today’s art institutions are f**ked"



Joy in Transformation: An Interview With Artist Tadáskía; For this Brazilian rising star, color is life and freedom is hers to share


From Studio Secrets to Art World Scandals: A Roundup of the Best Art Podcasts; Shows offer listeners drama, insider insights and plenty of fun


New Yorker Documentary: “The Last of the Nightingales” Tells the Story of How Soundscapes Change After a Fire; Masha Karpoukhina’s documentary follows a soundscape ecologist who lost everything in a California wildfire


GERHARD RICHTER'S CRITIQUE OF THE ART MARKET


Gerhard Richter, Viral Artist

There Are At Least 906 Blattecke


The Story of a Long Lost Jasper Johns; 'Gastro' Made in Tokyo 1964



Loie Hollowell Reflects on a Decade of Work at The Aldrich


Art History Majors Face Highest Unemployment Rates, Report Shows; But other data shows that art history and art degrees are still popular



See the Show! Band of Vices Presents 'In the Paint' Featuring some of the city’s finest emerging artists! Honored by the Los Angeles Lakers! The 2024-25 Lakers In the Paint selected artists are: Abby Aceves, Estefania Ajcip, Jessica Taylor Bellamy, Daryll Cumbie, Derick Edwards, Megan Gabrielle Harris, Marlon Ivory, Larry Li, Ann Phong and Michael the Khoi Tran



Sweet Story! Book Revew: A Garden of Ideas in John Berger’s Letters to His Son; 'Over to You' is an ever-evolving meditation on images by the art critic and his youngest son, two men linked by blood and art



How Christo and Jean-Claude Wove Magic Through Central Park; Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of their installation "The Gates" is a dedicated exhibition and augmented reality experience at the Shed



More Than Real: On the art of Robert Longo; "The Image Is Epic, Iconic, Alien..."


STAGE STRUCK

Director Sam Mendes on Bringing ‘The Hills of California’ To Broadway; “This is one of the hardest plays that I have ever directed," says Mendes. "It’s big in scale, but it’s also delicate and needs precision and a gentle hand."

‘Sunset Boulevard’ Review: Nicole Scherzinger, Former Pussycat Doll, Debuts and Stuns In Scorching, Brilliant Broadway Revival

Review 'Romeo + Juliet' Maximalist Broadway Reinvention Goes Too Far; 'West Side Story'’s Rachel Zegler and 'Heartstopper'’s Kit Connor lift an aggressively poppy new youth take on the tragic romance


MUCH LOVED WALTER ROBINSON (1950 - 2025) FIND OUT WHY!

Saltz Sez: Walter Robinson, Rogue Pirate of the Art World by Jerry Saltz

Maverick Painter and Critic Walter Robinson, Who Helmed Artnet Magazine, Is Dead at 74; Edited influential outlets, made alluring appropriation art, and with a rare, wry sensibility, helped define his era


Charlie James Gallery Remembers Walter Robinson: "Light gleamed on the spear’s point as she thrust it at me in a lightning move..."



Georgia O’Keeffe: She Lived Deliciously Alone in the Wild, Wild West



*cough* How This A.I. Image Became the First to Snag Copyright Protection; U.S. Copyright Office ruled generally last month that work created from A.I. text prompts could not be copyrighted



Kim Fay in Detroit: ’Nightshade': The World In The Evening at Oakland University Art Gallery



First Museum Survey Of Works By Vincent Valdez On View at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston


BEST OF THE WEEK with JERRY GOGOSIAN



 
 

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Gordy Grundy

ArtReportToday.com