On 23 March 2018 the Van Gogh Museum opened ‘Van Gogh & Japan’, a major international exhibition about the influence of Japanese art on the work of Vincent van Gogh. With some sixty paintings and drawings by Van Gogh and a large selection of Japanese prints, the exhibition explores the extent of Van Gogh’s admiration for this form of art and the fundamental impact it had on his work. Exceptional loans from museums and private collections all over the world are coming to Amsterdam, among them Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889, The Courtauld Gallery, London), a painting that has not left the UK since 1955 and has not been shown in the Netherlands since 1930. Other highlights include Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait (1888, Harvard Art Museums/ Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA), Woman Rocking the Cradle (Augustine Roulin) (1889, The Art Institute of Chicago), Undergrowth with Two Figures (1890, Cincinnati Art

The discovery in 2003 sparked international intrigue — a tiny, mummified skeleton with an alien-like head, tucked into a leather pouch found behind a church in the Atacama desert of Chile. The notion that it was an extra-terrestrial was long ago debunked, but researchers said Thursday they have gleaned new insights from a full genetic analysis of the skeleton, nicknamed “Ata.” It belonged to an infant girl with a handful of rare gene mutations linked to dwarfism, deformities and apparent premature aging, said the study in Genome Research. Experts have said previously the bones appeared to belong to someone between the ages of six and eight, but this advanced wear on the bones was likely a consequence of the child’s deformities, not a reflection of her actual age. In fact, the study said she likely didn’t live long, and may have been born premature.

“Given the size of the specimen and the severity of the mutations… it seems likely the specimen was a pre-term birth,” said the stu

The Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung presents a very special guest from 22 March to 26 August 2018: William Kentridge (b. 1955) brings his works into dialogue with the collection of the Frankfurt museum, which spans five thousand years. Conceived as a comprehensive exhibition showing over eighty works and installations, “William Kentridge. O Sentimental Machine” exemplifies the whole range of the South African artist’s oeuvre. Kentridge has made an international name for himself with his drawings, films, and theatre and opera productions. Already featured in solo exhibitions in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Albertina in Vienna, and the Louvre in Paris, as well as in opera productions at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Scala in Milano, the Salzburg Festival, or Documenta, his production as an artist is fundamentally interdisciplinary and combines different media and genres. Staged by Sabine Theunissen and

From March 21 to May 27, 2018, the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt is presenting an extensive exhibition on the political art of the present day. Based on a wide variety of different media, such as installations, photography, drawing, painting, and film, Power to the People: Political Art Now takes stock of contemporary positions that can be read as seismographs of political activity. Democracy appears to be in crisis, the era of post-democracy has already dawned. The symptoms are manifold: populist leaders, fake news, autocratic backlash, totalitarian propaganda, and neoliberalism. For some time, however, society has also been experiencing the path of the art’s return to the political—a re-politicization is palpable. Images of demonstrations in the media have shaped public perception in recent years: waving flags, posters, or banners on streets and squares, at the Women’s March, in anti-Brexit campaigns, or in Occupy actio