Ben Luke talks to Alexander Kellner, the director of the National Museum of Brazil, about how he plans to mark Brazil’s bicentennial and to restore the museum in the wake of the devastating 2018 fire, which destroyed most of the building and millions of objects. Read all of our Brazil Bicentennial coverage here.
Joshua Reynolds’s Portrait of Omai seen here being prepared for an exhibition at Tate Britain in 2005, its last public UK outing. Omai was one of the first Polynesian visitors to Europe, travelling to Britain with Captain Cook, who was returning from an expedition in the 1770s. Credit: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo
The Art Newspaper’s London correspondent Martin Bailey tells us about the National Portrait Gallery in London’s ambition to acquire the £50m Portrait of Omai (1776), arguably the greatest work by the 18th-century British artist Joshua Reynolds—the latest instalment in a long-running saga relating to the painting.
Michael Heizer's 45°, 90°, 180°, City (1970-2022) © Michael Heizer/ Triple Aught Foundation. Courtesy of the artist and Triple Aught Foundation. Photo: Ben Blackwell
And this episode’s Work of the Week is City, the land artist Michael Heizer’s magnum opus in the Nevada desert, which is complete and open to the public after more than 50 years. Our editor in the Americas, Ben Sutton, discusses this monumental piece with Kara Vander Weg, a member of the board of the Triple Aught Foundation, which manages the work.