Gloria Steinem Has Died at 92, Chinese Participants Threaten to Withdraw from Gwangju Biennale, and More: Morning Links for September 3, 2026

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Good Morning!

The Headlines

IN MEMORIAM. Feminist icon Gloria Steinem has died at 92, reports NBC News. “Yesterday, Gloria Steinem passed away peacefully at her home in New York City, surrounded by some of the many who loved her,” stated her official Instagram page today. In addition to her pioneering work advocating for women’s rights and social justice, Steinem also kept deep relationships with women artists, notably including Barbara Nessim, Annie Leibovitz, and Judy Chicago. She first visited the feminist art space WomanHouse in Los Angeles in 1972, founded by Chicago and Miriam Schapiro, and told an audience at a Hammer Museum gala, per The Art Newspaper, that until then “art seemed to be what men did in the European tradition.” From then on, she learned that “women had symbols too,” while also affirming: “I can divide my life into before and after Judy Chicago.”

WHAT’S IN A NAME? Chinese participants have threatened to withdraw from the Gwangju Biennale two days before it starts, in protest of the restored “Taiwan Pavilion” name designating the exhibition by Taiwanese participants, reports The Korea Times. The pavilion’s name was initially altered in promotional materials to reference the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMoFA), but following an outcry from participants who alleged an act of “political censorship” to satiate China, it was returned to its current “Taiwan Pavilion” name. However, the restored “Taiwan Pavilion” title rebuts a “One China” ideology that South Korea is required to respect, according to the Chinese Embassy in South Korea. Unless the international contemporary art exhibition organizers rename the pavilion once again, Chinese participants will reportedly cancel their participation in the China Pavilion, for which they have already stopped preparations.

The Digest

In the latest escalation, a Trump administration letter has threatened to cut federal agency support to the Smithsonian Institution if leaders of the institution don’t denounce an alleged “ideological agenda” in compliance with the current US leader’s political views. [The Washington Post]

Nan Goldin shot an ad campaign for Acne Studios, marking the fashion brand’s 30th anniversary, and including artists Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Peter Schlesinger, and Sandra Poulson, among others. [ARTnews]

Here’s a first look into the much-awaited Lucas Museum of Narrative Artin Los Angeles, and it’s not all about Star Wars. [The New York Times]

Friendly French-UK diplomatic ties were on full display as King Charles and French President Emmanuel Macron jointly visited the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition at the British Museum. [Le Monde]

Maurizio Cattelan gave a wide-ranging interview ahead of a major show at Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie, and observes that right-leaning governments use an old scapegoating strategy to maintain power. “We have always these enemies that are offered to us. They give us problems that probably we don’t have,” he said. [The Guardian]

The Kicker

KUSAMA CONUNDRUM. The last decade of Yayoi Kusama’s life is shrouded in mystery, given the artist’s increasing isolation and poor health. However, that was also one of the most artistically prolific periods of her career, observes Zachary Small for The New York Times, in a story that raises questions about how involved Kusama could have been in making those later works, worth many millions. The story never directly claims that Kusama did not properly oversee her artworks. Still, it nevertheless casts further doubt on how she could have done so while also being mostly bedridden, particularly in the case of a signed and dated 2024 new pumpkin sculpture in Tokyo, or in the making of over 450 handbags and other luxury items through her Louis Vuitton collaboration in 2023. While many artists use assistants to help produce works, it is understood that they closely oversee the process. Her foundation, however, claims that “she remained actively engaged in making paintings from her hospital room” until July.