Category: art
Creativity, design, culture, inspiration
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France Returns Looted ‘Talking Drum’ to the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire
In a ceremony held on Friday at the Musée Quai Branly in Paris, France officially returned a drum known as the “talking drum” or Djidji Ayôkwé, to the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire. The news was reported by French newspaper Le Monde. The ten-foot-long, 940-pound drum has a single-piece soundbox slit in half longitudinally. Extending out read more
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Reading a Biography of a Mountain
Books Newsletter Mount Rushmore, originally known as Six Grandfathers, gets its own biography, plus Sarah Bond on museums’ approach to polychromy and whiteness. At its best, an artist biography lingers long after we’ve read it, continually reshaping our orientation toward a maker and their life. But what might a biography of a mountain look like? read more
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Chipping Away at the Facade of Mount Rushmore
Gutzon Borglum and a superintendent inspecting work on the face of Washington on Mount Rushmore on May 31, 1932 (image public domain via the Library of Congress) On July 4, 2020, weeks after Minneapolis police murdered George Floyd and many Americans began reconsidering the memorials and monuments that mythologize our national narratives, President Donald Trump read more
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Artists Rally for Jamaica and L.A. With a Hollywood Auction During Art Week
The art world loves a party. This time it’s putting that energy to work. On February 26, during L.A. Art Week, CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort) and TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary will launch“Get Up Stand Up: Artists for Jamaica and Los Angeles,” a benefit auction aimed at long-term recovery efforts after Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica read more
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Met Gala Reveals 2026 Dress Code: ‘Fashion is Art’
Last November, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’sCostume Institute revealed that theme for this May’s Met Gala, is “Costume Art,” a capacious conceit that positions the museum’s five-millennia spanning collection in dialogue with the dressed body (never mind its nonrepresentational holdings). The Met Gala dress code has now been announced, and it pairs neatly: airy to read more
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How to Tell the Story of Extraction in Appalachia
Features Fia Backström explores this nexus of environmental degradation, disaster capitalism, and intergenerational poverty through embodied, compassionate, and durational research. Fia Backström, still from “Toxicology Report” (2025), HD Video, color, sound (image courtesy the artist) The Swedish artist and writer Fia Backström began traveling to the Appalachian region of Buffalo Creek, West Virginia, in 2017. read more
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Newly Unearthed Documents Propose That the Eastern Island Head Was Not Stolen
A British archaeologist has proposed a revised account of the excavation of Hoa Hakananaiʻa, the moai better known as the Easter Island Head, arguing that its removal was not a unilateral act of imperial extraction but a collaborative effort between British explorers and Indigenous Rapa Nui islanders that ultimately led to its voyage to England. read more
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Ancient Egyptian Tombs, Some Full of Pottery and Jewelry, Discovered at Qubbet Al-Hawa
A research team from Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) has announced new discoveries at Qubbet Al-Hawa, a well-known archaeological site in southeast Egypt, near the city of Aswan. The Upper Egyptian site is known for its sprawling necropolis. This latest mission, as reported in Ahram, focused on rock-cut burial shafts and chambers, most notably read more
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Newsmakers: Enzo, a Small Art Fair, Could Have a Big Impact on the LA Market
Editor’s Note:This story is part ofNewsmakers, an ARTnews series featuring conversations with the figures shaping how the art world is changing right now. This year sees the introduction of two new major fairs: Art Basel Qatar earlier this month and Frieze Abu Dhabi in November. Those enterprises will almost certainly have an important impact on read more
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Artists' Calendar Celebrates LA’s Everyday Landmarks
Features For 40 years, Nib Geebles and Abira Ali have chronicled the unspoken, day-to-day minutiae of their hometown in their beloved calendar. Nib Geebles, “Happy Lion Arts & Gifts, Chinatown,” pen and paint on paper(all images courtesy Gordon Henderson and Abira Ali unless noted) LOS ANGELES —Shuttered storefronts, parked cars, hand-painted advertising, power lines, graffiti, read more
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Sotheby’s to Auction Jean and Terry de Gunzburg Collection, Led by Claude Lalanne Mirrors and $15 M. Rothko
Sotheby’s is about to turn a pair of very polished lives into a two-part auction season. In April and May, the house will present roughly 135 works from the collection of Jean and Terry de Gunzburg, carrying a combined estimate of $67 million to $99 million. The first chapter arrives on April 22 with a read more
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What Will Censorship Look Like in the Age of AI?
Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt fromOn Censorship by Ai Weiwei. It releases in March from Thames & Hudson. In 2025, the rapid development of artificial intelligence pushed a group of young Chinese entrepreneurs to the forefront with DeepSeek, which propelled its search technology into new territories. This triggered panic within the highly competitive AI read more
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Activists Hang Prince Andrew's Arrest Photo at the Louvre
News The unflattering photo of the disgraced former royalty was taken after his arrest last week for his ties with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. A guerrilla installation of ex-Prince Andrew post-arrest at the Musée du Louvre on Sunday, February 22 (screenshot Rhea Nayyar/Hyperallergic via Instagram) Activists affiliated with the Everyone Hates Elon campaign installed a read more
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Iris Cantor, Philanthropist Who Transformed the Met and the Brooklyn Museum, Dies at 95
Iris Cantor, a collector and philanthropist who provided the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and other US art institutions with millions of dollars worth of support, died on Sunday in Palm Beach, Florida. She was 95, according to a release from her foundation, which did not state a cause. Cantor was a transformative read more
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Refik Anadol’s ‘Lava Lamp’ Reignites the AI Art Debate on ’60 Minutes’
According to one 2017 study, museum visitors on average spend about 27 seconds looking at a work of art, which is barely enough time to squint, nod thoughtfully, and move on. But if you ask AI artist Refik Anadol about how long people spent withUnsupervised, the controversial artwork he showed at the Museum of Modern read more
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Join Colossal and Enter to Win an Art-Filled Weekend for Two in Philly
Hey readers! We’re kicking off our Spring Membership Drive by giving away an art-filled weekend in one of our favorite creative cities. One lucky winner will receive travel vouchers, lodging, private tours, and tickets for Philadelphia’s most exciting spots. Become a Colossal Member at any tier between now and March 3, and you’ll automatically be read more
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New Museum to Open in Portugal Around Collection of José Teixeira
A new museum is slated to open in Portugal in April around the contemporary art collection of José Teixeira, the chairman of dstgroup, a civil construction and public-works engineering company. The institution in Braga, about an hour by car or train from Porto in the northwest of Portugal, will showcase a collection of 1,500 artworks read more
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An Appeals Court Clears a Spanish Art Dealer in the Case of a Convent’s Sculpture Offered at TEFAF
After a convoluted process dating back to 2018, the High Court of Justice of Andalusia has overturned a four-year prison sentence for a Spanish antiques dealer in a case involving an artwork from a 16th-century convent in an ancient Italian city just north of Rome, El País reports.reports El País. At the center of the read more
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A Rare White Whale Sighting Tops the 2026 World Nature Photography Awards
Among humpback whales, which can grow upwards of 60 feet long and weigh up to 40 tons, instances of albinism are exceedingly rare. But when these otherworldly all-white mammals appear—such as the beloved Migaloo that was first spotted in 1991 off Australia’s east coast—they inspire wonder. Marine photographer Jono Allen captured a unique shot of read more
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NADA New York Names Over 110 Galleries for 2026 Edition
The New Art Dealers Alliance has named the more than 110 exhibitors who will take part in the organization’s upcoming New York fair. Running May 13 to 17, the fair will return to the Starrett-Lehigh Building in West Chelsea for the second time. NADA New York’s 12th edition will feature 45 NADA members, including Chozick read more
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