The Week in Art

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.
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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

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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.
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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.
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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.