Latest

Pope drops in on the Venice Biennale and visits the Vatican pavilion

Supreme pontiff praises Corita Kent and Frida Kahlo at women’s prison

Gareth Harrisabout 9 hours ago

Showing respect in the house of the dead: Australian museum removes mummified human remains

Only fully covered Ancient Egyptian mummified remains will remain on display in the Egyptian Gallery of Sydney University’s Chau Chak Wing Museum

Elizabeth Fortescueabout 10 hours ago

Anger as Vienna's new Actionism museum shows child abuser's art

The inclusion of Otto Muehl, who was convicted of sexual abuses against minors, has triggered protests at the Vienna Actionism Museum, which opened in March

Catherine Hickleyabout 10 hours ago

Art Gallery of Ontario to reopen after month-long strike as workers and leaders reach contract agreement

The Toronto museum had been closed since 26 March, when members of a union representing more than 400 employees went on strike

Larry Humberabout 23 hours ago

TAN careers

We're hiring! Assistant Digital Editor, London office

The Art Newspaper is looking for a budding art journalist to join its London team

The Art Newspaperabout 8 hours ago

Opinion

'Why British museums must start charging entrance fees'

Low pay for museum workers, decreased local authority spending and a theft scandal have highlighted that "it’s time for some difficult choices," says the writer and broadcaster Ben Lewis

Ben Lewisabout 10 hours ago

'UK school art curriculum should reflect diversity efforts in our institutions'

Research by the Runnymede Trust found that only 2.3% of artists named in GCSE Art papers over the last five years were Black or Asian

Exhibitions

Late Michelangelo drawings—including his deeply meditative crucifixions—explored in London exhibition

British Museum show focuses on the final three decades of the Italian master’s life

J.S. Marcusabout 3 hours ago

The Big Review: Willem de Kooning and Italy at the Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice ★★★☆☆

A show studded with masterpieces by the Dutch-American Abstract Expressionist—but the Italian connection is tenuous

Tate Modern swaps its Turners for a ride with Der Blaue Reiter

A London exhibition of the Expressionist movement aims to show that “there is more to the early Modernist period than starry, solitary male artists”

War, refugees, destruction: how Venice Biennale 2024 will reflect our era

Thousands have called for Israel’s pavilion to be cancelled, a proposed Palestinian exhibition was rejected, while Ukraine’s pavilion deals with its ongoing war

Art market

Klimt portrait surrounded by mystery sells for €30m in Vienna

The price paid by a buyer from Hong Kong was at the lower end of the estimate range, but still an auction record for Austria

Man who sold 145 fraudulent Peter Max paintings sentenced to 14 months in prison

More than 40 people bought what they thought were original paintings by Max, but were in fact prints to which the seller had added paint and signatures

Study for Winston Churchill portrait that was famously burned is up for sale

Destruction of final portrait by Graham Sutherland was captured in an episode of "The Crown". Now a study is being toured by Sotheby’s

Monira Al Qadiri exhibition to open Johann König’s new Munich gallery in a former power plant

König says the new space, König Bergson, is one of the largest commercial galleries for contemporary art in Germany

New York’s Meredith Rosen makes waves across the Atlantic

The dealer’s discovery-driven programme, which embraces both contemporary and unsung 20th-century artists, is finding outsize success in Europe

Museums & Heritage

Anger as Vienna's new Actionism museum shows child abuser's art

The inclusion of Otto Muehl, who was convicted of sexual abuses against minors, has triggered protests at the Vienna Actionism Museum, which opened in March

Catherine Hickleyabout 10 hours ago

Showing respect in the house of the dead: Australian museum removes mummified human remains

Only fully covered Ancient Egyptian mummified remains will remain on display in the Egyptian Gallery of Sydney University’s Chau Chak Wing Museum

Elizabeth Fortescueabout 10 hours ago

'Why British museums must start charging entrance fees'

Low pay for museum workers, decreased local authority spending and a theft scandal have highlighted that "it’s time for some difficult choices," says the writer and broadcaster Ben Lewis

Ben Lewisabout 10 hours ago

Art Gallery of Ontario to reopen after month-long strike as workers and leaders reach contract agreement

The Toronto museum had been closed since 26 March, when members of a union representing more than 400 employees went on strike

Larry Humberabout 23 hours ago

Met Museum signs cultural-property agreement with Thailand and returns two statues

In a ceremony at the museum, Met director Max Hollein signed a "memorandum of understanding" together with a representative of the Thai cultural ministry

Venice Biennale 2024

Pro-Palestine protests continue at Venice Biennale

One protester was held by police while a "Freedom Boat" attracted hundreds of visitors

Venice Biennale 2024 review | Intimacy and violence: 'Foreigners Everywhere' explodes the Biennale model

Adriano Pedrosa's international exhibition combines the old and new to undermine Western narratives, but still creates a compelling survey of global contemporary art, in which Queer art stands out

Venice Biennale 2024: our pick of collateral shows

Alongside the main event, there's a plethora of exhibitions vying for visitors' attention. We've selected some of our favourites, ranging from Shahzia Sikander fairytale gothic palace to Andrzej Wróblewski's poignant depictions of war

The legacy and mystery of the display of Native American art at the 1932 Venice Biennale

Remarkably little is known about the selection, reception and whereabouts of the Native art shown in the US pavilion at the 18th Biennale

Venice Biennale 2024: the worst art on show in the city

There's a lot to see during this year's edition of the city-wide event, so we've rounded up a few things you might want to skip

Technology

News, background and analysis on the latest tech developments—artificial intelligence tools; Web3, the blockchain, NFTs; virtual and augmented reality; social media platforms—and how they affect the art market, museums, artists and curators.

Aleksandra Artamonovskaja is appointed head of arts for TriliTech, the entrepreneurship team supporting Tezos blockchain

Artamonovskaja, a leading consultant and moderator in the Web3 world, will oversee development of opportunities for artists across the Tezos ecosystem

Technologyfeature

On process: Refik Anadol seeks to demystify AI art by showing how it is put together

The media artist's "Echoes of the Earth: Living Archive" at Serpentine Galleries, London, goes for radical clarity on its raw data sources and the make-up of Anadol's artificial intelligence Large Nature Model

Robert Alice breaks new ground with auction of generative art NFTs on Christie's 3.0

Auction house sees maturing of market since the heady days of 2021 as works by the digital art pioneer are sold in combination with launch of their catalogue raisonné-like historical survey "On NFTs"

Technologyanalysis

Quantum leap: how a decade of NFTs has changed digital art

Two books take a look at the past and future of the non-fungible token. Once seen as the creature of market hype, the NFT now promises the first shared technical standard for the digital art world

London's Serpentine Galleries calls for artists and institutions to become ‘stewards’ of data in face of rising interest in AI

The London gallery's fourth annual Future Arts Ecosystems report addresses a pressing need for bodies to address the use of artificial intelligence, for their own benefit and for the public good

Books

New book reveals how art dealer Léonce Rosenberg trod the line between salesman and Modern art's great champion

He declared the auction to be art’s true benchmark, but Rosenberg was also a committed promoter of the avant-garde

Book Club

A golden age for photobooks? As publishers join forces we find out what the future holds

The London-based publisher Mack is acquiring smaller firms and widening its visual culture coverage

An expert's guide to Frank Auerbach: three must-read books (and a film) on the German-British painter

All you ever wanted to know about Auerbach, from a biography by one of his sitters to a collection of essays about his drawings—selected by the Courtauld Gallery curator Barnaby Wright

Former Tate Britain director Penelope Curtis on why she became a novelist

As the art historian makes the move into fiction writing, she tells us how learning about her family history inspired her

Proud mum Madonna drops in on son Rocco’s Miami show

His "Pack a Punch" paintings are inspired by Thai boxers

Museum employee hangs his own art in Munich institution—and gets the chop

Budding artist surreptitiously displayed his work alongside art by Andy Warhol

The Birth of Venus in bottle tops—courtesy of Bottlecelli

Supermarket chain Lidl commissioned a new version of the 15th-century masterpiece

The show to see in Venice with your bosom buddy

Exhibition 'celebrates the iconography and symbolism of breasts', with works by Cindy Sherman, Robert Mapplethorpe, Marcel Duchamp and Laure Prouvost

The business of Basquiat—Taylor Swift's beau produces new documentary while Gagosian shows LA works

Travis Kelce, the American football star who plays for the Kansas City Chiefs, is making a programme about the late street artist

The Week in Art

A podcast bringing you the latest news from the art world, every week

The Week in Art podcast | Klimt’s last picture auctioned, Rebecca Horn in Munich, a Cézanne restored

Unpacking the mystery around the Austrian artist’s painting, which sold for €30 million in Vienna, plus a look at a retrospective of Horn’s pioneering practice and a newly conserved Cézanne

A brush with... podcast

A podcast that asks artists the questions you've always wanted to

A brush with... Kapwani Kiwanga

An in-depth interview with the artist on her cultural experiences and greatest influences, from residencies in Paris to the jazz legend Sun Ra

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by David Clack

Obituaries

Dinh Q. Lê, master of multimedia art and mentor to fellow artists across southeast Asia, has died, aged 56

Vietnamese-American artist, best known for his distinctive photo-weaving works, made powerful statements in photography, video, sculpture and installation that challenged politics, history and memory

Richard Serra, creator of audacious steel sculptures, has died aged 85

The American sculptor received the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale

Antoine Predock, architect of distinctive museums in the US and Canada, has died, aged 87

His Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Tang Teaching Museum and Tacoma Art Museum were typical of an approach that melded modernism and post-modernism into a characteristically unpredictable aesthetic

Lucas Samaras, tirelessly adventurous New York artist, has died, aged 87

The Greek American artist was always willing to try new forms and materials, working across sculpture, photography, performance, installation and more

Remembering Jacob Rothschild, banker, collector, philanthropist, and a towering figure in the British art world

A scion of the famous banking dynasty, he led the National Gallery, the Heritage Lottery Fund and Waddesdon Manor

Adventures with Van Gogh

Adventures with Van Gogh is a weekly blog by Martin Bailey, our long-standing correspondent and expert on the artist. Published every Friday, his stories range from newsy items about this most intriguing artist to scholarly pieces based on his own meticulous investigations and discoveries.

The fate of a Van Gogh flower painting destined for Japan’s 'Sheer Pleasure' pavilion

Kojiro Matsukata’s still life was destroyed in a London fire and his “Van Gogh’s Bedroom” was seized during the Second World War