Podcast appearances and mentions of ben luke

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Best podcasts about ben luke

Latest podcast episodes about ben luke

The Week in Art
Frida Kahlo at Tate Modern, the Brexit effect, a Renaissance tarot deck

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 25, 2026 62:01


This last episode of the current season begins with Frida Kahlo. Tate Modern in London this week opened Frida: The Making of an Icon, an exhibition that began at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston earlier this year and which explores the Mexican artist's paintings but also her influence on other artists and wider cultural forms. Ben Luke speaks to Tobias Ostrander, the co-curator of the exhibition. This week also marked 10 years since Brexit, the UK vote to leave the European Union. Ben speaks to Alexander Herman, the director of the Institute of Art and Law in London, about the impact of the UK's withdrawal from the EU on art and cultural heritage laws. And this episode's Work of the Week is the Visconti-Sforza Tarot, a deck of cards made by Bonifacio Bembo in 1456-58. Forty-five cards from the deck, which are held in the collections of the Morgan Library and Museum in New York and the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, are reunited in the Morgan Library and Museum's new exhibition, called Tarot! Renaissance Symbols, Modern Visions. Ben talks to one of the show's curators, Joshua O'Driscoll, about it.Frida: The Making of an Icon, Tate Modern, London, until 3 January 2027Tarot! Renaissance Symbols, Modern Visions, Morgan Library and Museum, New York, 26 June-4 October Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A brush with...
A brush with... Anne Imhof

A brush with...

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 23, 2026 62:37


Anne Imhof talks to Ben Luke about her influences—from writers to musicians, and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work. Imhof, who was born in 1978 in Giessen in Germany, is primarily known for her epic durational performances involving diverse collectives of dancers, musicians and actors. Their movement, speech and song is built from often fragmentary gestures, and informed by a wealth of sources as well as the innate expertise of the performers themselves, which Imhof harnesses to choreograph tableaux of rich affective power. A reflection on and of contemporary societal conditions, these works are also profoundly engaged with cultural and performance traditions, from the languages and forms of contemporary dance and ballet to rock concerts and art history. Imhof's practice extends far beyond performance, involving painting and drawing, sculpture and sculptural installation, and film. In each language that she adopts, she overtly engages her audience and particularly their bodies, whether that is in the mode of address of her performance works, in sculptures that evoke barriers or surveillance mechanisms, or in paintings that overwhelm the viewer in their scale and the gravity of their imagery. She discusses the disparate creation of meaning in her work, through her own framing, her collaborators' performances and the viewers' experience. She reflects on the balance between structure and improvisation in her performances and the mutual trust that is key in working with dancers, choreographers, musicians and actors. She talks about the role of drawing in underpinning the other elements of her work. Among the references she discusses are to the early influence of teachers who recognised her interest in drawing and who led her to make copies of Michelangelo. She talks about Tino Sehgal and William Forsythe's formative influence and her admiration of cultural figures as diverse as the artists Cameron Rowland and Arthur Jafa, the philosopher Juliane Rebentisch and writers including Franz Kafka and Robert Bresson, whose screenplays she particularly admires. She gives insight into her life in the studio and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?Anne Imhof: Citizen, Sprüth Magers, London, until 1 August. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
Art Basel in Basel, Pierre Huyghe interview, James Turrell

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 18, 2026 68:20


Kabir Jhala, The Art Newspaper's art market editor, joins Ben Luke to discuss this year's Art Basel, the big sales and the wider mood music. Pierre Huyghe has an exhibition at the Beyeler Foundation in Riehen, just outside Basel, and Ben speaks to him about it. And this episode's Work of the Week is As Seen Below – The Dome, a Skyspace by the US artist James Turrell, which opens this week at ARoS, the museum in the Danish city of Aarhus. Ben speaks to the museum's director, Rebecca Matthews, about the work, and to Stine Louring, an anthropologist and specialist in lighting design, who is leading a research collaboration between ARoS and Aalborg University exploring the neurophysiological and experiential effects of visiting As Seen Below.Art Basel in Basel continues until Sunday, 21 June.Pierre Huyghe, Beyeler Foundation, Riehen, Basel, until 13 September.As Seen Below – The Dome, a Skyspace by James Turrell, ARoS, 19 June. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

work acast danish basel aarhus art basel aros art newspaper james turrell aalborg university riehen pierre huyghe ben luke
A brush with...
A brush with... Caragh Thuring

A brush with...

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 16, 2026 66:23


Caragh Thuring talks to Ben Luke about her influences—from writers to musicians, and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work. Thuring, who was born in Brussels in 1972 and has lived in the UK since 1973 makes paintings that present fragments of images, patterns and abstraction in compositions that often upend the conventions of her medium, while reaffirming its unique descriptive and poetic powers. With motifs that appear and often reappear in morphing forms and combinations, alluding to specific moments in her life, to film or art history, her paintings are in flux, both in their structure and spatial arrangements and in their meaning. They are propositions that cannot easily be resolved or reduced to simple or convenient narrative yet are far from unfocused or bloodless; rather, they arrest us and pull us deep into their mysteries, rewarding us as we spend more time with them, and return to them. She reflects on her interest in forms of slippage across various art forms, the role of drawing in her work, and her admiration of different forms of making, especially when there is a twist in how they are realised. She discusses her early engagement with the paintings of Otto Dix, the delicacy in the handling of Vija Celmins, the awkwardness in the works of Pieter de Hooch and the wildness of René Daniëls. She reflects on her journeys into volcanoes, metaphorically and literally, and on listening to Bach in her studio. Plus, she gives insight into life in the studio, and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?Caragh Thuring, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, until 19 September Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

uk acast bach brussels brush pieter hooch otto dix caragh ben luke vija celmins
All About Art
What Is Art For? Ben Luke on Interviewing, Intrapreneurship & The Art Newspaper

All About Art

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 12, 2026 52:16


In this episode, I sat down one of my dream guests… fellow podcaster Ben Luke, contributing editor of The Art Newspaper and presenter of its podcasts ‘A brush with...' and ‘The Week in Art'. I speak to Ben about his background and the path that brought him to one of the art world's most prominent publications. We talk about the podcasts he hosts at TAN (The Art Newspaper), how they came about, and what it actually looks like to build something from within an existing institution rather than going independent.I ask him about any potential trade-offs of an intrapreneurial approach: the perks, the constraints, and what anyone thinking of pitching a project to their employer might want to consider. We also speak in depth about his book, What is Art For?. I ask him how it came together, why he chose to weave contemporary artist interviews with historical reflections, and how he approaches the art of the interviewing as a method in itself.Thank you Ben for coming on the podcast!- - - - - If you love what we do, support ALL ABOUT ART on PATREON!  ⁠https://www.patreon.com/allaboutart⁠Keep up to date on Instagram @allaboutartpodcast  ⁠https://www.instagram.com/allaboutartpodcast/⁠ ABOUT THE HOST:I am an Austrian-American art historian, curator, and writer. I obtained my BA in History of Art at University College London and my MA in Arts Administration and Cultural Policy at Goldsmiths, University of London. My specializations are in contemporary art and the contemporary art market along with accessibility, engagement, and the demystification of the professional art sector.SOCIALS: Instagram⁠ @alexandrasteinacker https://www.instagram.com/alexandrasteinackerand LinkedIn at ⁠Alexandra Steinacker-Clark⁠ https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-steinacker/This episode is produced at Synergy https://synergy.tech/the-clubhouse/the-podcast-studio/ COVER ART: Lisa Schrofner a.k.a Liser⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.liser-art.com/ and Luca Laurence https://www.graffitikunst.at/Research and Creative Assistant: Iris Epstein 

The Week in Art
Pan-Africanism in London, the health benefits of art, Barbara Hepworth

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 11, 2026 57:37


The exhibition Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica began its life at the Art Institute of Chicago before travelling to Museu d'art contemporani de Barcelona (Macba) in Barcelona and now to the Barbican in London, in each case changing in relation to the particular circumstances of its location. One of the show's curators is Elvira Dyangani Ose, the director of the Barcelona museum, and Ben Luke speaks to her about the show. Among the books shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction in the UK, which was awarded this week, is Daisy Fancourt's Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Transform Our Health. Ben discusses her research and how it can be implemented. And this episode's Work of the Week is Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red (1943), by Barbara Hepworth. It features in Hepworth in Colour, a new exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery in London, and The Art Newspaper's digital editor, Alexander Morrison, speaks to the show's curator, Alexandra Gerstein, about the work.Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica, Barbican Art Gallery, until 6 September. To find out more about the wider events across the Barbican visit the centre's website.Daisy Fancourt: Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Transform Our Health, US: Celadon Books, $28.99; UK: Cornerstone Press, £22.Hepworth in Colour, Courtauld Gallery, London, 12 June-6 September Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A brush with...
A brush with... Lisa Yuskavage

A brush with...

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 9, 2026 66:35


In this first episode of the new series, Lisa Yuskavage talks to Ben Luke about her influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work. Yuskavage, was born in Philadelphia in 1962 and lives today in New York, makes paintings that involve a cast of stylised and often eroticised, mostly female characters set within invented interiors and landscapes. Deeply engaged with the history of art and representation, Lisa's pictures explore centuries-old traditions and genres and play with them, along a sliding scale from homage to subversion, sometimes within the space of one canvas. Her figures can derive from everyday observation, draw from soft-porn magazines or a wealth of other pop-cultural sources, or quote from historic paintings. But set within enigmatic spaces, accompanied by a range of props and objects, and allied to Lisa's intoxicating colour sense, they are encapsulated in a singular realm of imagination and unleashed into the peculiar communion between this artist and us—one which can be delightful and disquieting, often at once.She reflects on the “emotional formalism” at the heart of her work, her early visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and trip to Italy and their transformative effect on her work. She discusses the seismic effect of seeing a Giovanni Bellini painting in Venice, the ongoing influence of Marcel Duchamp's Étant Donnés and her admiration for, among others, Agnes Martin, Philip Guston and Laura Owens. She talks about the poet Wallace Stevens's impact on her work and her interest in the films of Stanley Kubrick. Plus, she gives insight into her life in the studio and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?Lisa Yuskavage, David Zwirner, New York, until 26 June. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
Yemen heritage, US flags at the National Gallery in Washington, Felix Gonzalez-Torres

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 4, 2026 45:03


After years of civil war and continuity violence, Yemen's heritage has suffered hugely, with buildings damaged across the country and antiquities looted. Yet across the country, there is a determination to protect and restore its historical landmarks and cultures. Ben Luke speaks to Melissa Gronlund, one of The Art Newspaper's reporters on the Middle East, about these efforts. At the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the exhibition American Icon: The US Flag in Art opens this weekend. Ben speaks to the gallery's chief curatorial and conservation officer, E. Carmen Ramos, about the exhibition. And this episode's Work of the Week is “Untitled” (Revenge) (1991) by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, one of the late Cuban-American artist's sculptures using hundreds of wrapped candies. The work was first exhibited in Madrid in 1991 and is being shown there for the first time since that initial presentation in a survey show of Gonzalez-Torres's work at the Museo Reina Sofía, which opened last week. The exhibition's curators are Alejandro Cesarco and Nancy Spector and Ben spoke to them about the work.American Icon: The US Flag in Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 6 June-6 DecemberFelix Gonzalez-Torres: Sweet Revenge, Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, until 12 October Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
Smithsonian Women's Museum chaos, Oliver Beer and Rufus Wainwright, Jasper Johns in Bilbao

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later May 28, 2026 52:04


The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. has faced unprecedented scrutiny and government interference since President Trump came to power. Now, its long cherished plans for a Smithsonian American Women's History Museum on the National Mall in D.C. have been dealt a blow because the US House of Representatives has struck down a bill to build the museum. Ben Luke talks to Elena Goukassian, The Art Newspaper's senior editor of museums and heritage in New York, about the partisan rift that led to failure of the bill, as well as other developments relating to the Smithsonian. As part of London Gallery Weekend, which begins on 5 June, the British artist Oliver Beer will show new paintings and related sound and video works in an exhibition, The Sky in the Cave, at Thaddaeus Ropac. The show relates to Beer's opus Resonance Project: The Cave, in which he brought eight singers into a prehistoric painted cave in the Dordogne in France to respond to its particular acoustic frequencies. Among them was the singer songwriter Rufus Wainwright, and Ben speaks to Oliver and Rufus about their collaboration. And this episode's Work of the Week is Painting with Two Balls by Jasper Johns. It is part of a new retrospective of the American artist's work at the Guggenheim Bilbao, Night Driver. Ben talks to the exhibition's curator, Enrique Juncosa.Oliver Beer: The Sky in the Cave, Thaddaeus Ropac, London, 5 June—31 July. Oliver and Rufus will be in conversation at the gallery on Friday 5 June, 12.00;Visit rufuswainwright.comJasper Johns: Night Driver, Guggenheim Bilbao, 29 May-12 October. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
New York auctions, James McNeill Whistler at Tate Britain, Edvard Munch

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later May 21, 2026 74:31


This season's much anticipated auctions in New York have brought some records and eye-popping prices, including for works by Jackson Pollock, Constantin Brancusi and Mark Rothko, and some more middling results. Ben Luke talks to Judd Tully, who has been reporting on some of the sales for The Art Newspaper. The largest show of the art of James McNeill Whistler in Europe for more than 30 years has just opened at Tate Britain in London, and travels later in the year to the Netherlands, where it forms two shows, at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and The Mesdag Collection in The Hague. Ben takes a tour of the Tate show with its lead curator Carol Jacobi. And this episode's Work of the Week is the frieze made by Edvard Munch in 1922 for the women's canteen of the Freia Chocolate Factory in Oslo. The frieze remains in the collection of the Freia chocolate company today, but is on temporary loan to MUNCH, the museum in the Norwegian capital for the exhibition Edvard Munch and the Chocolate Factory. Our digital editor, Alexander Morrison, went to Oslo to speak to the curator of the exhibition, Ana María Bresciani, about the frieze.James McNeill Whistler, Tate Britain, London, until 27 September 2026; before splitting into two parallel presentations in the Netherlands, Whistler: Dandy and Disruptor, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; Whistler: Loving The Netherlands, The Mesdag Collection, The Hague, both 16 October-10 January 2027.Edvard Munch and the Chocolate Factory, MUNCH, Oslo, until 11 October. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
Frieze New York, the Cranach in Hitler's Munich apartment, Ajamu X

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later May 14, 2026 51:18


The latest edition of Frieze New York is open now and we hear all about this year's fair from The Art Newspaper's editor-in-chief in the Americas, Ben Sutton, and our art market editor, Kabir Jhala. Cupid Complaining to Venus (1526-27), a painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder in the National Gallery in London has long been known to have a complicated provenance and was once in the possession of Adolf Hitler. In The Art Newspaper's May print edition, a photograph of the work in Hitler's Munich apartment is reproduced for the first time in an English-language publication. Ben Luke talks to Martin Bailey, our special correspondent in London, who has been following this story since the 1990s, about the latest news. And this episode's Work of the Week is the Glamour Posse series from the early 1990s by the British photographer Ajamu X. The work features in Gender Stories, a UK touring exhibition that this week opens at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, and Ben speaks to the head of the gallery, Charlotte Keenan.Frieze New York continues until Sunday, 17 May, Esther continues until 16 May and Tefaf is on until 19 May.Gender Stories, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 16 May-31 August. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
Venice Biennale Special 2026

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later May 7, 2026 116:12


It's Venice Biennale opening week and so, as ever, this episode is our Venice special. The Biennale comprises many aspects: an international exhibition that this year features more than 100 artists in the Central Pavilion in the Giardini—Venice's easternmost gardens—and the Arsenale, the historic Venetian shipyards, as well as national pavilions and, across the city, countless official collateral exhibitions alongside major museum shows, performances and other interventions. We bring you our immediate impressions of this year's offering: Louisa Buck, Jane Morris and host Ben Luke review the main exhibition, In Minor Keys, curated by the late Koyo Kouoh and realised by five of her collaborators. Ben talks to two artists: Gabrielle Goliath whose work for the South African pavilion was cancelled and is being staged in a church in the heart of Venice, and Lubaina Himid, who is showing in the British pavilion in the Giardini. He also meets the writer and thinker Saidiya Hartman, two of whose essays have inspired a production called Minor Music at the End of the World, staged at Venice's Goldoni Theatre and featuring contributions from, among others, the artists Arthur Jafa, Precious Okoyomon and Okwui Okpokwaseli. And The Art Newspaper's digital editor, Alexander Morrison, talks to Daniella Kaliada, one of the team behind Official. Unofficial. Belarus., a collateral art project by Belarus Free Theatre. Finally, we always end our Venice specials with a historic masterpiece, and in this episode's Work of the Week, we look at two: Jacopo Tintoretto's The Last Supper and The Israelites in the Desert of 1591-92, the pair of paintings made for the presbytery of the Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore. The paintings have just returned to the basilica after a major conservation project, funded by the charity Save Venice, and Ben spoke to Save Venice's Senior Researcher, Gabriele Matino, about them.In Minor Keys, 9 May-22 NovemberGabrielle Goliath: Elegy, Chiesa di Sant'Antonin, 5 May-31 JulyPredicting History: Testing Translation, British Pavilion, 9 May-22 NovemberOfficial. Unofficial. Belarus., Chiesa di San Giovanni Evangelista di Venezia, 9 May-22 NovemberVisit savevenice.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
Zurbarán in London, the Carnegie International, Walter Sickert's Ennui

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2026 65:11


The largest career survey of the great 17th-century Spanish master Francisco de Zurbarán since the 1980s opens this weekend at the National Gallery in London. It presents a more rounded perspective on an artist best known for his austere paintings of saints and other religious subjects. Ben Luke takes a tour of the show with its co-curator, Francesca Whitlum-Cooper. The latest edition of the Carnegie International, held at the Carnegie Museum of Art and several other venues in Pittsburgh, also opens this weekend. This 59th iteration of the exhibition, which happens every four years, is called If the word we, and Ben speaks to the director of the museum, Eric Crosby. And this episode's Work of the Week is one of the five painted versions of Ennui, made around 1914 by Walter Sickert. The painting features in the exhibition Walter Sickert: Working Notes at Charleston in Lewes in Sussex, UK, part of the organisation based in the former home of the Bloomsbury linchpins Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. Ben talks to Robert Travers, the founder of the gallery Piano Nobile, who curated the exhibition in partnership with Charleston.Zurbarán, National Gallery, London, 2 May-23 August; Musée du Louvre, Paris, 7 October-25 January 2027; Art Institute of Chicago, 28 February-20 June 2027If the word we, 59th Carnegie International, 2 May-3 January 2027Walter Sickert: Working Notes, Charleston in Lewes, 2 May–11 October 2026. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A brush with...
A brush with... Andrew Cranston

A brush with...

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 28, 2026 73:18


Andrew Cranston talks to Ben Luke about his influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work. Cranston, who was born in 1969 in Hawick, Scotland, draws on experiences—moments seen, felt or remembered—which are filtered, embellished, complicated, and sometimes almost obliterated through the process of being painted. As well as reflecting on personal events, from childhood memories and the recollections of family members, to more recent rituals and exploits, Cranston's pictures are rich in cultural resonance. Images and ideas from the history of art and cinema, from poems and television series, are central to his work, whether as a core motif or a subtle reference in the title. As a result, his practice is deeply concerned with time and history—not just in recalling past events and experiences and transforming them in the present, but in his materials and methods. He often uses the covers of old hardback books, bleached by light over the years, as a surface, for instance, and the paintings hold time in their very physicality—in the immediacy of a painted gesture, in the steady build-up of layers and marks, and in the hints of their journeys to completion. Cranston's paintings reflect his medium's capacity for thrillingly diverse effects, modes and moods; they are full of poetry and longing, as well as absurdity and joy. He reflects on the fragility of his images, how with reiteration they gain meaning and weight. He talks about the silence in his works and what he calls his “fight with visibility”. He discusses a wealth of painterly influences, from Pieter Bruegel the Elder to Paul Klee, Pierre Bonnard and Winifred Nicholson, writers including Hugh MacDiarmid and Elizabeth Bishop, and cinematic and televisual references including the films of Nicholas Roeg and the teleplays of Dennis Potter. Plus, he gives insights into his life in the studio and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?Andrew Cranston: I'm going in a field, Modern Art, Bennet Street, London, until 30 May Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

scotland acast images elder brush modern art cranston elizabeth bishop paul klee pieter bruegel pierre bonnard nicholas roeg dennis potter ben luke hugh macdiarmid
The Week in Art
Chernobyl 40 years on, Paula Rego at Munch in Oslo, Gluck's flower painting

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 23, 2026 56:34


This Sunday, 26 April, marks the 40th anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Soviet Ukraine. It is the most serious disaster ever to occur in the nuclear power industry, with widespread effects then and now. An exhibition at the Nikolaikirche in Potsdam, Germany, called The Chernobyl disaster: 40 years ago and yet still relevant, continues until Monday 27 April, and Ben Luke speaks to one of its organisers, Olha Kovalevska. A new exhibition at Munch, the museum in Oslo, explores the work of Paula Rego, with new research on her interest in the artist after whom the museum is named, Edvard Munch. Ben speaks to the curator of the exhibition, which is called Paula Rego: Dance Among Thorns, Kari J. Brandtzæg. And this episode's Work of the Week is Convolvulus (1940) by Gluck, the mononymous British painter. The picture is part of the exhibition called Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today, which opens this weekend at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge, UK. Ben speaks to its co-curator, Naomi Polonsky, about the work.The Chernobyl disaster: 40 years ago and yet still relevant, Nikolaikirche, Potsdam, Germany, until 27 April.Paula Rego – Dance Among Thorns, Munch, Oslo, 24 April-2 August; Paula Rego: Story Line, Victoria Miro, London, until 23 May.Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, 25 April-6 September Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A brush with...
A brush with… Sanya Kantarovsky

A brush with...

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 21, 2026 72:08


Sanya Kantarovsky talks to Ben Luke about his influences—from writers to musicians, and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work. Kantarovsky was born in Moscow in 1982 and emigrated to to Providence, Rhode Island, when he was ten years old. He lives and works in New York City today. His paintings present scenarios that are at once arresting and alluring. Notionally figurative, they reflect an elastic notion of how the body might be represented through paint, as figures appear in unlikely juxtaposition with other bodies and beings—even morphing into plant or animal forms—and occupy landscapes and spaces that are always infused with atmosphere and often potent with threat. Sanya regularly uses the term ostranenija, a word in his native Russia that means “making strange”, as a guiding principle. Encountering his art, one is aware of one's own role in continuing that process: how, after slow-looking, they only grow in complexity. And that richness absorbs many moods and registers, from brutality and solemnity to absurdity and out-and-out humour. He discusses the profound effect of his early access to the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, and particularly Picasso's painting Girl on Ball (1905). He reflects on the influence of a huge breadth of historic painters, including Francisco de Goya, Giorgio de Chirico and Philip Guston, discusses his respect for a number of contemporary artists including Trisha Donnelly and Charline von Heyl, and talks about the significance of a number of figures from other disciplines on his work, from the poet Anna Akhmatova and the choreographer Tatsumi Hijikata to the filmmaker Andrei Tarkovksy. Plus, he gives insight into his life in the studio and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?Sanya Kantarovsky: Basic Failure, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Palazzo Loredan, Venice, 6 May–22 November Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
Museum openings: V&A East and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Plus, William Blake in Dublin

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 16, 2026 60:45


Two museum openings feature on this week's podcast—V&A East in London and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.In our 300th episode in 2024, Gus Casely Hayford, the director of the V&A East, told us about the community-driven programming at the museum and its connection with its local environment in East London. Now, as the museum opens, he takes Ben Luke on a tour of its commissions, displays and its first exhibition, The Music is Black: A British Story. In California, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma) has just opened its new building by the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, which cost more than $700m, and has generated some controversy. Ben speaks to our correspondent in Los Angeles, Jori Finkel, about the new building and the debate about its scale, its cost, its suitability for LA and whether Angelinos and tourists will take to Zumthor's building. And this episode's Work of the Week is Satan Smiting Job with Sore Boils (around 1826) by the great 18th-century artist and poet, William Blake. The work is part of a new exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland, called William Blake: The Age of Romantic Fantasy, which opened this week. Ben speaks to the exhibition's co-curator, Anne Hodge, about the work.V&A East opens on Saturday, 18 April.Lacma member previews begin on 19 April, before the full opening to non-members in early May.William Blake: The Age of Romantic Fantasy, National Gallery of Ireland, until 19 July. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A brush with...
A brush with... Hurvin Anderson

A brush with...

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 14, 2026 47:45


Hurvin Anderson talks to Ben Luke about his influences—from writers to musicians, and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work. Anderson was born in Birmingham, UK, in 1965, the youngest of eight siblings, the rest of whom were born in Jamaica. His paintings are a poetic response to place, teeming with personal and cultural resonance. He transforms photographs from his own archive as well as found images into atmospheric worlds of paint, in which details of motifs, including figures, objects, interiors and landscapes pull in and out of focus, suggesting the texture of memory. Much of his work evokes scenes and spaces in Britain, where he was born, but also imagery of Jamaica, from where his parents emigrated to the UK, and the Caribbean more widely. He has stated that his paintings often relate to a feeling of—quote—“being in one place while thinking of another”. They are a profoundly subjective response to diasporic lived experience and a sustained and lyrical engagement with paint as simultaneously a tool of representation and of veiling or disturbance. He discusses for the first time his latest paintings for the survey of his work at Tate Britain, he reflects on how he uses photography in his work and his shift to working with what he calls a “second unit” in recent works. He recalls the early influence of Michael Andrews and Richard Diebenkorn, his enduring fascination with the art of Édouard Manet and Diego Velázquez, and how he responded to the Jamaican artist Carl Abrahams in his painting Passenger Opportunity (2024-25). Plus, he gives insight into his life in the studio and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?Hurvin Anderson, Tate Britain, until 23 August 2026. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
Marcel Duchamp at MoMA, Dorothea Tanning book, Leonora Carrington at the Freud Museum, London

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 9, 2026 72:38


Three artists who in different ways connect to the Surrealist movement are the subject of this week's podcast. At the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the first major US survey of the full career of Marcel Duchamp since 1973 opens this weekend, before travelling later in the year to Philadelphia. Ben Luke talks to its curators at MoMA, Ann Temkin and Michelle Kuo. A new book, Dorothea Tanning: A Surrealist World, exploring the extraordinary life and work of the Surrealist artist, is published this week by Yale University Press and Ben speaks to its author, Alyce Mahon. And this episode's Work of the Week is Down Below (1940), a painting by another of the great women artists of Surrealism, the British Mexican painter Leonora Carrington. It was made while she was hospitalised in Santander in Spain in the early stages of the Second World War, before her pivotal journey to Latin America. The picture is part of an exhibition at the Freud Museum in London, The Symptomatic Surreal, which also features drawings from Carrington's sketchbooks. We speak to Vanessa Boni, the curator of special projects at the museum, about the work and the show.Marcel Duchamp, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 12 April-22 August; Philadelphia Museum of Art, 10 October-31 January 2027Dorothea Tanning: A Surrealist World by Alyce Mahon, Yale University Press, $45 or £30 (hb)Leonora Carrington: The Symptomatic Surreal, Freud Museum, London, until 28 June 2026 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A brush with...
A brush with... Lorna Simpson

A brush with...

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 7, 2026 66:17


Lorna Simpson talks to Ben Luke about her influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work. Simpson was born in Brooklyn, New York, 1960. Her conceptual approach to photography, and image-making more widely, reflects a desire to subvert the conventional framing of different forms of identity. From her early photo-text works to her recent paintings using found images, Lorna has explored the complexity of representation, and the visual and textual languages with which it is constructed. While she is deeply engaged with societal issues and historical inequities, and with the camera's time-honoured role as a documentary instrument, she blurs boundaries between reality and fiction, between witnessing and storytelling. The result is a practice that is precise and yet elusive, spare and yet capacious.She discusses how she achieves a balance between refusal and engagement to allow space for the viewer to enter her work. She talks about the role of the archive and history and how she navigates the use of existing images through various media. She reflects on her constant need to test herself through her work. She recalls the immense importance of discovering the work of David Hammons, how an exhibition of Francisco de Zurbarán at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York influenced her approach to image-making, and her connection to artists from Isaac Julien to Terry Adkins and Wangechi Mutu. She reflects on the importance of literature and writers including Robin Coste Lewis and Audre Lorde to her practice. And she discusses the vital importance of the films of Chantal Akerman. Plus, she gives insight into her life in the studio and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?Lorna Simpson, Punta della Dogana, Venice, until 22 November Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

new york art acast simpson venice brush metropolitan museum punta audre lorde chantal akerman zurbar isaac julien lorna simpson dogana wangechi mutu david hammons robin coste lewis ben luke
The Week in Art
Should English museums charge tourists? Plus, Raphael at the Met and Senga Nengudi at the Whitechapel Gallery

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 2, 2026 68:32


The UK government last week issued a response to a report ostensibly exploring the future of the funding body Arts Council England but containing an idea that has prompted much debate: that the government should consider changing its policy of free admission for all to national museums in England, and charge tourists an entry fee. Ben Luke discusses the report and the charging issue with Gareth Harris, The Art Newspaper's chief contributing editor, and one of our London-based correspondents, Dale Berning Sawa. Last weekend in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened Raphael: Sublime Poetry, amazingly the first full career survey of the Italian Renaissance master in the United States. Seven years in the making, it explores Raphael's remarkable output across his short life, from his earliest years in his native Urbino to his work for two Popes in Rome, where he died aged just 37 in 1520. We talk to the show's curator, Carmen Bambach. And this episode's Work of the Week is Senga Nengudi's Performance Piece (1977), a series of three photographs depicting one of the iterations of the US artist's landmark sculpture and performance work RSVP. The photographs are part of a small exhibition focusing on Nengudi's performances at the Whitechapel Gallery in London, and Ben talks to the exhibition's curator Hannah Woods.Raphael: Sublime Poetry, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, until 28 June.Senga Nengudi: Performance Works 1972-1982, Whitechapel Gallery, London, until 14 June. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
Matisse's explosive finale and a new chapter for Hong Kong? Plus, Schiaparelli and Dalí

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 27, 2026 53:41


The Grand Palais in Paris this week unveiled an enormous exhibition focusing on the final 13 years of Henri Matisse's life and work, a project conceived by the Centre Pompidou. The show includes abundant examples of the celebrated gouache cut-outs, his works for the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, and his final paintings, drawings, and illustrated books, among much else. Ben Luke interviews the exhibition's curator, the Centre Pompidou's Claudine Grammont, in Paris. The latest edition of Art Basel Hong Kong opened this week amid much uncertainty about the Hong Kong art world after a prolonged downturn in the Chinese economy. Yet, some commentators are suggesting that Hong Kong has turned a corner. The Art Newspaper's chief contributing editor, Gareth Harris, has been in Hong Kong this week and tells us what he discovered. And for this episode's Work of the Week, we focus on a related painting and dress. The painting is Salvador Dalí's Necrophiliac Spring (1936), which was owned by the fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli; the dress is the Tears Dress with Veil, from Schiaparelli's Circus Collection of 1938, made with a fabric designed by Dalí. The painting and the garment are in Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which opens this weekend, and Ben talks to Rosalind McKeever, one of the three curators of the exhibition, about the pairing.Matisse 1941-1954, Grand Palais, Paris, until 26 July. You can read more on the show, and get the full details on a wealth of Matisse shows opening in various museums and galleries in 2026, on the website or app.Art Basel Hong Kong continues until Sunday, 29 March.Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 28 March-8 November Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
New Museum extension opens, NextGen collectors, a Wardian Case in Oxford

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 20, 2026 59:04


The New Museum in New York opens its new extension, designed by Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas of the architectural practice OMA, this week. Ben Luke talks to Massimiliano Gioni, the New Museum's artistic director, and the co-curator of the inaugural exhibition in the new building, called New Humans: Memories of the Future. We then speak to one of The Art Newspaper's editors-at-large, Georgina Adam, who has just published a new book NextGen Collectors and the Art Market. And this episode's Work of the Week is an example of a Wardian Case, a wooden box with a glass cover developed by the physician Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward in the early 1830s. This example is part of the exhibition In Bloom: How Plants Changed Our World, at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Ben speaks to Shailendra Bhandare, co-curator of the exhibition.The New Museum and New Humans: Memories of the Future open on 21 March.NextGen Collectors and the Art Market, by Georgina Adam, Lund Humphries, £19.99In Bloom: How Plants Changed Our World, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 19 March-16 August Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
Iran war: art communities and heritage in Iran, moderate recovery in the art market, Cannupa Hanska Luger at the Sydney Biennale

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 13, 2026 53:25


As the war in the Middle East continues to rage, Ben Luke speaks to The Art Newspaper's reporter on Iran and other countries in the region, Sarvy Geranpayeh, about the response of cultural communities in Iran and Lebanon, and the damage to heritage in both countries. The latest edition of the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report has been published and shows that the market has returned to growth. But the details show a more complicated story, which Ben explores with the writer of the report, Clare McAndrew. And this episode's Work of the Week is VOLUME (III – White Bay Power Station, Australia) a new work by the Indigenous American artist Cannupa Hanska Luger. This sculpture and sound installation featuring seven ceramic dingo skulls is part of the latest edition of the Sydney Biennale in Australia, and has gained an unintended topicality due to a recent tragedy involving the death of a backpacker in Queensland. Ben speaks to our reporter in Australia, Elizabeth Fortescue, about the work and the wider context.Rememory: the 25th Biennale of Sydney, 14 March-14 JuneSave up to 50% on The Art Newspaper's annual print and digital package with a new limited-time offer. Subscribe by 19 March to receive the April edition including our annual Visitor Figures guide and a special report on EXPO Chicago. In May, don't miss our Venice Biennale Guide and map to must-see exhibitions and pavilions.www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-MARCH50?promocode=MARCH50&utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=MARCH50 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Front Row
Review: David Hockney: A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting at Serpentine North

Front Row

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 12, 2026 42:21


Art critic Ben Luke and writer Sarah Crompton join Samira Ahmed to review David Hockney's first exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in London: A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting, which includes new works and a digitally created ninety-metre-long frieze which was inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry. They also discuss Hooked by Asako Yuzuki, the author behind the award-winning bestseller Butter. And they review The Tasters, which tells the story of the women who were the food tasters for Adolf Hitler towards the end of World War II. Plus, BBC National Short Story Award judge Tahmima Anam talks about this year's competition and offers tips for writers.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Claire Bartleet

The Week in Art
Iran war and culture in the Gulf, the Whitney Biennial, Rembrandt discovery

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2026 55:16


As the war against Iran instigated last week by Israel and the United States continues to spread through the Middle East, we explore how it affects tourism in the Arabian Gulf, of which art and culture more generally have been a cornerstone. One of The Art Newspaper's Middle East correspondents, Melissa Gronlund, joins Ben Luke to discuss the latest news. The 82nd biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York opens this weekend and our editor-in-chief in the Americas, Ben Sutton, and Elena Goukassian, our senior editor of museums and heritage, tell us what they thought of it. And this episode's Work of the Week is the Vision of Zacharias in the Temple (1633) by Rembrandt. Researchers at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam have demonstrated that the painting, which had previously been documented as a copy of a lost original, is in fact an authentic work by the Dutch master. We speak to Jonathan Bikker, curator of 17th-century Dutch paintings, who was part of the team that secured the attribution to Rembrandt. The picture is now on view to the public at the Rijksmuseum.Whitney Biennial 2026, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 8 March-23 AugustRembrandt's The Vision of Zacharias in the Temple is now on view at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.Save up to 50% on The Art Newspaper's annual print and digital package with a new limited-time offer. Subscribe by 19 March to receive the April edition including our annual Visitor Figures guide and a special report on EXPO Chicago. In May, don't miss our Venice Biennale Guide and map to must-see exhibitions and pavilions.www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-MARCH50?promocode=MARCH50&utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=MARCH50 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A brush with...
A brush with... Danh Vo

A brush with...

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 4, 2026 59:36


Danh Vo talks to Ben Luke about his influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work. Vo was born in 1975 in Bà Rja, Vietnam and raised in Denmark. He lives and works between Germany, where he has a studio in Güldenhof, 80km outside Berlin, and Mexico City. His art is often founded in personal experiences and relationships, but alludes to wider social and political conditions and structures, both present and historical. The way he reflects on his autobiography is distinctive: his art is embedded in his experience as a Vietnamese immigrant to Europe as a child and queer identity, for instance, but his collaborative practice often stems from coincidences or serendipitous occurrences in daily life. Danh uses found objects of different registers, from household items to historic religious sculptures, as well as archival images and texts, and brings them into dynamic relationships, in which the exhibition space and context is often a vital component. He also incorporates the work of other artists and designers into his installations, and his practice has been likened to that of a curator or archaeologist. Ultimately, his vision is entirely his own, but by involving the thinking and making of others, he ensures that it resonates with discussion, providing more questions than answers. He reflects on his idea to set traps for himself through his art in order to question his desires, and how that relates to the viewer's experience of his work. He discusses the balance between his studio life in Güldenhof and his use of the exhibition space as a studio to forge his installations. He reflects on the influence of Felix Gonzalez-Torres and his writing on the work of Roni Horn, he discusses the many collaborations in his work, from that with the artist and writer Julie Ault to his project working with Martin Wong's mother on the collection she built with her son. And he explains why William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973) has been the source for numerous works. Plus, he answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?Danh Vo: πνεῦμα (Ἔλισσα), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, until 2 August; Danh Vo, White Cube, New York, 11 September-10 October Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
Venice Biennale details revealed, Beatriz González, Tracey Emin

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 27, 2026 68:56


Following the tragic death of Koyo Kouoh last May, the details of her final project—In Minor Keys, the international exhibition of the 2026 Venice Biennale—were unveiled this week by the collaborative team that will carry through her vision for the show. Ben Luke speaks to The Art Newspaper's editor-at-large Jane Morris, about the show's themes and strands and the artist list. The Barbican Art Gallery in London has opened a new exhibition of the work of the Colombian artist Beatriz González, who died in January, aged 93. Ben takes a tour of the show with its curator, Lotte Johnson. And this episode's Work of the Week features in another major new London show: Tracey Emin: A Second Life, at Tate Modern. Our digital editor, Alexander Morrison, speaks to the outgoing director of Tate, Maria Balshaw, who has curated the Emin exhibition, about The Last of the Gold (2002), an embroidered blanket that has never been shown publicly until now.The Venice Biennale, 9 May-22 November.Beatriz González, Barbican Art Gallery, until 10 May. You can hear our interview with Doris Salcedo in which we discuss González's influence on A brush with… Doris Salcedo, wherever you get your podcasts.Tracey Emin: A Second Life, Tate Modern, London, 27 February-31 August. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

work gold revealed acast gonz colombian tate modern venice biennale emin tracey emin art newspaper beatriz gonz doris salcedo jane morris ben luke alexander morrison
A brush with...
A brush with... Veronica Ryan

A brush with...

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 25, 2026 66:39


Veronica Ryan talks to Ben Luke about her influences—from writers to musicians and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work.Ryan was born in 1956 in Plymouth on the Caribbean island of Montserrat and came to the UK as an infant. She now lives between London and New York. She explores personal, collective and historical memory through a range of sculptural materials and processes. Her installations and individual sculptures combine a wealth of things and techniques, often all at once, from found objects to time-honoured sculptural materials like bronze and marble; and from carving to casting and crocheting. Colour plays a vital role in her work, in the varied hues of textiles or plaster. And she creates forms as diverse as seeds and fruits, mats and nets, pillows and blankets and architectural structures. Through arresting and often multilayered arrangements, she evokes the minutiae of everyday experience (often with a profoundly personal meaning), makes reference to resonant historical events and their legacies, and addresses major human themes and rites of passage. She reflects on the meanings embedded in her materials, her relationship with psychoanalysis and unconscious processes, and her distinctive approach to displaying her work. She discusses the early influence of her mother's textiles, her visits to the British Museum and her epiphanic encounter with the work of Eva Hesse and Louise Bourgeois. She reflects on the importance of the poetry of Maya Angelou and chamber music and reggae, and she answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?Veronica Ryan: Multiple Conversations, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 1 April – 14 June 2026 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
National Gallery's deficit bombshell, Simon Schama on birds and art, Vilhelm Hammershøi

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2026 62:25


After opening a major building project in May last year and announcing the details of another in September, which is due to open in the early 2030s, the National Gallery in London has revealed, quite unexpectedly, that it has to make serious cuts, including to its staff, in the face of a deficit that could rise to £8.2m in the coming year. Martin Bailey, The Art Newspaper's special correspondent in London, tells us more. In The Hague in the Netherlands, the Mauritshuis has just opened a new exhibition called BIRDS – Curated by The Goldfinch & Simon Schama. Since The Goldfinch, the 17th-century painting by Carel Fabritius, is not able to speak, Schama tells Ben Luke about the show, including Fabritius' remarkable picture. And this episode's Work of the Week is Sunbeams or Sunlight. Dust Motes Dancing in the Sunbeams, Strandgade 30 (1900) by the Danisj painter Vilhelm Hammershøi. The picture is one of the many highlights of a new exhibition, Hammershøi: The Eye that Listens, at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. The curator of the exhibition, Clara Marcellán, joins Ben to discuss the painting.BIRDS – Curated by The Goldfinch & Simon Schama, Mauritshuis, The Hague, The Netherlands, until 7 June.Hammershøi: The Eye that Listens, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, until 31 May 2026; Kunsthaus Zürich, 3 July-25 October. Visit the Vilhelm Hammershøi Digital Archive, hammershoi.smk.dk.Buy The Art Newspaper's book The Year Ahead 2026 at theartnewspapershop.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A brush with...
A brush with... Catherine Opie

A brush with...

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 18, 2026 74:11


Catherine Opie talks to Ben Luke about her influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work. Over more than three decades, Opie, who was born in 1961 in Sandusky, Ohio, and lives today in Los Angeles, has created photographic portraits, cityscapes and landscapes that have borne witness to social and political conditions and tensions—particularly in her native United States—while also reflecting a deeply personal response to people and community. Fundamental to her work is an exploration, as a queer woman and as a documentarian photographer, of the nuanced, multifarious nature of identity, most prominently in LGBTQ+ communities, but also far beyond them. She has committed from her earliest mature images to the idea that, as she has phrased it, “Without representation, there is no visibility”—a belief that remains more vital than ever in the US and across the world in the 2020s. And that visibility is manifest not just in the portraiture for which she is best known, but also in the central place that architecture and interiors play in her work. She repeatedly calls our attention to the juxtaposition of the built environment and the construction of bodies and identities. So she documents her surroundings in the fullest sense: she depicts the people she loves, knows and meets; the spaces they occupy; and the broader physical and social environment around them. Ultimately, she hopes, through encountering her art, viewers will gain a better understanding of humanity in all its complexity. She reflects on her early discovery and desire to make pictures, aged nine, and the key figures that helped her choose to become an artist. She talks about the kinship between poetry and art and the fundamental importance, whatever her subject, of human connection. She reflects on artists as diverse as Holbein and Leonardo and Gerhard Richter and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, on the influence of writers including Joan Didion and Octavia Butler, and on her admiration for Chloe Zhao and Chris Marker. Plus, she gives insights into her life in the studio (and darkroom) and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?Catherine Opie: To Be Seen, National Portrait Gallery, London, 5 March-31 May 2026; Catherine Opie: The Pause that Dreams Against Erasure, The Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany, 19 July 2026. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
The US struggles with history, Stephen Friedman Gallery closes, Tudor Heart pendant acquired by the British Museum

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 13, 2026 52:27


On 4 July 2026 the US will mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the nation's founding document. But huge divisions in US society and culture are symbolised in a number of disputes relating to its history and the representation of its people. The latest furore came this week, when it emerged that the Trump administration had removed the rainbow Pride flag from the Stonewall Monument, the landmark for LGBTQ+ rights in New York. Ben Luke speaks to Ben Sutton, The Art Newspaper's editor-in-chief, Americas, about this and other flashpoints as the US grapples with its history, and we explore the cultural initiatives that are marking the semiquincentennial. One of London's best known and longest-established art dealers, Stephen Friedman, has announced the closure of his London gallery, following that of his New York space last year. Ben speaks to our contributing art market editor, Anny Shaw, about the fallout from the closure and the significance for the wider London art market. And this episode's Work of the Week is the Tudor Heart, an intricately decorated golden pendant with links to Henry VIII and his first wife, Katherine of Aragon. The British Museum has raised £3.5m to acquire the work, following a four-month fundraising campaign. Our digital editor, Alexander Morrison, talks to Rachel King, the curator of Renaissance Europe and the Waddesdon Bequest at the museum, about the pendant.The Tudor Heart pendant is now on view at the British Museum. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A brush with...
A brush with... Louis Fratino

A brush with...

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 11, 2026 66:08


Louis Fratino talks to Ben Luke about his influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work. Fratino was born in 1993 in Annapolis, Maryland, US, and lives in New York. His paintings reflect on memory and the intimate details of daily life to transmit a deeply felt response to his immediate circumstances and the world beyond. His vision is channelled through an abiding passion for art history, and particularly Modernist painters in Europe and the US. Louis's subjects are the people and places around him, beginning with himself and extending to family, friends, partners and lovers, who he pictures in interior spaces from kitchens to bathrooms and bedrooms, as well as in the city and in nature. Crucial to his art is an exploration of queer life, from touching scenes of companionship to images of sex and desire more broadly. Louis's painting possesses an everyday poetry yet dwells on the big questions of life. It is a singular and deeply personal practice as well as a major contribution to the expression of queer identity and sexuality in a painterly field that has until recent decades been dominated by heteronormative perspectives. If there is a philosophy in his painting, he says, it is “about living very intensely” and being “very open to experiences”. He reflects on the balance between reality and fantasy in his painting, on how memory is the principal subject of his work, and how he enjoys the “feeling of play in painting”. He discusses artists from Henri Matisse, with whom he has a show at the Baltimore Museum of Art between March and September, to Bhupen Khakhar and Winifred Nicholson, the photographer George Platt Lynes, the poet Sandro Penna and the film-maker Dag Johan Haugerud. Plus, he gives insight into life in his studio and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for? Fratino and Matisse: To See This Light Again, Baltimore Museum of Art, US, 11 March-6 September. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
Art Basel Qatar, Dürer portrait debate, Paula Modersohn-Becker and Edvard Munch

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 6, 2026 56:25


The first Art Basel Qatar art fair is now open in Qatar's capital, Doha, and The Art Newspaper's art market editor, Kabir Jhala, joins Ben Luke to discuss its impact, as well as reflecting on the wider artistic outlook in Qatar and the Middle East. The author of a new catalogue raisonné of the work of Albrecht Dürer argues that a painting of the artist's father in the National Gallery in London, long thought to be a copy after Dürer's original, is in fact an autograph work. Our special correspondent in London, Martin Bailey, tells us about the arguments for and against its authenticity. And this episode's Work of the Week is actually a pair of works. That is because there is a compelling double header opening at the Albertinum in Dresden this weekend, the exhibition Paula Modersohn-Becker and Edvard Munch: The Big Questions of Life. The exhibition's co-curator Andreas Dehmer discusses Selbstbildnis mit Hand am Kinn or Self-Portrait with Hand on Chin (1906) by Modersohn-Becker and Vampir or Vampire (1895) by Munch with our digital editor, Alexander Morrison.Art Basel Qatar continues until Saturday, 7 February.Christof Metzger, Albrecht Dürer: The Complete Paintings. Selected Drawings and Prints, Taschen, £175 (hb)Paula Modersohn-Becker and Edvard Munch: The Big Questions of Life, Albertinum, Dresden, 8 February-31 May.To buy The Art Newspaper's guidebook The Year Ahead 2026, an authoritative look at the year's unmissable art exhibitions, museum openings and significant art events, visit theartnewspapershop.com. £14.99 or the equivalent in your currency. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
Venice Biennale: South African pavilion scandal, Marian Goodman remembered, Paul Cezanne in Basel

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 30, 2026 57:19


The South African culture minister, the right-wing populist Gayton McKenzie, is attempting to cancel the project for South Africa's pavilion at the forthcoming Venice Biennale, proposed by the artist Gabrielle Goliath and curator Ingrid Masondo. Goliath and Masondo have appealed to the country's president and submitted a case to its high court to overturn McKenzie's decision. Ben Luke speaks to Charles Leonard, who has been reporting on this story for The Art Newspaper over the past few weeks. The art dealer Marian Goodman, who founded her gallery on New York's 57th Street in 1977 and represented many of the world's leading artists over recent decades, has died aged 97. Ben talks to one of The Art Newspaper's New York writers, Linda Yablonsky, about this titan of the New York art world. And this episode's Work of the Week is The Card Players, made between 1893 and 1896 by Paul Cezanne. The painting is in a major new exhibition of the French artist's late works at the Beyeler Foundation in Basel, Switzerland. We talk to the exhibition's curator, Ulf Küster, about it.Cezanne, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, near Basel, Switzerland, until 25 May.To buy The Art Newspaper's guidebook The Year Ahead 2026, an authoritative look at the year's unmissable art exhibitions, museum openings and significant art events, visit theartnewspapershop.com. £14.99 or the equivalent in your currency. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
Smithsonian's African LGBTQ+ exhibition, art and the Iran crisis, Louise Nevelson at the Pompidou Metz

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2026 67:08


The Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C. this week opens Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art, a new exhibition focusing on LGBTQ+ artists from across Africa and its diaspora. Ben Luke talks to its co-curator, Kevin Dumouchelle, about the exhibition and forthcoming book. We explore the cultural effects of the protests in Iran that began at the end of last year, and the brutal crackdown that followed, with Sarvy Garenpayeh, one of The Art Newspaper's reporters on the Middle East. Sarvy has attempted to contact art workers after the Iranian government cut off the internet two weeks ago. And this episode's Work of the Week is Louise Nevelson's Moon Garden Plus One (1958), a landmark installation first staged in New York that is being reprised, at least in part, in a new survey of the American sculptor's work at the Centre Pompidou-Metz in Metz, France. We speak to the curator of the exhibition, Anne Horvath.Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art, National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C., 23 January–23 August. The related book, published by Smithsonian Books, will be available later this year.The London gallery Ab-Anbar, which was founded in Tehran in 2014, has announced that it has extended its solo exhibition of the Iranian artist Amin Bagheri's work until 22 February. The gallery has been hosting what it describes as “moments of togetherness for its London community: a space to gather, talk, and be together”, in solidarity with the people of Iran.Louise Nevelson: Mrs. N's Palace, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France, 24 January-31 AugustTo buy The Art Newspaper's guidebook The Year Ahead 2026, an authoritative look at the year's unmissable art exhibitions, museum openings and significant art events, visit theartnewspapershop.com. £14.99 or the equivalent in your currency. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
Hawai'i at the British Museum, a Venice palazzo for sale, Joseph Beuys's Bathtub

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 16, 2026 68:58


As the British Museum opens Hawaiʻi: a kingdom crossing oceans, Ben Luke takes a tour of the exhibition with the museum's head of Oceania, Alice Christophe. We also hear about the museum's fresh approach to the stewardship of its collection of Hawaiian objects and materials. In Venice, one of the most famous palazzi on the Grand Canal, the Ca' Dario, is up for sale and we discuss the building, its history and its supposed curse with the founder of The Art Newspaper and former chair of the Venice in Peril charity, Anna Somers Cocks. And this episode's Work of the Week is Bathtub (1961-87), a late work made by Joseph Beuys, cast in bronze after his death in 1986. It is at the centre of a new show of Beuys's work at the Thaddaeus Ropac gallery in London, and I speak to Thaddaeus Ropac about the sculpture and its long journey to completion.Hawaiʻi: a kingdom crossing oceans, British Museum, London, until 25 May 2026.Joseph Beuys: Bathtub for a Heroine, Thaddaeus Ropac, London, until 21 March. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
The Year Ahead 2026: the big shows and the key openings

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 9, 2026 72:33


It is the first episode of 2026. So we look ahead at the next 12 months with a guide to big museum openings, biennials and exhibitions. Ben Luke is joined by Jane Morris, editor-at-large at The Art Newspaper and Cultureshock, and Gareth Harris, chief contributing editor at The Art Newspaper, to discuss the key art fairs, major museum building projects and the top biennials of the year, and we pick our exhibition highlights.All of the events discussed and many more are featured in The Art Newspaper's guidebook The Year Ahead 2026, an authoritative look at the year's unmissable art exhibitions, museum openings and significant art events. Visit theartnewspapershop.com. £14.99 or the equivalent in your currency.Events discussed:ART FAIRS: Art Basel Qatar, Doha, Qatar, 5-7 Feb; Frieze Abu Dhabi, 17-22 Nov; MUSEUM OPENINGS: Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, date tbc; V&A East, opens 18 Apr; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma), opens Apr; Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, opens 22 Sep; Dataland, Los Angeles, opens spring; New Museum, New York, date tbc. BIENNIALS: Venice Biennale, In Minor Keys, 9 May-22 Nov; Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince: Helter Skelter, Fondazione Prada, Venice, 9 May-22 Nov; Marina Abramović: Transforming Energy, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice, 6 May-19 Oct; Whitney Biennial, opens 8 Mar; Greater New York 2026, MoMA PS1, 16 Apr-17 Aug; EXHIBITIONS: Gainsborough: The Fashion of Portraiture, Frick Collection, 12 Feb-11 May; Raphael: Sublime Poetry, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 29 Mar-28 Jun; Zurbarán, National Gallery, London, 2 May-23 Aug; Michaelina Wautier, Royal Academy of Arts, 27 Mar-21 Jun; James McNeill Whistler, Tate Britain, 21 May-27 Sep, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 16 Oct-10 Jan 2027; Seurat and the Sea, Courtauld Gallery, ​​13 Feb-17 May; Peggy Guggenheim in London: The Making of a Collector, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, 25 Apr-19 Oct; Royal Academy, London, 21 Nov-14 Mar 2027, Cezanne, Fondation Beyeler, Basel, 25 Jan-25 May; Leonor Fini, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, 22 Oct-28 Feb 2027; Hilma af Klint, Grand Palais, 6 May-30 Aug, Matisse 1941-1954, Grand Palais, Paris, 24 Mar-26 Jul; Chez Matisse: The Legacy of a New Painting, Caixa Forum, Barcelona, 27 Mar-16 Aug; Fratino and Matisse: To See This Light Again, Baltimore Museum of Art, 11 Mar-6 Sep; Matisse's Femme au Chapeau: A Modern Scandal, SFMOMA, San Francisco, 16 May-7 Sep; Marcel Duchamp, MoMA, New York, 12 Apr-22 Aug; Mary Cassatt: An American in Paris, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 14 Feb-30 Aug; Mary Cassatt: After Impressionism, Art Institute of Chicago, 6 Sep-3 Jan 2027; Modern Iran and the Avant-Gardes, 1948-78, Vancouver Art Gallery, 11 Dec-2 May 2027; Spectrosynthesis Seoul, Art Sonje Center, Seoul, 20 Mar-28 Jun; Carol Bove, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 5 Mar-2 Aug; New Humans: Memories of the Future, New Museum, New York, opens early 2026; Hurvin Anderson, Tate Britain, 26 Mar-23 Aug; Tracey Emin: A Second Life, 26 Feb-31 Aug; Ana Mendieta, Tate Modern, London, 9 Jul-10 Jan 2027. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
2025: our review of the year

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 19, 2025 80:52


As always, the final episode of The Week in Art of the year is a review of the past 12 months. To look at the top stories, the big issues and the best art in 2025, host Ben Luke is joined by The Art Newspaper's contemporary art correspondent, Louisa Buck, our art market editor, Kabir Jhala, and Ben Sutton, our editor-in-chief, Americas. We reflect on subjects from the Los Angeles wildfires in January, via President Trump's raft of policies in relation to culture and heritage, to the crisis at the Louvre, the National Gallery in London's expansion plans and their potential effect on the gallery's relationship with Tate, and the fortunes of the art market, including the flight to the Middle East for art fairs and auction houses. Plus, the guests select their exhibitions and works of the year, including those by Kerry James Marshall, Helen Chadwick, Coco Fusco, Jack Whitten, Henri Matisse and Hamad Butt. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A brush with...
A brush with... Olafur Eliasson

A brush with...

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 17, 2025 74:59


Olafur Eliasson talks to Ben Luke about his influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work. Eliasson was born in 1967 in Copenhagen and grew up between Denmark and Iceland, where his parents were from. His installations, sculptures, photographs and paintings, among other projects, reflect a profound concern with human presence in nature and how we perceive and interact with the world around us. His works can be deceptively simple or enormously complex, but often share a rigorous and reductive geometry, which may conversely produce expansive and multifarious perceptual, sensory and embodied effects. Eliasson has stated that “the spectator is the central issue”, a long-established aspect of conceptual and environmental practices, but for him it is important that the viewer not only completes the work, but is also transformed by it. This subjective and individual revelation is, he hopes, allied to a sense of collective experience, what he calls a “we-ness”, that often alerts his audience to wider cultural and social issues including the climate catastrophe. Indeed, environment, in multiple senses, is the fundamental element of his work.He discusses his deep concern about the climate catastrophe and the importance of action. He reflects on his concept of “seeing yourself sensing” and its shifting nature in relation to different works across his career, and how he often includes the word “your” in his titles as a gesture of trust towards his audience. He discusses the wealth of writers and thinkers that inform his work on a daily basis, from Donna Haraway to Alva Noë. He recalls the epiphany of experiencing a work by James Turrell and his fascination with early Renaissance conceptions of space. He reflects on his early fascination with breakdance and his current enjoyment of music by Hilda Gunnarsdóttir and Rosalía. Plus, he gives insight into life in his vast studio in Berlin, and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?Olafur Eliasson: Presence, Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia, until 12 July 2026; Olafur Eliasson: Your curious journey, Museum MACAN, Jakarta, Indonesia, 12 April 2026, Your view matter by Olafur Eliasson, Padimai Art & Tech Studio, Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore, 31 March 2026; and Olafur's first permanent public work in the UK, Your planetary assembly, 2025, is on view at Oxford North, Oxford, UK now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
Frank Gehry remembered, Serpentine and FLAG Art Foundation prize, Joan Semmel

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 12, 2025 56:51


Frank Gehry, the architect behind the Guggenheim Bilbao, Geffen Contemporary at MoCA, Los Angeles, and the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, among other museums and art spaces, died last Friday at his home in Santa Monica, California. He was 96. Ben Luke discusses his long engagement with art, artists and museums with Paul Goldberger, the architecture critic and Gehry's biographer. Serpentine and the US-based FLAG Art Foundation last week announced the creation of a prize for artists that will see £1 million being awarded over 10 years to five artists, so £200,000 to each recipient—the largest contemporary art prize in the UK given to a single artist. Ben speaks to Glenn Fuhrman, founder of The FLAG Art Foundation, and Jonathan Rider, its director, about the prize. And this episode's Work of the Week is Sunlight (1978) by Joan Semmel. The painting features in a new exhibition opening at the Jewish Museum in New York this week, and we speak to the show's curator, Rebecca Shaykin.Paul Goldberger is the author of Building Art: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry, published in 2015 by Knopf, and Why Architecture Matters, published in 2009 by Yale University Press.Joan Semmel: In the Flesh, Jewish Museum, New York, 12 December-31 May 2026 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A brush with...
A brush with... Luc Tuymans

A brush with...

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 10, 2025 62:05


Luc Tuymans talks to Ben Luke about his influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work. Tuymans, who was born in 1958 in Mortsel, Belgium, and lives and works in Antwerp, has transformed the territory of painting in the late 20th and 21st centuries. Using photographs and images from film and other media, he tackles a breadth of subjects and motifs, including contemporary politics, cataclysmic historical events, art history, and apparently banal everyday objects and environments, with paintings that are redolent with atmosphere and poetic power. Tuymans's process of finding the images and deciding how to transform them is slow and precise, and worked through in various stages before it reaches the canvas, where he makes the final piece in oil on a single day. In the resulting pictures, the motif can be veiled or oblique, and sometimes close to abstract, and he has used the term “authentic forgeries” to describe them. In this way, they articulate the elusiveness of representation through painting—a quality Tuymans has described as the medium's “belatedness”—as well as the subjective nature of experience and memory, both personal and collective. He discusses the early impact of Piet Mondrian and Léon Spilliaert, his ongoing admiration for Francisco de Goya, and his response to Théodore Gericault and Mark Rothko in recent series of paintings. He reflects on the importance of literature, including the writings of Thomas Pynchon, and film, especially the painterly approach of David Lynch. He gives insight into his studio life and his singular approach to image-making, and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for? Luc Tuymans: The Fruit Basket, David Zwirner New York, until 19 December; David Zwirner, Los Angeles, 24 February-4 April 2026; Luc Tuymans, Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy, until 22 February 2026. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
Art Basel Miami Beach, Louvre crisis deepens, Helene Schjerfbeck

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 5, 2025 53:26


The Art Newspaper's editor-in-chief, Americas, Ben Sutton, and art market editor, Kabir Jhala, are in Miami Beach for Art Basel's latest edition and discuss the top sales and the wider mood at the fair. As staff at the Musée du Louvre in Paris vote to strike, Ben Luke talks to Vincent Noce, our correspondent in Paris, about the deepening crisis at the museum, following the robbery in October. And this episode's Work of the Week is Helene Scherfbeck's The Tapestry (1914-16). It features in a new exhibition of the Finnish artist's work opening this week at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. We talk to the curator of the exhibition, Dita Amory, about the painting.Art Basel Miami Beach, 5-7 December 2025.Seeing Silence: The Paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 5 December-5 April 2026 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A brush with...
A brush with… Kader Attia

A brush with...

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 3, 2025 60:45


Kader Attia talks to Ben Luke about his influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work. Attia was born in 1970 in Dugny, France, and lives in Berlin and Paris. He grew up between the French capital and Bab el Oued, a suburb of Algiers in Algeria, and his Algerian-French identity and the culture and history of Europe and North Africa—the global north and south—have profoundly informed his subject matter and materials. His work across three decades in photography, collage, sculpture, installation and sound, is concerned with a central concept: repair. By association, the notion of repair is inevitably connected with violence and injury. Within this overarching theme, he explores political and social issues in the present and the complex legacies of colonialism. While directly addressing particular historical and current moments, his work is rich in metaphor, and he considers this poetic aspect crucial to art's ability to effect social change. Attia regards his output as the evidence of an ongoing process of research, but despite its fundamentally philosophical and textual genesis, it is often dramatic visually and experientially.He reflects on what he calls the “menemonic traces” and ghosts present through his work, explains why he feels the gaze is a bodily phenomenon beyond the ocular, and discusses the importance of his trips while a young person in Congo and Mexico. He talks about his early interest in Michelangelo's drawings, his engagement with writers from the psychoanalyst Karima Lazali to the poets Édouard Glissant and Aimé Césaire, and the cathartic power of music. Plus he gives insight into his life in the studio and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?Kader Attia: Shattering and Gathering our Traces, Lehmann Maupin, New York, until 20 December; Kader Attia. The Lost Paradise, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville, Spain, until 18 January 2026; Kader Attia: A Descent into Paradise, Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico, until 4 January 2026.Bienal de Sao Paulo: Not All Travellers Walk Roads—Of Humanity as Practice, until 11 January 2026; The World Tree: 24th Paiz Art Biennial, Guatemala City and Antigua Guatemala, until 15 February 2026. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
The US Venice Biennale saga, Queer Islamic art in Oslo, Duane Linklater in Ottawa

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 28, 2025 56:28


After a delayed application process and an aborted initial commission, the US has at last appointed its artist for next year's Venice Biennale: the Utah-born, Mexico-based artist Alma Allen. The Art Newspaper's editor-in-chief in the Americas, Ben Sutton, talks Ben Luke through this confusing saga. At the National Museum of Norway in Oslo a new exhibition, Deviant Ornaments, focuses on the expression and representation of queerness in Islamic art over more than a millennium. Ben talks to the curator of the exhibition Noor Bhangu. And this episode's Work of the Week is the Cree artist Duane Linklater's wintercount_215_kisepîsim (2022), a piece using recycled canvas from teepees, and referencing the deaths of First Nations children after they were separated from their families in the Residential School system in Canada. It's part of an exhibition called Winter Count: Embracing the Cold, at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, and we talk to two of the four curators of that show, Wahsontiio Cross and Jocelyn Piirainen, about the work.Deviant Ornaments, The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, until 15 March 2026.Winter Count: Embracing the Cold, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, until 22 March 2026Black Friday subscription offer: enjoy up to 70% off across subscription packages to The Art Newspaper this Black Friday, with a year's digital subscription just £21, reduced from £70 (or the equivalent in your currency) and a print and digital subscription just £40, reduced from £99. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-BF25?promocode=BF25&utm_source=display+ads&utm_campaign=blackfriday25 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A brush with...
A brush with... Mary Kelly

A brush with...

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 26, 2025 59:54


Mary Kelly talks to Ben Luke about her influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work.Kelly was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, US, in 1941 and lives today in Los Angeles. She has played a fundamental role in the history and ongoing development of conceptual and feminist art, with works that have explored sexuality and women's experience, wider issues of identity, the spectacle and trauma of war, and the nature of memory in relation to history and geopolitics. Informed by a range of thought, including critical theory, psychoanalysis and literature, her work takes diverse physical forms, but often manifests in multimedia installations, involving a rich materiality that includes text and documents, photography and printmaking, sculpture, sound and film. She reflects on her groundbreaking projects like Post-Partum Document (1973-77) and Interim (1984-89), and the way that her use of autobiography has shifted in her work over time. She discusses the dramatic shift in her life following her move to Beirut in the 1960s and the events of May 1968. She recalls the moment she encountered Franz Kline's work aged 15 and how it confirmed a lifelong pursuit of non-figurative work. She reflects on her role within Conceptualism and her esteem for her peers in that movement. She discusses the importance of writers as diverse as Simone de Beauvoir, Jean Genet, William Carlos Williams and Jacques Lacan. Plus, she gives insight into her life in the studio and answers our usual questions, including a moving answer to the ultimate question: what is art for?Mary Kelly: We don't want to set the world on fire, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London, until 17 January 2026 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
The $236m Klimt, Cop 30 and the art world, Caravaggio's Victorious Cupid

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 21, 2025 48:43


Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914-16) sold for the second highest price ever realised at auction at Sotheby's in New York on Tuesday. It was the most notable of several big sales in the sold-out (or “white-glove”) auction of 24 works from the collection of the late billionaire Leonard Lauder, and has prompted some commentators to declare that the art market has turned a corner following a prolonged downturn. Ben Luke speaks to The Art Newspaper's senior art market editor in the Americas, Carlie Porterfield, about this week's auctions, and asks if they do mark a turning point in the art market's fortunes. Cop 30, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, is taking place in Belém, Brazil, and ends on Friday. To coincide with the conference, the Gallery Climate Coalition is publishing a Stocktake Report, in which it gives hard data on the efforts of its members to reduce their carbon emissions. The Art Newspaper's contemporary art correspondent in London, Louisa Buck, who is a co-founder of the coalition, tells Ben more. And this episode's Work of the Week is Victorious Cupid (1601-02) by Caravaggio, a landmark work by the artist, made at the height of his fame in Rome. The painting is making a rare journey from its home at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin to the Wallace Collection in London, where it is at the centre of an exhibition opening next week. Ben talks to the collection's director, Xavier Bray, about the painting.Caravaggio's Cupid, Wallace Collection, London, 26 November-12 April 2026 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
Studio Museum in Harlem, Grand Egyptian Museum, Stanley Spencer

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 14, 2025 68:25


Studio Museum in Harlem, Grand Egyptian Museum, Stanley SpencerAs the Studio Museum in Harlem opens in its first ever purpose-built space, a new building by the architects Adjaye Associates, The Art Newspaper's editor-in-chief in the Americas, Ben Sutton, speaks to Thelma Golden, the museum's director, and Ben Sutton then gives reviews the building and the inaugural programming with Ben Luke. In Egypt, the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum, or GEM, has opened at last. Our digital editor, Alexander Morrison, talks to one of our Middle East correspondents, Melissa Gronlund, about this monumental institution. And this episode's Work of the Week is Tree and Chicken Coops, Wangford by Stanley Spencer (1925). The painting features in the exhibition Love & Landscape: Stanley Spencer in Suffolk at Gainsborough's House in Sudbury, which is in the heart of the eastern English county of Suffolk. Ben Luke speaks to Amy Lim, the co-curator of the exhibition, about the picture. The Studio Museum in Harlem opens 15 November. The Grand Egyptian Museum is open now.Love & Landscape: Stanley Spencer in Suffolk, Gainsborough's House, Sudbury, UK, 15 November-22 March 2026; Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham, UK, 4 April-1 November 2026.Subscription offer: eight-week free digital trial of The Art Newspaper. The subscription auto-renews at full price for your region. Cancel anytime. www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-8WEEKSOFFER Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
MFA Boston returns enslaved artist's work to his heirs, Wifredo Lam, Ghirlandaio's Adoration of the Magi

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 7, 2025 69:59


The Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston, US, has agreed to return two works from 1857 by the enslaved 19th-century potter David Drake to his present-day descendants. By the terms of the contract, one vessel will remain on loan to the museum for at least two years. The other—known as the “Poem Jar”—has been purchased back by the museum from the heirs for an undisclosed sum and now comes with “a certificate of ethical ownership”. Ben Luke talks to Ethan Lasser, the MFA's chair of the art of Americas, about this landmark agreement. At the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the exhibition Wifredo Lam: When I Don't Sleep, I Dream opens on Monday. Lam, who was of African and Chinese descent, is now widely regarded as a key, and singular, figure in Modernist painting. Connected in his long life to the Surrealists and Pablo Picasso, and to literary greats including Aimé Césaire and Edouard Glissant, his distinctive practice was above all centred on a profound engagement with Black diasporic culture. Ben talks to the two lead curators of the exhibition, Beverly Adams, curator of Latin American Art at MoMA, and the museum's new director, Christophe Cherix. And this episode's Work of the Week is the Adoration of the Magi (1488) by Domenico Ghirlandaio. The painting is in the Ospedale degli Innocenti, the first hospital for unwanted or orphaned infants, or foundlings, in Europe, built by the great Renaissance architect, Filippo Brunelleschi. The Innocenti, as it is called, is the subject of a new book, called The Innocents of Florence: The Renaissance Discovery of Childhood, by Joseph Luzzi, and Ben speaks to him about the painting and its significance in the Innocenti's collection.Wifredo Lam, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 10 November-11 April 2026.The Innocents of Florence: The Renaissance Discovery of Childhood, published in hardback by WW Norton, from 11 November in the US, priced $29.99, and from 28 November in the UK, priced £23.New subscription offer: eight-week free digital trial of The Art Newspaper. The subscription auto-renews at full price for your region. Cancel anytime. www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-8WEEKSOFFER Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Week in Art
Gauguin “fake” is real, Mrinalini Mukherjee and her circle, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt's head piece

The Week in Art

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 31, 2025 58:52


The authenticity of the final self-portrait by Paul Gauguin, made in 1903 and housed in the Kunstmuseum in Basel, was earlier this year called into question. Now, the museum has completed its promised analysis, and confirmed that the painting is not a fake and is by Gauguin. Ben Luke talks to The Art Newspaper's special correspondent, Martin Bailey, about the saga. In recent years, the late Indian sculptor Mrinalini Mukherjee has come to increasing prominence. Now, a show at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, called A Story of South Asian Art: Mrinalini Mukherjee and Her Circle, explores her work in the context of six other artists including her parents, Leela Mukherjee and Benode Behari Mukherjee. The exhibition's curator, Tarini Malik, tells Ben more. And this episode's Work of the Week is Character Head No.25 by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, the 18th-century sculptor who was born in Germany, and lived in modern-day Austria and Slovakia. The bust features in the exhibition Franz Xaver Messerschmidt: More than Character Heads, at the Belvedere in Vienna, and we talk to the exhibition's curators, Katharina Lovecky and Georg Lechner, about the work.New subscription offer: eight-week free digital trial of The Art Newspaper. Cancel anytime. The subscription auto-renews at full price for your region. www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-8WEEKSOFFERA Story of South Asian Art: Mrinalini Mukherjee and Her Circle, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 31 October-24 February 2026.Franz Xaver Messerschmidt: More Than Character Heads, Belvedere, Vienna, 31 October-6 April 2026. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.