Art World Weekly Digest — Early October 2026

3 hours ago

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Hey friends,

October is here and the art world is opening big shows everywhere. This week we've got manga in Brooklyn, a power couple at the Met, a Van Gogh with a price tag that made me sit down, and a food diary that won $100,000. Grab your coffee (or your cauldron) and let's go.

Manga takes over Brooklyn

Araki Hirohiko, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 4 Diamond is Unbreakable (1993). © Hirohiko Araki & LUCKY LANDCOMMUNICATIONS/Shueisha. Via The Art Newspaper.

Art of Manga opened at the Brooklyn Museum on Oct 3 and runs through Jan 31, 2027, with more than 600 original drawings, fresh from a run at San Francisco's de Young Museum. As The Art Newspaper reports, the loans include the original final page of Chiba Tetsuya's Ashita no Joe, and one curator says some of these works may not leave Japan again "for decades, if ever." Best detail: cosplay is officially "encouraged," and the cloakroom has been temporarily renamed the "cos check." I love it here.

Krasner and Pollock, side by side at last

Left: Jackson Pollock's Easter and the Totem (1953); right: Lee Krasner's Rising Green (1972). Both: © 2026 Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Via The Art Newspaper.

Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous opened Oct 4 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with more than 120 paintings, works on paper and ephemera. According to The Art Newspaper, it's the Met's first major exhibition devoted to either artist, and the first show to present their full careers side by side. The curators make a strong case for Krasner as a powerhouse in her own right, including her "unseen labour" securing Pollock's legacy after his death. On view through Jan 31, 2027.

A Van Gogh aiming for the record books

Sotheby's will auction Van Gogh's Blossoming Chestnut Trees (May 1890) in New York on Nov 18, with an estimate in the region of $180 million before fees (about $207 million with the buyer's premium). Martin Bailey at The Art Newspaper notes the current auction record for the artist is $117 million, and since the painting is guaranteed, a new record looks likely. It was last exhibited in 1964, and before the sale it tours Taipei (Oct 5 to 6), Hong Kong (Oct 13 to 15) and New York (Nov 7 to 17).

A sketchbook food diary wins ArtPrize

"Sketchdiet: A Year of Drawing Everything I Ate" by Kristin Pennock displayed at DeVos Place Convention Center for ArtPrize (Oct. 3, 2026). Via WOOD TV 8.

East Lansing artist Kristin Pennock won the $100,000 public vote grand prize at ArtPrize 2026 in Grand Rapids for "Sketchdiet: A Year of Drawing Everything I Ate," drawn across nine 24-foot accordion sketchbooks. WOOD TV 8 reports that the juried grand prize, also $100,000, went to first-time ArtPrize artist Robert Horvath for a walk-in room made of hand-painted and cut watercolor on paper. And for the first time, the winning entry will be digitized and sent into orbit on a satellite. Space snacks! (Leanoreween friends, consider this your sign that a daily drawing habit really adds up.)

Mary Cassatt gets her Paris moment

The Musée d'Orsay opens Mary Cassatt: Being Independent on Oct 6 (yes, today!), running through Jan 31, 2027, to mark 100 years since the artist's death. The show gathers nearly 80 paintings, pastels and prints, and the museum points out that France's national museums have never before devoted a major exhibition to her.

Looking ahead

Frieze London and Frieze Masters, The Regent's Park, London, Oct 14 to 18, with an invitation-only preview on Oct 14. Details on the Frieze FAQ page.
Art Basel Paris, Grand Palais, Oct 23 to 25, bringing 211 exhibitors from 41 countries and territories to its fifth edition, per Art Basel.