Feb 24th, 2026 - Exhibitions pairing Munch with Paula Modersohn-Becker and Maria Lassnig provide opportunities to subvert the established order Expanding the canon. As a concept and practice, it has been the dominant strain of art historical activity in Western museums this century. It has gathered particular pace in the past decade with the exhibition and collection of far more diverse artists by museums in Europe and the US. But one curious aspect of this mainstreaming of canon expansion has been the relative ...
Feb 24th, 2026 - March has brought with it no hint of spring this year. We're still very much mired in winter—at least here in the northeast, where Observer is headquartered. Meanwhile, in L.A., where the weather is warmer, the big-ticket February art fairs unfolded as newcomers like ENZO and Post-Fair worked to grow their foothold in the City of Stars, and galleries put on their best shows of the year . Hardcore art lovers have several options when it comes to closing out the month: London's Collect fair ...
Feb 21st, 2026 - Picture: Palazzo Cipolla Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz: The Kunsthistoriches Museum in Vienna are sending 50 masterpieces from their collection to the Palazzo Cipolla in Rome for a special exhibition which opens next month . The show will include works by Rubens, Velázquez, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Van Dyck, and Lucas Cranach, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Arcimboldo, and Orazio Gentileschi. The exhibition will run from 6th March until 5 July 2026.
Feb 20th, 2026 - If you hang around the art world long enough, the odds are good that you're going to encounter at least the aura of Kasseem Dean , a.k.a. Swizz Beatz, and his wife Alicia Keys . The two are often on the gala circuit, and at art fairs, it's not uncommon to hear that they were just in the booth; in fact, you just missed them. I believe my closest encounter was the time I was enjoying Agnes Denes 's excellent retrospective at The Shed in 2020, when I heard someone in the nearby auditorium looping ...
Feb 18th, 2026 - Art Basel Qatar triggered a widespread moment of reflection in the art world, with articles still being published a week after the fair's inaugural edition, analyzing what it meant for the broader industry. One thing that visiting Doha proved is that within the MENA region, there is an entire art scene— emerging but historically grounded —composed of names poised for broader international recognition. While the focus on the fair may have caused Sotheby's second auction in Saudi ...
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 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 ...
May 9th, 2025 - The painting of a Nuenen woman, on loan from Hong Gyu Shin, is the first Van Gogh ever exhibited on loan from a Korean collector Hong Gyu Shin, now a New York-based gallery owner, became the first named Korean to purchase a Van Gogh when he acquired Head of a Peasant (January-March 1885) at Sotheby's in May 2024. Shin paid $787,000 for the work—a bargain, since the estimate was £1.5m-$2.5m. Head of a Peasant has just gone on display in an exhibition of Shin's collection in the city ...
