3 d. ago Art lovers rejoice: the National Gallery can finally show us when painting really gets exciting | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Curators can now chart the seismic shifts in 20th-century art – and include more works by women and artists of colourSign up for our new weekly newsletter Matters of Opinion, where our columnists and writers will reflect on what they’ve been debating, thinking about, reading and moreOne of my favourite paintings in the National Gallery’s collection technically breaks the rules: Paul Cézanne’s Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses) was painted in the last decade of his life, its date given as about 1894-1905. It was probably finished after the gallery’s cut-off date of 1900, a cut-off the gallery has just announced it will be jettisoning.To say that I am pleased is an understatement. It always struck me as bizarre that the end date occurs just at the exact point in history when painting is about to become very interesting. Just look at the Baigneuses and what they represent: the leap towards abstraction in the representation of the human form; the composition and its unidentifiable, but un...

Politics

5 d. ago London’s National Gallery Will Officially Begin Collecting Artworks Created After 1900

London’s National Gallery Will Officially Begin Collecting Artworks Created After 1900  Smithsonian Magazine

Politics

5 d. ago Radical Harmony at the National Gallery: 'you can have just too many dots'

Radical Harmony looks at collector Helene Kröller-Müller's Neo-Impressionists, in an interesting homage... but there’s no escaping the dots

Politics

6 d. ago One Fine Show: “Millet, Life on the Land” at The National Gallery in London

One Fine Show: “Millet, Life on the Land” at The National Gallery in London  observer.com

Politics

6 d. ago London, a new wing will be built at the National Gallery to expand the collection. Already donated 375 million

London, a new wing will be built at the National Gallery to expand the collection. Already donated 375 million  Finestre sull'Arte

Politics

7 d. ago National Gallery accused of risking ‘bad blood’ with Tate over 20th

Sources say decision to collect ‘modern’ art could have two galleries ‘at each others’ throats’ – but others welcome moveA decision to tear up an agreement between the National Gallery and Tate, which stopped the Trafalgar Square institution from collecting works created after 1900, could create “bad blood” and a situation in which the two galleries are “at each other’s throats”, according to senior sources.The National Gallery announced the shift as part of Project Domani, which involves it receiving £375m of investment for a new wing that will usher in a “new tomorrow” at the 200-year-old institution. Continue reading...

Events

8 d. ago Radical Harmony review – Seurat’s shimmering visions blow away his spotty dotty imitators

National Gallery, London The tradition of neo-impressionism begun by Georges Seurat was radical, even revolutionary, but this po-faced showcase is sadly lacking its joyful dazzleGeorges Seurat had kaleidoscope eyes. He saw in limitless colours, that swarm and bubble on his canvases in galaxies of tiny dots. Choosing random, barren subjects – an empty harbour, a rock – he found endless wonder in the most banal reality. In his 1888 painting Port-en-Bessin, a Sunday, myriad blues and whites create a hazy sky and mirroring water while a railing in the foreground explodes into purple, brown and orange as if it had a lurid spotty disease. Seurat only lived to the age of 31, but he inspired an entire art movement, the neo-impressionists, who copied his “pointillist” method.Yet in a coarse-grained approach to this fine-grained art style, the National Gallery struggles to tell a different story. The neo-impressionists didn’t just paint dots, they dreamed of revolution. And by the way we shou...

Politics

8 d. ago National Gallery to build £375m new wing and lift ban on post

Institution to launch architectural competition after securing huge investment for revamp The National Gallery has lifted its ban on collecting modern paintings made after 1900 as part of a revamp that will include a new wing, made possible after it secured a landmark investment of £375m.A new part of the London gallery will be built behind the Sainsbury building as part of Project Domani– “tomorrow” in Italian – after two donations of £150m each from Michael Moritz’s Crankstart foundation and the Hans and Julia Rausing Trust. Continue reading...

Economics

8 d. ago UK's National Gallery will use $500 million in donations for a new wing and expanded collection

Britain’s National Gallery has announced it will use almost half a billion dollars in donations to open a new wing that will allow it to expand its collection into modern art

Economics

9 d. ago Marilyn Monroe centenary exhibition to feature at National Portrait Gallery

Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait will open at the London gallery in summer next year.

Politics

1 week ago Trump wants to rewrite American history. Maybe he should learn it first | Sidney Blumenthal

The president seeking to overhaul the Smithsonian has a dark vision of the past that he’s using to advance his agendaOf all the presidents, Donald Trump – the man who would remake the Smithsonian and alter its presentation of “how bad slavery was”, as he put it – is surely the most ignorant of American history itself.What Trump doesn’t know fills the Library of Congress, whose chief librarian he has fired, along with driving out the heads of the National Archives and the National Portrait Gallery, as well as dissolving programs of the National Endowment for the Humanities and defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which as a result has paused the acclaimed American Experience documentary series. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Vermeer’s vandal: the untold story of a vicious attack at London's National Gallery in 1968

Vermeer’s vandal: the untold story of a vicious attack at London's National Gallery in 1968  The Art Newspaper

Events

2 w. ago Not just resisting, but leading the fight: five women who refuse to be ignored

Across the world, women at the heart of their communities are leading the struggle to protect their culture, land and way of life“We, the daughters of mother earth have come together to collectively decide what we can do to bring about a world which we would like our children and our children’s children to live in,” so states the Beijing Declaration of Indigenous Women.Adopted in 1995, the document outlined the oppression of women around the world and demanded governments recognise “the social, cultural, economic, and religious rights of the Indigenous peoples in their constitutions and legal systems”. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Want to be a museum influencer? London’s National Gallery launches open call for content creators

Want to be a museum influencer? London’s National Gallery launches open call for content creators  The Art Newspaper

Politics

2 w. ago National Gallery Edinburgh: The heated underground baths once considered for flagship art gallery

Drawings have revealed extra additions that were once considered for the National Gallery in Edinburgh.

Politics

3 w. ago The National Gallery in London dedicates an exhibition to Joseph Wright of Derby and his candlelight paintings

The National Gallery in London dedicates an exhibition to Joseph Wright of Derby and his candlelight paintings  Finestre sull'Arte

Politics

4 w. ago Trump administration to expand review of Smithsonian museums to ‘get Woke out’

Exclusive: White House flagged institutions including those for Latino, African and Asian art for review, document showsAmid the Donald Trump administration’s heavy-handed review of Smithsonian museums, the Guardian has seen a document compiled by the White House that argues the widely visited cultural institutions have overly negative portrayals of US history, from a Benjamin Franklin exhibit that links his scientific achievements to his ownership of enslaved people and a film about George Floyd’s murder that it says mischaracterizes the police.The document, based on public submissions shared with the administration, shows that seven museums have so far been flagged for review: the National Museum of American History, National Museum of the American Latino, National Museum of Natural History, National Museum of African Art, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Museum of Asian Art. Continue reading...

Politics