March 12, 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 Art market’s return to growth threatened by geopolitical volatility by Melanie Gerlis for Financial Times. A new study shows that after two years of decline, art market sales rebounded in 2025, though it now faces growing uncertainty from geopolitical tensions.
Art in America
Andy Battaglia, Fab 5 Freddy Shares His Top Five Recent Obsessions
Emily Watlington, Every Copy of Our Spring Issue Comes with a Print by Kara Walker
The Art Newspaper
Kabir Jhala, Global art sales grew 4% in 2025 but remain below pre-pandemic levels, Art Basel and UBS report finds
Dale Berning Sawa, ‘It has nothing to do with Michelangelo’: expert wades in on painting newly attributed to Renaissance master
Elizabeth Fortescue, Dingo-related work at Sydney Biennale takes on new resonance following backpacker death
Hadani Ditmars, Final sentencing in Norval Morrisseau forgery scandal derailed by new allegations
Tim Scheider, Nifty Gateway has shut down, but NFTs are not dead—they are evolving
Gareth Harris, Snuffboxes stolen in Paris daylight robbery to go on display at V&A
Joe Ware, Mummies and other human remains held in UK museums raise serious ethical questions, warn scholars
Larry Humber, National Gallery of Canada receives donation of 24 works from developer Bob Rennie
Dale Berning Sawa, Two Renoir exhibitions at Musée d’Orsay explore the joy of human connection
Artforum
From the Editors, US Supreme Court Declines Appeal Hearing For Case On Copyrighting AI Artwork
Artnet
Sarah Cascone, How Frida Kahlo’s Mythic Life Became Artistic Legend
Andrew Russeth, Gagosian Preps Nam June Paik Show in Seoul
Ben Davis, Here’s All the Art in the 2026 Whitney Biennial
Richard Whiddington, Long-Lost Archimedes Text Resurfaces in French Museum
Min Chen, Rare ‘Jungle Book’ Illustrations Surge Past Estimates at Auction
ARTnews
George Nelson, Scholars and MPs Call UK Museums ‘Unethical’ and ‘Sacrilegious’ for Holding Vast Collections of Human Remains
Daniel Cassady, After Two Years of Decline, the Art Market Edges Back to Growth, Says 2026 Art Basel UBS Report
Harrison Jacobs, Abortion Nonprofit Claims Artwork in Malta Biennale Was Censored
Tessa Solomon, Italy Purchases Rare Caravaggio Portrait for $34.7 M.
Maximilíano Durón, Austin’s Friends Fair Returns for Second Edition in May With 17 Exhibitors
Maximilíano Durón, Longtime Chelsea Gallery Garth Greenan to Relocate Downtown This Fall
Andy Battaglia, See Robert Frank and June Leaf’s East Village Loft, Currently Listed for $6.5 M.
Maximilíano Durón, A New Public Art Biennial Will Launch Along the Katy Trail in Dallas
Brian Boucher, Undaunted by Global Unrest, TEFAF Revs Up for Maastricht Edition With a ‘Museum For Sale’
ArtReview
Mark Rappolt, Singapore Biennale 2025 Review: Divorced From Reality
From the Editors, Jitish Kallat joins Kochi-Muziris Biennale as president
From the Editors, European Commission threatens Venice Biennale funding over Russian pavilion
The Brooklyn Rail
Patrick Hill, Elizabeth Hazan: Double Fantasy
Elizabeth Wiet, Cathleen Clarke: Episodes
Jessica Holmes, Beverly Semmes: Slip
Joseph Akel, Yasumasa Morimura & Charles Atlas: Anamneses
Matt Moment, Brenda Goodman: The Sum of Its Parts
Financial Times
EDITOR’S PICK - Melanie Gerlis, Art market’s return to growth threatened by geopolitical volatility: Worldwide sales edged up 4% to $59.6bn in 2025 after two years of decline
Frieze
Kaya Genç, Hera Büyüktaşçıyan Channels Istanbul’s Haunted Histories
Galerie
Celia McGee, Daniel Arsham’s “Various Thoughts” at Perrotin Is an Adventure in Futurist Classicism
The Guardian
Joseph Earp, Harold ‘the Kangaroo’ Thornton: the extraordinary, forgotten life of the ‘greatest genius who ever lived’
Hyperallergic
Rhea Nayyar, Laura Phipps Tapped to Lead Gochman Collection of Indigenous Art
Damien Davis, Awards Season and the Management of Cultural Power
Michael Glover, Lucian Freud Mastered the Art of Lostness
Isa Farfan and Valentina Di Liscia, Text Messages Reveal How University of Texas Leaders Axed an Anti-ICE Show
Lisa Yin Zhang, Remembering Pedro Friedeberg, Thaddeus Mosley, and Liliana Angulo Cortés
Lori Waxman, Mid-Century Modernism Goes Rogue in “Chair-ish”
The New York Times
Arthur Lubow, An Artist Renounced His Family. They Sued to Acquire His Life’s Work.
Vivian Morelli, A Centuries-Old Tradition Making Wooden Dolls
Observer
Elisa Carollo, Garth Greenan’s Long Game: How the Dealer Is Redefining Artist Representation for the Future
Dan Duray, Inside Debra Wimpfheimer’s Vision for the Queens Museum
Elisa Carollo, At Hauser & Wirth, Qiu Xiaofei’s Transmutation of Grief
OCULA
Shanyu Zhong, The Space Age
Emily Colluci, Pat Oleszko: ‘I Take My Art Very Seriously, Even Though I Am Seriously Amused’
Puck
Marion Maneker, London Swings Back
Sculpture
Jan Garden Castro, Clusters of Memory: A Conversation with Jeffrey Gibson
Martin Holman, Enrico David
Spike Art
Christopher Webb, When Bots Watch Themselves
Urgent Matter
Adam Schrader, San Diego artist sues city for claiming she is not an artist
Adam Schrader, Court Documents: San Diego Artist Lawsuit Over ‘Handcraft’ Classification
Adam Schrader, U.S. Consulate in Japan spent $92K on ‘America 250’ ice sculpture of the White House
Vanity Fair
Vanessa Grigoriadis, Chelsea Clinton, Ava DuVernay, Jodie Foster, and Female Art Industry Leaders Champion One Another at Inaugural Making Their Mark Forum
Wallpaper
Hannah Silver, At Serpentine, David Hockney asks us to pause and observe the passing of time
Amah Rose Abrams, In Luxembourg, Igshaan Adams translates his past into beautiful, large-scale works
Jonathan Bell, An era-defining insight into the Chelsea Hotel’s artistic community in 1970s New York
The Wall Street Journal
Mary Tompkins Lewis, ‘Caravaggio’s “Boy With a Basket of Fruit” in Focus’ Review: Seeds of a Singular Vision
Kelly Crow, Investors Will Decide If Angus the Cow Lives or Dies
Whitehot
Margherita Artoni, Takashi Murakami: Hark Back to Ukiyo-e - Painting as a Structure of Vision and Relation
James Riley, Totally Cut: An Interview with Terry Wilson
Noah Becker, An Interview with Artist Coney Ishida
Richard Allen May III, Directism: a framework for understanding art that privileges unmediated encounter
Byron Armstrong, Three Emerging Artists “Stepping Forward” at the Affordable Art Fair NYC
Edward Waisnis, Spencer Lewis: Straight, No Chaser
Colleen Dalusong, Autopsy of an Exquisite Corpse: An Interview with Meinzer and Victoria Reshetnikov - New York City
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.