June 1, 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 As Full-Time Art Critics All But Disappear, What Can We Learn From the Retiring Generation? by Catherine G. Wagley for Art in America. The retirement of art critics symbolizes the decline of full-time newspaper art criticism in the U.S., as media cuts and longstanding structural issues continue to shrink the field.
Airmail
Jeanne Malle, Michele di Robilant
James Wolcott, The Unstoppable Jasper Johns
Art in America
Jackson Arn, Phoenix Probably Shouldn’t Exist. But Eric Fischl and Frank Lloyd Wright Make It Feel Like the Future
EDITOR’S PICK - Catherine G. Wagley, As Full-Time Art Critics All But Disappear, What Can We Learn From the Retiring Generation?: This was the steepest downside of the 20th-century newspaper critic: While the writer’s career received the kind of support that enabled a real relationship with an artistic community, that community was limited to one perspective.
The Art Newspaper
Melissa Gronlund, Yemen deals with cultural heritage challenges after years of civil war
Gareth Harris, British Museum director responds to pushback after Jewish Culture Month event postponed
Gareth Harris, Gone bananas: Cattelan’s Comedian stolen from Centre Pompidou-Metz exhibition
Karen Chernick, Show celebrates legacy of the art school in Benton End—which counted Lucian Freud among its students
Scott Reyburn, Blue-chip gets a boost, but edgier art remains in the doldrums
Elena Goukassian and Benjamin Sutton, The 2026 Whitney Biennial in five key themes
Artforum
Theo Belci, The Last Kids of TV: Marc Kokopeli’s Art of Doomed Nostalgia
Katy Siegel, The End of Neoliberal Art: Populism, Pluralism, and the Lessons of ’76
Gee Wesley, Work Ethics: Three New England Shows Look at Labor, Capital, and Incarceration
From the Editors, British Artist Iain Alexander Works With Trump on $250 Bill Design
From the Editors, Lost Leonora Carrington Work to Make Public Debut
From the Editors, Getty Center Reveals Renovation Plan: New Trams, New Entrance, New Green Spaces
From the Editors, Tess Jaray, Painter of Architectural Abstractions, Dies at 88
Artnet
Andrew Russeth, The Rulers of Venice: In Thrilling Book, Biennale Curators Tell All
Vittoria Benzine, Alan Saret, Post-Minimal Sculptor of Spiritual Forms, Dies at 81
Jo Lawson-Tancred, Newly Authenticated Whistler Portrait Sheds Light on His Formative Years
Vittoria Benzine, This Artist Just Gave a Hermès Store Window a Whimsical Makeover
Richard Whiddington, Seminal Lucian Freud Painting Comes to Auction for the First Time
ARTnews
Karen Chernick, Andy Warhol’s Tribute to Marilyn Monroe
Precious Adesina, What Was Nigeria’s Osogbo School of Art, and Why Was It So Important?
Daniel Cassady, British Museum Evacuated After Suspicious Device Found in Restroom
Daniel Cassady, Julio Le Parc, Pioneer of Kinetic Art and Venice Biennale Prize Winner, Dies at 97
Daniel Cassady, House Democrats Move to Block Trump’s Proposed Arlington ‘Triumphal Arch’
Daniel Cassady, Art Writer Anthony Haden-Guest Says Socialite and Collector Libbie Mugrabi Won’t Return His Cartoons
Harrison Jacobs, Leonora Carrington Painting Made Inside Spanish Sanatorium Resurfaces After 80 Years
Alex Greenberger, British Museum Reschedules Postponed Israel Lecture to June Following Fears of Protests
ArtReview
Declan Long, Tarek Atoui’s Living Instruments
From the Editors, Julio Le Parc, artist committed to movement and light, 1028–2026
Financial Times
Robin Lane Fox, Boston Museum of Fine Arts succeeds in reframing nature
Hannah Nepilová, Why playing the guitar is really all about sex
Jackie Wullschläger, Rothko in Florence — the Renaissance masters who unleashed America’s great abstractionist
Frieze
Chloe Stead, Misogyny Has Evolved – Artistic Responses Haven’t
Juliet Jacques, The Top Shows to See During London Gallery Weekend 2026
From the Editors, What’s on at No.9 Cork Street this June
The Guardian
Angela Giuffrida, ‘What happened to the testicles?’: mockery in Milan over bull mosaic’s restoration
Steven Morris, Elizabeth Blackadder exhibition reveals wintry Tuscan landscapes and minimalist still lifes
Chloe Mac Donnell, From bikinis to cat bowls: how museum gift stores became the place to shop
Hyperallergic
Marc J. Straus, The Art Market Post-Pollock
John Yau, Nicola Florimbi’s Paintings Are Unsettling and Necessary
Isa Farfan, Patagonia Sues Drag Queen “Pattie Gonia” for Trademark Infringement
Anna Lee, New Brooklyn Subway Mural Adds a Touch of Whimsy to Commuting
Imani Williford, Martha Cooper Captures How Urban Youth Made New York
Lakshmi Rivera Amin, A View From the Easel
The New Yorker
Hilton Als, The Expansive Joy of Mao Ishikawa
Observer
Dan Duray, One Fine Show: “Louise Nevelson, Mrs. N’s Palace” at the Centre Pompidou-Metz
Katherine Ryckman Siegwarth, When Seeing Isn’t Believing: Why Photography Needs Community More Than Ever
Elisa Carollo, An Art Lover’s Guide to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (and Its Expansion)
Elisa Carollo, Galerie Gmurzynska’s Old-School Slow Art Model Is Newly Radical
Siddhant Adlakha, Screening at Cannes: Marine Atlan’s ‘La Gradiva’
Urgent Matter
Adam Schrader, Iranian state media spotlights London biennial of contemporary Iranian art
Adam Schrader, Radiohead’s Motion Picture House brings Kid A Mnesia dread to Brooklyn Navy Yard
Wall Street Journal
Lance Esplund, ‘Marcel Duchamp’ Review: An Iconoclast’s Impact at MoMA
Brian P. Kelly, Helen Frankenthaler and Anthony Caro’s Creative Communion
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.