June 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 What’s the Matter With Museums? by Daniel Grant for Observer. Museums increasingly face opposition over land use, costs, and community impact, prompting demands for greater public accountability.
Airmail
Elena Clavarino, Dancing with Light
Harry Seymour, The Sky’s the Limit
Apollo Magazine
Conrad Landin, How French Impressionism took hold in Germany
Rakewell, St James’s Park gets some new feathers in its cap
From the Editors, Acquisitions of the month: May 2026
From the Editors, Four things to see: At the races
Emily Cox, A New Woman’s right to choose
The Art Newspaper
Riah Pryor, A decade on: Brexit’s impact on the UK art market
Rachel Kubrick, A Palais de Tokyo for London? Hypha Studios to open major exhibition and studio space near Tate Modern
Maev Kennedy, Coffin plate of ‘the injured Queen of England’ heads to Treasure House Fair
Gareth Harris, London’s Jewish Museum receives £1m funding boost and opens new temporary home
Ben Luke, Comment | Visiting Venice this year reminded me of the crushing power of painting
Artnet
Margaret Carrigan, Art Basel Is Facing an Unexpected Challenge: Itself
Min Chen, The Icelandic Collective Turning Perfume Into a Multisensory Art Form
Richard Whiddington, Rare Monumental Laocoön Bronze Poised for $4 Million Sale
Ben Davis, Boston’s Dashing Museum Prankster Does Not Exist
Richard Whiddington, Stolen Picasso Turns Up During Paris Drug Bust
Vittoria Benzine, Museum-Grade Triceratops Skull Up for Auction
Vittoria Benzine, Greece’s Parthenon Just Reclaimed a Missing Piece of Its Ancient Silhouette
Sonia Manalili and Margaret Carrigan, What Sold at Art Basel
Richard Whiddington, The Clash’s Smashed Bass Anchors New London Museum
Richard Whiddington, Archaeologists Discover Ancient Solstice Site Predating Stonehenge
ARTnews
Brian Boucher, Daniel ‘Danny’ Simmons, Artist, Author, and Philanthropist, Has Died at 72
Anne Doran, Henry, Artist Nancy Shaver’s Collectibles Shop in Hudson, New York, Is Closing After 30 Years
Howard Halle, LGBTQ+ Artists Having Institutional Shows This Pride Month
ArtReview
Yiyi You, Why the Beijing Artscene Is Still Compelling
Alexander Leissle, Glasgow International 2026 Review: Want and Need
Asya Yaghmurian, Under the Canopy With Raqs Media Collective
Frieze
Xenia Benivolski, Asad Raza and the Aesthetics of Athletics
From the Editors, The Best Shows to See Across the US This June
From the Editors, What to Read This Summer
The Guardian
Charlotte Jansen, Kyotographie: Kawada Kikuji x Iwane Ai review – staggering images of the aftermath of shattering violence
Jonathan Jones, Frida: The Making of an Icon review – forget her iconic status, just show us more of her art
From the Editors, Nailed it! What was Thor’s hammer called? Find out in our great British museum quiz
Sarah Aitken, From a Shakespeare First Folio to Bowie’s handwriting: inside Mona’s new $100m library of 30,000 books
Donna Ferguson, David Hockney’s funeral held in private with just two mourners
From the Editors, One Van Gogh is never enough! So how many Sunflowers did he paint? Find out in our great British museum quiz
Hyperallergic
Greta Rainbow, 10 Contemporary Artists Reckoning With Fatherhood
Taliesin Thomas, 15 Art Shows to See in Upstate New York This Summer
Debra Brehmer, Georgia O’Keeffe the Wanderer
Rhea Nayyar, Rosalie Favell and the Search for Herself
Lakshmi Rivera Amin, A View From the Easel
The New York Times
Holland Cotter, The Newest Wing in the City’s Oldest Museum Celebrates Democracy
Nina Siegal, How Basel Went From Art to Art Basel
Observer
Dan Duray, One Fine Show: “Grandma Moses, A Good Day’s Work” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
EDITOR’S PICK - Daniel Grant, What’s the Matter With Museums?: Objections to museum openings and expansions may stem from land-use or zoning issues, political tensions or plain old NIMBYism, but the common thread is often institutional overreach.
Puck
Glenn Adamson, Hot Hand: Minjae Kim
Marion Maneker, A Tale of Two Auction Houses
Urgent Matter
Adam Schrader, Fire destroys historic South Bushwick Reformed Church in Brooklyn
Adam Schrader, Seattle Art Museum workers vote to unionize
Adam Schrader, Fetterman presses U.S. Treasury to revive withdrawn antiquities laundering rule
Adam Schrader, Jupiter Contemporary settles New York eviction, faces default in artist’s federal suit
Adam Schrader, Court Documents: Jupiter Contemporary eviction settlement stipulation
Adam Schrader, Coney Island’s Mermaid Parade marches on after near-shutdown — see our photos
Adam Schrader, Ventiko stages nude tableaux at Work in Progress
The Wall Street Journal
From the Editors, Arts Calendar: Happenings for the Week of June 21
Judith H. Dobrzynski, America 250: The Essential Paintings of Our Nation
From the Editors, America 250 Calendar: Ways to Celebrate the Nation Across the Nation
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