Inspiration

The Venice Biennale, the world’s most important art exhibition, has officially named the 111 artists participating in its 2026 edition. Opening to the public on May 9 and running through November 22, this year’s Biennale, the 61st edition to date, is an unusual one: its curator, Koyo Kouoh, died suddenly last year during the making of the exhibition, a first in the 131-year history of this storied exhibition. To see through her vision, she appointed a set of advisers that includes curators Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie Helene Pereira, and Rasha Salti; Siddartha Mitter, a critic who will serve as the editor of written materials; and Rory Tsapayi, who will act as an assistant to the team. Kouoh’s Biennale is titled “In Minor Keys” and appears to focus on art with a decidedly understated vibe—a sensibility all the more notable in a world riven by violence and tension. The Biennale tends to be treated as a weather vane for art-making, with the show often viewed as a means of divining which way the artistic headwinds are blowing. It comprises a main exhibition organized by a selected curator and a set of national pavilions that stand independently of that show. There is [...]

To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.The HeadlinesVENICE ROLL CALL. The Venice Biennale has officially named the artists participating in its 2026 edition opening to the public May 9 through November 22. Considered the world’s most important art exhibition, the biennale is gearing up for its 61st edition, titled “In Minor Keys.” It’s already faced one major challenge after its curator, Koyo Kouoh, died suddenly last year. However, her vision is being realised through advisers she appointed. “The minor keys refuse orchestral bombast and goose-step military marches and come alive in the quiet tones, the lower frequencies, the hums, the consolations of poetry, all portals of improvisation to the elsewhere and the otherwise,” Kouoh wrote in a text that quotes from thinkers such as Édouard Glissant, Toni Morrison, and Patrick Chamoiseau. “The minor keys ask for listening that calls on the emotions and sustains them in return.”PARIS MUSEUM SHUFFLE. Laurence des Cars has stepped downfrom the top job at the Louvre, and Christophe Leribault is poised to replace her, reports Le Parisien. He will be making the short trip into

Aperol and Campari might have some serious competition at the Venice Biennale this year. While spritzes made with those apéritifs is often the drink of choice for collectors, curators, and critics taking a break from the tumult of the opening days of the Biennale, a gin-based cocktail might just be all the rage in La Serenissima this May. Quattro Gatti Gin was founded by the Mordant family—Simon and Catriona and their son and daughter-in-law Angus and Brielle—who have a long history of supporting the Biennale. Simon served as the Australian Commissioner for the country’s 2013 and 2015 pavilions. Simon and Catriona initiated and spearheaded the completion of a new permanent Australian Pavilion in the Giardini, which took about a decade to go through various approval processes and was finished in 2015. Simon and Catriona were also sponsors of the 2024 Biennale’s main exhibition, “Foreigners Everywhere,” curated by Adriano Pedrosa. Simon is currently Global Ambassador for Australia’s participation at Biennale Arte 2026, and they have also donated funds to the realization of the 2026 Biennale’s main exhibition, curated by the late Koyo Kouoh. The elder Mordants, who are one of Australi

He is a curator with an expertise in 18th-century art. He began his career at Musée Carnavalet in Paris in 1990 and spent 15 years there. He served as a curator in the Louvre’s Department of Graphic Arts in 2006, before becoming director of  the Eugène-Delacroix National Museum in Paris in 2007. In 2012, he became director of the Petit Palais, which houses the City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts, and, in 2021, was appointed president of the Musée d’Orsay. There, he replaced des Cars as well. Leribault’s primary mission, a government spokesperson told Le Parisien, is to “strengthen the safety and security of the building, the collections and the people, to restore a climate of trust and to carry out, with all the teams, the necessary transformations at the museum.” Des Cars, the first woman director of the Louvre, submitted her resignation to Macron on Tuesday after well over a year of internal turmoil due to deteriorating conditions at the museum, the infamous heist of $100 million in crown jewels, several strikes, and a ticketing scam. A planned $778 million expansion announced early last year, which would have added a 33,000-square foot gallery for the Mona Lisa, was postponed [...

In a statement, Durland said she was “thrilled to be joining kurimanzutto at such an important moment in the gallery’s evolution and within the broader cultural landscape,” adding that the gallery’s “integrity, vision, and artist-centered ethos” position it to meet the current moment. She said she looks forward to contributing her experience and relationships to the gallery’s next chapter. Durland brings more than two decades of experience working with artists, estates, collectors, and institutions. Most recently, she served as senior director at Schwartzman&, and before that was vice president and director of advisory at Art Agency, Partners, where she advised artists and estates on long-term planning and guided collectors on acquisitions and strategy. She also led public art initiatives internationally. Earlier in her career, Durland spent more than ten years as senior director at Gavin Brown’s enterprise in New York, working closely with artists and helping shape their careers. She has also worked independently as an artist manager and began her career at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Kuri pointed to her experience across public art, institutions, collectors, and artist

The High Museum, located on Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta, is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeast and operates under the Woodruff Arts Center, which also includes the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Alliance Theatre. The Woodruff reported $131.5 million in revenue in fiscal year 2024, up from $99.8 million the previous year, according to IRS filings cited by the newspaper.

The Ukrainian government has passed a resolution aimed at expediting the evacuation of more than three million cultural objects from frontline regions as Russia’s full-scale invasion approaches its fourth anniversary. The war has upended civilian life in Ukraine and resulted in the damage, destruction, or disappearance of cultural sites and museum property, much of it attributed to Russian forces. “The resolution creates a more predictable, systematic, and secure model for protecting museum objects during war, combining clear rules, government accountability, and flexibility in crisis situations,” the Ukrainain culture ministry said in an announcement on February 18. That same month, the Kherson Art Museum said Russian forces had looted roughly 15,000 objects from its collection, including 100 paintings identified by staff in footage from a Russian broadcast, and transferred them to the Central Museum of Tavrida in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Ukraine and its allies regard as occupied Ukrainian territory. A large swath of Kherson, located along Ukraine’s southern border, is currently illegally occupied by Russia. “Fifty kilometers from the front line is now a clear zone for

Radigue’s music has worked its way into numerous art world contexts, especially by way of recent efforts by Blank Forms, a New York–based curatorial platform that has presented concerts and listening events as well as Alien Roots: Éliane Radigue, an extensive book of writings, interviews, and archival materials related to her oeuvre published last year. In 2019 Blank Forms organized a series of listening events at Artists Space in New York and a performance of Radigue’s Occam Ocean at Pace Gallery in New York. In 2024 Radigue’s Kyema (part of Trilogie de la Mort) figured in a presentation as part of Pierre Huyghe’s exhibition “Liminal” at the Pinault Collection’s Punta della Dogana in Venice. Later this year, starting December 4, Radigue will be the subject of an exhibition of installations and lives performances titled “States of Listening” at Dia Art Foundation in New York.

Next month, Meyer’s 35 etchings—along with additional works she has collected in the intervening years, by Rembrandt as well as his predecessors, contemporaries, and followers—will be part of an exhibition at the local Stedelijk Museum Zutphe. “From Dark to Light” is on view from Mar. 21 through June 14.

The New York Historical announced yesterday that it will receive a major bequest of modern and contemporary works by Native American artists from board chair Dr. Agnes Hsu-Tang and her husband, Oscar Tang. The bequest includes pieces by more than 100 artists of Indigenous heritage, from early 20th-century potter Nampeyo of Hano (Tewa) to contemporary painter and sculptor Jeffrey Gibson (Choctaw/Cherokee). Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of the New York Historical, said in a statement, “This gift and the accompanying milestone exhibition further exemplify Agnes’s institutional vision as board chair, which began with the critically acclaimed 2023 exhibition ‘Kay WalkingStick/Hudson River School,’ to foreground Indigenous cultural expressions and advance an artistic and historical discourse that illuminates the integral role of Indigenous histories in the shaping of the United States.”  The New York Historical will celebrate the bequest with the exhibition “House Made of Dawn: Art by Native Americans 1880 to Now, Selections from the Hsu-Tang Collection,” which will be on view from April 22 through August 2. Organized by Wendy Nālani E. Ikemoto (Native Hawaiian), NYH vice president an

A landmark sculpture by renowned German artist Georg Kolbe will be removed from public display in Berlin and returned to the heirs of the Jewish family who lost it under Nazi persecution.The 1922 work, Tänzerinnen-Brunnen (Dancers’ Fountain), stood for nearly five decades in the garden of the Georg Kolbe Museum and had become one of its most recognizable pieces. After an extensive provenance investigation, the museum concluded that the sculpture must be restituted because it is regarded as “cultural property looted as a result of Nazi persecution,” museum director Kathrin Reinhardt said.The fountain was commissioned in 1922 by a wealthy Jewish insurance executive and art collector, Stahl, who later served as head of Berlin’s Jewish community. He installed the bronze sculpture in the garden of his villa in the leafy Dahlem district, where it became a centerpiece of the property.Related ArticlesOhio Auction of Two Dutch Paintings of Flowers Looted By Nazis Halted By FoundationNew California Law May End the Legal Dispute Over a Nazi-Looted Pissarro in Madrid Stahl’s life was upended after the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933. By 1941, amid intensifying anti-Jewish measures, he w

A landmark group of Scandinavian masterworks from the collection of ambassador John L. Loeb will headline Phillips’ modern and contemporary art sales in London this March. Loeb served as the US ambassador to Denmark from 1981 to 1983. The auctions, taking place on March 5 and 7 at the house’s Berkeley Square HQ, are spearheaded by Vilhelm Hammershøi’s Interior of Woman Placing Branches in Vase on Table (1900), which carries a high estimate of £2 million.The Loeb collection, considered one of the most significant private holdings of Danish art amassed in the US, will hit the auction block across Phillips’ London and New York salesrooms this season. Four works will feature in the March 5 evening sale, followed by 24 additional lots in the March 7 day sale. “Ambassador Loeb’s discerning eye and deep appreciation for Danish culture have resulted in a collection of extraordinary depth and sensitivity,” Jeremiah Evarts, the Phillips’ deputy chairman for the Americas, said in a statement. “His commitment to championing Danish art, particularly the quietly radical work of Vilhelm Hammershøi, has helped bring renewed global attention to a school of painting that continues to resonate with c