The Week in Art

Gauguin “fake” is real, Mrinalini Mukherjee and her circle, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt’s head piece

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-8WEEKSOFFER [http://www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-8WEEKSOFFER] A 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 [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Louvre heist: the fallout, RoseLee Goldberg on the Performa Biennial, Wayne McGregor on his new installation

It is an event that has shocked the world and prompted a national reckoning in France: the robbery of eight jewels from the Apollo Gallery of the Louvre last Sunday. Ben Luke talks to Anaël Pigeat, editor-at-large of The Art Newspaper France and journalist at Paris Match, and Dale Berning Sawa, a regular contributor to The Art Newspaper, about the heist, the reaction, the political fallout and what it tells us about the place of culture in French society today. The Performa Biennial is celebrating its 20th anniversary edition from next week, and Ben talks to its founder RoseLee Goldberg about the biennial and the publication of the updated version of Goldberg’s classic book Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present. And this episode’s Work of the Week is On the Other Earth, a new installation by the choreographer Wayne McGregor. It is unveiled next week at Stone Nest in London, as part of a major exhibition of McGregor’s work at Somerset House, called Infinite Bodies. Ben speaks to McGregor about the installation. The Performa Biennial 2025, 1–23 November. Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present, RoseLee Goldberg, Thames and Hudson, $29.95/£24.99. Wayne McGregor: Infinite Bodies, Somerset House, London; On the Other Earth, Stone Nest, London, 30 October-22 February 2026; On the Other Earth is booked in one-hour slots, visit somersethouse.org.uk [http://somersethouse.org.uk/] for more information. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Frieze in London, Hypha Studios and Renoir’s drawing for The Great Bathers

Amid much debate about the health of the art market, Frieze is back in London, with its two fairs, Frieze London and Frieze Masters. Ben Luke talks to The Art Newspaper’s art market editor, Kabir Jhala, about the mood in the big tents in Regent’s Park. Beyond Frieze, of course, is a vast parallel art world, with thousands of unrepresented artists and curators keen to realise their big ideas. Hypha Studios has for some years been finding vacant property in cities around the UK to provide free exhibition and studio space to artists, curators and other creatives. This week, it launched Hypha Curates, an online sales platform. Ben talks to the non-executive director of Hypha Studios, Will Jennings. And this episode’s Work of the Week is a drawing by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. A study in red and white chalk for one of his greatest works, the painting known as The Great Bathers in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, it’s a key piece in a new exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, called Renoir Drawings. We speak to the exhibition’s curator, the director of the Morgan Library and Museum, Colin B. Bailey. Frieze London and Frieze Masters, until Sunday, 19 October. Visit hyphastudios.com [http://hyphastudios.com/] and hyphacurates.com [http://hyphacurates.com/] Renoir Drawings, Morgan Library and Museum, New York, 17 October-8 February 2026; Musée d’Orsay, 17 March-5 July 2026. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Nigerian Modernism, Tehran’s art scene after the war, Wayne Thiebaud’s Cakes

Tate Modern continues to explore the histories of Modern art beyond the European and North American canons that were once its focus. This week it opened the exhibition Nigerian Modernism, and The Art Newspaper’s digital editor, Alexander Morrison, speaks to the show’s co-curator, Osei Bonsu, and to one of the 50 artists in the exhibition, Jimoh Buraimoh. Before the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June of this year, the art scene in the Iranian capital, Tehran, was thriving. Sarvy Geranpayeh, one of our correspondents for the Middle East, travelled to Tehran for The Art Newspaper and tells Ben Luke how the art world has responded in the aftermath of the conflict. And this episode’s Work of the Week is Cakes (1963) by Wayne Thiebaud, a painting in the National Gallery of Art in Washington that has travelled to the Courtauld Gallery in London for Wayne Thiebaud: American Still Life, the first UK museum exhibition of his art. We visit the show and speak to Barnaby Wright, its co-curator. Nigerian Modernism, Tate Modern, London, until 10 May 2026. Wayne Thiebaud. American Still Life, Courtauld Gallery, London, 10 October-18 January 2026. LAST CHANCE 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.

Who made ancient Egyptian art? Plus, Michaelina Wautier, Robert Rauschenberg’s Bed

A new exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, UK, called Made in Ancient Egypt, reveals untold stories of the people behind a host of remarkable objects, and the technology and techniques they used. The Art Newspaper’s digital editor, Alexander Morrison visits the museum to take a tour with the curator, Helen Strudwick. One of the great revelations of the past two decades in scholarship about women artists is Michaelina Wautier, the Baroque painter active in what is now Belgium in the middle of the 17th century. The largest ever exhibition of Wautier’s work opened this week at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, and travels to the Royal Academy of Arts in London next year. Ben Luke speaks to the art historian who rediscovered this extraordinary painter, Katlijne Van der Stighelen, who has also co-edited the catalogue of the Vienna show. And this episode’s Work of the Week is Robert Rauschenberg’s Bed (1955), one of the most important works of US art of the post-war period. It features in the exhibition Five Friends: John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, which this week arrives at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne. We speak to Yilmaz Dziewior, the co-curator of the exhibition. Made in Ancient Egypt, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK, 3 October-2 April 2026 Michaelina Wautier, Painter, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 30 September-22 February 2026; Royal Academy of Arts, London 27 March – 21 June 2026. Five Friends: John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany, 3 October-11 January 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.