Mar 3rd, 2026 - The book about the two Old Masters, who probably only met twice, considers what they had in common and how they differed Early in the 17th century, the Florentine nobleman Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, scholar, sometime Knight of Malta and owner of a tremendous moustache, commissioned a series of paintings and grisailles commemorating his great-uncle and namesake, to adorn the family palazzo in Florence. Michelangelo the Elder was depicted at various stages of his illustrious if somewhat ...
Mar 2nd, 2026 - The Dutch museum has undertaken a two-year study of the 17th-century work "Vision of Zacharias in the Temple" An early biblical painting by Rembrandt van Rijn that was long thought to have been lost has been rediscovered by the Rijksmuseum, according to an announcement today (2 March). Vision of Zacharias in the Temple (1633)—which depicts the story of the high priest Zacharias being told by the angel Gabriel that he and his aged wife will have a son, John the Baptist—has re-emerged ...
Feb 27th, 2026 - Frieze Los Angeles, now in its seventh edition at Santa Monica Airport, serves as a temperature check on the L.A. art scene in a still-volatile market and among ongoing national discussions about affordability. Broad uncertainty has notably reshaped buyer behavior over the past year : following a 12 percent decline in 2024, the global art market continued to contract in 2025 amid recalibration, geopolitical instability and renewed tariff talk . Sales figures in the top tier (over $10 million) ...
Feb 27th, 2026 - The Dutchman was "struck" by Seurat's pointillist technique - and it influenced his own work The five-star Georges Seurat exhibition at London's Courtauld Gallery offers an unusual opportunity to experience the pioneer work of the Neo-Impressionist artist who influenced Van Gogh in Paris. In the 1880s Seurat was the leader of the avant-garde group of painters who used pointillist dots of pure colour to create their pictures. The eye blends Seurat's colours harmoniously, giving his paintings a ...
Feb 26th, 2026 - English Garden, painted in 1965, is on display before it goes under the hammer with estimate of £2.5m-£3.5m David Hockney's first English landscape, depicting a perfectly manicured Oxfordshire garden, is on show for the first time in three decades before being auctioned. Sotheby's said the 1965 painting, English Garden, which was completed in Boulder, Colorado, was pivotal for Hockney as well as holding an important place in wider art history. "It is a seminal painting," said the ...
Feb 26th, 2026 - Add an "a" to "person" and you get "persona." If only the relation between the two were so simple. Instead, it's as complex as identity — also as unpredictable and elastic — and identity is what both are all about. A person is who a person is. That's easy enough. A persona is how that person wants to be seen, often as a highly variant version of the original. High variance is the order of the day in "Persona: Photography and the Re-Imagined Self." It runs at the Isabella Stewart ...
Feb 12th, 2026 - From Yoko Ono to Frida Kahlo, from Louise Bourgeois to Artemisia Gentileschi, women have long been capturing the unvarnished truth about their own bodies – and that's why my novel Female, Nude weaves them into the plot f you want to paint, put your clothes back on!" That was how Carolee Schneemann summarised the critical response to her 1975 performance piece Interior Scroll, which she had performed nude standing on a gallery table. After making a series of life model poses, she removed a ...
Nov 20th, 2025 - A self-portrait by legendary Mexican artist Frida Kahlo sold for $54.66 million in New York on Thursday, setting a new record for the price of a painting by a woman, the auction house Sotheby's said. The sale of Kahlo's 1940 artwork, titled "El sueno (la cama)" — which translates to "The dream (The bed)" — breaks the previous record in this category, set by American artist Georgia O'Keeffe, whose 1932 painting "Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1," sold for $44.4 million in 2014. Kahlo's ...
Nov 13th, 2025 - From the Mona Lisa to the American Gothic, these famous paintings don't just grace museum walls; they offer a glimpse into the past and define entire generations. Although most of these masterpieces are centuries old, they continue to fascinate art buffs and collectors alike, with each piece telling a captivating story. Whether they're on display for the whole world to see or hidden behind closed doors, these paintings prove that art has the power to create and sometimes, even change history. ...
Oct 27th, 2025 - The momentum in Paris generated last week by Art Basel—and the strong sales and dynamic activity across all the fairs—culminated in the Paris evening auctions, where results exceeded estimates and expectations at both Christie's and Sotheby's. Buyers who seemed hesitant in the days leading up to the art weeks regained confidence after seeing the positive results in London. "They called back, asking for guarantees or pre-auction bids," Alessandro Diotallevi told Observer ahead of the ...
Oct 18th, 2025 - Morgan Library & Museum, New York Famed impressionist painter's lesser-seen drawings are the focus of a major new exhibition that invites us into the stages of his artistic process is luminous colours and sensual brushwork adorn countless mugs, posters and tote bags as well as blockbuster exhibitions . But the commodification of Pierre-Auguste Renoir and his fellow impressionist painters has been missing something. Renoir was an accomplished draftsman who produced a distinguished but largely ...
Sep 16th, 2025 - With Sotheby's landing the $400 million Leonard A. Lauder Collection and the Pritzkers' modern masterpieces, and Christie's securing the Weis and Wynn estates, November's sales may yet rescue the slumping auction market. It has become clearer in these past few years that the real battle between auction houses isn't about results but in the race for consignments. Yesterday, Sotheby's landed a knockout: the $400 million Leonard A. Lauder Collection , set to hit the rostrum during November's New ...
