May 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 A New Landmark Survey Aims to Bring Transparency to Museum Collecting Practices by Vittoria Benzine for Artnet. The Penn Cultural Heritage Center is launching a national survey on museum collecting, acquisitions, and deaccession practices, with results expected in 2027.
Art in America
Eugenie Brinkema, Two Museums Take on Performative Masculinity, Looksmaxxing, Incels, and Other Macho Buzzwords That Don’t Belong There.
The Art Newspaper
Stephanie Sporn, With new Costume Institute exhibition and galleries, the Met makes powerful statement about fashion’s place in museums
Maev Kennedy, Pioneering British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron honoured with a blue plaque in London
Constanza Ontiveros Valdés, 19th-century European weapons found in cenote in Mexico
Gabriella Angeleti, Frank Stella’s eye-dazzling collection of Navajo weavings to go on view
Carlie Porterfield, A Joan Mitchell diptych and a rare stack by Donald Judd: our pick of the May auctions
Georgina Adam, Su Xiaobai’s Venice exhibition melds Chinese lacquer with European abstraction
From the Editors, Counterpublic comes to New York ahead of its next triennial, Coyote Time
Georgina Adam, ‘This is the place of dreams’: Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo’s Venetian island venue opens to public
Gareth Harris, More than 70 Venice Biennale artists withdraw from awards
Artforum
From the Editors, Gallerist Bruno Bischofberger, Who Catalyzed Basquiat/Warhol Collaboration, Dies at 86
From the Editors, Susan Fisher Sterling Retiring as Director of the National Museum of Women in the Arts
From the Editors, Scores of Venice Biennale Participants Withdraw from Awards Consideration
Artnet
Katya Kazakina, Who Went to Venice Last Week? Jenny Saville, Glenn Lowry, Jewel, and Many Other Power Players
Vittoria Benzine, Bruno Bischofberger, Swiss Art Dealer and Early Backer of Basquiat, Dies at 86
Richard Whiddington, Political Fallout Rocks Venice Biennale Prize System
Katie White, Eva Helene Pade Paints the Thin Line Between Ecstasy and Violence
Min Chen, Radiohead Brings Its Strange Visual Universe to Life in an Immersive Spectacle
EDITOR’S PICK - Vittoria Benzine, A New Landmark Survey Aims to Bring Transparency to Museum Collecting Practices: The National Survey of Museum Collecting Practices will help set standards in a field without them.
Richard Whiddington, The Site Where the Beatles Played Their Final Gig Is Becoming a Museum
Sonia Manalili and Margaret Carrigan, Market Outlook for New York’s May Sales
ARTnews
Maximilíano Durón, Gozo Yoshimasu Wins £200,000 Serpentine x FLAG Art Foundation Prize
Alex Greenberger, At a Powerful Carnegie International, Solidarity Is a Means of Survival
Brian Boucher, Artist Trevor Paglen Will Curate the Swiss Edition of Art Basel’s Digital Art Sector
Anne Doran, Archeologists Find Ancient Roman Country Estate Near Shopping Mall in Croatia
Leigh Anne Miller, Ancient Greek and Roman Statues Found in Alexandria
Brian Boucher, Delayed by War in Iran, Paul Klee Painting from Israel Finally Joins New York Show
Maximilíano Durón, A Lucas Cranach the Elder Masterpiece Once Hung in Hitler’s Munich Apartment
Tessa Solomon, Nazi-Looted Portrait Surfaces in Home of Descendants of Dutch SS Leader
Andy Battaglia, London Rooftop Made Famous By Surprise Beatles Concert Will Open as a Museum
Alex Greenberger, Art Installation Featuring Trump Iran War Video Game Appears on National Mall
Harrison Jacobs, Evangelical Pastor Says Comparing 22-Foot Gold Trump Statue to ‘Golden Calf’ Is ‘Blasphemy’
Alex Greenberger, Putin ‘Won’ the Venice Biennale, Quips Italian Culture Minister
Anne Doran, The Founders of Open Restitution Africa (ORA) on Their New Open Data Platform
ArtReview
Zoé Samudzi, What Has the American Inquisition Done to Art?
From the Editors, Somali artists and culture workers express concern over Somalia Pavilion in Venice
From the Editors, Marisol Mendez wins 2026 Saltzman-Leibovitz Photography Prize
From the Editors, Bruno Bischofberger, gallerist to Warhol and Basquiat, 1940–2026
The Brooklyn Rail
Chenoa Baker, Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone
Joseph Akel, Revolution!
Alfred Mac Adam, Ellsworth Kelly: Eight Decades
Neil Baldwin, Paul Klee: Other Possible Worlds
David Carrier, Mary Cassatt: An American in Paris
Galerie
Janelle Zara, Dale Chihuly’s Towering Glass Sculptures Return to Venice
Ann Binlot, Su Xiaobai’s Lacquer Paintings Awaken a 15th-Century Palazzo in Venice
Jill Sieracki, Frank Stella’s Personal Collection of Bold, Geometric Textiles Set to Go on Display
The Guardian
Veronica Esposito, ‘It’s a love letter’: exhibition pays tribute to Frank Gehry’s lesser-known works
Philip Oltermann, ‘I shared a single bed with my mother for three years’: Sung Tieu on her monument to immigrant workers in Venice
Denis Campbell, Arts and cultural engagement ‘linked to slower pace of biological ageing’
Hyperallergic
Aaron Short, Ridgewood’s Thriving Art Scene Steps Out of Bushwick’s Shadow
Isa Farfan, Somali Artists Take Issue With Nation’s First-Ever Venice Biennale Pavilion
Emma Cieslik, Satirical Video Game Lampoons Trump’s Iran War Chaos
Julia Curl, Sophia Rivera’s Mythology of Everyday New York
Paddy Johnson, Art Problems: WTF Is an A-Corp?
Michael Glover, Did Zurbarán Believe What He Painted?
Greta Rainbow, What Did Mozart’s Life Look Like?
The New York Times
Rachel Sherman, How Much Art Is Too Much? A Guide to the New York Fairs.
Michaela Towfighi, Smokers Help Keep This Arts Hub Alive
Jordan Kisner, At a Los Angeles Museum, Giving New Life to Dead Animals
Nazanin Lankarani, At Frieze New York and Beyond, Indigenous Artists Are in the Spotlight
Observer
Dian Parker, The Exacting Nuance of Richard Diebenkorn
Merin Curotto, The Rex Reed I Knew (1938–2026)
Elisa Carollo, 10 Ambitious Gallery Shows to See During Frieze New York
Elisa Carollo, Koyo Kouoh’s Venice Biennale Looks to Ancient Wisdom to Mend a Fractured Present
Nadja Sayej, At the 2026 NYCB Spring Gala, Fran Drescher, Hari Nef and Olivia Palermo Opined On the Power of Ballet
Jennifer Findley, Exhibition as Experience: The Turn Toward Building Worlds, Not Walls
Puck
Marion Maneker, Art Gangs of New York
Urgent Matter
Adam Schrader, Nikon reported its largest annual loss ever
Adam Schrader, Tim Makepeace lands museum show inspired by NASA’s James Webb Telescope
Adam Schrader, How generative A.I. tool Claude helped create Jon Sarkin’s catalog raisonné
The Wall Street Journal
A.J. Goldmann, ‘Giotto and St. Francis: A Revolution in 14th-Century Umbria’ Review: Changing What Holiness Looks Like
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.