Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Arte Povera masterpiece is a case of rags and endless riches
There are no fairy-tale endings in the powerful narrative paintings and sculptures on show at the Kunstmuseum Basel
The Reflected Self: Portrait Miniatures, 1540–1850
Compton Verney celebrates what was once one of the most popular art forms in Britain, proving that size really doesn’t matter
Glenn Lowry to step down as MoMA director after 30 years
The museum’s longest serving director is leaving in 2025; plus the artist Rebecca Horn has died at the age of 80, and the Italian culture minister has resigned after hiring his lover as an advisor
Behind the mask – the meaning of masquerade in West Africa
Kevin Dumouchelle of the National Museum of African Art explains what a fearsome 19th-century ceremonial mask meant to its makers in Côte d’Ivoire
Sotheby’s earnings plummet by 88 per cent in first half of year
Plus: open letter criticises Chinese interference in French museums, and Las Vegas is to get an art museum
Acquisitions of the month: August 2024
A Madonna of the Cherries by Quentin Metsys and a very rare sketchbook by Caspar David Friedrich are among the most important works to have entered public collections in the last month
Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers
The two years the artist spent in Arles and Saint-Rémy in the south of France are the focus of this exhibition at the National Gallery in London
Maurice de Vlaminck: Modern Art Rebel
The first exhibition of de Vlaminck’s work in Germany since his death in 1958 demonstrates his remarkable knack for intensely colourful landscapes
Playing with Design: Gameboards, Art, and Culture
The rich visual history of gameboards since the mid 18th century is celebrated in this show, which also highlights how abstract art influenced game design
Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment
An exhibition in Washington, D.C. displays 130 works by the leading lights of Impressionism, and zooms in on how photography shaped the movement
Introducing the Apollo 40 Under 40 Craft
This year’s list celebrates the most talented young people making work that blurs the line between art and craft
Former head of Frieze fairs Victoria Siddall appointed director of National Portrait Gallery
Plus: British museum shortlists five architects for major refurbishment, and the art historian David Anfam has died at the age of 69
The Dance of Life: Figure and Imagination in American Art, 1876–1917
Public commissions during the period known as the American Renaissance focused heavily on the human figure
Mark Bradford: Keep Walking
The American artist’s monumental works, often made from found materials, get a suitably spacious setting at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin
Masterpieces from the Borghese Gallery
Italian Old Masters take up temporary residence at the Jacquemart-André in Paris this month
Surrealism
A century after André Breton wrote the first Surrealist Manifesto in Paris, the avant-garde movement is being celebrated in its home city
Creative Scotland closes its key fund for artists amid government budget freeze
Plus: Staff at the Noguchi Museum stage a walk-out over its dress code; and Alain Delon (1935–2024)
Lee Ufan: Quiet Resonance
At the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, the contemplative Korean sculptor gets his first ever solo show in Australia
Firing the Imagination: Japanese Influence on French Ceramics, 1860–1910
French ceramicists embraced japonisme with open arms, as an exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art demonstrates
Roots
An exhibition in Basel shows how the Russian-born German artist Walter Spies helped shape the art of Bali after moving to the island in the 1920s
Robert Longo
The American artist grapples with history, politics and the natural world through large-scale hyperrealist drawings in Vienna
Stonehenge megalith transported from Scotland, not Wales, study finds
Plus: the British Museum admits that it broke the law; and Kasper König (1943–2024)
In Dialogue with Benin: Art, Colonialism and Restitution
At the Museum Rietberg, an exhibition of objects looted by the British after they invaded Benin City in 1897 asks difficult questions about restitution – but also celebrates the historic kingdom’s rich artistic heritage
Still Performing: Costume, Gesture, and Expression in 19th Century European Photography
An exhibition at the Nelson-Atkins Museum shows how early photographers staged scenes with drama, humour and an eye for composition
The many faces of Mary Magdalene