Benjamin Sutton

New York

Editor, Americas at The Art Newspaper

Copy jockey, pun-slinger, and Editor, Americas at @theartnewspaper. Journalist, editor, critic, occasional curator, smothering cat dad and year-round cyclist.

Articles

Whitney Museum pauses Independent Study Program amid accusations of censorship

3 weeks ago | theartnewspaper.com | Benjamin Sutton

The Whitney Museum of American Art announced on Monday (2 June) that it has suspended its highly regarded Independent Study Program (ISP) for the forthcoming academic year. The decision comes amid accusations of censorship from the ISP's current cohort, after the museum cancelled a performance addressing the ongoing war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Trump claims he has fired director of US National Portrait Gallery

4 weeks ago | theartnewspaper.com | Benjamin Sutton

In a post Friday (30 May) on his social media platform Truth Social, US President Donald Trump claimed that to have fired Kim Sajet, the director of the National Portrait Gallery (NPG). His administration will name a replacement for her shortly, he added.
New adhesive for treating paintings and related materials solves safety and supply chain issues

1 month ago | theartnewspaper.com | Benjamin Sutton

Scholars, curators and collectors of historical paintings are breathing a little easier today. A looming crisis in the conservation field caused by the discontinuation of two key ingredients needed to produce a popular adhesive used to line historical canvases has been averted.
Lee Ufan donates eight paintings to Dia Art Foundation

1 month ago | theartnewspaper.com | Benjamin Sutton

The Korean artist Lee Ufan, a leading figure of the abstract art movement Mono-ha, is donating eight of his paintings to the Dia Art Foundation in New York. The works, spanning the 1970s to the 90s, will be featured in a spring 2026 exhibition at the foundation’s complex in Beacon, New York, alongside sculptural installations already in Dia’s collection.
Lucas Museum of Narrative Art lays off 14% of full-time staff

1 month ago | theartnewspaper.com | Benjamin Sutton

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, a $1bn project that has been under construction since 2018 and is expected to open sometime in 2026, has laid off 15 full-time employees and another seven part-time employees. The layoffs represent a 14% reduction in the museum’s full-time staff. A Lucas Museum spokesperson told The Los Angeles Times that the staff reductions were “due to a necessary shift of the institution’s focus to ensure we open on time next year”.
'Halo effect' of two powerful female art dealers’ collections boosts Sotheby’s New York sale

1 month ago | theartnewspaper.com | Benjamin Sutton

Sotheby’s closed out a week of high-stakes evening auctions in New York on Thursday night (15 May) with a successful three-part sale that consistently hit the auction house’s targets. And though there were minimal fireworks, there were also no major flops, no small feat given the macroeconomic uncertainty that has hung over the spring sales amid US President Donald Trump’s global trade war and uncertainties about the tariff regimes, and fears of recession.
Metropolitan Museum receives 6,500 works from photography collector Artur Walther

1 month ago | theartnewspaper.com | Benjamin Sutton

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has received a promised gift of more than 6,5000 works from one of the world’s foremost photography collectors. The German American collector Artur Walther and his Walther Family Foundation will give the institution a trove of works including exceptional post-war and contemporary photography from Africa, Japan, Germany and China, as well as vernacular photos from Europe and the Americas.
Artist Alison Saar wins High Museum’s 20th annual Driskell Prize

1 month ago | theartnewspaper.com | Benjamin Sutton

Alison Saar, the Los Angeles-based artist best known for bravura sculptures that articulate elements of the Black American experience through historic and symbolic imagery, has won the 20th edition of the David C. Driskell Prize. The annual prize, awarded by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, is named for the late artist and curator David Driskell (1931-2020) and alternates each year between honouring an artist and a curator making significant contributions to the field of African American art.
In pictures: Frieze week public art puts Manhattan in the pink

1 month ago | theartnewspaper.com | Benjamin Sutton

As the weather warms, public art projects around New York are putting down roots and blossoming—in some cases literally. In Madison Square Park, Lily Kwong has teamed up with Madison Square Park Conservancy to plant Gardens of Renewal (2025), a two-part installation populated with native and endangered plants, pollinators and herbs. In the Garment District, Steve Tobin has erected New York Roots, a series of monumental steel sculptures of tree roots.
Ten top shows to see in New York during Frieze week

1 month ago | theartnewspaper.com | Benjamin Sutton |Elena Goukassian |Torey Akers |Gameli Hamelo

The first full-scale retrospective on the late great painter and sculptor Jack Whitten (1939-2018)brings together more than 175 works spanning his six-decade career. His large-scale mosaic-like compositions—made from hardened acrylic paint cut into thousands of tiles—figure prominently, as do his mixed-media assemblage sculptures.