Artist Ruth Patir, who was selected to represent Israel last September, said she will not open her exhibition for the country’s national pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale until “a cease-fire and hostage release agreement” is reached between Israel and Hamas, the New York Times reports. The Biennale officially begins press previews this morning, with the festival’s public opening launching on April 20. “I hate it, but I think it’s important,” Patir told the Times. Patir and the Pavilion’s two curators, Tamar Margalit and Mira Lapidot, did not inform the Israeli government of their decision t ..read more

In the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, civilians seemingly mobilized overnight. Weaving camouflage nets to shield Ukrainian defenders became one of the urgent tasks. In church basements and museums, these volunteers twisted together strips of dark fabric and rags. This action may seem like a smooth metaphor for a country coming together. But it disguised how complex this unity was, disuniform like the nets themselves—and how it has become even more so as the war stretches into its third year. Titled “Net Making,” the Ukrainian Pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale explores t ..read more

Every generation seems to get the scandalous, headline-grabbing art exhibition it deserves. The most recent one is Documenta 15 in 2022, which was so controversial that there may never be a future edition of the show in Kassel, Germany. There is also, of course, the 1993 Whitney Biennial, which introduced so-called identity politics into the mainstream discourse of art. Going back even further, there was the 1913 Armory Show in New York, the First Impressionist Exhibition in 1874, and the 1865 Paris Salon, where Manet’s Olympia created a stir. In all of these cases, it was the art on view that ..read more

The 60th Venice Biennale kicked off this week with a celebration of the more than 100 artists from around the world participating in the prestigious exhibition, titled “Stranieri Ovunque”—Foreigners Everywhere. Adriano Pedrosa, Biennale artistic director, hosted welcome festivities at La Caravella, and the intergenerational attendees included artists Samia Halaby, Lauren Halsey, Lydia Ourahmane, and Kim Yun Shin; as well as preeminent patrons Pamela Joyner and Fred Giuffrida.   Mark Bradford, an old friend of Pedrosa and fellow Cal Arts alum, made a surprise appearance as the dinner wound ..read more

Ars longa, vita brevis cautions the banner above Audrey Flack in her recent Self-Portrait with Flaming Heart (2022). The formidable nonagenarian artist, whose art career and life have in fact been enviably long (especially compared to the crowd of Abstract Expressionists she once rolled with), presents us with a Sacred Heart set afire. If one of her idols, Albrecht Dürer, could paint himself as Christ, then surely she can cast herself as the Virgin Mary, as she does here with her Star of David pendant symbolizing that she is also a Jewish mother. A crosshatched halo crowns her head and two Pre ..read more

Google is celebrating the legacy of late Lebanese American writer and painter Etel Adnan with an illustration on its homepage. The artwork—from the series known as Google Doodles—depicts the artist at her desk, paintbrush in hand, framed by the fruit of her 50-year-long career: painted interpretations of the sun, sea, and mountains as jewel-toned geometries; and a prodigious body of writing on the legacy of war, national and diasporic identity, and feminism in the Arabic-speaking world. “Etel Adnan inspired all of those fortunate to have met her in person. She taught us how important memory is ..read more

British Museum chairman George Osborne reportedly clashed with officials from the Prime Minister’s office over the selection of the institution’s next museum director prior to the appointment of National Portrait Gallery director Nicholas Cullinan. According to the Telegraph, museum trustees on the selection panel were ordered by officials at Downing Street (the London residence of UK Prime Ministers) to send the names of the two finalists to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his advisors; Sunak’s office planned to decide which candidate was fit for the institution’s keenly watched top position ..read more

It might seem like gilding the lily to devote a two-part exhibition to a single historic event, and yet the result, “Paris 1874: Inventing Impressionism,” is a revelation. In it, the Musée d’Orsay presents a show about a show—specifically, the first Impressionist exhibition, which opened 150 years ago today and ushered in what we think of as modern art. Related Articles Wolfgang Laib's Piles of Rice and Pollen Meet Claude Monet's Ethereal 'Water Liles' in a New Exhibition The "Malady" of Impressionism: How Claims of Disability Haunted the Modernist Movement The central exhibition, which m ..read more

To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter. THE HEADLINES CHURCH COVER-UP. A public debate is intensifying over whether to remove, cover, or leave untouched, the church mosaics, paintings, and stained-glass windows made by artist priests accused of sexual abuse, reports Le Monde. Jesuit Rev. Mark Rupnik and Fr Louis Ribes, are among a handful of Catholic priests who have made a large swath of artworks for churches and basilicas around the world. For decades they were acclaimed for their creations, but recentl ..read more

Upon entering the box-shaped Australian Pavilion in the Giardini, the eyes slowly begin to adjust to the crepuscular light. What looks like a white mist slowly materializes on the black walls and envelops visitors. Linger a little and the “mist” crystallizes into a vast family tree going back 65,000 years, hand-written in white chalk across the four 49-by-16-foot walls. Artist Archie Moore, who is of Kamilaroi and Bigambul descent on his mother’s side and British and Scottish on his father’s, has spent four back-breaking weeks inscribing as many names as years on the Pavilion walls and ceiling ..read more