One of the most significant African museum openings of 2024 was the Musée des Rois Bamoun, or Museum of the Bamoun Kings, in Foumban, Cameroon. Housing over 10,000 objects, it offers more than 600 years of history in its display of the treasures of the Bamoun kingdom, one of the oldest in sub-Saharan Africa. The...
Art & Style
Aaron Morse’s “The Living World”: A Vibrant Exploration of the American West
For this year’s Miami Art Week, the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) delivered a dazzling spectrum of creativity, presenting works from artists who explored diverse mediums and subjects. From copper woven on canvases to quilted textiles, LED installations, and sediment-textured oil paint, the exhibition offered an eclectic and thought-provoking experience. Among the standout showcases was...
Uncovering the Pigments and Techniques Used to Paint the Berlin Wall
Street art takes many forms, and the vibrant murals on the Berlin Wall both before and after its fall are expressions of people’s opinions. But there was often secrecy around the processes for creating the paintings, which makes them hard to preserve. Now, researchers reporting in the Journal of the American Chemical Society have uncovered information about...
Jaguar’s “Luxury” Rebrand is Being Met With Mixed Opinions
Forbes put it well this week when it stated that Jaguar “unleashed a firestorm” when it introduced the new vision for its brand ahead of its unveiling of its new EV concept car at Miami Art Week on Monday. Putting the design of its Type 00 car aside, the Tata Motors-owned company wiped the slate...
Archaeologists Discovered More than 1,000 Artifacts Beneath Notre Dame Cathedral
After a blaze nearly destroyed Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, archaeologists had a rare opportunity to dig underneath the building’s structure during its five-year renovation and reconstruction, and found more than 1,000 fragments of historical artworks. It would have been unfathomable to dig up the famous cathedral before the fire. However, archaeologists now had the chance per...
A Conversation with Gilles Dyan at Art Miami
Art Miami is more than just an art fair; it’s a convergence of creativity, commerce, and cultural exchange. Among the luminaries present during this year’s event, Gilles Dyan, founder and chairman of Opera Gallery, stood out as a figure of enduring influence in the contemporary art world. Hosting an exhibition, Unveiling Masters in the City,...
Gold Star Medal Taken from an Ethiopian War Hero Surfaces at Auction
The grandchildren of Ras Desta Damtew, an Ethiopian general and noble, are seeking to recover the piece, listed in the online auction catalogue as coming from the estate of an Italian soldier who was present at Desta Damtew’s execution The family of an Ethiopian war hero, Ras Desta Damtew, is seeking to recover his gold...
France Returns Prehistoric Artifacts to Ethiopia in Diplomatic ‘Handover’
A French government official recently said the return of three artifacts to Ethiopia was a diplomatic handover rather than a restitution. On November 30, France‘s foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot handed over two prehistoric stone axes, bifaces, and a stone cutter to Ethiopia’s tourism minister Selamawit Kassa during a symbolic ceremony at the National Museum of Ethiopia in the...
Koyo Kouoh Named Curator of 2026 Venice Biennale
Koyo Kouoh, one of Africa’s most high-profile curators, has been picked to organize the 2026 edition of the Venice Biennale’s, the world’s biggest recurring art exhibition. She will now become the second African-born curator ever to organize the Biennale, and the first to do so since Okwui Enwezor, who made history when he curated the...
Artist Frieda Toranzo Jaeger Says Her Views on Palestine Caused Her to Lose Funding and a Show in Germany
Frieda Toranzo Jaeger, an artist whose work appeared prominently in this year’s Venice Biennale, said that her pro-Palestine views cost her an exhibition in Berlin and a $19,000 stipend associated with it. The stipend was awarded to her earlier this month by the Günther Peill Foundation. As part of the award, Toranzo Jaeger also won...