On Monday the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation announced it will commit an unprecedented $250 million to overhaul historical monuments in the US over the next five years. The “Monuments Project,” as the ambitious initiative is called, is the most substantial effort in the foundation’s history. Above: The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. Unveiled in April 2020 and funded in part by the … Read the full Story >>
"Expect the unexpected" might be the mantra for designers, typephiles and artists bound for the 2018 Typographics Festival and Conference at The Cooper Union. Organized by Type@Cooper and The Herb Lubalin Study Center, the 4th edition takes place from June 11 through 21, with an amazing lineup of workshops, tours, demos, interviews and experiments over the 11-day program. Info The highlight of the … Read the full Story >>
“I’m not so interested in the expression of something. I’m more interested in what the material can do. So that’s why I keep exploring,” said artist, educator, and civic leader Ruth Asawa, reflecting on a six-decade-long career. Featuring some 300 artworks, Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective, which opens Sunday, October 19 at the Museum of Modern Art, charts the artist’s … Read the full Story >>
This post was to have been an announcement about the reinstallation of the Noguchi Garden Museum’s second floor to its configuration when the artist lived there, from 1961 to 1988. When looking around for some additional information, however, I came across an intriguing statement by independent curator Glenn Adamson, writing for Hyperallergic: “The Noguchi Museum, in Long Island City, may … Read the full Story >>
Lynda Barry, known and loved for her zany irreverence and imagination, brought the graphic literature genre onto new terrain with her invention, the graphic memoir. In its first iteration, Picture This: The Nearsighted Monkey Book (Drawn & Quarterly 2010), she brought back Marlys and Arna, characters from her previous book, What It Is, and introduced the Near-Sighted Monkey, a cigarette-smoking alter ego from … Read the full Story >>
The New Museum, now in its 40thyear, is known for presenting confrontational art by living artists—the kind of work that is not easily adopted by traditional art museums. In 1990 it produced the exhibition, Have You Attacked America Today?, Erika Rothenberg’s parody of dissent and freedom of speech, complete with flag-burning kits; in 1998 it mounted the first solo show of Colombian artist Doris … Read the full Story >>
To have something that’s beautiful somehow gives me a feeling that approaches immortality. It’s very similar to the act of creating. So Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) is quoted saying for a magazine article in 1978. By that time, the artist had established himself as a photographer, having had his first solo show, at New York’s Light Gallery in 1973. His work was shown at Documenta 6/Kassel in … Read the full Story >>
Wednesday, January 29, 6pm: Beatriz Cortez x rafa esparza: Earth and Cosmos at Americas This exhibition inaugurates a series in which Americas Society invites two artists who are friends and collaborators to jointly explore how they influence each other's work. This new approach shares insight into a vital part of artistic production that is seldom the subject of exhibitions: the conversations … Read the full Story >>
For the last official week of summer, DART looks at the extraordinary Modernist villa, E 1027, perched on a rocky promontory in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, near Saint-Tropez, France. Built in 1929 by the now-legendary designer/architect Eileen Gray as a love nest for herself and the Romanian architect and critic Jean Badovici, the house has become something of an icon for Modernist design and preservation; in design … Read the full Story >>
For photography collectors looking for an auction this week, the place to go is Camera Club of New York's (CCNY) fourth annual benefit. Hosted by Calumet Photographic, the doors open at 6:00 pm this Wednesday at 22 West 22nd Street, NYC. I stopped by last night for a preview and found all hands on deck. Director John Stanley; former board member … Read the full Story >>
The French artist, astronomer and amateur entomologist Étienne Léopold Trouvelot (1827-1895) left his native France in 1855, moving with his wife to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where his two children were born. He supported his family as an artist and nature illustrator, also working as a lithographer. He soon became active with the local scientific community as a member of the Boston Society of Natural … Read the full Story >>
A landmark exhibition on slavery in the Dutch colonial era that was first staged at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum is going on display at the United Nations in New York starting February 27. The show, titled Slavery: Ten True Stories of Dutch Colonial Slavery, will open in the the U.N. headquarters’ visitors’ lobby, as part of a U.N. outreach program on the trans-Atlantic slave trade. … Read the full Story >>
Arte Povera, the primarily Italian art movement that arose during the late 1960s in response to the political turmoil of the time, has remained a force in art that is vividly relevant today. Now a comprehensive overview of the innovative art is being presented by Hauser & Wirth, shedding light on the ideas and motivations of the group of Italian artists jointly known as … Read the full Story >>
Tonight, SepiaEYE Gallery will host a gallery talk with Beatrice Pediconi, in conjunction with her exhibition, Subject to Change. In conversation with Jean Dykstra of Photograph Magazine and Mary-Kay Lombino of the Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, the artist will discuss the evolution of her work and process. I stopped in to the gallery last week for a preview, and met the … Read the full Story >>
In Our Time: Eleven Artists + W.E.B. Du Bois at Pratt Manhattan Contemporary artists reflect on the legacy of one of the most profound and influential African American intellectuals of the 20th century and on the impact that Du Bois has had on their work in this new exhibition. Works by a diverse range of artists—from Derrick Adams to Carrie Mae Weems to Theaster Gates—offer aesthetic contributions … Read the full Story >>
The worlds of Latino/Latinx culture, both high and low, are gaining overdue recognition in museums and art galleries in the US. From no existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria, curated by Marcela Guerrero, at the Whitney; to the steady flow of exhibitions and events at Americas Society; to Lives of the Gods: … Read the full Story >>
“A Man who Stands for Nothing Falls for Anything.” —Malcolm X “Love’s the only engine of survival,” —Leonard Cohen “When they go low, we go high.”—Michelle O “I will peacefully resist.”—Anonymous These are just a few of the sentiments posted in the corridors of New York’s subways in the days following the unexpected victory of president-elect Donald Trump. When it became evident that fewer than … Read the full Story >>
Flying Couch, Amy Kurzweil’s debut graphic memoir, tells the stories of three unforgettable women. Amy weaves her own coming-of-age as a young Jewish artist into the narrative of her mother, a therapist, and Bubbe, her grandmother, a World War II survivor who escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto by disguising herself as a gentile. Captivated by Bubbe’s story, Amy turns to her sketchbooks, teaching … Read the full Story >>
Spur, the design and illustration studio of Dave Plunkert and Joyce Hesselberth, is re-launching its gallery this weekend with a show of 100 heads by a stellar roster of artists who are participating by invitation. The idea for the show came about after the January earthquake as a way to raise money for the relief effort. "At a recent production meeting," said Joyce, "Dave … Read the full Story >>
Tomorrow, The Met re-opens its David C. Rockefeller wing following a complete re-envisioning of its collections of the Arts of Africa, the Ancient Americas, and Oceania. Featuring over 1,800 works spanning five continents and hundreds of cultures, these three major world traditions stand as independent entities in a wing that is in dialogue with neighboring gallery spaces. The galleries have been closed to the public and under … Read the full Story >>
