March 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 Comment | Museums must be the leaders in a moral revolution by John-Paul Stonard for The Art Newspaper. Examining how museums can lead a moral shift by confronting societal issues through art.
The Art Newspaper
Vincent Noce, Guillaume Cerutti departs as president of the Pinault Collection after 13 months
Gabriella Angeleti, Theaster Gates gifts David Drake pot from his collection to enslaved ceramicist’s descendants
Elena Goukassian, Contemporary Jewish Museum puts its Libeskind-designed building in San Francisco up for sale
James Imam, One of Donatello’s most important bronze statues is being restored: should it ever be shown outdoors again?
Alton Yan, Christopher Columbus statue installed on White House grounds
EDITOR’S PICK - John-Paul Stonard, Comment | Museums must be the leaders in a moral revolution: Museums are “remarkably unwilling to acknowledge their own status as democratic institutions, the bedrock of civic society and our most important public spaces”
Artforum
Linda Yablonsky, What’s Old Is New Again: Surrealists and Robots at the Newer New Museum
Julian Rose, Frank Gehry: Between Form and Ambition
Norman Foster, A Singular Visionary: Norman Foster Remembers Frank Gehry
Rem Koolhaas, The Paradigm of Possibility: Rem Koolhaas Remembers Frank Gehry
From the Editors, OpenAI’s ‘Art Washing’ Sora App is Dead; Deal With Disney Scrapped
From the Editors, Manifesta 16 Releases Full List of Participating Artists
From the Editors, Beleaguered Louvre Announces Plans to Restore Rubens’s ‘Medici Cycle’
From the Editors, Pat Steir, Whose “Waterfalls” Dazzled, Dies at 87
Artnet
Vivienne Chow and Cathy Fan, At Art Basel Hong Kong, the Emphasis Is on Slower, Smarter Buying
Sonia Manalili Ben Davis and Kate Brown, Whitney Biennial Trends, a New Baroque Art Star, and Banksy Unmasked
Vittoria Benzine, Pat Steir, Whose ‘Waterfall’ Paintings Redefined Abstraction, Has Died
Katya Kazakina, Dark Mode: Inside the Art Market’s Private Auction Playbook
Eileen Kinsella, A $30 Million Trove of Minimalist Masterpieces Is Heading to Christie’s
Jo Lawson-Tancred, Rubens’s Epic Medici Cycle Gets a Glow Up at the Louvre
Vittoria Benzine, Guillermo Del Toro Scored a Different Prize at the Oscars: A Rare Frankenstein Painting
From the Editors, The Rising Artists on Everyone’s Radar
Richard Whiddington, Iconic ‘Star Trek’ Costumes and Props Beam Into London’s Science Museum
Vivienne Chow, U.K. Mulls Museum Fees for Overseas Visitors
Richard Whiddington, Who Created the Book of Kells? A Master Craftsman Takes on the Mystery
ARTnews
Emily Watlington, I Saw a Great Show in China That Would Be Censored in the United States
Alex Greenberger, Precious Okoyomon’s Whitney Biennial Installation Is on View After a Delay, and It’s a True Shocker
George Nelson, Ex-Sotheby’s CEO Tad Smith Banks on NFTs, Agrees to Buy Collectibles Platform Candy Digital
Anne Doran, Manhattan D.A.’s Office Returns 17 Stolen Antiquities and Rare Books to Italy
Leigh Anne Miller, Long-Lost Skeleton of D’Artagnan, the Fourth Musketeer, Discovered in Dutch Church
Andy Battaglia, Paul Klee Painting Once Owned by Walter Benjamin Thwarted from US Debut Because of Mideast War
Harrison Jacobs, Hong Kong Signs Five-Year Agreement to Keep Hosting Art Basel Fair
Tessa Solomon, The Best Booths at Art Basel Hong Kong, From AI Magical Girls to Asia’s Unsung Masters
Maximilíano Durón, UK Government Plans to Charge Admission to National Museums for International Visitors
Brian Boucher, Ukrainian Official Calls For Russia to be Banned from Venice Biennale After Drone Strike Damages UNESCO-Listed Monastery
Alex Greenberger, Marica Vilcek, Art Historian Whose Foundation Upheld the Work of Immigrants, Dies at 89
Alex Werpin, Following Shutdown of AI Video Platform Sora, Disney Pulls Out of $1 B. Deal with OpenAI
George Nelson, David Hockney Says ‘There’s Too Much Abstraction in the Art World’
George Nelson, Greek TV Auctioneer and Gallery Owner Arrested Following Investigation into Illegal Antiquities Trade
ArtReview
Max Crosbie-Jones, What’s the True State of Bangkok’s Art Ecosystem?
Lewis Gordon, Nintendo, Nostalgia and Gaming as Accumulation
From the Editors, ArtReview Podcast | Episode 4: Delaine Le Bas
From the Editors, Alexander Kluge, filmmaker, writer, philosopher, 1932–2026
Frieze
Giovanna Manzotti, Benni Bosetto Recasts the Gothic Body
The Guardian
Mark Brown, Victorian time capsule: exhibition tells story of Brodsworth Hall in Yorkshire
Eddy Frankel, Nature by the uncool YBA, armoured ceramics and dizzying Aussie abstraction – the week in art
Sam Jones, ‘The violence of racist tyranny’: African Guernica goes on display alongside Picasso masterpiece
Mark Brown, ‘She broke the rules, fearlessly’: exhibition explores Vivienne Westwood’s revolutionary work
Dee Jefferson, Dark Mofo: 2026 festival to show Willem Dafoe film that can only be watched by one person at a time
Ben Eastham, Frank Bowling: Seeking the Sublime review – shipwrecked Ophelia points the path to freedom
Hyperallergic
Valentina Di Liscia, Art Movements: A Canceled Biennale Show Finds a New Home
Néstor David Pastor López, Frida-Mania Hits MoMA
Cecily Parks, New School Faculty React to Plans to Lay Off 15% of Workforce
John Yau, Beacons in a Grim World
Greta Rainbow, Pat Steir, Painter of Cascading Infinities, Dies at 87
Lakshmi Rivera Amin, Required Reading
Claudia Hart, Remembering Asher Remy-Toledo, Media Art Luminary
The Los Angeles Times
Chloe Schrager, An anti-nuclear art show opened in L.A. County. Then the U.S. bombed Iran
The New York Times
Jason Farago, Raphael and the Renaissance of Divine Beauty
Jori Finkel, Their Ancestor Was an Enslaved Potter. They Are Battling to Recover His Legacy.
Tom Mashberg, Rare Books Stolen From a Jesuit Archive in Rome Are Returned to Italy
Sarah Bahr, Tracking Trump’s Efforts to Reshape Cultural Institutions
Observer
Elisa Carollo, An Anti-Art Fair Is Taking Root in the Mojave Desert
Siddhant Adlakha, Screening at SXSW: Boots Riley’s ‘I Love Boosters’
Elisa Carollo, At Art Basel Hong Kong, More Collectors Are Buying With Purpose
Dan Duray, One Fine Show: “Edmonia Lewis, Said in Stone” at the Peabody Essex Museum
Urgent Matter
Adam Schrader, New book documents Armenian heritage at risk after blockade, 2023 Artsakh exodus
Adam Schrader, Southeast Asian countries issue energy directives affecting museums amid Iran war
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.