The Week in Art

This week, as the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown hit museums, we’re seeing unprecedented layoffs on both sides of the Atlantic. We ask: are museums doing all they can to save their staff? We look at the latest developments in the UK and US, where hundreds of museum workers are losing their jobs. Our museums editor, Hannah McGivern sets the scene in the US and Europe, our seni...

What is the future of the art world in Hong Kong now that a new national security law curbs human rights and threatens freedom of expression? We look at the effects on artists and the wider art scene with two people based there: the artist Kacey Wong and the commentator Alexandra Seno. And in our Work of the Week Alyce Mahon, the author of the new book The Marquis de Sade and the Avant-Garde, expl...

This week, we look at the destruction on 24 May of sacred Aboriginal sites in Western Australia by a mining company. We talk to Sven Ouzman, an archeologist and activist at the University of Western Australia about the most recent events and the wider context. Can anything be done to better protect Aboriginal country and Australia’s ancient heritage?  Also, this week, as a Russian referendum...

Plus, artist Rita Keegan on her postponed show and Julia Peyton-Jones on Leonardo Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we address the toppling of statues around the world amid the Black Lives Matter protests: is this an airbrushing of history as some claim or a long overdue corrective to historic prejudices? We explore what happens now: we talk to Richard Benjamin, the director of the International Slavery Museum (ISM) in Liverpool, UK, about the events which saw the pulling down of the statue of the sla...

On this week's podcast, as galleries in London re-open amid a pandemic, we ask: what does the new normal look like for the art world? Ben Luke takes his first steps in an art gallery for three months and talks to Stefan Ratibor and Millicent Wilner at the Gagosian Gallery in London as they plan to re-open on the 15 June. We look at the ways that galleries across the British capital have joined tog...

This week, in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, we talk about the history of black resistance in the US and how the art world can respond to this latest tragedy. As protests grow throughout the country, Margaret Carrigan, one of The Art Newspaper’s senior editors in New York, speaks to Spencer Crew, the interim director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, ab...

As cultural institutions across the world are faced with deciding if and when to re-open, we look at two extremes: we hear from Brandon Zech, the publisher of the Texas-based art publication Glasstire, about a visit to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, one of the first museums in the US to re-open. And we discuss the Southbank Centre in London’s announcement that it’s at risk of closure until Apri...

This episode begins by celebrating good news: that the once-in-a-lifetime exhibition of works by Raphael at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome—which only opened for three days before being closed due to Covid-19 in March—will re-open on 2 June and run for three months until 30 August. The show, which begins with Raphael’s death and moves back in time, is the jewel in the crown of the celebrations...

This week would have been so-called "gigaweek", with the major auctions of Impressionist, Modern and contemporary art in New York. The events have, of course, been postponed. But are collectors buying art online instead? An explosion of digital initiatives and online galleries or viewing rooms followed the cancellation of fairs and the closure of auction houses and galleries over recent months due...

This week, we have an exclusive interview with Marina Abramovic: what's the future of performance in the post-pandemic art world? Also, as the lockdown steadily eases in Germany, we ask Catherine Hickley, The Art Newspaper 's correspondent in Berlin, how it feels to step foot in a museum again. And in the latest in our Lonely Works series, the painter Ian Davenport tells us why he’s made a new bod...

This week, we look at how technologies like digital scanning and artificial intelligence (AI) are being used to create facsimiles of historic paintings. We talk to Adam Lowe of the Factum Foundation, leaders in the field of digital heritage preservation, ahead of three live discussions about technology and heritage on The Art Newspaper's YouTube channel on 1,2 and 3 May. Also this week, we talk to...

This week, we look at museums in different parts of the globe: what’s their future in a world changed by the coronavirus? The doors of museums have slammed shut over recent weeks as Covid-19 has locked down countries across the world. So this week, we’re asking key figures in museums in the UK, the US and China: what happens next? We speak to Frances Morris, the director of Tate Modern, to Dan Wei...

A veritable Juddaganza: we focus on an artist who, before the coronavirus (Covid-19) forced museums and galleries to close, was set to be the subject of three exhibitions in New York this spring, Donald Judd. We talk to Ann Temkin, curator of the big survey at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the online version of which opens at moma.org on 23 April. We meet Flavin Judd, the artist’s son, to...

We explore how safe museums are from theft now that they are closed and cities are under lockdown due to the coronavirus. We talk to Martin Bailey about the recent theft of a Van Gogh in the Netherlands, the history of stolen Van Goghs and who steals art and why. We also talk to Vernon Rapley, the director of cultural heritage protection & security at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London,...

We discuss the present and future of the art market, first with Rachel Pownall, a Professor of Finance at Maastricht University School of Business and Economics, in the Netherlands, who specialises in the art market, and then with our market editors, Anna Brady and Margaret Carrigan. And in the latest in our series of lonely works, focusing on artworks behind the doors of museums that have closed...

This week, we explore the devastating effects of the coronavirus (Covid-19) on art communities, and particularly the wealth of self-employed workers in the art world. We hear about the support packages for people working in the visual arts in Germany, we discuss the precarious position of artists in the UK and we hear about a petition highlighting the fact that galleries in New York and their team...

We speak to our journalists in the two epicentres of the Covid-19 pandemic thus far: Anna Somers Cocks in Italy and Lisa Movius in China. We hear about their experiences of lockdown, the response of museums and galleries and the effect on the art community, as the two countries enter contrasting moments in the coronavirus crisis. And we begin a new feature, turning the spotlight on works of art no...

As the National Gallery opens its show dedicated to Titian's great mythological paintings made for Philip II of Spain, we talk to the gallery's director, Gabriele Finaldi, about making a once impossible curatorial dream a reality, and we take an in-depth tour of the seven paintings in the exhibition with its curator, Matthias Wivel. As museums around the world close, Finaldi also discusses the lat...

We pay tribute to the performance art trailblazer Ulay, who died on 2 March—and discuss his years of collaboration with Marina Abramović— with Catherine Wood, Tate Modern’s senior curator of performance art. And we talk to Marc Spiegler, Art Basel’s global director, about the decision to cancel the Hong Kong fair due to the coronavirus outbreak, and the implications of the cancellation. Plus, this...

Plus, Independent Art Fair's director on the New York's changing gallery landscape Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is the dispute between Greece and the British Museum about the Parthenon Marbles about to escalate? A leaked draft of the EU mandate for talks with the UK about the post-Brexit relationship suggests it might. We look at the history of the marbles and what this new development means. Plus, we talk to Shirin Neshat as she unveils her new work at Goodman Gallery in London, and update you on the top a...

As Frieze Los Angeles opens, we look at the LA art scene, its artist-run galleries and grassroots spaces and ask: does the city need the art-market juggernaut? We also pay tribute to the late LA-based artist John Baldessari. We look at Frieze Projects and its unique Hollywood film-set location. And we explore the latest show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Sahel: Art and Empires on...

We visit the Whitechapel Gallery in London to explore their show Radical Figures: Painting in the New Millennium, with the curator Lydia Yee, and talk to one of the ten artists, Tschabalala Self. And we look at the Foundling Museum’s exhibition Portraying Pregnancy: From Holbein to Social Media with the curator Karen Hearn. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We look at the story behind the front-page article in our February issue: the discovery that a multi-million dollar Gauguin sculpture purchased by the Getty Museum in Los Angeles is actually not by the artist at all. Plus, we talk to the Canadian First Nations artist Kent Monkman about his monumental paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; and we look at an exhibition about art an...