July 27, 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 The End of Research by Michelle Santiago Cortés for ArtReview. Arguing that turning research into online content is weakening rigor and spreading misinformation into cultural institutions.
The Art Newspaper
Hadani Ditmars, Trove of art by Basquiat, Javier Calleja and others at play in mammoth Vancouver real estate lawsuit
From the Editors, Music, Fashion, Film—Photography? Charli xcx image acquired by London’s National Portrait Gallery
Gareth Harris, The Artists Information Company, the UK’s largest artists’ membership organisation, relaunches as Artists Now
Graciela Ibáñez, Earthquake damages 16th-century church in Peru
From the Editors, Music, Fashion, Film—Photography? Charli xcx image acquired by London’s National Portrait Gallery
Artforum
From the Editors, Buffalo AKG Art Museum Promotes Cathleen Chaffee and Jillian Jones to Co-Leaders
From the Editors, New Design Chosen for National Museum of Ecuador After Public Outcry
From the Editors, Cloe Piccoli To Serve As Artistic Director Of The miart Fair in Milan
From the Editors, FBI RETURNS LOOTED ARTIFACTS TO INDONESIA
Artnet
Ben Davis, Elon Musk’s Threat of an A.I.-Made ‘Odyssey’
Judd Tully, Influential Dealer Joe Helman, Who Shaped the Market for Contemporary Art, Dies at 89
Margaret Carrigan, Who Is the Artist Advising Trump? And Other Art World Matters
Katya Kazakina, Roy Lichtenstein’s Market Is on Fire. Here Comes a Whitney Show With Mega Loans
Min Chen, Colonel Sanders’s Personal Archive Is Served Up—and Other Collectibles News
Jo Lawson-Tancred, Buffalo AKG Charts a New Course With Co-Director Model—and More Industry Intel
ARTnews
Maximilíano Durón, Thieves Snatch 2,500-Year-Old Celtic Gold Torque from French Museum in Broad Daylight
Daniel Cassady, Archie Rand’s Landmark Letter Paintings Acquired by Italy’s Modena FC Collection
Tessa Solomon, President Trump Orders Signs Installed Outside Smithsonian Warning Public of ‘Inaccurate Information’
Devorah Lauter, Forgotten in French Customs for Decades, a Chagall Finds New Home in Museum Near Swiss Border
Anne Doran, Artist Joyce Kozloff Reveals Herself to be Guerrilla Girl Lydia Popova
Leigh Anne Miller, BBC Series ‘Fake or Fortune?’ Discovers ‘Enormously Important’ Katherine Read Painting
Devorah Lauter, Buffalo AKG Promotes Two of Its Own to Co-Lead Art Museum
Maximilíano Durón, Controversial Gelman Collection to Inaugurate Spain’s New Faro Santander in September
Tessa Solomon, Venice Biennale President Calls EU Withdrawal of Funding Over Russia ‘Entirely Political, Certainly Not Legal’
Andy Battaglia, Lucas Museum of Narrative Art Reveals Inaugural Film Program, Including Busby Berkeley Fantasias and Avant-Garde Shorts
Daniel Cassady, Universal Disputes Claim It Left Replica Viking Ship Used in ‘The Odyssey’ Damaged
ArtReview
EDITOR’S PICK - Michelle Santiago Cortés, The End of Research: Bad, regurgitated and even plagiarised information is pouring out of the internet and backwashing into institutional spaces, Michelle Santiago Cortés says.
From the Editors, Shabbir Hussain Mustafa appointed artistic director of Aichi Triennale 2028
From the Editors, Michael Wellen and José Luis Blondet to curate Made in L.A. 2027
The Guardian
Lanre Bakare, Nearly 20 Georgia O’Keeffe works to go on display in UK for first time
Diane Taylor, V&A workers hold ballot to strike over pay and heatwave conditions
From the Editors, My advice to new Tate director – show us more art
Hyperallergic
Rhea Nayyar, Joyce Kozloff Reveals Herself as Guerrilla Girls Founding Member
Isa Farfan, Nvidia CEO Pours $75M Into San Francisco Art Campus
Anna Lee, Trump Installs Thomas Jefferson Statue in the Rose Garden
Liz Kim, Sable Elyse Smith Reveals the Shapes of State Violence
Max Blue, Emory Douglas’s Lifetime of Revolutionary Art
Lakshmi Rivera Amin, A View From the Easel
The Los Angeles Times
Jonathan J. Cooper, Trump orders new signs outside Smithsonian claiming some exhibits are inaccurate
Observer
Christa Terry, MOCA Rising: How New York’s Chinese American Museum Is Redefining the American Canon
Elisa Carollo, In Sotheby’s Botero Show, Rare Works Meet a Resurgent Global Market
Dan Duray, One Fine Show: “Brassaï, The Secret Signs of Paris” at Moderna Museet
Urgent Matter
Adam Schrader, Seoul’s Kansong museum hands a pair of Qing dynasty lions back to China
Adam Schrader, Chris Sharp calls Art Basel and Frieze a ‘duopoly,’ opens a $6,000 fair down the street
Adam Schrader, Painter fills a Lower East Side gallery with the clothing of Iran’s imprisoned women
Adam Schrader, Denver Art Museum rescinds ‘overly broad’ confidentiality rule to settle union-drive charge
Adam Schrader, FOIA Documents: Denver Art Museum’s NLRB settlement file
The Wall Street Journal
Judith H. Dobrzynski, ‘Matisse’s “Femme au chapeau”: A Modern Scandal’ Review: The Legacy of a Revolutionary Portrait
Brian P. Kelly, ‘Haas Brothers: Uncanny Valley’ Review: Forced Fun at the Museum of Arts and Design
Brian P. Kelly, ‘Roger Brown: Weathervane’ Review: A Chicago Imagist at GRAY New York
Tunku Varadarajan, Two Books on Francisco de Zurbarán: The Divine in Detail
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