April 22, 2026
Your morning brew of art world media
Welcome to Art Spell, a daily, comprehensive roundup of art news and reviews for the visual arts community. Today’s Editor’s Pick is Inside LACMA’s Eye-Popping New Home, How Do You Find the Art? by Holland Cotter for The New York Times. Cotter agues that LACMA’s new David Geffen Galleries dazzles architecturally but complicates how its collection is displayed.
The Art Newspaper
Ben Luke, A brush with... Sanya Kantarovsky—podcast
David D’Arcy, New biography of Chaïm Soutine pieces together illusive artist’s life and works
Constanza Ontiveros Valdés, Mass shooting at Mexico’s Teotihuacan archaeological site leaves one dead, 13 injured
Gareth Harris and José da Silva, Antony Gormley sculpture quietly removed and sold off by UK council
Annabel Keenan, Sustainability charity Gallery Climate Coalition launches new consultancy to support climate action
Alton Yan, US National Gallery of Art gifted more than 1,200 Mitch Epstein photographs
Ruth Jean-Marie, Lack of accountability after crush of crowds at Haiti’s Citadelle Laferrière kills 25
Nathan Eddy, Caravaggio and Rubens works destroyed by fire in Second World War are brought back to (digital) life
Artforum
Simon Denny, Epic Fury: The Dark Art of Defense Tech
Tina Rivers Ryan, Can Festivals Save Time-Based Art? On Mexico City’s TONO
From the Editors, Marian Goodman Gallery Hits “Pause” in Los Angeles
From the Editors, Renoir Not Seen in Public for 97 Years Will Go Up for Auction in May
From the Editors, Rare Books Worth $3 Million Stolen From Former MoMA President Recovered
From the Editors, Lynda Roscoe Hartigan Named Director of Smithsonian American Art Museum
Artnet
Vittoria Benzine, Smithsonian’s American Art Museum Appoints New Director Amid Turbulent Moment
Jo Lawson-Tancred, How Pussy Riot Is Challenging Russia’s Return to the Venice Biennale
Richard Whiddington, Has A.I. Solved the Mystery of This El Greco Painting?
Vittoria Benzine, Never-Before-Seen Calder Sculpture Emerges on the Auction Block in Paris
Margaret Carrigan, Which Auction House Led the Pack in 2025?
ARTnews
Anne Doran, An Alexander Calder Retrospective in Paris Underscores His Inventiveness
Maximilíano Durón, Collector Dimitris Daskalopoulos’s NEON to Conclude After ‘Having Fulfilled Its Mission’
Daniel Cassady, Tiffany Window From Connecticut Church Could Fetch $2 M. at Christie’s
Bella Bromberg, The Iran War Is Already Tanking Luxury Sales in the Gulf—Could Art Be Next?
Daniel Cassady, Diego Rivera’s Grandson Donates 150,000 Objects to Major Mexico City Museum
Andy Battaglia, Auction of Diane Keaton’s Collection Includes Art, Fashion, and Personal Treasures from Decades on Film
Tessa Solomon, Mexican President Calls for Stricter Gun Control After Deadly Shooting at Teotihuacán Pyramids
Brian Boucher, The $53 M. Wingate Collection Comes to Sotheby’s, Led by a $25 M. Giacometti
Harrison Jacobs, Smithsonian Taps Peabody Essex’s Lynda Roscoe Hartigan to Lead American Art Museum, a Target of Trump Administration
Alex Greenberger, Barbara Chase-Riboud Says She Declined US Pavilion Offer Because It Was ‘Not the Moment’
ArtReview
J.J. Charlesworth, Is Art Good for Your Health?
From the Editors, Lynda Roscoe Hartigan named director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
From the Editors, Desmond Morris, zoologist, presenter and surrealist painter, 1928–2026
From the Editors, Finland’s political leadership to retract from Venice Biennale over Russian Pavilion
Frieze
Chloe Stead, Silvestre Pestana’s LED Signs Give Language Charge
Emile Rubino, 7 Must-See Shows During Art Brussels
Annette Lepique, Art with Bite: Putting Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore’s Bravery on Display
Galerie
Suzy Katz, Who Are the Impressionist Record Breakers? Top Auction Results for Monet, Renoir, Manet and More
The Guardian
Chloë Ashby, The Wonderful World that Almost Was by Andrew Durbin review – the queer artists who shaped New York cool
Hyperallergic
From the Editors, What We Loved (And Didn’t) in “Greater New York”
Isa Farfan, A Poetic Tribute to Ona Judge Is Coming to Philadelphia
Rhea Nayyar, Barbara Chase-Riboud Speaks Out on Declining US Biennale Pavilion
Aaron Short, Highlights and Hidden Gems at Dumbo Open Studios
Zoe Guy, A Blockbuster Take on Ovid’s “Metamorphosis”
The Los Angeles Times
Leah Ollman, Getting lost in the art is the best part of LACMA’s new revisionist fever dream of a museum
Monocle
From the Editors, How African art is taking over the Venice Biennale – and the world
The New York Times
EDITOR’S PICK - Holland Cotter, Inside LACMA’s Eye-Popping New Home, How Do You Find the Art?: Our critic calls the David Geffen Galleries “a beacon of glam with brains.” As a space to show art, it has problems. The Latino art is a revelation (if you can navigate the maze).
Robin Pogrebin, With $116 Million Gift, National Gallery Will Send Its Art Around Nation
Nina Siegal, Dutch Panel Designs Plan to Deal With ‘Orphaned’ Nazi-Looted Art
Nina Siegal, Imagining the Manosphere as a Kinder, Gentler Place
Farah Nayeri, Olafur Eliasson Uses Art and Sound to Raise Climate Awareness in Utah
Keridwen Cornelius, The Vienna Climate Biennale Contrasts Chaos with Hope
Alex V. Cipolle, A Rural Mural’s Transition From Artifact to Art
David Belcher, An Installation in Nature has Climate Lessons for Humans
Ted Loos, The Haas Brothers’ Creative Creations Are on Tour
Observer
Christa Terry, Lukas Amacher Is Building a Chatbot for the Art World
Sarah Moroz, Paris Internationale Expands to Milan, Testing New Ground
OCULA
Barnabas Ticha Muvhuti, Bring It Home
Philippa Kelly, $35M Renoir, Not Seen at Auction for Almost a Century, to Go Under the Hammer at Christie’s
Puck
Marion Maneker, Alexander the Great
Sculpture
Zoe Kosmidou, From the Underworld to the Sky: A Conversation with Joan Danziger
Sandra Wagner, “MONUMENTS”
Urgent Matter
Adam Schrader, Israeli fighters who destroyed Jesus statue jailed. Where are the other arrests?
Adam Schrader, Florida woman charged after $45K counterfeit check tied to Flagler Museum
Adam Schrader, Court Documents: Alexandra Kaiser records in Flagler Museum fraud case
Adam Schrader, Art Warsaw to stage roaming fair in Cold War-era British Embassy
Adam Schrader, Bronx painter Daniel Hauben mounts large-scale show inside renovated historic church
Vulture
From the Editors, Jerry Saltz’s ’90s Slideshow
Jerry Saltz, My ’90s Art World
Art Spell is a subscription-based daily roundup of art news and reviews to help you stay current with what’s being reported on in the visual arts community. The profits from Art Spell are donated to organizations supporting art journalists and writers.