Frank Stella, artist who blurred lines between painting and sculpture, dies at 87

NEW YORK — Frank Stella, a painter, sculptor and printmaker whose constantly evolving works are hailed as landmarks of the minimalist and post-painterly abstraction art movements, died Saturday at his home in Manhattan. He was 87. Gallery owner Jeffrey Deitch, who spoke with Stella’s family, confirmed his death to The Associated Press. Stella’s wife, Harriet … Read more

Repatriated South African apartheid-era artworks on display to celebrate 30 years of democracy

JOHANNESBURG — A selection of South African artworks produced during the country’s apartheid era which ended up in foreign art collections is on display in Johannesburg to mark 30 years since the country’s transition to democracy in 1994. Most of the artworks were taken out of the country by foreign tourists and diplomats who had … Read more

Venice Biennale titled ‘Foreigners Everywhere’ platforms LGBTQ+, outsider and Indigenous artists

VENICE, Italy — Outsider, queer and Indigenous artists are getting an overdue platform at the 60th Venice Biennale contemporary art exhibition that opens Saturday, curated for the first time by a Latin American. Brazilian curator Adriano Pedrosa’s main show, which accompanies 88 national pavilions for the seven-month run, is strong on figurative painting, with fewer … Read more

A painting of Winston Churchill by an artist whose work he hated is up for auction

LONDON — A portrait of Winston Churchill by an artist whose work the British leader loathed went on display Tuesday at Churchill’s birthplace ahead of an auction in June. The painting by modernist artist Graham Sutherland was made in preparation for a larger portrait that Churchill hated and which was later destroyed — an episode … Read more

Israel artist refuses to open Israel pavilion at Venice Biennale pending cease-fire, hostage release

VENICE, Italy — The artist and curators representing Israel at this year’s Venice Biennale announced they won’t open the Israeli pavilion exhibition until there is a cease-fire in Gaza and an agreement to release hostages. Their decision was posted on a sign on the Israeli national pavilion Tuesday, the first day of media previews, just … Read more

Doris Kearns Goodwin and Laurie Anderson to receive medals from American Academy of Arts and Letters

Laurie Anderson poses during a photo call for the movie “Heart of a Dog,” in Milan, Italy on Sept. 11, 2016, left, and Doris Kearns Goodwin arrives at a HISTORYTalks event in Washington on Sept. 24, 2022. Anderson, Goodwin and the president of the Harlem School of the Arts, James C. Horton, are being honored … Read more

Ukraine’s most famous sculptor turns war debris into art, expressing the inexpressible

PARIS — From within the debris of Russia’s war, Ukraine’s most famous sculptor was compelled to make a dark artistic pivot the day his own country house was ravaged by a Russian strike. “It happened by accident, it happened when a missile came into our house, our dacha … and my neighbors gathered the debris … Read more

Ben Affleck inspired J.Lo’s first album in a decade. She’s using it to poke fun at her romantic past

LOS ANGELES — Throughout her career, Jennifer Lopez has been hailed as an epochal, prolific and hard-working artist. One adjective not often associated with the pop icon-turned-actor and movie producer, however, is self-deprecating. But as she readies to drop her first studio album in a decade, Lopez is performing a kind of fictionalized mea culpa … Read more

A painting by René Magritte may fetch $64 million at an auction marking a century of surrealism

LONDON — A major work by surrealist painter René Magritte that hasn’t been shown in public for a quarter century could fetch 50 million pounds ($64 million) at auction next month. Christie’s auction house announced Saturday that it will offer “L’ami intime” (The Intimate Friend) at a March 7 sale in London marking a century … Read more

2 artworks returned to heirs of Holocaust victim. Another is tied up in court

NEW YORK — New York prosecutors on Friday returned two pieces of art they say were stolen by Nazis from a Jewish performer and collector murdered in the Holocaust. The artworks were surrendered by museums in Pittsburgh and Ohio, but prosecutors are still fighting in court to recover third artwork by the same artist, Austrian … Read more