The Top 10 ARTnews Stories of 2025

While fiber art has grown in importance in recent years—something that Wendy Vogel pointed out in Art in America in 2023—it finally took over the New York art scene this spring. As ARTnews’s Alex Greenberger wrote in May, “Fiber art has begun appearing not only in institutions but also in blue-chip commercial galleries here, allowing it to infiltrate the upper echelons of the market and join the mainstream.” The reason why is a rare alignment of both commercial and critical interests.

In 2025, art increasingly became a political football. Nowhere was that more apparent than in the backlash to a group exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas featuring several photographs by Sally Mann. The artist has spurred controversy dating back to the 1980s for her photographs of her life in rural Lexington, Virginia, which include nude depictions of her underage children. But what’s old is new again, particularly in Texas, where Republican politicians stirred up a storm, characterizing the images as “child porn.” The works were removed from view, then returned to Mann, who went on to warn of government censorship.

Lumin Wakoa, a rising painter whose art was part of a quest to better learn how to see the world around her, died in July at the age of 43. Her husband Hendrik Gerrits wrote on Instagram that she had been battling brain cancer. “She could summon wildlife by sheer force of will – to adventure with Lumin meant swimming with wild dolphins, playing with manatees, and spearing gigantic lobsters,” he wrote. “Most importantly, she was the most loving, joyful, and patient mother. She taught me the daily skill of sitting still to delight in the wonder of our daughters.”

Ever since museum attendance tanked during the pandemic, institutions have had to get creative about how they generate revenue. One major avenue: licensing. While the Metropolitan Museum of Art has pursued an extensive licensing strategy for years, the Museum of Modern Art expanded its efforts in a big way in October with a partnership with Mattel. Expect a Barbie in a Starry Night–inspired gown, along with figurines of Claude Monet and Salvador Dalí, among other toys. At least one can rest easy knowing that Dalí—who never met a way to monetize his art that he didn’t like—would likely have approved.

A story as old as time: a child goes to an art museum and starts touching the paintings. In this case, the child made “small scratches” on Mark Rothko’s Grey, Orange on Maroon, No. 8 (1960) at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. The painting is estimated to be worth $57 million, and museum conservators are working on repairing the painting. One suspects the child, however, will not be able to pay for the repairs with their allowance.

In June, an NSFW picture of Lorde went viral, stirring debate on social media about why the singer chose to bare it all for a special-edition release of her new album, Virgin. But, as ARTnews‘s Alex Greenberger explained, the photograph was by artist Talia Chetrit, who often photographs herself and others in various states of undress to comment on how erotic desire and power influence how we see. This year also saw Art in America dub Chetrit as “the artist on every fashion brand’s mood board.”

In a year full of art world lawsuits, this case filed in August stood out as one of the most high-profile. The granddaughter of actor Steve McQueen sued a South Carolina lawyer over a Jackson Pollock painting valued at $68 million. According to plaintiff Molly McQueen, Steve transferred the painting to “Rudolph and Pamela Borchert, in anticipated exchange for a motorcycle and Latigo Canyon property. However, one of the Borcherts crashed the motorcycle and the property never changed title.” The lawsuit is yet to be settled, so keep an eye on 2026.

It’s not every day that an artist is arrested for creating their art. But that’s what happened in May when Isaac Wright, a former paratrooper known professionally as “Drift,” was charged with criminal trespassing just before the opening of his new show at Robert Mann Gallery. An urban explorer, Mann is known for scaling skyscrapers to shoot his stunning photos, and it was his ascent of the Empire State Building that sent police his way. After he was released, Wright told ARTnews about the arrest, and his efforts to branch out into multimedia art and filmmaking. For Wright, his photos are about more than physical feats of daring. “Which other artists can say that, if they were facing 50 years in prison, that they would continue making their work,” he said. “Clearly, I have something more to say than that I like being on tall things.”

With the 21st Century at the quarter point, the Editors of ARTnews felt that it was the right time to assess the state of contemporary art. After months of debate, the team narrowed down the selections to 100 works that were timely, groundbreaking, or just plain spectacular. And for anyone that has seen the number one pick—Arthur Jafa’s Love Is the Message, The Message Is Death (2016)—it should hardly be a surprise.