From the art world
News
Stories from the world of painting, exhibitions and the art market — told in our own words.
March 22, 2021
Alice Neel: A Painter of People First
The Met's 2021 retrospective 'People Come First' restored Alice Neel to her place as one of America's most humane and r…
March 16, 2021
Riding 'The Great Wave': Hokusai's Print Breaks Records
An impression of Hokusai's 'Great Wave off Kanagawa' sold for $2.76 million in 2021 — a record for the most reproduced…
March 11, 2021
$69 Million of Pixels: Beeple and the NFT Earthquake
In March 2021 Christie's sold Beeple's digital collage 'Everydays' for $69.3 million — the first NFT artwork at a major…
January 28, 2021
$92 Million for a Renaissance Face: Botticelli Smashes Records
In January 2021, Botticelli's 'Young Man Holding a Roundel' sold for $92.2 million in New York — one of the highest pri…
October 3, 2020
Artemisia: A Baroque Powerhouse Gets Her Due
London's National Gallery staged its first-ever exhibition devoted to Artemisia Gentileschi in 2020 — the fierce, brill…
September 25, 2020
The Guston Show That Museums Hit Pause On
In 2020 four major museums postponed a Philip Guston retrospective over his cartoonish KKK imagery, igniting a fierce d…
September 25, 2020
A Historic Archibald: Vincent Namatjira's Breakthrough
In 2020 Vincent Namatjira became the first Indigenous artist to win Australia's famous Archibald Prize for portraiture.
June 1, 2020
The Sistine Chapel Falls Silent — Then Reopens
In 2020 the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel closed for months under Covid — then reopened to eerily empty halls and,…
May 31, 2020
Christo, Who Wrapped the World, Dies at 84
Christo, who with Jeanne-Claude wrapped the Reichstag, lined Central Park with saffron gates and reimagined landscapes…
April 13, 2020
The Met at 150 — Celebrated in an Empty City
New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art turned 150 in 2020, only for its grand birthday plans to collide with a pandemic…
March 30, 2020
A Van Gogh Stolen in the Dead of a Lockdown Night
In March 2020, thieves smashed into a shuttered Dutch museum and stole a Van Gogh — on the artist's birthday, during th…
March 16, 2020
Reuniting Titian's 'Poesie' After Four Centuries
The National Gallery's 2020 show reunited Titian's great mythological 'poesie' — sensual masterpieces painted for a kin…