March 17, 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 Founder of Art School That Received $2 M. NEH Grant: Artists Would Be ‘Wise’ to Be ‘Unpolitical’ by Harrison Jacobs for ARTnews. NEH Grant recipient Grand Central Atelier promotes a focus on traditional technique over political art.
The Art Newspaper
Constanza Ontiveros Valdés, 500-year-old Aztec ritual offering uncovered in Mexico City
Emma Riva, Endemic leaking problems at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater finally come to an end
Artforum
Anel Rakhimzhanova, Inga Lāce, and Joan Kee, Different Children Will Be Born
Emma Weinman, Popcorn Pop
Christopher Mead, Architect Bruce Goff’s Prairie Avant-Garde
From the Editors, Jitish Kallat Appointed President of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale
From the Editors, In Its Fiftieth Year, The Fondation Vasarely Eyes A Transformative Restoration
From the Editors, Recipients of $100,000 Rauschenberg Centennial Award Named
From the Editors, Title, Theme Announced for 2026 Gwangju Biennale
Artnet
Vittoria Benzine, Tate Modern to Mount Its First Monet Show Ever
Katie White, The Women Artists Who Turned Ireland’s Saints Into National Icons
Vittoria Benzine, El Greco Painting Found Hidden Beneath a Forgery in the Vatican
Richard Whiddington, Just How Much Did Pompeii’s Prized Blue Paint Cost?
Jo Lawson-Tancred, 178 Venice Biennale Participants Demand Israel Be Barred From Exhibition
Eileen Kinsella, New York Academy of Art Donates $66,000 Linked to Jeffrey Epstein
Richard Whiddington, Behind the Scenes of ‘The Sopranos’: A New Exhibition Revisits TV’s Favorite Mob Drama
Min Chen, Jack Kerouac’s Fabled ‘On the Road’ Scroll Sells for Record-Smashing $12.1 Million
Min Chen, Oscar Win for Artist Duo’s Dystopian Short Film
ARTnews
Alex Greenberger, Trevor Paglen Wins $100,000 LG Guggenheim Award for Art and Technology
Emily Watlington, Joseph Beuys Might Be the 20th Century’s Most Influential Artist—but We Have Him All Wrong.
Anne Doran, Researchers Confirm Location of Lost City of Alexandria on the Tigris
Maximilíano Durón, Kennedy Center Board Votes in Favor of Two-Year Closure
Maximilíano Durón, London’s Timothy Taylor to Close New York Outpost After a Decade
Andy Battaglia, Outgoing Tate Director Argues for Bigger Tax Breaks for Donors
Tessa Solomon, Blue Shields Placed at 34 Archaeological Sites Across Lebanon, Signaling Enhanced Protections
Leigh Anne Miller, Monet, Munch, and Hockney Headline Tate’s 2027 Exhibition Calendar
Tessa Solomon, Newly Unearthed Letter Reveals Edvard Munch’s Influence on Paula Rego
EDITOR’S PICK - Harrison Jacobs, Founder of Art School That Received $2 M. NEH Grant: Artists Would Be ‘Wise’ to Be ‘Unpolitical’: The New York–based Grand Central Atelier was awarded $2 million, one of only a handful that exceeded $1 million to a single recipient.
Maximilíano Durón, Bank of England to Replace J.M.W. Turner with UK Wildlife on Banknotes
Alex Greenberger, Artists and Art Professionals Denounce Mexico’s Handling of Resurfaced Art Collection: ‘An Institutional Blunder’
Alex Greenberger, Pop Singer Rosalía Apologizes for Saying She Can ‘Differentiate’ Picasso’s Art from His Life
George Nelson, Film by Artist Alexandre Singh and Art Historian Natalie Musteata Wins Oscar
Maximilíano Durón, Senga Nengudi and David Thomson Among Winners of Rauschenberg Centennial Awards
ArtReview
John-Baptiste Odour, The Many Separations of Jürgen Habermas (1929–2026)
Kyle MacNeill, Angus, Thongs and Imperfect Staging
From the Editors, Winner of the 2026 LG Guggenheim Award announced
BOMB
Lower East Side Yearbook Committee, Lower East Side Yearbook
Melissa Joseph, Deborah Roberts by Melissa Joseph
Hayden Lorimer, Alec Finlay by Hayden Lorimer
Charles Daniel Dawson, An Oral History Project Excerpt with Shawn Walker by Charles Daniel Dawson
Mariá Medem, Brief Encounter
The Brooklyn Rail
Stephen Frailey, Imaging after Photography
Robert Alan Grand, Beverly Buchanan: Beverly’s Athens
Hannah Sage Kay, Fred Sandback: Sculpture
Taeyi Kim, Ayoung Kim: Delivery Dancer Codex
Annette An-Jen Liu, The Endless Garment: Atlantic Basin
Cultured
Julia Halperin, There’s a Head-Spinning Number of -Iennials This Year. 7 Curators Reveal How to Make the Most of Them.
Karly Quadros, James Cahill Saw the Best and Worst of the Art World. His Latest Novel Exposes It All.
Financial Times
Kristina Foster, ‘I see everything in 3D’: Christine Sun Kim on echo chambers, sign language and Deaf life
Frieze
Lou Selfridge, Marie Zolamian’s Paintings Remain Little Mysteries
The Guardian
Time Jonze, ‘Arms and legs are very expressive, especially with bruises’: the absurdist photography of Yorgos Lanthimos
Lanre Bakare, Tate Modern Turbine Hall to showcase David Hockney opera sets
Ben Eastham, Beneath the Great Wave: Hokusai and Hiroshige review – how two Japanese masters reinvented art
Oliver Giles, ‘They become part of people’s identity’: how Australia fell in love with the Skywhales
Hyperallergic
Isa Farfan, The Tender Work of Preserving Renee Good’s Memorial
Lakshmi Rivera Amin, The Sartorial Is Political in “The New York Sari”
Rhea Nayyar, New York Academy of Art Says It Will Donate Epstein Money
Emma Cieslik, Meet the Woman Who Made Museums More Accessible
Eileen Isagon Skyers, Thomas Gainsborough’s Portraits of Pride and Prejudice
Olivia McEwan, Seurat and the Sea Is Postcard Perfect
The Los Angeles Times
Jessica Gelt, Elaine Wynn’s $142 million Francis Bacon triptych is installed in LACMA’s new David Geffen Galleries
The New York Times
Elisabetta Povoledo, The City That Inspired Rothko (It’s Not New York)
Catherine Hickley and Zachary Small, House Adopts Bill to Ease Recovery by Heirs of Nazi Looted Art
Julia Jacobs, Kennedy Center Board Votes to Close for 2-Year Renovation Project
Observer
Elisa Carollo, At TEFAF Maastricht, Steady Sales Rewrite the Canon in Real Time
Simon Coates, David Cleaton-Roberts On Editions, Authenticity and Printmaking’s Place
Urgent Matter
Adam Schrader, Congress passes Holocaust art restitution bill ahead of 2026 deadline
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.