Articles

The five shortlisted artists for the 2023 Sobey Art Award, Canada's preeminent prize for contemporary visual artists, were announced today by the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) and the Sobey Art Foundation (SAF). Works by the five finalists will be on view at the Gallery from October 13, 2023 until March 3, 2024. The winner will be announced in November. Artist Divya Mehra won the $100,000 Sobey prize in 2022.

Throughout the 20th century and to the present day, the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Lady with a Guitar has been the subject of deep fascination and many questions. Long catalogued as a ‘Copy after Vermeer’ in the John G. Johnson Collection at the Museum, the work is a replica or close duplicate of Johannes Vermeer’s The Guitar Player (c.1672) today in the collection of Kenwood House, London. The hairstyles of the sitter are different – the Philadelphia musician does not have corkscrew ringlets – but otherwise the images are nearly identical.

Four archaeological sites dating back 3,600 years have offered new insights into one of the earliest Chinese dynasties, the Shang Dynasty, including an early indoor heating system as well as painted pottery and turquoise jewellery as markers of status.

Larry's List released the second edition of the private art museum report. The report provides a systematic exploration of the global landscape of privately founded contemporary art museums with analyses by continent, country, and city. It gives an overview of museums that have opened over the past years and provides an understanding of their legal setup and operations. A deep-dive chapter explores the social media activities of the museums.

Two environmental activists have been found guilty of vandalism for gluing themselves to a statue in the Vatican Museums. In the conclusion of the much-talked-about trial on Monday (June 12), Vatican judges sentenced the activists to nine months in prison and charged them a 1,500 euro fine with a suspended sentence of five years.

On 9 June 2023, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands ruled that the Amsterdam Court of Appeal correctly applied the law in the case involving the disputed objects from Crimean. The objects must be handed over to the state of Ukraine as determined by the Court of Appeal in its judgment of 26 October 2021.

What did the Girl with a Pearl Earring look like when Vermeer applied his final brushstroke to the canvas and he took the -now world-famous painting- off the easel? Are we still looking at the same painting as he once intended? And what painting techniques would he have used? In the freely accessible presentation Who's that Girl? the Mauritshuis shares key research findings on what the Girl must have looked like in 1665. The presentation in the museum's foyer also includes a mega-sized 3D print of the Girl, which you can see ánd touch. Thanks to very advanced research techniques, we have come a whole lot closer to Vermeer.

In response to growing political, public and industry concern over the rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) foundation models and calls for regulation, UNESCO is publishing a policy paper demonstrating how the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI can help identify and clarify key ethical concerns related to AI systems, guiding policy responses. The paper suggests a procedural framework to address and mitigate risks that may arise with their use across the AI project life cycle.

In Carnac, a small municipality in the French region of Brittany, at least 38 menhirs or prehistoric stones have been demolished for the construction of a DIY store. This has been reported by various French media outlets. Carnac is known as an area where menhirs are abundant. A local archaeology association is considering filing a complaint against the municipality.

By envisioning various speculative futures, Helsinki Biennial: New Directions May Emerge brings together 29 international artists and collectives to explore alternative ways of living in, and understanding, the world. Curated by Joasia Krysa with five curatorial collaborators, the second edition engages with some of the pressing issues of our time, addressing environmental damage, political conflict and the impact of technology. On view until 17 September 2023, the biennial comprises around 50% new commissions and site-specific works that span installation, sculpture, film and performance.

Dozens of cultural heritage sites and cultural institutions have been damaged or destroyed as a result of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP) breach.

A necklace that has not been worn or seen since the sinking of the RMS Titanic has been discovered in the ship’s wreckage

M Leuven welcomes Study of a Head of a Bearded Man into its collection. It is a recently discovered painting from the oeuvre of Michaelina Wautier, who worked in Brussels in the seventeenth-century. This extremely rare study from c. 1655 was authenticated by Wautier expert, Katlijne Van der Stighelen (KU Leuven). The work will be presented in the new collection presentation at M in 2024. Through this display, the museum aims to further redress the balance between female and male artists and to highlight an underexposed area of art history.

Reasserting the importance of collaborative efforts among European museums, the Musée du Louvre has formed a partnership of unprecedented scope with the Museo di Capodimonte for 2023.

A large piece of wood discovered by chance, lying in peat in excellent condition during the construction of a workshop in Boxford, Berkshire, has been identified by Historic England as being more than 6,000 years old, making it the oldest decoratively carved wood in Britain. It was carved 2,000 years before Stonehenge was built and 4,500 years before the Romans came to Britain.

14 art objects were returned to Italy, which were illegally exported from Italy and partly originated from thefts or looting. Among the cultural goods are an ancient drinking vessel from the 6th century BC, a bronze helmet from the 3rd or 4th century BC, and a Venetian jewelry box from the 16th century.

The exhibition features works by 15 artists: Francesco Arena, Terry Atkinson, Massimo Bartolini, Eteri Chkadua, Maxim Dondyuk, Harun Farocki, Leon Golub, Alfredo Jaar, Mario Merz, Richard Mosse, Pedro Reyes, Martha Rosler, Sim Chi Yin, and Ran Slavin. War is over! Peace has not yet begun, through the selection of artists’ works, invites us to look at the apparently concluded conflicts of our time and of the past, and to reflect on the profound difference between the mere closing or deadlock of the armed phase of a conflict and the establishment of a true condition of peace, following a reflection on the power and meaning of images in the history of art and communication.

From painful waxes to irritating shaves, we can trace the modern obsession with hair removal back to the Romans, English Heritage has said today (24 May), as the charity displays a collection of tweezers used to remove armpit hair from Roman men and women in a new museum at Wroxeter Roman City, Shropshire – a Roman town once as large as Pompeii. Amongst over 400 artefacts, most of which have never been on display, other objects related to Roman cleanliness and beauty practices include a strigil (skin scraper), perfume bottles, jet and bone jewellery, make-up applicators and amulets for warding off evil. The new museum at Wroxeter opens to the public tomorrow.

The Smithsonian has chosen the architectural firm Perkins&Will to design the Bezos Learning Center, which will be located on the east side of the National Air and Space Museum at its flagship location on the National Mall.

A sketchbook by Max Liebermann is restituted by the Berlin Academy of Arts and returned to the heirs of Max and Martha Liebermann. According to a press release by the academy, it mainly contains drawings from garden bars at Wannsee.