Category Archives: Art

Trump outburst prompts removal of his ‘distorted’ portrait from Colorado capitol

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Painting of Trump was commissioned by Republicans, though president blamed Colorado’s Democratic governor

A portrait of Donald Trump that was commissioned by fellow Republicans – but which he evidently came to believe had been “purposefully distorted” – was removed from a wall at the Colorado state capitol where it had been since 2019.

After Trump posted complaints about the painting on his Truth Social platform, Colorado’s senate minority leader, Paul Lundeen, a Republican, asked that it be taken down and replaced with one that “depicts his contemporary likeness”. Colorado Republicans had raised more than $10,000 to commission the oil painting that was the target of the president’s ire.

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Visitors flock to Paris’s Pompidou Centre before it closes for renovations

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Art lovers catch last glimpse of prestigious art collection before gallery shuts for five years for major revamp

Visitors from around the world have been flocking to the Pompidou Centre in Paris this weekend, seizing the last opportunity to enjoy Europe’s largest temple of modern and contemporary art before it closes its doors for a five-year overhaul.

In one of the most complex closures of its kind, the task of removing the museum’s 2,000-strong permanent collection will start on Monday. The Pompidou’s Chagalls, Giacomettis and myriad other treasures will be relocated to other sites in Paris and museums elsewhere in France and around the world.

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Creative Australia boss forced to refute rumour he had resigned as fallout over Khaled Sabsabi dumping continues

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Adrian Collette sends all-staff email denying that he and the chair of Creative Australia’s board had quit amid calls for resignations

The beleaguered CEO of Creative Australia, Adrian Collette, has quashed rumours that emerged overnight that he and the chair of the body’s board, Robert Morgan, had resigned.

“There is a rumour circulating on social media that Robert Morgan and I have resigned,” said his email to all staff of the government arts funding organisation, sent just after 8.30am on Friday.

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Khaled Sabsabi pledges to show Venice Biennale work despite Creative Australia decision to drop him

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Artist and curator Michael Dagostino break silence following Creative Australia decision to withdraw them as representatives

The artistic team who were suddenly withdrawn as Australia’s representatives at next year’s Venice Biennale have broken their silence and suggested they will proceed with their exhibition without the Australian government’s endorsement.

Artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino issued a detailed statement on Wednesday evening, saying they remained committed to presenting the work they pitched to Creative Australia last year in Venice, to ensure that the “voices and ideas behind it are not silenced”.

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‘Trump and Musk are gaslighting’: anti-apartheid artist on how US president and his billionaire ally are attacking South Africa

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Ahead of a career retrospective, Sue Williamson tells how the US pair are dragging her country ‘through the mud’

For more than 50 years, Sue Williamson’s art has been shining a light on South Africa’s problems – first to campaign against the apartheid state, and then to question how far the country has progressed in reconciliation and remembrance.

But as she prepares for her first retrospective exhibition, the 84-year-old artist has a new pair of targets in sight: US president Donald Trump and his billionaire, South African-born adviser, Elon Musk.

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Artists who represented Australia at Venice Biennale call for Khaled Sabsabi to be reinstated

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Open letter from some of the country’s most distinguished artists ‘strongly protests’ at the removal of Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino

Living artists who have represented Australia at the Venice Biennale over the past five decades – and the estates of a number of now deceased artists who have done the same – have signed an open letter to the board and chief executive of Creative Australia to reinstate sacked artist Khaled Sabsabi and his curator Michael Dagostino.

Some of Australia’s most distinguished living artists, including Imants Tillers, Mike Parr, Susan Norrie, Fiona Hall, Judy Watson, Patricia Piccinini and Tracey Moffat have signed the petition, as has the estate of Howard Arkley who represented Australia in Venice more than a quarter of a century ago.

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‘This could have all been avoided’: how Creative Australia allowed itself to be blind-sided over its Venice Biennale pick

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High-profile artists and curators stunned by Creative Australia’s swift abandonment of Khaled Sabsabi, the art community, and the complex nature of art itself

A week after Creative Australia controversially dumped artist Khaled Sabsabi as Australia’s representative for the 2026 Venice Biennale, Richard Bell still can’t understand the decision.

The Kamilaroi, Kooma, Jiman and Gurang Gurang artist has a long history with the Venice Biennale and Australia’s peak arts funding body – in 2019, he crashed the prestigious showcase after being passed over to officially represent Australia. He’s shocked that Creative Australia would allow itself to be blind-sided by criticism of Sabsabi’s past work, and its refusal to answer predictable attacks with a nuanced conversation.

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Creative Australia says it won’t reinstate artist Khaled Sabsabi for Venice Biennale at tense all-staff meeting

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Exclusive: The western Sydney artist was dropped from representing Australia just days after being selected

The artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino will not be reinstated as Australia’s representatives at the next Venice Biennale despite thousands of artists calling for the decision to be overturned.

The chair of Creative Australia, Robert Morgan, and the organisation’s executive director, Adrian Collette, told an all-staff meeting on Thursday that the decision to withdraw the Venice contract to avoid a potential public outcry would not be revised.

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Workshop producing fake Picassos and Rembrandts found in Rome

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Prosecutors seize 71 canvases and say evidence suggests an art restorer was behind frauds

A clandestine workshop has been discovered in Rome where fakes of paintings by some of the world’s most famous artists, including Pablo Picasso and Rembrandt, were produced before being sold online.

The discovery was made in a house in a district in the north of the city by a team from Rome’s public prosecutors’ office and the forgeries unit of Italy’s art squad, which they said has gathered “important evidence” to suggest an art restorer was at the centre of the racket.

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Artists demand National Endowment for the Arts roll back Trump restrictions

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More than 400 artists sign letter urging organization to resist funding ban for projects focused on DEI and gender

Donald Trump’s efforts to influence US cultural institutions received more pushback on Tuesday, as a group of more than 400 artists sent a letter to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) calling on the organization to resist the president’s restrictions on funding for projects promoting diversity or “gender ideology”.

The letter, first reported by the New York Times, comes after the NEA declared that federal grant applicants – which include colleges and universities, non-profit groups, individual artists and more – must comply with regulations stipulated by Trump’s executive orders. The new measures bar federal funds from going toward programs focused on “diversity, equity and inclusion” or used to “promote gender ideology”.

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All fores! Miranda July among artists to create feminist mini-golf course in Melbourne

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Swingers, which aims to celebrate the sport’s feminist history, will take over the Flinders Street station ballroom as part of the 2025 Rising festival

The acclaimed author and film-maker Miranda July is among a group of artists who are building a mini-golf course in Melbourne to celebrate the sport’s little-known feminist history.

Swingers: The Art of Mini Golf will take over the Flinders Street station ballroom, an abandoned space above the busy Melbourne railway station, as part of the city’s annual Rising festival.

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Embrace of Indigenous artists reaches London thanks to influence of Venice Biennale

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Curators and artists say this is a time of overdue recognition but others are cautious about the longevity of the moment

At last year’s Venice Biennale, the pavilions were packed with Indigenous art from around the world.

Artists from the Tupinambá community in Brazil sat alongside work by the late Rosa Elena Curruchich, who made pieces about Indigenous women in Guatemala. The Amazonian artist Aycoobo was celebrated, as were carvings by the Māori artist Fred Graham. The eventual winner of the Golden Lion – the event’s highest accolade – was the Indigenous Australian artist Archie Moore.

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Long-lost anti-fascist mural from 1930s restored and back on show in Mexico

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Philip Guston and Reuben Kadish’s The Struggle Against Terrorism revealed as some fear resurgence of fascism

A long-neglected 1930s mural in Mexico that warns about the rise of fascism has been revealed and restored – just as some historians say the world faces that threat once more.

The mural, which is titled The Struggle Against Terrorism, covers a 40ft wall in a colonial courtyard in Morelia, Michoacán, and depicts a history of persecution and resistance from biblical times to the modern day.

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Carl Bloch’s lost masterpiece Prometheus Unbound finds fame again in Athens

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Work that made its creator a superstar then mysteriously disappeared is mesmerising art lovers once more

It was commissioned by a Greek king, made its creator a superstar and in his native Denmark attracted crowds like no other painting before. Then it mysteriously disappeared.

Now, nearly nine decades after it was last seen gracing the stairwell of the royal palace that would become the Athens parliament, Carl Bloch’s masterpiece, Prometheus Unbound, has found fame again in Greece.

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LA fires could test Getty Center’s claim of being safest place to store artwork

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Getty team says no current plans to move prominent pieces from center deemed ‘marvel of anti-fire engineering’

It houses some of the richest treasures of the art world, such as Vincent van Gogh’s Irises, a popular Rembrandt and a priceless collection of paintings, portraits and other works spanning more than seven centuries.

To protect them, the Getty Center in Los Angeles was built in 1997 as “a marvel of anti-fire engineering”, complete with fire-resistant stone and concrete, protected steel, and set in well-irrigated landscaping.

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Still life quartet by Dutch golden age master to be shown together in Cambridge

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Jan Davidsz de Heem’s four paintings of sumptuous food and luxury objects were produced as series

A quartet of influential still lifes from the Dutch artist Jan Davidsz de Heem will go on display together for the first time since the 17th century at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

The four paintings were produced as part of a series by De Heem, who is considered to be a master of pronkstilleven – a style of ornate still life painting – during the Dutch golden age, depicting displays of sumptuous food and luxurious objects.

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Crypto entrepreneur eats banana art he bought for $6.2m

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Conceptual work created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan was sold at auction in New York last week

The cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun has fulfilled a promise he made after spending $6.2m (£4.88m) on an artwork featuring a banana duct-taped to a wall – by eating the fruit.

At one of Hong Kong’s priciest hotels, Sun, 34, chomped down on the banana in front of dozens of journalists and influencers after giving a speech hailing the work as “iconic” and drew parallels between conceptual art and cryptocurrency.

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Palestinian artists plan Gaza Biennale as ‘act of resistance and survival’

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Project involves showing work in Gaza but also sending works across Israeli siege lines for exhibiting worldwide

Palestinian artists in Gaza plan to stage a “biennale” exhibition as an act of defiance against Israel’s military onslaught and to focus attention on the plight of the territory’s 2.3 million people under more than 13 months of bombardment.

About 50 artists from Gaza will exhibit their work within the besieged coastal strip, and are looking for art galleries to host exhibitions overseas. But in order to hold their work to the eyes of the rest of the world, the artists are facing a unique challenge: how to get their art across Israeli siege lines.

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Prado show aims to highlight true colours of polychrome sculpture

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Madrid Exhibition intends to rescue the technique – coloured paint applied to statues – from centuries of indifference

In a darkened corner of the Prado, not far from an outsized crucifixion and a sculpture of a dead, recumbent Christ with eyes of glass, teeth of ivory and fingernails of horn, is another depiction of Jesus that is remarkable in its poignancy, its humanity and its history.

The tiny, painted terracotta scene, titled Los primeros pasos de Jesús (Jesus’s First Steps), is domestic rather than divine and shows a chubby, beaming infant ambling towards his equally beaming father. Its creator was the Spanish baroque artist Luisa Roldán who, despite becoming the first female sculptor to the royal court in 1692, is only now making her debut in the hallowed Madrid museum.

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British Museum receives record £1bn donation of Chinese ceramics

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Collection of 1,700 pieces dating from third to 20th century is highest-value gift of objects in UK museum history

The British Museum has been given a private collection of Chinese ceramics worth about £1bn, the highest-value object donation in UK museum history.

The 1,700 pieces dating from the third to the 20th century have been given permanently by the trustees of the Sir Percival David Foundation. They had been on loan to the London museum since 2009.

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