Digital Issues
Each quarter, ARTnews presents a digital issue devoted to a defining topic in the art world—whether it’s the rise of artificial intelligence, the reassessment of movements like Surrealism, or the evolving politics of restitution and repatriation. We also produce themed issues tied to heritage months, such as Black History Month and Pride, spotlighting the artists, histories, and ideas that have shaped culture across generations. These focused editions offer a space to explore, challenge, and shape the conversations that matter most in art today.
2025 Year in Review
2025 was a rough year any way you slice it: an unstable economy, ravaging climate disasters, the return of President Trump to the Oval Office—and all the chaos that entails—and a viciously divided political climate sporadically punctuated by previously unthinkable violence.
Narrow the focus to the art world and none of those pressures disappear. In fact, perhaps more than ever, the art world seemed intertwined with all of them. The Los Angeles fires were most destructive in neighborhoods where both collectors and artists live; the Trump administration made one of its signature policy planks bringing US museums and arts institutions to heel; advancements in AI technologies swept through creative industries first; and even the particular flavor of market volatility brought on by widespread tariffs seemed tailor-made to upend a globalized art market.
ARTnews is taking stock of this exhausting—but not entirely hopeless—year to showcase the artworks with lasting impact and the trends that defined the year, and to offer a view of what to expect in 2026.
Pride Month
Pride Month, celebrating LGBTQ+ pride, is observed in the United States each June. From now until the end of the month, ARTnews will be publishing a series of articles—including profiles, exhibition roundups, and interviews—honoring the cultural contributions made by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer artists and their communities.
Art in the 21st Century
With the 21st century now at the quarter point, ARTnews and Art in America have taken the opportunity to pinpoint the greatest artworks of the past 25 years. Together, the editors assembled a list of the 100 best pieces of the century so far—a task made that much more difficult by the restless creativity of artists during this period. Over the next few months, to complement the list, we’ll also be publishing essays that look back at some of the trends and movements that have defined the art of the 21st century so far.
Women’s History Month
Each March, Women’s History Month is celebrated in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. From now until the end of the month, ARTnews will be publishing a series of articles highlighting the achievements of women artists from these countries, including a guide to iconic feminist artworks, essays on pathbreaking Indigenous women artists, and discussions of what it means to be a feminist today.
Black History Month
Black History Month has been celebrated in the United States since 1970. Despite the current administration’s shifting stance on honoring this and other commemorative months, ARTnews is celebrating the significant cultural contributions of African American artists. Throughout the month of February, we will be publishing a series of articles highlighting their achievements.
Year in Review
In 2024, the chickens came home to roost, so to speak, for the art world. After a series of ruptures and scandals last year, 2024 was a year of restructuring, “correction,” and redress.
The art market suffered its worst performance in years amid geopolitical strife, uncertainty over the US presidential election, and high interest rates. Layoffs swept through the industry, from blue-chip galleries to auction houses, and economic challenges hit small and mid-size galleries hard, with many closing. In Germany, the US, and the UK, the cultural sphere became a constant site of activism over Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon. Meanwhile, the Whitney Biennial and the Venice Biennale opened with shows that signaled major shifts in representation, methods, and subject matter than editions past.
ARTnews is taking stock of this turbulent year to showcase the artworks with lasting impact and the trends that defined the year, and to offer a view of what to expect in 2025, which looks to be no less eventful.
Latinx Heritage Month
From September 15 to October 15 each year, the United States celebrates the country’s Latinx people. Latinx artists are among the many creatives who have contributed and are contributing to the US’s rich cultural and artistic past, present, and future. Over the course of the month, ARTnews will publish a series of articles highlighting their achievements.
Though the month is officially called National Hispanic Heritage Month, ARTnews has opted instead to call it Latinx Heritage Month to conform with its in-house style, which is to refer to people of Latin American descent living in the United States as US Latinx.
Artificial Intelligence & the Art World
Over the next two weeks, ARTnews will sort out the hype around AI from the reality, talking to artists, technologists, institutions, and market players about tech’s growing entwinement with the art world.
Last year, artificial intelligence and its associated tools—Chat GPT-4, image-generators like Midjourney and DALL-E, and more—swept through the art world, leaving new creations in their wake, as well as a trail of destruction. This year has been an inflection point in the development of AI. Copyright lawsuits filed by artists are progressing through the courts, major institutions are commissioning or exhibiting AI works, new artists are using AI to critique or reflect contemporary society, and ever more advanced tools are heading to market. The bleeding edge of the future appears to be here.
Impressionism & Surrealism, Revisited
One hundred fifty years ago, on April 15, 1874, the photographer Nadar invited a group of painters, many rejected by the jury of the official Paris Salon, to display their works in his former Paris studio. The previous year, 22 of these artists had formed a cooperative society, the Société des artistes peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs, et lithographes; by the time of the show their number had swelled to 31 and included Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Berthe Morisot, Edgar Degas, and Paul Cézanne. Featuring Monet’s Impression, Sunrise (1872)—a gauzy study of the Le Havre port at dawn that would later give its name to a movement—the exhibition was the first of its kind to showcase a new type of painting marked by contemporary subject matter and loose, bold brushwork.
Meanwhile, this October will mark 100 years since the 1924 debut of the Surrealist Manifesto, or rather manifestos, as two were published within weeks of each other, the first by French-German poet Yvan Goll and the second by French poet and critic André Breton, who would become Surrealism’s de facto leader.
Welcome to the New Era of Restitution and Repatriation
Over the last several years, countries in the Global South, from Nigeria to Mexico, have pursued the return of treasures looted by colonizers with renewed vigor, while some European governments have passed laws or formed new agreements to disband portions of their national collections. If art and artifacts in museums like the Louvre or the British Museum are the symbols of a bygone era, it appears that former colonial powers are begining to use them to make symbolic amends for transgressions long past.
In the United States, meanwhile, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has made it its mission to seize looted artifacts and bring antiquities collectors and dealers to heel. And, after the US government adjusted regulations around Indigenous artifacts and remains, museums are scrambling to be compliant.
