The Best and Worst of the Art World This Week in One Minute

See what you missed.

Sandro Botticelli Venus
Sandro Botticelli and workshop, Venere (Venus) half body detail. Courtesy Galleria Sabauda, Turin

BEST
Get ready for a blockbuster. Botticelli’s Venus comes to America for the first time as part of an exhibition that will go to museums in Virginia and Massachusetts.

Speaking of blockbusters, Tate Modern let us know this week that a group of sculptures by Alberto Giacometti, reunited for the first time in six decades, will be part of its upcoming retrospective.

Our national art critic, Ben Davis, finds a lot to like in the symbolic headgear of the Women’s March on Washington: the pussyhat.

The art world turned out in force for the march. Here are some of our favorite images from Washington that day.

Christo The River (Project) (Drawing 2010). Photo: Christo and Jean-Claude.

Christo
The River (Project)
(Drawing 2010). Photo: Christo and Jean-Claude.

WORST
Beloved artist Christo is pulling out of a major project in Colorado that he’s been lobbying for for years. The reason? It would need Donald Trump’s approval, and Christo doesn’t want it.

Government blacklists of artists are back in fashion, at least in South Korea, where culture minister Cho Yoon-sun resigned following her arrest for allegedly moving to place artists under surveillance.

It was almost Night at a Museum but in a bad way as a German art lover found herself locked inside one.

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery will temporarily turn out the lights on its beloved Hall of Presidents, just days after the inauguration of a very controversial one. Coincidence?


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