Latest
Caravaggio portrait, unseen for decades, goes on view in Rome
The portrait of Maffeo Barberini was first attributed to Caravaggio 60 years ago, but had not been publicly displayed until now
Climate activists who dumped red powder on US Constitution at National Archives sentenced to prison
Donald Zepeda and Jackson Green were also involved in the paint attack on Degas’s ballerina and writing “Honor Them” on a wall last year at the National Gallery of Art
Steve McQueen’s Blitz, by turns gripping and didactic, locates solidarity in desperate survivalism
The artist and film-maker’s historical feature about London during the Battle of Britain frames it as a traumatic experience that cut through ossified strata of class and racial hierarchy
Controversial Science Museum sponsor charged in US over alleged bribery scheme
Gautam Adani—who lends his name to the museum's Adani Green Energy Gallery—was indicted in New York on charges including securities fraud
Who wore it best? A century of artists’ style
The fashion writer Derek Guy—perhaps best known for his pithy menswear observations and advice, dolled out via X—talks us through his sartorial favourites, from David Hockney to Njideka Akunyili Crosby
The Week in Art
A podcast bringing you the latest news from the art world, every week
The $6.2m banana, Frank Auerbach remembered, Lindokuhle Sobekwa’s photographs of addiction in South Africa—podcast
Exploring this week’s New York auctions, which included Maurizio Cattelan’s now-infamous fruit, plus a tribute to the late German-British artist Auerbach and a chat with Sobekwa about a work from his powerful series, on view at the UK’s Sainsbury Centre
Slade to Zaria
Slade to Zaria, which refers to the prominent art schools in London and Nigeria, is a column by Chibundu Onuzo, a novelist and fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Every month she shares her reflections on the contemporary art world.
Barbara Walker's show at the Whitworth makes me feel proud to be Black British
The British artist's first major survey exhibition in Manchester is worth leaving the London-centric art bubble for
Art market
Rediscovered Emily Carr painting bought for $50 sells for 5,000 times original price
The Carr painting was one of the star attractions at the Heffel Fine Art Auction House’s marquee autumn sale in Toronto, alongside works by Tom Thomson, Marcelle Ferron, Kenojuak Ashevak and Chief 7IDANsuu James Hart
Works by Basquiat, Haring and Hockney help Christie's 21st century evening sale net a healthy $106.5m
However, despite assistance from big names, it was emerging artists who were the real stars of the show
Abu Dhabi Art 2024 is bigger than ever—but conflict in Lebanon and Gaza looms large
Meanwhile rumours of Art Basel parent company MCH investing into the fair were being widely discussed
‘The world's most expensive banana’: Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian fetches $6.2m at Sotheby’s New York
The buyer, the collector and crypto investor Justin Sun, immediately vowed to eat the banana
Beyond the banana: Sotheby's contemporary art night nets a modest $112m
Despite Maurizio Cattelan's Comedian selling for a staggering $6.2m, The Now and contemporary auctions in New York made 63% less than last year
Museums & Heritage
The beautiful game? Untangling the tricky relationship between art and football
The sport has a rich historical connection to visual culture but a new trend to immortalise the living presents interesting challenges
Indigenous mound in St Louis is transferred to the Osage Nation
Along with the land transfer, the city of St Louis acknowledged the Osage Nation’s tribal sovereignty and their ancestral rights to the site
This month's museum acquisitions round-up: Nan Goldin, Artemisia Gentileschi and Picasso
Our pick of the latest gifts and purchases to enter institutional collections worldwide
Three climate activists charged following Stonehenge paint protest
The members of Just Stop Oil are set to appear in court next month
Vancouver Art Gallery expands Asian art programme with $1.1m gift
The museum’s renamed Centre for Global Asias seeks to “recognise the many Asias that exist, within the geography of Asia itself and in the global diaspora”
Exhibitions
After an embattled edition, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale announces next show
Nikhil Chopra and the collective HH Art Spaces will curate the next instalment of the prestigious Indian exhibition, scheduled to open in December 2025
From neon installations to an animatronic bear, here's what not to miss this Turin Art week
The event may be focused around Artissima, Italy’s leading art fair, but there's must-see exhibitions to found across the city
'It's a process of following your curiosity': Firelei Báez on her exhibitions in Los Angeles and Vancouver
The artist discusses her concurrent shows at Hauser & Wirth in Los Angeles and the Vancouver Art Gallery
Tate exhibition celebrates a riotous decade in British photography
From tumultuous political events to countercultural visibility, Tate Britain show examines the 1980s through the work of Martin Parr, Chris Killip and many others
Out with the Astors, in with the Calders: revisiting Newport, Rhode Island’s 1974 public sculpture extravaganza
Fifty years later, Monumenta’s organisers and attendees reflect on what was arguably the most ambitious school project ever
A brush with... podcast
A podcast that asks artists the questions you've always wanted to
A brush with… Goshka Macuga — podcast
An in-depth interview with Turner nominee Goshka Macuga, discussing her influences from Eileen Agar to Stanisław Lem—and how she came to dance in her studio
Frank Auerbach (1931-2024)
The famously reclusive German-born, London-based artist—associated with the School of London alongside friends and peers such as Francis Bacon, Leon Kossoff and Lucian Freud—made his home city, his fellow artists and friends his subject
‘Like Picasso, everything he touched was wonderful’: the art world pays tribute to Frank Auerbach
Curators, institutions and critics remember a “humble giant of figurative painting” who worked from the same London studio for 70 years and made his home city, its art collections and inhabitants the subject of his unique output
Remembering Frank Auerbach, one of the leading artists of his generation, who has died aged 93
The German-born British painter, a leading figure in the School of London, produced some of the most enduring and perceptive observations of what it meant to be alive during his time
From the archive | Immediacy of experience: Robert Hughes's 1990 monograph of Frank Auerbach
The author of "The Shock of the New" is both literary and discursive in the first book-length study of the German-born, London-based, artist
From the archive | Frank Auerbach: ‘The actual idiom of paintings is definitely changed. Drawing seems independent of time’
In this interview relating to an exhibition in Venice in 2019, Frank Auerbach discusses the importance of drawing in his work, from street sketches to working from the Old Masters
From the archive | Frank Auerbach, a modern master inspired by the Old Masters, on show at London's National Gallery
Exhibition includes oil or acrylic paintings based on compositions owned by the gallery by Titian, Rubens and Rembrandt
Obituaries
Remembering Hanif Kureshi, the artist credited with popularising street art in India
Kureshi decorated India’s public spaces with beautiful, provocative and socially engaged murals
Paul Lowe, conflict photographer and teacher lauded for Sarajevo siege photographs, dies, aged 60
Acclaimed photojournalist's teenage son charged with his murder on a popular hiking trail near Los Angeles
François Duret-Robert, art market journalist, professor and collector, has died aged 92
The former editor of Connaissance des Arts was a leading figure in the French art market
‘You must walk close to the edge’—the pioneering German artist Rebecca Horn dies, aged 80
Horn maintained a powerful drawing strand that supported her innovative conceptual sculpture practice around the human body in installations, performances and photographs
Derek Boshier, British Pop artist widely known for his collaborations with David Bowie, has died, aged 87
Boshier’s work was often critical of US politics and consumerism
Book Club
‘He laughed like a madman’: when Édouard Manet decided to touch up one of Berthe Morisot's paintings
An extract from a new book by Sebastian Smee—about the Impressionists during the Siege of Paris and Paris Commune—brings to life the peculiar episode of artistic intervention
Five must-read art history books for the under-fives
All you ever wanted to know about art (if you are little), from a cat that wanders round Tate Modern at night to why Louise Bourgeois made giant spiders—selected by The Art Newspaper's Anna Brady
How a Persian manuscript was swapped for a Willem de Kooning owned by the Iranian government
Oliver Hoare's memoir details the story of the ambitious exchange of an Iranian masterpiece for a painting by the Abstract Expressionist
November Book Bag: from fashion ‘outlaws’ to interviews with the auto-destructive artist Gustav Metzger
Our round-up of the latest art publications
Diary
‘The Roman emperors wouldn’t have put up with it’: Harry Kane statue gets art critics talking
The footballer attended the unveiling of the work after it finally found a permanent home
Kim Kardashian graces Los Angeles art gala in Princess Diana's cross necklace
The reality TV star wore famed jewel to the Lacma bash
Listen up, Elon: Clifton Suspension Bridge Museum makes dramatic exit from X
Bristol institution makes waves after quitting social media platform
Lytton Strachey foxes Julianne Moore in Pedro Almodóvar film
The actor's failure to correctly pronounce the name of Bloomsbury Group writer leaves some viewers baffled
Erection of phallic sculpture in Naples sparks heated debate
Gaetano Pesce’s new public sculpture enflames city councillors
Books
The arts should be recognised as a key part of what it means to be human, argues a new publication
An urgent treatise on the decommodification of culture by the professor of cultural economy Justin O’Connor
How Korean feminist art developed alongside the country’s move to democracy is explored in new book
An exploration of the driving force of so-called “K-feminism” and the connection between art and politics in Korea
Dealer’s memoir offers a wild ride through the 1960s New York art scene
Michael Findlay reveals his art world beginnings as a lucky 18-year-old Scot in the Big Apple
A sensitive portrait of collector Isabella Stewart Gardner—Boston's millionaire Bohémienne
A biography of Gardner captures her extraordinary life story with empathy
Opinion
Comment | EU’s new anti-looting law is another blow for legitimate trade
Though laudible in its aim to kerb trafficking of stolen goods, planned rules will impose unreasonable burdens on lawful and genuine trade
Comment | In the run up to the US election, Boston's Museum of Fine Art is hopeful about art's role in a democratic future
The museum's latest exhibition explains and scrutinises democracy through objects spanning 2,500 years
Steve McQueen delves into family history at Dia Chelsea
Works in the artist’s show at the New York institution include a video installation in which he narrates a story of racially motivated violence told by his father against images of the actor Al Jonson in blackface
Comment | Paris vs London debate is a 'non-troversy', says Christie's Guillaume Cerutti
Auction house chief executive argues that of greater concern is the decline of Europe's art market as America and Asia charge ahead
Comment | I thought I knew Stevie Wonder’s music until Arthur Jafa showed it in a new light
American artist Jafa's recent video work recontextualises Wonder's song 'As' as well as the film 'Taxi Driver'
Adventures with Van Gogh
Adventures with Van Gogh is a weekly blog by Martin Bailey, our long-standing correspondent and expert on the artist. Published every Friday, his stories range from newsy items about this most intriguing artist to scholarly pieces based on his own meticulous investigations and discoveries.
Van Gogh’s finest ‘London drawing’ was not done in the UK, but later in Amsterdam
The sketch of Austin Friars Church throws fresh light on Vincent’s draftsmanship, suggesting he was even more of a late developer as an artist
Technology
News, background and analysis on the latest tech developments—artificial intelligence tools; Web3, the blockchain, NFTs; virtual and augmented reality; social media platforms—and how they affect the art market, museums, artists and curators.
Paintboxed! Artists invited to work with 1980s digital art tool once championed by Keith Haring and Richard Hamilton
ArtMeta art fair and Tezos ecosystem are taking Quantel Paintbox—used by contemporary art giants four decades ago—on a global tour to introduce it to a new generation of creators
Vatican launches AI-generated version of St Peter’s Basilica
Co-developed by Microsoft, the project also identified conservation issues at the world-famous church
How auction houses are embracing artificial intelligence
New services such as AI-enhanced translation are proving popular, even as human involvement remains crucial
From roving gallery to London’s Mayfair: Unit’s social media journey, 11 years on
Joe Kennedy and Jonny Burt didn’t have any of the traditional things needed to start a gallery—but they did have the power of Instagram
New York's Salon 94 is feeling the TikTok visitor effect
A content creator's positive post has led to a massive uptick in the gallery's footfall