issue 023: the art of returning

This week in art news, exhibition reviews, and artful stories—from the saccharine & seductive to suffering & surrealism.

Hi artsies,

Another newsletter from the road—today in Paris and later this week in Lisbon! Looking forward to some gallery hopping and will share some of my faves on Instagram.

Today I’m thinking about the sentimentalism of returning to far but familiar places. This week’s reads included a mix of revisiting and newness. Highlights: a crash course in Nigerian Modernism, Tobias Pils’ process, the enigmatic Lee Lozano, and the story behind Hockney’s Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy.

This week, I’m keeping it simple: 3 sections:

• News: Auction highlights, gallery happenings, awards, etc

• Shows: Gallery and museum exhibition reviews & highlights

• Stories: Artist interviews, histories, etc.

Enjoy!

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News

Auctions:

• Sotheby’s to Sell René Magritte Work Bought by Family of Nazi-Executed WWII Resistance Fighter

• Christie’s to Sell More than 70 Works from Arnold and Joan Saltzman Collection, Including $20 M. Léger

• A $45 Million Basquiat Painting Makes Its Auction Debut

• A $4 M. Jean-Michel Basquiat Painting Leads Phillips’ October London Sales

Museums & Biennials:

• Flanders Eliminates Belgium’s First Contemporary Art Museum, Raising Controversy

• National Gallery of Art Closes Amid Government Shutdown

• Title and preliminary list of artists announced for Diriyah Biennale 2026

• Rosana Paulino and Adriana Varejão to Represent Brazil at 2026 Venice Biennale

• Zimbabwe Names Five Artists for Venice Biennale 2026 Pavilion

Fairs & Galleries:

• Art Basel Qatar Lines Up 87 Galleries for Inaugural Edition Next Year

• Frieze Adds Abu Dhabi Art Fair, as Competition in the Gulf Intensifies

• Artist Odili Donald Odita Sues Jack Shainman Gallery

• Almine Rech shuts London gallery and puts UK business into liquidation

• Pace to shut Hong Kong gallery

Awards:

• Cecilia Vicuña Awarded 2025 Roswitha Haftmann Prize

• Four Artists Win 2025 MacArthur Fellowships

Obituaries:

• Moroccan Modernist painter Mohamed Hamidi has died at 84

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Shows

Political perspectives, modernist musings, freaky figurations, and sweet still lifes, absorbing abstractions, iconic impressionism… ok I’ll stop with the alliterations. A great roundup of exhibition reviews and previews below.

A Cosmogram of Holy Views at Ab Anbar Gallery, London through 29 November

Jacques-Louis David at the Louvre through January 26, 2026

Saccharine Idyll at Trotoar Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia through November 8

Monet and Venice at the Brooklyn Museum through February 1, 2026

Wayne Thiebaud: American Still Life at the Courtauld Gallery, London through January 18, 2026

Catching Flies with Honey at Whitechapel Gallery, London through March 1

Nigerian Modernism at Tate Modern through May 10, 2026

Magritte and Les Lalanne: In the Mind’s Garden at Di Donna Galleries, NYC through December 13

Erich Heckel, Neue Galerie, NYC through January 12, 2026

Once Upon a Time at Rose Easton, London through October 25

Sean Scully: Mirroring at the Estorick Collection, London through 23 November

The Magical City: George Morrison’s New York at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through May 31, 2026

Fra Angelico at Palazzo Strozzi and Museo di San Marco, Florence, Italy through January 25, 2025

Peter Doig: House of Music at Serpentine Galleries, London through February 8, 2026

Robert Rauschenberg’s New York: Pictures from the Real World at the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) through April 19, 2026

Liliane Tomasko: POEM THINGS at Nino Mier Gallery, NYC through October 25

Cora Cohen: A Decade: 2012–22 at Greene Naftali, NYC through November 1

Denton Welch at John Swarbrooke Fine Art, London through October 30

Diane Simpson: “Good for Future” at the Art Institute of Chicago through April 19, 2026

‘Shh’ at mumok, Vienna through April 12, 2026

Color Next to Color at James Fuentes, NYC through November 1

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A few artful backstories and histories

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Thanks for reading!

‘til next week,

tld-art