Artnet

#ArtnetNews: Of the more than 200,000 artworks in the National Portrait Gallery’s collection, few depict ordinary people. The British artist Es Devlin is addressing the oversight. In a project set to run through October 27, the set designer and contemporary artist is inviting all 69 million U.K. residents to take part in a collective portrait of the nation. Participating is relatively straightforward: people simply upload a selfie to a dedicated page and then watch as their face morphs into the charcoal and chalk markings of a Devlin drawing. Tap the link in bio to read more. Article by Richard Whiddington __________ Pictured: Es Devlin in her studio considering the markings in a digital portrait. Photo: courtesy Google Arts & Culture Lab.

#TheArtAnglePodcast: This week on the podcast, Los Angeles has a new museum. Or a new vision for an old one. One of the most important museums in the country, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, has just debuted a long-awaited new building. It’s designed by the revered Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. It cost three quarters of a billion dollars to realize. And long before it opened to the public last month, it has been controversial, for a whole host of reasons. It debuts with LACMA’s charismatic director Michael Govan promising not just a new LACMA, but a new vision for how museums show art and relate to the public. Ben Davis went out to Los Angeles to see the new building last month, and spoke to culture critic Carolina Miranda. Miranda has the gift of being both a sharp observer or L.A. art and a gifted translator of sometimes esoteric museum and architecture debate. She has published an analysis of Zumthor and Govan’s vision means for CityLab, called “For Better or Worse, the New LACMA Is an Instant LA Icon,” and she is here with me today to talk about what LACMA means for the city and for museums now. Tap the link in bio to listen to the podcast.

#ArtnetNews: In 2002, Lucian Freud unveiled a surprising portrait: a full-length work of a naked and pregnant Kate Moss splayed out on a narrow cot, executed with an unflinching intensity. Freud rarely painted celebrities—he famously turned down Princess Diana—but had made an exception for Moss. Even more unexpected, though, was the unlikely friendship that blossomed between the elder artist and the supermodel. That bond sits at the center of Moss & Freud, a new film that dramatizes how the pair brought "Naked Portrait" (2002) into the world. It’s the first feature from British director and screenwriter James Lucas, who landed an Academy Award for his 2013 short film The Phone Call. As a partaker in the East London scene of the early 2000s, Lucas remembered being intrigued when he first learned about the portrait session. Tap the link in bio to read more. Article by Min Chen (@objectsofloathing ) __________ Pictured: Lucian Freud and Kate Moss in North London, 2003. Photo: Max Mumby / Indigo / Getty Images.

#ArtnetNews: A major Mark Rothko painting from the collection of the legendary New York financier and dealer Robert Mnuchin hammered at $74 million at Sotheby’s New York on Thursday night. With fees, it totaled $85.8 million. "Brown and Blacks in Reds" (1957) was estimated at $70 million to $100 million and offered in an 11-lot sale dedicated to material from Mnuchin's collection, ahead of the auction house's the Now and Contemporary art evening auction. The investment banker-turned-gallerist died in December, aged 92. Tap the link in bio to read more. Article by Article by Margaret Carrigan (@reallifemaggie ) __________ Pictured: Mark Rothko, "Brown and Blacks in Reds" (1957). Courtesy of Sotheby's.

#ArtnetNews: At Frieze New York’s VIP opening on Wednesday morning, collectors were present but rarely looked enthusiastic. Presentations by the nearly 70 galleries were modest and studied. The pace of sales was sensible, sedate. But let’s be clear: Business has improved since last year, and the mood at the Shed was buoyed by the knowledge that top-tier works are heading to auction over the next week. Tap the link in bio to read more. Article by Margaret Carrigan (@reallifemaggie ) __________ Pictured: Kelly Sinnapah Mary at James Cohan’s Frieze New York booth, 2026. Courtesy of James Cohan.

#ArtnetNews: A once-stolen collection of letters written by the Romantic poet John Keats to his fiancée Fanny Brawne will be sold at Sotheby’s New York this June with an estimate of $1.5 million to $2.5 million. The group of eight letters, tastefully bound in a leather volume, date from 1819 to 1820, a period when Keats was suffering from tuberculosis and often conducting the courtship through the written word. The two had met as neighbors in Hampstead, then a leafy village overlooking London, with Keats telling his brother that he found her “beautiful and elegant, graceful, silly, fashionable. and strange.” They became secretly engaged in late 1819. Tap the link in bio to read more. Article by Richard Whiddington (@writerprofile ) _________ Pictured: Volume of eight letters written by John Keats. Photo courtesy Harry Mitchell/ Sotheby's London.

NOW OPEN: Frieze New York Artsy and Artnet are giving you an inside look at Frieze New York 2026. For the 15th edition of the fair, more than 65 galleries from 26 countries will gather at the Shed—bringing together blue-chip heavyweights and exciting new voices in a sweeping celebration of contemporary art. 🗓️ May 13–17 #FriezeNewYork #Artsy @Friezeofficial

#ArtnetNews: In anticipation of its historic loan of the Bayeux Tapestry, the British Museum is creating a woodland installation evoking the landscape of 11th-century England inside its forecourt. From May 16 until June 2, visitors to the London institution will encounter a canopy of 37 silver birch trees along with planters filled with woodland grasses and perennial species that will be placed at the top of the museum’s front steps. Tap the link in bio to read more. Article by Richard Whiddington (@writerprofile ) ________ Pictured: Trees in the Bayeux Tapestry. Photo: courtesy The Heritage Workshop in Normandy/Antoine Cazin. Visual rendering of south facade of British Museum with botanical garden by Studio Weave. Image: © Studio Weave.

#ArtnetNews: A medieval knight bidding farewell through a half embrace to a noble lady, the romantic yet melancholy Hellelil and Hildebrand, the Meeting on the Turret Stairs (1864) by Irish painter Frederic William Burton is an icon of the Victorian era. Held in the collection of the National Gallery of Ireland, in 2012, it was named the favorite painting of the Irish public, and it has remained a perennially popular painting with audiences worldwide. Burton was born in 1816 and grew up on the west coast of Ireland. As a young man, he studied art in Dublin and first exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1842—the same year he undertook the first of many trips to the continent to study art across Europe. Finally settling in London permanently in 1858, he was acquainted with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and such artists as Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais, and was inspired by their narrative approach and historical framing of their subjects. The Meeting on the Turret Stairs alongside works like the earlier Dreams (ca. 1861) reflects their stylistic influence. Capturing a fleeting and emotionally charged moment, Burton’s painting appeals to an old-world fairytale sensibility—replete with a heartbreaking conclusion. Tap the link in bio to read more. Article by Annikka Olsen (@annikkaolsen ) __________ Pictured: Frederic William Burton, Hellelil and Hildebrand, the Meeting on the Turret Stairs (1864). Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.

#ArtnetNews: After years of covering the art market, I finally made it to the opening of the Venice Biennale. Its 61st edition was exhilarating, exhausting, and overwhelming: 20,000-plus steps every single day last week. There was art everywhere, receptions in 500-year-old palazzos, and headline-grabbing protests. Everyone seemed to be in town from far-flung locales, dashing from one party after another, drinking spritzes into the wee hours. Simply put, the opening week of the biennale is the fullest expression of being together in the art world—a global block party. No wonder people come religiously every two years. Tap the link in bio for the full article. Article by Katya Kazakina (@katyakaz ) __________ Pictured: “Il Gesto” by French artist JR, on the facade of Ca’ del Mosto during the 61st Venice Art Biennale in Venice on May 5, 2026. Photo by Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images Curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, left, and artist Bracha Ettinger at Hotel Metropole in Venice, May 4, 2026. Photo: Katya Kazakina Jewel had her big coming out as a visual artist in Venice last week. Photo: Katya Kazakina Artist Jenny Saville. Photo: Katya Kazakina Artist Kaloki Nyami amidst his monumental paintings at the Arsenale. Photo: Katya Kazakina Maryvonne Pinault and François Pinault attend their party at Fondazione Cini, Isola Di San Giorgio during the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia on May 6, 2026. (Photo by Luc Castel/Getty Images)

#ArtnetNews: In a dimly lit, cavernous space stand shelves of glitching television sets. Nearby, posters wheat-pasted on corrugated steel surfaces hold strange images and cryptic poetry. “My brains are scrambled eggs,” reads one. Throughout, sculptures of stick figures are curled into despairing stances, while large prints of alien landscapes offer the only hints of a world outside. No, it’s not a post-apocalyptic fever dream; it’s a Radiohead art installation. “Motion Picture House,” the band’s roving audiovisual spectacle, has landed in a warehouse at Brooklyn Navy Yards in New York, where it is on view through June, following its debut at Coachella Festival last month. Deposited by 12 large trucks, the immersive exhibition draws from the eerie aesthetic of the Radiohead albums Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001), as well as art created by frontman Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood. The experience culminates with a 75-minute film. Tap the link in bio to read more. Article by Min Chen (@objectsofloathing ) _________ Pictured: Installation view of Radiohead’s “Motion Picture House.” Photo: Kate Izor. Installation view of Radiohead’s “Motion Picture House.” Photo: Min Chen. Installation view of Radiohead's "Motion Picture House" in Brooklyn, New York. Photo: Kate Izor. Installation view of Radiohead’s “Motion Picture House.” Photo: Kate Izor.

#ArtnetNews: For the past few months, the young Danish painter has been working in a borrowed studio in London. Her paintings—monumental nocturnal scenes, brimming with writhing, dancing bodies—stretched to the ceiling of her temporary studio, barely able to fit into the space. “It’s becoming a bit cramped in here,” said Pade, with characteristic frankness, during a video call a few weeks ago, her canvases visible behind her. Pade welcomes the chance to paint on a grand scale. Over the past several years, she has become one of the art world’s buzziest young talents, known for her tempestuous scenes crowded with bodies moving through flickering, ambiguous terrains. But for close to a year now, Pade has been living in a semi-nomadic limbo, while her Paris home is undergoing renovations. The availability of a friend’s open studio brought her to London, where she set down to work. “I’ve just been working so much, I haven’t really had a chance to see people,” she said. Three of these new paintings—Jagt (Hunt), Nærmere (Closer), and Opstand (Surge)—will debut with Thaddeus Ropac at TEFAF New York next week, offering a coveted first glimpse of what Pade has been developing since opening her mark-making solo exhibition, “Søgelys” at Ropac’s London outpost, Ely House, last fall. Tap the link in bio for the full article. Article by Katie White (@katienorawhite ) _________ Pictured: Eva Helene Pade, Skygge over mængden (Shadow above the crowd) (2025). © Eva Helene Pade. Photo: Pierre Tanguy. Courtesy Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery. Eva Helene Pade (2024). Photo: Petra Kleis. Eva Helene Pade, Nærmere (Closer) (2026). © Eva Helene Pade. Photo: Pierre Tanguy. Courtesy Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery.