Gareth Harris

Gareth Harris is the Chief Contributing Editor of The Art Newspaper

Diaryblog

Artist creates black-faced portrait of Italian far-right politician Matteo Salvini

Current bid for re-imagined image of the controversial party leader stands at €45,000 in online auction

Grenfell Tower tragedy to be memorialised in film by Steve McQueen

London-based artist plans to show the video later this year at a London space free to the public

Tate privacy battle over viewing platform 'snooping' goes back to court

Claimant says she feels “completely exposed” in her apartment overlooked by the museum

British Museum exhibition to challenge 'salacious stereotypes' around Tantra

Major show will unpick ancient Indian philosophy made famous by Sting’s “eight-hour lovemaking session” claims

Three exhibitions to see in New York this weekend

From Kehinde Wiley’s reimagining of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Brooklyn Museum to Luhring Augustine and Sam Fogg’s collaborative show on Gothic art

Artists rally to save Prospect Cottage, the house of late filmmaker Derek Jarman

Art Fund leads the initiative to raise the £3.5m needed to purchase the Kent cottage

BBC head Tony Hall joins London's National Gallery to lead board of trustees

Hall will leave his top media job in the summer to take up the unpaid position at the museum

Luanda Leaks: Isabel dos Santos—who owns vast African art collection—accused of making her $2.2bn fortune by exploiting Angola

Dos Santos and her husband Sindika Dokolo own around 3,000 works by artists including William Kentridge and Zanele Muholi

UK fails to save painting of 'paramount importance' as Getty export licence is granted

Recently rediscovered 18th-century work by artist Joseph Wright of Derby was bought by the Los Angeles museum in March last year

Desert X AlUla—the inaugural art biennial in a historic Saudi Arabian valley—announces participants

Wael Shawky, Superflex and eL Seed are among the artists who will base works on the ancient history of the region

Crime news

Released but still under investigation: Russian couple embroiled in fraud scandal

Igor and Olga Toporovsky linked to controversial show of Russian avant-garde works in Ghent

Cecily Brown will fill grand birthplace of Winston Churchill with images of broken Britain

UK artist says exhibition at Blenheim Palace is a timely opportunity to examine the country's current tumult

Friezenews

Frieze shake-up: former media boss chosen as company's first CEO

Changes are afoot with both the fairs and the magazine as majority shareholder Endeavor make plans for the future

Cecilia Alemani appointed artistic director of the 2021 Venice Biennale

The High Line and Art Basel Cities curator is the first Italian woman to hold the position

'Taking us back to the dark ages': UK-Europe exchange programme Erasmus hangs in the balance

Art history academics speak out as impending Brexit deadline threatens European partnership

Fashiongallery

Bath gallery brings overlooked 20th-century fashion illustration to the fore in New York

With images dating from the 1920s to today, exhibition at the Society of Illustrators shows off medium that was once ubiquitous in the fashion press

What if 19th-century artists had used Instagram? asks Musée d’Orsay's new artist-in-residence

French illustrator and painter Jean-Philippe Delhomme will post a new image on Paris museum's Instagram account every week for a year

Matisse birth anniversary marked by blockbuster show at the Centre Pompidou

Rarely seen works show how the modern master combined text and image

Russian collecting couple arrested in Belgium

Igor and Olga Toporovsky linked to controversial show of Russian avant-garde works in Ghent

New museums and major expansions opening in 2020

From Tutankhamun's new king-sized home in Cairo to Munch's sleek space in Oslo, here is our pick of the big openings this year

Gareth Harris. , with additional reporting by Hannah McGivern

Picasso painting of Dora Maar vandalised at Tate Modern

Conservation team assesses the defaced work; man is charged with criminal damage

Art on a Finnish island and Manifesta in Marseille: our guide to the brightest biennials and festivals in 2020

Prospect.5 commemorates the 15th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and its all change as Liverpool Biennial gets a new director

Awardsnews

UK New Year’s Honours 2020: awards for ceramicist Magdalene Odundo and artist David Shrigley

Turner prize winner Steve McQueen made a knight; museum chief Tim Marlow and curator Ann Gallagher also recognised

Radical performance artist Ulay gets a solo show at Stedelijk Museum

In the years before and after his collaboration with Marina Abramović, he created important works, curators say

Oh no he isn't—artist turns into "panto" horse to highlight absurdity of UK political situation

Roland Carline has modified his exhibition at the Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art

UK buyer sought for £8m Gainsborough masterpiece barred from export

Pastoral landscape sold at Sotheby’s was once owned by Royal Holloway college

Olympic games supremo Martin Green to lead 2022 post-Brexit UK festival

Conservative government wants £120m event to “celebrate all four nations’ offer to the world”