The Week in Art

Kerry James Marshall: The Histories at the Royal Academy of Arts in London is the largest ever European retrospective of the work of the US artist and has been greeted with universal critical acclaim. Ben Luke takes a tour of the exhibition with Mark Godfrey, its curator, and visits a related exhibition of Marshall’s graphic novel project, Rythm Mastr, at The Tabernacle in Notting Hill, London, with the co-curator of that show with Godfrey, Nikita Sena Quarshie. Last week, the National Gallery in London announced that it will build a major new extension, at a cost around £400m, of which £375m has already been raised. Project Domani, as it is called, is billed by the National as the largest transformation since it was founded, 200 years ago. The National will also expand its collecting boundary beyond 1900 in a major shift in the division of UK national collections. The Art Newspaper’s digital editor, Alexander Morrison, talks to the director of the National Gallery, Gabriele Finaldi. And this episode’s Work of the Week is The Three Dancers by Pablo Picasso, one of the greatest of all the many thousands of works by the Spanish artist. The painting was made in 1925 and Tate Modern is celebrating its centenary with an exhibition, Theatre Picasso, in which The Three Dancers is the centrepiece. Ben talks to Natalia Sidlina, co-curator of the exhibition, and to Enrique Fuenteblanca who, with the artist Wu Tsang, has designed the radical staging of the exhibition. Kerry James Marshall: The Histories, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 20 September-18 January 2026; Kunsthaus Zürich, 27 February-16 August 2026; Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, 18 September 2026-24 January 2027; Rythm Mastr: The Chronicles, The Tabernacle, London, until 14 December. Theatre Picasso, Tate Modern, London, until 12 April 2026. Student subscription offer: stay connected to the art world from your first lecture to your final dissertation with a three-year student subscription to The Art Newspaper for just £99/$112/€105. Gift, quarterly and annual subscriptions are also available. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-student?offer=4c1120ea-bc15-4cb3-97bc-178560692a9c [https://www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-student?offer=4c1120ea-bc15-4cb3-97bc-178560692a9c] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Earlier this year, we took a tour of the V&A East Storehouse, the Victoria and Albert Museum’s vast new complex in East London. This week, it opens the David Bowie Centre, a dedicated space to the music icon. It is the permanent repository of thousands of items from Bowie’s archive, which are on display and also available for personal study. Ben Luke explores the displays at the centre with the curator, Madeleine Haddon. Last week, a new biennial opened in Bukhara in Uzbekistan, part of a major cultural shift in the country. The Art Newspaper’s art market editor, Kabir Jhala went to Bukhara for the opening event and delivers his verdict, and we also hear from its curator, Diana Campbell. And this episode’s Work of the Week is a pair of paintings: Untitled (2025), a new piece by Hurvin Anderson, and West Indies (2014) by Kara Walker. They are part of an exhibition at Michael Werner Gallery in London, curated by the critic and writer Hilton Als, which explores the Dominican-born writer Jean Rhys. We went to the gallery to talk to Als about these two remarkable paintings and his fascination with Jean Rhys’s life and work. David Bowie Centre, V&A East Storehouse, from 13 September.The Bukhara Biennial continues until 20 November. Postures: Jean Rhys in the Modern World, curated by Hilton Als, Michael Werner, London, 12 September-22 November. Student subscription offer: stay connected to the art world from your first lecture to your final dissertation with a three-year student subscription to The Art Newspaper for just £99/$112/€105. Gift, quarterly and annual subscriptions are also available. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-student?offer=4c1120ea-bc15-4cb3-97bc-178560692a9c [https://www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-student?offer=4c1120ea-bc15-4cb3-97bc-178560692a9c] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Since we were last on air in June, the US government has announced what it calls a comprehensive internal review of activities at eight of the 21 museums under the umbrella of the Smithsonian Institution. Meanwhile, one of those museums, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., saw the artist Amy Sherald cancel a long-scheduled exhibition of her work, citing censorship and institutional fear of the US government. Ben Luke talks to Ben Sutton, The Art Newspaper’s editor-in-chief in the Americas, about Donald Trump and his administration’s growing interference in museums, and whether Sherald’s act of resistance is an outlier or a marker of a wider art world response. The first major art fair of the new season, Frieze Seoul, is happening this week in the South Korean capital, after a period of political turmoil there. Our correspondent in Asia, Lisa Movius, visits the fair and gauges the mood. And this episode’s Work of the Week is Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman (1978-79), by Dara Birnbaum. This landmark of video art is part of a new exhibition at San Marco Art Centre, or SMAC, a new space in the Procuratie Vecchie in St Mark’s Square, Venice. The show, called The Quantum Effect, explores the work of several leading contemporary artists in the context of quantum theory. I talk to the exhibition’s curators, Daniel Birnbaum—no relation—and Jacqui Davies, and to Ulf Danielsson, a physicist who has suggested quantum equations to accompany each of the pieces in the show. Frieze Seoul until 6 September. The Quantum Effect, SMAC, Venice, Italy, 5 September-23 November. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

An exhibition opens this weekend at Conditions, the low-cost studio programme for artists in Croydon, on the outskirts of south London, featuring two of the great works of art of recent decades: Mark Leckey’s Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore (1999) and Arthur Jafa’s Love is the Message, the Message is Death (2016). Ben Luke talks to Mark and AJ about showing together and the affinities and contrasts in these two contemporary masterpieces. The 12th SITE SANTA FE International exhibition also opens on Friday, and Ben speaks to Cecilia Alemani, the artistic director of the biennial, about the show, which is called Once Within a Time. And this episode’s Work of the Week is Glacial Decoy, the 1979 collaboration between the choreographer Trisha Brown and the artist Robert Rauschenberg. This landmark work is the subject of a new exhibition at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and its curator, Brandon Eng, tells us more. ARTHUR JAFA / MARK LECKEY: HARDCORE / LOVE, Conditions, 28 June-10 August. You can find out more about Conditions at conditions.studio. Listen to A brush with... Arthur Jafa and A brush with... Mark Leckey wherever you get your podcasts. Those interviews feature alongside 23 others from the A brush with… series in the book by Ben Luke, What is Art For? Contemporary artists on their influences, inspirations and disciplines, published by HENI, released on 2 September (US) and 4 September (UK), $39.95/£29.95 (hb). 12th SITE SANTA FE International: Once Within a Time, 27 June-12 January 2026. Trisha Brown and Robert Rauschenberg: Glacial Decoy, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, US, until 24 May 2026. Summer season of art scubscription offer: get 50% off a digital subscription to The Art Newspaper [https://www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-SUMMER25D?promocode=SUMMER25&utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=SUMMER25] and gain unrestricted access today. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Art Newspaper’s digital editor Alexander Morrison is in Basel for the annual Art Basel fair. He talks to our art market editor, Kabir Jhala, about the atmosphere at the fair after a long downturn in the art market and underwhelming auctions last month in New York. While some major museums around the world would rather avoid the topic of returning objects acquired in the colonial period to their countries of origin, The Wereldmuseum in Amsterdam is attempting to get on the front foot, with an exhibition called Unfinished past: return, keep, or...? One notable aspect of the show is that it is not presenting any human remains. Ben Luke speaks to our correspondent in the Netherlands, Senay Boztas, about the future of human body parts in Dutch museums. And this episode’s Work of the Week is Untitled or Not Yet (1966) by Eva Hesse, which is in a new exhibition at The Courtauld in London, called Abstract Erotic. The exhibition unites Hesse with fellow sculptors Alice Adams and Louise Bourgeois. Ben talks to Jo Applin, the co-curator of the show. Art Basel continues until Sunday, 22 June. Unfinished Pasts, Wereldmuseum, Amsterdam, until 3 January 2027. Abstract Erotic: Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Alice Adams, The Courtauld, 20 June-14 September; Louise Bourgeois: Drawings from the 1960s, the Courtauld, 20 June-14 September. Summer subscription offer: get up to 50% off an annual print & digital subscription to The Art Newspaper. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-SUMMER25P&D?promocode=SUMMER25&utm_source=special+offer+banner&utm_campaign=SUMMER25 [https://www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-SUMMER25P&D?promocode=SUMMER25&utm_source=special+offer+banner&utm_campaign=SUMMER25] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.