Inspiración

Those “paper bullets,” as Moore and Cahun called them, are on view in the heart of “In the Very Bowels of Change: Surrealism and Antifascism” at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. The show is a version of an exhibition that first appeared at Lenbachhaus in Munich in 2024, where it was titled “But Live Here? No Thanks: Surrealism and Antifascism”—marrying the two best -isms, for my money, of the entire 20th century. Like too many Surrealists, Moore and Cahun got caught and sentenced, receiving six years on one charge and the death penalty on another. The sentences were no match for Cahun’s wit: The artist replied by asking which should be carried out first. In the end, they were among the lucky ones: The war ended before either made it to death row. The show includes a photo of Cahun biting down defiantly on a defeated Gestapo officer’s badge: While the duo’s other collaborative works on view see negatives cut up and collaged, this biting commentary required no such intervention. Excerpts from Luis Buñuel’s film Golden Age (1930) open the exhibition, marking the screening that radicalized Surrealism: In 1930, the shamelessly self-described Antisemitic League of France stormed a [..

A shrine to Black cultural scripts stands in West Haven, Connecticut, a short ride from Union Station. It isn’t an official monument of any kind, but the studio of Felandus Thames, who has been based in the Constitution State since 2008.   Lining the walls, on more permanent display, were several of his hairbrush sculptures, inscribed with maxims drawn from his own poems or that of Black poets he admires. In a corner of his studio, Thames displayed his “ghetto blaster,” a large portable radio popular in the 1980s for blaring music in urban settings, and a vintage 40-ounce bottle of Colt 45 malt liquor that he plans to get signed by actor Billy Dee Williams. The studio is a comfortable place, rich with history and the everyday objects of Black Americans. Though his studio is neatly organized, Thames admits his studio is in his head. “I will find ways to work because I’m obsessed with making things,” he said. One early piece, I’m Neutral (2010), he made on his dining room table for an exhibition at Kravets Wehby Gallery, gaining a mention in the New York Times for it. Thames took part in the Tougaloo Art Colony, a weeklong [...]

MUSEOS DE TENERIFE NATURALEZA Y ARQUEOLOGÍA LA CIENCIA Y EL COSMOS HISTORIA Y ANTROPOLOGÍA CENTRO DE DOCUMENTACIÓN DE CANARIAS Y AMÉRICA CUEVA DEL VIENTO Museo de la Ciencia y el Cosmos 23 de julio de 2026  A las 17:00 h (30 minutos cada charla) Entrada gratuita hasta completar aforo Se trata de un ciclo mensual que contará con la participación de estudiantes de Doctorado del Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) como ponentes. Estas charlas se han concebido en un formato dinámico, cercano y accesible, con el objetivo de dar visibilidad al trabajo de los jóvenes investigadores. Las intervenciones abordarán tanto los temas de investigación o tesis en los que están trabajando, como contenidos más generales sobre Astronomía y Astrofísica, así como la aplicación práctica del conocimiento generado: el cómo y el por qué de la investigación en este campo.  El 24 de julio de 2025 comenzó esta iniciativa, que con esta charla celebra su primer aniversario. Alcanzar este hito demuestra que se trata de una propuesta plenamente consolidada, cuyo carácter mensual le aporta continuidad, estabilidad y cercanía con el público. Las bajas masas de las enanas rojas ofrecen oportunidades interesan

Murmurs, a gallery located in Downtown Los Angeles that was known for its eye for spotting rising talent, announced this week that it will close after seven years in business. Its final exhibition was a solo for Rodrigo Ramírez Rodríguez, which ended on June 27. In an Instagram post, cofounders Allison Littrell and Morgan Elder and director Gabrielle Datau wrote that the “bittersweet news” came after “a long period of reflection.” They cited the “intense economic squeeze” that the art world is currently facing.Related ArticlesTaste-Making Downtown Gallery Lyles & King to Close After a Decade in BusinessZurich's Galerie Philipp Zollinger Closes After Seven Years “Our passion has always been rooted in championing ambitious sculpture and installation—work that is experiential, profound, and often difficult to commodify,” they wrote. “Rather than compromise the programmatic integrity that defines Murmurs, we have decided to redirect our energy into modalities that can more sustainably support the artistic ecosystem while mitigating financial pressures placed upon artists.” Murmurs opened in August 2019 with the goal of “carv[ing] out a distinct sanctuary for ideas and practices that th

The Clark Art Institute, a treasure trove of Western art, opened in the scenic Berkshire Mountains in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1955. The site was chosen partly because of the museum’s ties to Williams College on the part of founders Sterling and Francine Clark, but also, in the wake of World War II, so that the collection would be outside the blast zone of a potential nuclear attack on New York City (where the founders lived and also considered setting up shop). It expanded in 1973, again in 2008, and yet again in 2014, with a 44,000-square-foot expansion by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Tadao Ando.  Now, the Clark will expand once more, with notable speed and significance, when it opens a new wing in 2028 to house a major new gift now on display at the museum. The exhibition, “An Exquisite Eye: Introducing the Aso O. Tavitian Collection,” offers the first public look at what the museum is billing as one of the most significant private collections of European art formed in North America in the 21st century. The show is curated by recently appointed museum director Esther Bell along with Lara Yeager-Crasselt, the new Tavitian-endowed curator, who is seven months into [...]

LIFE’S A LOOT. Manhattan prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos, who witnessed mass looting in Baghdad in 2003, has been profiled in the FT  about taking on the fight against the global trade in stolen antiquities. He reveals how New York City’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit has recovered thousands of objects worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The piece looks at how provenance investigations have transformed the art market, forcing museums and auction houses to rethink how they acquire ancient works, reigniting debates over restitution, ownership, and whether aggressive repatriation efforts go too far.BITTER CHOCOLATE. Edvard Munch’s famous Freia frieze, painted in 1922 for a Norwegian chocolate factory, is being viewed in a more critical light, the Guardian reported. A new exhibition at the Munch Museum examines the gap between the cheerful scenes of workers enjoying nature and the harsher realities surrounding factory labour, gender inequality, and the colonial history of cacao production. The show questions whether Munch’s public commissions celebrated workers or simply created an appealing image for industry.Related ArticlesEdvard Munch Paintings for a Chocolate Factory Go on View in N

Pat Oleszko, a sculptor and performance artist who was not well-known in New York before earlier this year, has won the 2026 Whitney Biennial’s $100,000 Bucksbaum Award, a prize previously won by famed artists such as Zoe Leonard, Ralph Lemon, and Pope.L. Oleszko’s contribution to the show was a large inflatable sculpture called Blow Hard (1995), featuring a gigantic green face pushing air into a trumpet that expels flames. As is the case with most of Oleszko’s work, the title is a pun, referring both to this figure’s act of blowing into its instrument as well as a phrase that denotes an overly prideful person. Alongside it is Footsi (1979), a video in which two fingers garbed in little shoes and socks move across the artist’s body. Oleszko’s pieces are one of the few artworks in the Whitney Biennial made well before this decade. Typically, the Bucksbaum Award, which was launched in 2000, has gone to artists who produce new work for the exhibition, a snapshot of the American art scene as it currently stands that takes place every other year. (This year’s edition also places an emphasis on artists from locales impacted by American intervention, including Okinawa and Afghanistan.) [.

Numerous photographers have published books with Steidl, which is known for the meticulousness of its printing process and the close relations that Gerhard Steidl established with artists. A lengthy New Yorker profile of Steidl from 2017 noted that he had turned book publishing into an art form and stated that he is “known for fanatical attention to detail, for superlative craftsmanship, and for embracing the best that technology has to offer.” Steidl was the subject of a documentary in 2010.

A Pierre Soulages painting that sold at Christie’s last fall is at the center of a new lawsuit, which alleges that the work was stolen from the plaintiffs’ family decades ago. Christie’s provenance records, however, state that the painting passed through the Gimpel and Weitzenhoffer Gallery in New York, and that the gallery sold it to the Weises in 1984. The provenance does not state the year in which Gimpel and Weitzenhoffer received the painting in their inventory or the consignment to sell it.

The German state of Bavaria has overhauled the way that claims for restitution of Nazi-looted artworks will be evaluated. The state will establish a Center for Provenance Research and Restitution Issues of Nazi-Looted Art at the Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ). This takes the provenance research outside of the museums that own the works and thus could be suspected of being less than objective in evaluating such claims. Andreas Wirsching, director of the IfZ, called the move a “quantum leap” in a press announcement. Wirsching headed up the Roundtable on Historical Responsibility that devised the new procedures.  The group will be chaired by Raphael Gross, director of the German Historical Museum in Berlin and will have eight members specializing in history, art history, and law. It will initially operate for a five-year term. Bavarian State Paintings Collections director Bernhard Maaz resigned in April 2025 amid reports of Nazi-looted art in the collections. At the time, Blume said there had been “indications and allegations of misconduct and organizational failure” at the institution, prompting an internal investigation by a former public prosecutor. He also acknowledged a

Per multiple reports, it was originally offered for $1 million and expected to fetch in that range up to $2 million. The $3.75 million sum set a new world auction record for a screen-used Star Wars prop, per Dallas-based Heritage. The previous record was held by an original 20-inch model of an X-wing starfighter used in the space battle in 1977’s Star Wars, a piece that sold for $3.135 million in October 2023. Both figures are trumped by the record holder in the artwork category as Tom Jung’s original half-sheet key poster painting for Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope sold for $3.875 million.  “This is one of the most important surviving Star Wars artifacts in existence,” explained Heritage executive vp Joe Maddalena. “It comes from the emotional climax of The Empire Strikes Back — the scene that forever changed the saga and produced one of the most unforgettable moments in movie history. Collectors understood that they were bidding on much more than a prop. They were competing for a genuine piece of modern mythology.” The lightsaber was originally constructed from a modified Graflex flash unit and accompanied by the original severed-hand effects rig created by makeup artist Stua

Several political parties across the UK Parliament have called for an independent investigation into the British Museum‘s removal of the terms “Palestine,” “Palestinian,” and “Israelite occupation” after a Middle East Eye report linked the museum’s decision to lobbying by pro-Israel activists. Rather, an analysis of redacted internal emails turned over by the museum in response to a Freedom of Information request suggested that changes to historical displays, including those covering periods more than 2,000 years old, came shortly after private and public complaints from pro-Israel organizations and high-profile individuals between October and December 2024.  The timeline established between Israeli lobbying of the museum and the removal of references to Palestine appeared to contradict statements by director Nicholas Cullinan, who later defended the decision, saying it was made after curators had “thought long and hard.” In one reported case, the museum initiated a display change—apparently to address a private complaint from the Board of Deputies, a pro-Israel Jewish community group—less than five hours after the complaint was circulated internally.  Speaking to MEE, Your Party M

The object seized from the Met is a Standing Male Figure dating back to ca. 100-400 that had been sold by the New York-based Merrin Gallery and donated to the museum. An Xochipala Bowl from ca. 1200–900 B.C.E. had appeared at Merrin Gallery before it was seized in December. An Aztec Obsidian Micro-Blade Core dating to ca. 1000–1500 was seized from Alexander this past October. “The Government of Mexico extends its deepest gratitude to District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Matthew Bogdanos, and the outstanding Antiquities Trafficking Unit for their unwavering commitment to protecting the world’s cultural heritage,” said Mexican Consul General Marcos Bucio Mújica. “The return of these three archaeological objects marks yet another milestone in an extraordinary partnership that, over the years, has also played a vital role in reconstructing the cultural identity of our nation.”

The set, the largest painting-inspired one that the company has ever produced, will be available for purchase beginning August 1. It has a retail price of $299.99. Unlike the original painting, the Lego version of The Kiss is technically three-dimensional, as building enthusiasts (ages 18+, per the box) are meant to stack various sections of the painting atop one another, giving the finished product more depth than Klimt’s original painting. While most LEGO sets traditionally feature paper instructions on how to build the final piece, this one will also have interactive 3D instructions that will be available via the LEGO Builder app. According to a release, Stephanie Auer, the Beleveder’s curator of 19th- and 20th-century art, worked closely with Milan Madge, LEGO’s master model designer, to ensure that “the set faithfully recreates Klimt’s signature style using layered textures and intricate details” and that it “captures the emotion, ornamentation and luminous colour palette that defined the Austrian modernist painter’s work and the Vienna Secession movement.” “Reimagined through LEGO bricks,” the release adds, “the artwork becomes an immersive creative experience that blends art