Libraries are free, open to everyone, filled with knowledge, and possibly one of the last true bastions of democracy.
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April 07, 2025

Good morning. Libraries are free, open to everyone, filled with knowledge, and possibly one of the last true bastions of democracy. Today, as funding for these critical institutions comes under attack, a new book illuminates the life and outsized contributions of Belle da Costa Greene, the cool librarian who established the Morgan Library and Museum’s beloved collection.

Speaking of books, we have a new list of art-related tomes to add to your shelves as the weather warms. And over at Georgia College & State University, a trove of previously unseen paintings and prints by Flannery O’Connor explores the author's not-so-secret life as an artist.

In the news, art historians and scholars pledge to boycott Columbia University over its capitulation to Trump's demands, and the Center for Art and Advocacy opens a new space in Brooklyn. All that and more below.

— Valentina Di Liscia, News Editor

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Art Scholars Pledge to Boycott Columbia University 

Art historians and professors are among the hundreds who signed an open letter denouncing the school’s capitulation to Trump’s demands. | Isa Farfan

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Join Artlogic live on April 11 for expert insights into the 2025 Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report. Clare McAndrew, Daniel Cassady, and Wendy Olsoff will explore key market trends, economic shifts, and collector behavior to help you navigate the year ahead.

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LATEST NEWS

  • Rhode Island’s  federal district court denied a motion to stop the NEA from blocking funds to arts organizations whose projects promote “gender ideology.”

  • Brooklyn welcomes the Center for Art and Advocacy, a new nonprofit for formerly incarcerated artists founded by Jesse Krimes.

EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS

A Celebrated Librarian’s Concealed Life

Known as the “soul of the Morgan,” Belle da Costa Greene established the Morgan Library & Museum’s collection and lived as a “passing” Black woman in the early 20th century. | Alexandra M. Thomas

SPONSORED

Vilcek Foundation to Award $50,000 Prizes to Immigrants in Fashion Fields

Fashion stylists, writers, researchers, curators, image makers, designers, materials innovators, and hair and makeup artists are eligible to apply.

Learn more

A Trove of Unseen Artworks Expands a Writer’s Legacy

Recently discovered paintings, illustrations, and prints by Flannery O’Connor, hidden away for decades, are now on display at the author’s alma mater. | Rhea Nayyar

François Pain’s Art as Salvation

The artist’s avant-garde video works draw from his time working at an experimental psychiatric hospital in the 1960s–70s. | Claudia Ross

BOOKS & MORE

Six Art Books to Read This April

The role of dreams in Latin American art, Gertrude Abercrombie’s homegrown surrealism, essays on Celia Paul, new catalogs and monographs, and more.

Adventures in the Louvre Is the Guidebook Nobody Asked For

Rife with descriptions of “seductive” works, the former New York Times Paris bureau chief’s book reads more like a travel guide than the impartial reporting of a journalist. | Olivia McEwan

FROM THE ARCHIVE

10 Brutalist Architects You Probably Never Heard Of

Owen Hopkins’s The Brutalists is an A-to-Z encyclopedia of blocky concrete and utopian ideals. | Sarah Rose Sharp

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