April 7, 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 How Josh Kline Wrote the Essay That the Art World Can’t Stop Talking About by Alex Greenberger for ARTnews. Josh Kline shares more about his viral essay, which argues that soaring New York rents and art-world power imbalances are making contemporary art increasingly unsustainable.
Apollo Magazine
Eve M. Kahn, Edmonia Lewis’s life is shrouded in silence, but her sculptures speak for themselves
From the Editors, Nicola Turner
Art in America
Ara H. Merjian, Five Essential Books About Marcel Duchamp
The Art Newspaper
Elena Goukassian, Judge rules dealer David Nahmad must return $30m Nazi-looted Modigliani
Gareth Harris, Artist Michelangelo Pistoletto sends message of ‘preventive peace’ on digital billboards around the world
Maev Kennedy, Gods, emperors and eagles restored in Blenheim Palace roof-rescue mission
Ruth Lopez, Closure of DePaul Art Museum leaves collection in limbo
Osman Can Yerebakan, A renewed focus on rigour and connection at Expo Chicago
Anny Shaw, Milan’s contemporary art credentials further bolstered by arrival of Paris Internationale
Carlie Porterfield, Lalanne mirrors owned by Yves Saint Laurent and a classic Diane Arbus photo: our pick of the April auctions
Anna Brady, Museum acquisitions round-up: Andy Warhol in an apron, a solid-silver relief and Christo’s luggage rack
Benjamin Sutton, Art Institute of Chicago’s first Norman Rockwell acquisition is a home run
Artforum
Gemma Sieff, Ben Lerner’s Transcription and the Literary Readymade
From the Editors, Billionaire Art Dealer Loses Bid for Nazi-Looted Modigliani After Decade-Long Battle
From the Editors, Artist Ali Cherri Files Civil Complaint Against Israel for Killing His Family; Committing a War Crime
From the Editors, Chile’s Violeta Parra Museum Reopens Six Years After Arson
From the Editors, Belu-Simion Fainaru, Representing Israel at the Venice Biennale, Responds to Calls for Country to Be Ejected from Event
Artnet
Richard Whiddington, Yves Saint Laurent’s Lalanne Mirrors Set for $15 Million Sale
Jo Lawson-Tancred, Rare Portraits Reveal How Elizabeth I Turned Image Into Power
Sarah Cascone, $25 Million Modigliani Goes to Jewish Heir in Landmark Restitution Case
Vittoria Benzine, Pete Davidson’s Pop-Filled Art Collection Revealed in Westchester Home Listing
ARTnews
Tessa Solomon, Thomas Zipp, Visionary Installation Artist With a Punk Sensibility, Has Died
EDITOR’S PICK - Alex Greenberger, How Josh Kline Wrote the Essay That the Art World Can’t Stop Talking About: “If we don’t understand the world we’re living in and where it comes from, we can’t build a better one,” Kline said.
Daniel Cassady, Fair Warning Expands With Saara Pritchard, Doubling Down on ‘Conviction’ in a Crowded Art Market
Maximilíano Durón, Famed Gelman Collection Will Return to Mexico by 2028
Anne Doran, Two Rare Keith Haring Art Cars to Be Exhibited in New York This Month
Harrison Jacobs, Trump Administration Claims Halting $400 M. White House Ballroom Renovation Is National Security Risk
Brian Boucher, Ex-Staffers Say the US Holocaust Museum Altered Website and Canceled Programming to Avoid Angering Trump
Alex Greenberger, Israel’s Venice Biennale Artist Responds to Calls for Exclusion: ‘I Do Not Support Cultural Boycotts’
Shanti Escalante-De Mattei, The New Museum’s ‘New Humans’ Reckons With Human-Machine Relations in the Workplace
ArtReview
Yuwen Jiang, A Muddy History of Plant-Hunting
From the Editors, Thomas Zipp, artist with a sideways sense of history, 1966–2026
BOMB
Heidi Howard, Ye Zhu by Heidi Howard
The Brooklyn Rail
Phong H. Bui, Dear Friends and Readers
Hearne Pardee, APRIL GORNIK with Hearne Pardee
Charles M. Schultz, DOROTHEA ROCKBURNE with Charles M. Schultz
David Rhodes, VÁCLAV POŽÁREK with David Rhodes
William Corwin, MIKE CLOUD & NYEEMA MORGAN with William Corwin
Joachim Pissarro and Jennifer Stockman, PADMANABH SINGH & NOELLE KADAR with Joachim Pissarro & Jennifer Stockman
Cultured
Melissa Smith, Brian Boucher, Julia Halperin, and Janelle Zara, The 2026 CULTURED Power Advisor List: Meet the Art Advisors Shaping the World’s Top Collections
Karly Quadros, Where Would the Culture Be Without Martha Graham? Twyla Tharp, Donna Karan, and More Weigh In.
Delaney Kim, Heading to Expo Chicago? Here Are 13 Must-See Shows Now on View in the Windy City
Galerie
Rena Gross, Marina Abramović and Ornellaia Announce Her First Wine Collaboration
The Guardian
Stephen Burgen, Spanish politicians clash over request to move Picasso’s Guernica
Alice Fisher, ‘Even more beautiful than I imagined’: the nifty Japanese printing gadget uniting artists worldwide
Hyperallergic
John Yau, The Unbearable Strangeness of Being
Tavia Nyong’o, The Museum Breathing Life Into New York’s Downtown Performance Scene
Cecily Parks, Peep the Wildest Costumes of This Year’s Easter Bonnet Parade
Rhea Nayyar, A Dedicated Ruth Asawa Space Is Coming to San Francisco
Renée Reizman, LA Artists Honor Dolores Huerta’s Defiant Spirit
Rhea Nayyar, Dutch Museum Discovers 8-Inch Ancient Roman Phallus
The New York Times
Blake Gopnik, How Duchamp Inspired These 4 Artists
Blake Gopnik, A Brief History of 4 Urinals
Blake Gopnik, In 1917, He Made a Urinal Into Art. We’re Still Discussing.
Observer
Mercedes Ezquiaga, Behind the Rise of Contemporary Peruvian Art
Elisa Carollo, Under Director Kate Sierzputowski, EXPO CHICAGO Bets On Renewed Institutional Depth
Daniel Grant, Why the World’s Biggest Banks Are Getting Into the Art Advisory Business
OCULA
Aimee Walleston, Picture This
Joe Ware, Artist Ali Cherri Files War Crime Case Over Israeli Strike That Killed Parents
Urgent Matter
Adam Schrader, Hispanic Society Museum acquires first Portuguese paintings, Wifredo Lam work
Adam Schrader, Surveillance footage of protests reworked into installation on policing, injury
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.