Ben Lewis
@theuniversalben.bsky.social
Telling stories about art within the bigger picture of soc, econ and pol. Last Leonardo, Art Bust, Art Safari – Books. Podcasts. Documentaries www.benlewisprojects.com #arthistory
What a terrible shameful decision it is to cancel eccentric genius Galliano’s Met Show. How pathetic this cancel culture is. So he talked some racist crap 15 yrs ago. He apologised, he’s been as good as gold since then. What ever happened to forgiveness? www.theguardian.com/fashion/2026...
Met Gala exhibition honoring John Galliano is cancelled after backlash
Fashion designer was convicted of hate crime by French court in 2011 after series of racist and antisemitic remarks
theguardian.com
RIP the dottiest contemporary artist of them all www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Yayoi Kusama, Japanese artist who became a global superstar, dies aged 97
From the 1950s to the 2020s, Kusama produced vivid paintings, sculptures and vast installations that often drew on her experience of hallucinations
theguardian.com
Seems like female artists can also ‘objectify’ the female body! Is this ‘the female gaze’? www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/08/12/t...
The author of a new book on Lavinia Fontana’s erotic art reveals all
The Italian scholar Enrico Maria dal Pozzolo tells us about new discoveries and why the Bolognese painter was an innovator in her field
theartnewspaper.com
My theory is that Trump was pranked by disgruntled secret service agents. There was no credible threat from Iran
Way i see it - 3 is a hatrick. They must know something we don't.
I admit it, I am a massive succailure. I invented this new word - succailure - in a new podcast, because it seemed the only way to explain the ups and downs of my career in docos and art. Maybe I am not the only one? #succailure See my new podcast @storycopodcast
George Callaghan (b.1941 Northern Ireland) Path to the Harbour. Acrylic on canvas.
And how many Netflix documentaries also are about a murdered woman? Something I have long wondered and felt uncomfortable about www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...
Nine out of ten bestselling novels in UK have one thing in common: a woman is murdered
Author Wendy Jones highlighted the trend in an Instagram post: ‘What is going on here?’
theguardian.com
Ben’s Jazz House A playlist I have been compiling for ten years @listigeplaylists.bsky.social open.spotify.com/playlist/2T8...
Ben's Jazz House
Playlist · Ben Lewis · 585 items · 9 saves
open.spotify.com
Finally someone’s nailed the Aboutaams and Phoenix Fine Art! Quite breathtaking antiquities trafficking sleuthing from Erin Thompson @artcrimeprof.bsky.social hyperallergic.com/why-do-so-ma...
Why Do So Many Museums Hold a Convicted Antiquity Dealer’s Treasures?
After The Met returned a Roman bust connected to Phoenix Ancient Art, the question of what will happen to other works sold by the gallery to dozens of US institutions remains open.
hyperallergic.com
Happy 100TH BIRTHDAY to the king Mel Brooks, who wore a fake extra finger to his handprint ceremony🥳🎂🥳
#Starmer is to #Burnham as Smith was to #Blair. Discuss #makerfield
Joe Hage funds Hepworth show at Courtauld. Surely a gambit to add Hepworth Estate to his portfolio of clients incl. estates of Sir Brian Clarke, Zaha Hadid and Francis Bacon + living artists Hirst and Richter. www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/06/11/i...
Influential art world figure Joe Hage moves from the shadows to take top billing
The founder of Heni art services is behind a major Barbara Hepworth show at London's Courtauld Gallery
theartnewspaper.com
RIP David Hockney (19372026), grumpy exponent of a pretty kind of beauty and 20th-century modernist in tune with the isms of 100 years ago #davidhockney unherd.com/2026/06/davi...
David Hockney's defiant pleasure
unherd.com
The absolutely incredible Mercado Abelardo Rodríguez (1934) by Antonio Muñoz, filled with mural work by students and contemporaries of Diego Rivera (and overseen by Rivera himself).
The Sienese forger whom I have been writing a book about, icilio Federico Joni, used Winsor and Newton paint which became one way his fakes could be unmasked
Movies Silently@moviessilently.bsky.social · 5mo agoHand-painted swatches of Winsor & Newton's complete watercolor line circa 1887. Because they were inside a catalog and not exposed to direct light, they look quite vibrant. (With the exception of bronze, which seems to have oxidized.)
From Magnus Resch's art market newsletter: "The art market is up 4% this year. That’s the headline. But zoom out, and nothing has changed. The market is still roughly where it was ten years ago.... 1/2
Pinturicchio, Annunciation, 1501, Santa Maria Maggiore, Spello. My first attempt at AI-ing art history #AIart️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️ #artㅤㅤㅤㅤ #italy #renaissance
Pinturicchio, Annunciation, 1501, Santa Maria Maggiore, Spello. My first attempt at AI-ing art history #AIart️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️ #artㅤㅤㅤㅤ #italy #renaissance
It's a lonely job, but someone's gotta do it. "Lost friendships, professional exile, and a wall of institutional silence: deep inside the lonely battle fought by those who dare to stand up to the art world." plastermagazine.com/features/rub...
Britain's great museums simply cannot afford to continue offering free entry to everyone. Let's put the on a sound financial footing, so they don't lurch from one crisis to another. My latest for @unherd unherd.com/newsroom/bri...
Britons don’t deserve to get into museums for free
One of the last taboos of the British Museum establishment has been broken. Earlier this week, Culture Minister Lisa Nandy proposed that the Government would “explore” the recommendations of a report…
unherd.com
#Artquiz 9. Name the contemporary painters of these two (details of) paintings. Do you think they are by any chance related?
