July 13, 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 the Art Schools Building Courses Around A.I.’s Creative Potential by Daniel Grant for Observer. Art schools are increasingly integrating AI into creative education while emphasizing ethics and authorship.
The Art Newspaper
From the Editors, ‘It’s not my best work’: Anish Kapoor sizes up his biggest-ever sculpture
Artforum
Akira Ikezoe, AKIRA IKEZOE ON AMOS TUTUOLA, FINDING JOY IN DARK TIMES, AND ANIME MUSIC
Katherine Rochester, Saodat Ismailova, Saodat Ismailova on Ancient Forests and Collective Hallucinations
From the Editors, Bayeux Tapestry Arrives in England for First Time in Nearly 1,000 Years
From the Editors, Buckingham Palace Shocks with Salon-Style Hang
From the Editors, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch Defends Institution Against White House Criticism
From the Editors, Bacteria Causing Legionnaires’ Disease Discovered in Guggenheim Cooling Tower
Artnet
Margaret Carrigan, Results at the Big Three Auction Houses Tell Two Different Stories
Min Chen, Joseph Beuys Turned Groceries Into Artworks. Conserving Them Is Complicated
Ben Davis, Raphael Is the Met’s Post-Pandemic Prince! And Other Art World Matters
Andrew Russeth, Buy This Book! Arthur Jafa, Richard Prince Get Candid in Prada Tome
Jo Lawson-Tancred, Letters by Forgotten Surrealist Jacqueline Lamba Reveal Love Affair With Frida Kahlo
Jo Lawson-Tancred, New York Investigators Return $600,000 Worth of Looted Art—and More Art Industry News
Sonia Manalili and Margaret Carrigan, Mid-Year Market Review
Min Chen, Heritage Auctions Posts Record $1.4 Billion Mid-Year Total, as Collectibles Market Roars
ARTnews
Brian Boucher, Chua Mia Tee, Leading Singaporean Social Realist Artist, Has Died at 94
Anne Doran, British Archeologists Find 5,800-Year-Old Neolithic Monument in Suffolk
Daniel Cassady, Heritage Auctions’ Record $1.41 B. First Half Suggests Collecting Is Getting Broader
Leigh Anne Miller, US Returns Two Looted Bronze Buddha Statues, Sold by Disgraced Antiquities Dealer Douglas Latchford, to Indonesia
Andy Battaglia, British Museum Teams With BTS as Part of Citywide Art Trail Timed to the Group’s World Tour
Brian Boucher, Italian Americans Say a 2020 Zohran Mamdani Tweet About a Christopher Columbus Monument Shows ‘Seething Hatred’
Harrison Jacobs, ICOM Adopts New Museum Code of Ethics Taking Aim at AI, Colonialism, and Climate Change
Daniel Cassady, Legionella Bacteria Found in Guggenheim Cooling Tower as Outbreak Plagues Upper East Side
Alex Greenberger, Late Swiss Businessman’s Treasure-Filled Modern Art Collection Faces Bitter Legal Battle
Brian Boucher, Artists and Former Staffers Accuse Cape Town Gallery SMAC of Nonpayment and Withholding Artworks
Devorah Lauter, Bayeux Tapestry Makes Historic Arrival at London’s British Museum in the Dead of Night
Brian Boucher, A Jersey Worn by Knicks Point Guard Jalen Brunson in NBA Finals Fetches $1 M. at Sotheby’s
ArtReview
Hugo Hagger, Nancy Lupo’s Dream House
From the Editors, Museum of Old and New Art to open space in Bangkok
From the Editors, Hauser & Wirth cleared of Russian sanctions charge
The Guardian
Jonathan Jones, Ana Mendieta review – were she still alive she’d be at the forefront of art in this century
Lanre Bakare, New LS Lowry exhibition aims to demolish ‘naive and uncultured’ myth
Hyperallergic
Erin L. Thompson, Why Do So Many Museums Hold a Convicted Antiquity Dealer’s Treasures?
Isa Farfan, Legionella Bacteria Found in Cooling Tower at NYC Guggenheim
Rhea Nayyar, Artists Memorialize Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Houston Man Killed by ICE
Bridget Quinn, The Story of Printmaking Is the Story of Democracy
Gregory Volk, The Unruly Ceramic Beings of Kathy Butterly
Rhea Nayyar, Which Artworks Will Grace the High Line’s Plinth Next?
Lakshmi Rivera Amin, A View From the Easel
The New York Times
Julia Halperin, At 84, This Radical Artist is a Dior Muse
Penelope Green, Yaacov Agam, Who Made Kinetic, Kaleidoscopic Art, Dies at 98
The New Yorker
Zachary Fine, The Met Turns Orientalism Inside Out
Observer
EDITOR’S PICK - Daniel Grant, Inside the Art Schools Building Courses Around A.I.’s Creative Potential: Many art educators see the integration of A.I. as a natural evolution of studio practice rather than a threat to traditional methods.
Gameli Hamelo, For Collector Marie-Cécile Zinsou, Building a Museum in Benin Was Just the Beginning
Elisa Carollo, At Lisson Gallery, Kelly Akashi Gives Resilience Form
Dan Duray, One Fine Show: “Deep Cuts, Block Printing Across Cultures” at LACMA
Christa Terry, Curator Samantha Katz and Architect Alan Paukman’s Festival Blueprint for the Post-Spectatorship Era
Elisa Carollo, The Future Perfect’s Laura Young Makes the Case for Design as the Next Collecting Frontier
Urgent Matter
Adam Schrader, East Hampton authorizes legal action against The Ranch over shipping container sculpture
Adam Schrader, ICOMOS posts surplus on one-off revenue as subsidies shrink
Adam Schrader, Lindsey Graham, senator who voted against arts funding for three decades, dies at 71
Adam Schrader, Dubai announces plans for Museum of Digital Art and its digital twin
Adam Schrader, Eastman Museum’s $400 photo fee stands a month after listening pledge
The Wall Street Journal
Vanessa H. Larson, ‘India’s Great Mughals: Art, Power, and Opulence’ Review: An Age of Lavishness
Brian P. Kelly, Fairfield Porter’s Everyday Beauty at the Art Students League
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