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A virtual reality (VR) work premiering at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas will let viewers experience the story of Carolyn Mercer, a transgender woman in the UK who survived electroshock conversion therapy meant to “cure” her gender dysphoria as a teenager. In the Current of Being (9 March-11 March), by the Texas-born, Los Angeles-based director and digital storyteller Cameron Kostopoulos , is the second VR project they have created with the aim of helping audiences understand the transgender experience. “Right now, with how under attack the trans and queer communities are, it’s really important to reach across the aisle…
On 3 March, the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) announced the initiation of a voluntary repatriation to Nepal. The 12th-century artefact in question, a “significant sculpture” dubbed Buddha Sheltered by the Serpent King Muchalinda, will be returned to its home country after provenance research at the museum unearthed new details of its origin. The AIC proactively contacted the Embassy of Nepal in Washington, DC, after discovering that the work had been stolen from Guita Bahi in the Kathmandu Valley. (The AIC’s provenance-research team is one of the largest in the US.) “This return reflects the importance of provenance research, as well as the Art…
President Emmanuel Macron of France was not happy about a recent exhibition at an art centre on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe that showed him beheaded with his neck dripping in blood. The gory piece was included in the exhibition Exposé.e.s au chlordécone (exposed to chlordecone), which opened in January at the Centre des Arts in Pointe-à-Pitre. According to local press, the Kolèktif Rézistans collective, a trio of artists, organised the headline-hitting exhibition, which the French government considers “an incitement to violence”. The French newspaper Midi Libre says that an artist called Blow made the work , which raises concerns about chlordecone, a…
A new report published by the Cultural Policy Unit—an independent UK think tank—says that introducing admission charges for international visitors at UK national museums would be “logistically complex as well as ideologically at odds with the global collections that the UK has accumulated”. Last July Mark Jones, the former interim director of the British Museum, said that an admission fee of £20 should be introduced for overseas visitors. “It would make sense for us to charge overseas visitors for admission to museums as they charge us when we visit their museums. The biggest visitor attractions in Britain are our great…
Tiny green shoots of recovery have been discernible in a stubbornly bearish art market during London’s marquee auctions this week, but Phillips slim 29-lot evening sale yesterday (6 March) punched below its weight, bringing in £12.2m (£15.4 m with fees) against an estimate of £16.4m to £24.2m. All estimates are calculated without fees. Two works, by Le Corbusier and Lucio Fontana, were withdrawn just before the sale and three failed to find homes. According to the London-based art market analytics firm ArtTactic, just three lots sold above mid-estimate and 25 went below mid-estimate, giving a particularly low confidence indicator of…
This month, the New York spring version of Affordable Art Fair will alight as soon as once more on the Metropolitan Pavilion, showcasing hundreds of up to date artworks—all priced between $100 and $12,000. The truthful guarantees one thing for everybody, and the prospect to discover the bleeding edge of up to date artwork. The forthcoming version, from March 19–23, additionally marks the continuation of the Inexpensive Artwork Truthful Fellowship Program, which goals to offer an equitable platform for brand spanking new and rising galleries to take part within the truthful with out the burden of overhead charges. Forward of the truthful’s…
Planning a dinner party to welcome the spring? If you hope to signal to your friends and any new acquaintances that you are up to date with the latest trends, then it’s time to put together a Dalí-inspired “surreal soirée.” According to the social media site Pinterest, this is the most coveted tablescaping look for 2025. The platform noted that searches for “Salvador Dalí aesthetic” have been through the roof of recent: a staggering 40 percent increase in interest, leading trend forecasters to conclude that more people “will infuse their tablescapes” with such items as “curvy candlesticks, fantastical flowers, and gravity-defying centerpieces.” Is…
Established in 1975 by Ranier Ludorff, Düsseldorf’s Galerie Ludorff has maintained a specialization in German Impressionism, Expressionism, and classic Modernism, and has maintained an ethos focused on the critical junctures of art history. Beyond its robust exhibition program, Galerie Ludorff has developed an international reputation through its rigorous fair participation—from Art Cologne to TEFAF Maastricht to the Armory Show in New York and beyond. Committed to the cultural landscape even beyond its own gallery space or booth walls, Galerie Ludorff has also consistently loaned works to important institutional exhibitions across the decades, such as “Making Van Gogh” (2019) at the Städel Museum,…
Swedish researchers are hoping to excavate a potentially very informative shipwreck from near Stockholm, one that speaks to an era in the 15th century, when ships were carrying increasingly heavy armaments on board and shipbuilders were in a race to build ever-sturdier vessels. Located in Landfjärden near Häringe, south of Stockholm, the ship measures 115 feet long and 33 feet wide, and may date as far back as the 1460s. Researchers with Vrak – Museum of Wrecks, in Stockholm, are working hard to see what the ship may reveal. “The ship’s frame still rises high above the seabed, and in the…
A version of this article originally appeared in The Back Room, our lively recap funneling only the week’s must-know art industry intel into a nimble read you’ll actually enjoy. Artnet News Pro members get exclusive access—subscribe now to receive the newsletter in your inbox every Friday. Though the sun was out all week in London during the first marquee auctions of the year, a chill in the market persists. Here are the top takeaways. (Keep your jacket on.) Size Matters Christie’s more than doubled its rival Sotheby’s total across its evening sales. Sotheby’s had a much smaller offering, and some have speculated that it struggled to win material, despite…