Art Movements: New Curator at the Frick
Aaron Wile will be a senior curator at the institution. Plus, the Venice Biennale announces its full list, and the Bezoses are chairing the Met Gala (yay!).
Art Movements, published every Thursday afternoon, is a roundup of must-know news, appointments, awards, and other happenings in today’s chaotic art world.
Does anyone else remember that Jean-Antoine Watteau exhibition at the Frick Collection in 2016, or am I getting old? If you loved that show, you'll love this news: Aaron Wile, who organized that exhibition when he was a curatorial fellow at the institution between 2014 and '16, has just been appointed John Updike Curator at the Frick, starting on April 6. He's departing from his position as associate curator of French Paintings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, to take the role vacated by Aimee Ng, who became the Frick's chief curator last fall.
Venice Biennale Announces Its Full List
The 61st edition of the venerated international fair, curated by the late Koyo Kuoh and opening on May 9, announced its full list of artists. A brief list of notable names: Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu, American filmmaker Cauleen Smith, Colombian-British artist Carolina Caycedo, Algerian-French artist Kader Attia, and Palestinian painter Mohammed Joha.
Chaos in Paris
Mon Dieu! What's in the water in Paris? Quick recap: Laurence des Cars stepped down as president and director of the Louvre Museum. Christophe Leribault will be taking the job, departing his position as director of the Château de Versailles. As if that wasn't enough movement at the Louvre — which, by the way, is still reeling from that infamous heist last fall and a $12 million ticket-fraud scheme — activists also hung a quite unflattering photo of Prince Andrew's arrest following allegations of his involvement with Jeffrey Epstein's trafficking ring in the institution.
A short walk away, it's more musical chairs in Paris: Annick Lemoine will be the new president of Musée d'Orsay (a position that Leribault previously held), departing from her position as director of the Petit Palais museum (a position that Leribault also previously held). Oh, and Rachida Dati, France's controversial culture minister, is stepping down to run for mayor of Paris (a position that, as far as we know, Leribault hasn't yet held).
What Else Is Happening?
- Indigo Arts Alliance announced the cohort of its 2026 Mentorship Artists in Residency program, which pairs Northeast-based artists with national or international artists. The pairs are: Maya Tihtiyas Attean and Cinthya Briones, Alison Croney Moses and Alisha B Wormsley, Asha Tamirisa and Aisha Seriki, and Funlola Coker and Adebunmi Gbadebo. This year's mini-residency artists — in which eight alumni of the program are re-paired with different artists — are: Danielle Arroyo and Pame Chévez, and Folayemi Wilson and VIVA.
- Corinna Durland was appointed senior director of Kurimanzutto gallery's New York outpost.
- The Estate of Seydou Keïta is now represented by Danziger Gallery in the United States, in collaboration with Nathalie Obadia Gallery in Europe.
- Katayama Mari won the inaugural Mori Art Award Grand Prize.
- Demond Melancon is now represented by Mariane Ibrahim gallery.
- Joshua O’Driscoll was appointed curator and department head of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at the Morgan Library & Museum.
- Elviro Dyangani Ose stepped down as director of Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA).
- Jeffrey Rosen is stepping down as president and CEO of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, to be replaced on an interim basis by Vince Stango.
- Lucía Sanromán and Aimee Harrison will curate the 2027 edition of the Liverpool Biennial, centered on childhood.
Wildcard
Everybody's favorite couple, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, are the honorary chairs of this year's Met Gala, set for May 4. That means they'll be the ones greeting guests at the gates of hell — sorry, we meant The Met's steps — during the annual fundraiser. This might have something to do with their donating an untold (and likely unimaginable) sum to the Costume Institute to become lead sponsors of both the event and the exhibition it accompanies. That exhibition, by the way, is called Costume Art and intends to "reveal the inherent relationship between clothing and the body," which is kind of like a restaurant promising to reveal the inherent relationship between food and the mouth. At the very least, The Met seems mildly ashamed by all this, burying the announcement at the end of a paragraph on the second page of the press release announcing the gala's dress code. Spoiler: It's "Fashion Is Art," a theme that manages to say even less than the exhibition itself.
