Latest Visual arts News

Artist refuses to open Israeli pavilion at Venice Biennale until cease-fire, hostage release

Apr. 16, 2024 06:41 AM EDT

VENICE, Italy (AP) — The artist and curators representing Israel at this year’s Venice Biennale announced Tuesday 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 in the...

Characters enter the public domain. Winnie the Pooh becomes a killer. Where is remix culture going?

Apr. 16, 2024 00:16 AM EDT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The giant stuffed bear, its face a twisted smile, lumbers across the screen. Menacing music swells. Shadows mask unknown threats. Christopher Robin begs for his life. And is that a sledgehammer about to pulverize a minor character's head? Thus unfolds the...

A judge blocks the demolition of a groundbreaking Iowa art installation

Apr. 09, 2024 12:09 PM EDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A federal judge has temporarily blocked plans to remove a nationally known outdoor artwork that borders a pond in a Des Moines city park, finding the New York artist who created the work is likely to succeed in her argument that destroying the work would violate her...

Demolition of groundbreaking Iowa art installation set to begin soon

Apr. 03, 2024 14:55 PM EDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Crews could begin ripping out a groundbreaking art installation bordering a Des Moines pond as early as next week under plans announced by a local art museum Wednesday, saying the artwork is hazardous and would be too expensive to repair. City officials gave...

Morocco hosts one of Africa’s first exhibitions of Cuban art, a milestone for Afro-Cuban painters

Apr. 03, 2024 03:52 AM EDT

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — When Morocco 's King Mohamed VI visited Havana in 2017, Cuban-American gallery owner Alberto Magnan impressed him with a “full immersion” in the Caribbean island's art and culture, drawing a line between the cultural and historical themes tackled by Cuban artists and...

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

Mar. 29, 2024 18:21 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — Doris Kearns Goodwin, Laurie Anderson and the president of the Harlem School of the Arts, James C. Horton, are being honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The academy announced Friday that Goodwin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, is receiving a...

Banksy tree mural that sprouted in London is fenced off after apparent vandalism

Mar. 27, 2024 20:36 PM EDT

LONDON (AP) — It was nice while it lasted. An environmentally themed mural by elusive street artist Banksy that appeared last week on a London street has been encased in plastic and surrounded by fencing after an apparent act of vandalism. The work is on a four-story...

Famed American sculptor Richard Serra, the 'poet of iron,' has died at 85

Mar. 26, 2024 22:53 PM EDT

Famed American artist and sculptor Richard Serra, known for turning curving walls of rusting steel and other malleable materials into large-scale pieces of outdoor artwork that are now dotted across the world, died Tuesday at his home in Long Island, New York. He was 85. Considered...

Apollo theater and Opera Philadelphia partner to support new operas by Black artists

Mar. 20, 2024 11:20 AM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — The Apollo theater and Opera Philadelphia announced a five-year partnership Wednesday to support new operas by Black artists. The two organizations collaborated on the New York premieres of Daniel Schnyder’s “Charlie Parker’s Yardbird” in 2016 and Daniel...

A new Banksy mural sprouts beside a cropped tree in London. Many see an environmental message

Mar. 18, 2024 17:26 PM EDT

LONDON (AP) — A new Banksy mural drew crowds to a London street on Monday, even before the elusive graffiti artist confirmed that the work was his. The artwork in the Finsbury Park neighborhood covers the wall of a four-story residential building and shows a small figure holding a...