Contemporary Art Criticism, Interviews, Essays and Visual Politics
Art scandal stories show how the art world really works. In this category I track art scandal cases across contemporary art. You’ll find timelines, key documents, and clear sources. I focus on power, money, and reputation. I also track who gets protected, and who pays.
Expect posts on censorship, plagiarism, fraud, and conflicts of interest. You’ll also see cases about abuse, harassment, and toxic leadership. I examine PR spin and crisis management. I look at how museums, galleries, fairs, and collectors shape outcomes. I follow legal moves when they matter. I also read the online afterlife of each art scandal. Social platforms can surface facts fast. They can also amplify noise.
I treat scandal as evidence, not entertainment. I connect single events to larger patterns. Those patterns include gatekeeping, branding, funding, and governance. Use this archive to spot recurring tactics. Track how language shifts in press releases. Notice how institutions delay, deny, or deflect. If you want informed critique, start here. Read the newest posts first. Then explore the key cases through internal links and related tags. Watch what changes after the headlines fade.
Lynda Benglis in her advertisement (November 1974) From Michelangelo’s Fig Leaf to Instagram: How We Automated the Censorship of the Body We did not abolish the fig
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Banksy’s mural with the Royal Courts of Justice visible in the background, London, 2026. The setting is integral to the work, placing Banksy’s intervention in direct dialogue with the physical and symbolic architecture of British justice. Photo: ARTnews Japan. When an Illegal Artwork Becomes Part of the History of the Wall Britain has spent more than £85,000 dealing with
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French-American avant-garde artist Marcel Duchamp playing a game of chess against 19-year-old writer and model Eve Babitz. Shot by photojournalist Julian Wasser on the morning of October 18, 1963, at the Pasadena Art Museum during Duchamp's landmark retrospective. In 1963, Eve Babitz sat naked across a chessboard from Marcel Duchamp after being excluded from the opening of his
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Frida Kahlo photographed by her father, Guillermo Kahlo. The Gelman Collection, a disputed export permit and the growing distance between private ownership and cultural memory The Gelman Collection,
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Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection, Brooklyn Museum, 1999–2000. Photo Brooklyn Museum, via Wikimedia Commons. Young British Artists: shock was only the surface The Young British Artists, usually shortened to YBAs, were not a movement
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Venice Biennale 2026 - In Minor Keys At the Venice Biennale 2026, the scandal did not stay outside the exhibition. It entered the voting system, the pavilions,
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Pyotr Pavlensky, Seam. Courtesy l'artista. Photo Maxim Zmeyev Questions on Power, Silence, and Tamed Art From Putin’s Russia to France, and from there to a Europe that prefers
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Pussy Riot at Biennale in Venice 2026 The dissident collective led by Nadya Tolokonnikova said they had repeatedly attempted to open a dialogue with Pietrangelo Buttafuoco in
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Damien Hirst - The Kaleidoscopes: Harlequin When Scandal Becomes a Medium From sharks in formaldehyde and butterfly rooms to toy copyright lawsuits and diamond skulls, this
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Salvador Mundi How a lost Leonardo, a predator’s emails, and a Florida mansion redraw the map of power in the art world
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