Weekly
June 4, 2022 • View in browser
It was an eventful week, to say the least. After a man in Paris smeared the Mona Lisa with cake in the name of climate activism, another in Dallas broke into a museum and smashed ancient Greek artifacts. And as authorities seized looted antiquities from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, an investigation opened into possibly fake Basquiats on display at the Orlando Museum of Art. But it wasn't all news about mischief and misdeeds: A "bake-off" at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas will put a smile on your face.
Also this week: rare photographs of Georgia O’Keeffe at the age of 90, a deep dive into Winslow Homer’s “The Gulf Stream,” Donald Evans's postal stamps of fictional countries, and a lot more.
And if you're planning to go see some art this weekend, check out our selection of recommended shows in New York and Los Angeles this month. Stay safe and have a great weekend.
— Hakim Bishara, interim editor-in-chief
Become a member today to support our independent journalism.
Your support helps keep our reporting and criticism free and accessible to all.
Winslow Homer, "The Gulf Stream" (1899), oil on canvas, 28 1/8 x 49 1/8 in. (courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art)
The Unseen Depths of Winslow Homer’s “The Gulf Stream”
Mark Dery expands on seeing Homer’s masterpiece through the lens of colonialism, imperialism, and race.
It’s hard to imagine Homer looking at a Black man adrift in a sea of horror at the turn of the 19th century, a period which historians regard as the nadir of race relations in this country, and seeing nothing but the river beneath the sea.
Conversely, the Gulf Stream is the last thing on our minds when we look at Homer’s painting.
SPONSORED
NEWS THIS WEEK
“Untitled (Self-Portrait or Crown Face II)” (1982), a work on view at the Orlando Museum of Art (used with permission from the Orlando Museum of Art)
The FBI investigates the authenticity of 25 Basquiat works on display at the Orlando Museum of Art.
21-year-old Brian Hernandes breaks into the Dallas Museum of Art and smashes over a million dollars worth of ancient Greek art.
A climate activist disguised as a woman in a wheelchair smears the Mona Lisa with cake.
The Blanton Museum's annual bake-off asks competitors to recreate collection artworks as cakes.
Artist Magnus Juliano was the target of threatening comments after police called for the removal of his painting from the Cincinnati Art Museum.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office seized five allegedly looted antiquities worth over $3 million from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
WHAT TO SEE IN NYC & LA THIS MONTH
Ernesto Neto, “lifecommunity” (2022) (image courtesy the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery)
Summertime is here at last and — while this may be one of the hottest years on record — New York’s arts organizations are maintaining their cool. This month’s highlights include colossal sculptures along the East River, spectral ceramics in a South Brooklyn cemetery, and more.
From shows that spin tales of fantasy and meditate on the image to artists that point to under-examined histories of California, fall in love with Los Angeles all over again this month.
SPONSORED
Onassis Stegi Returns to Pedion Areos Park With Plásmata: Bodies, Dreams, and Data
These site-specific installations in Athens invite visitors to explore how technology continues to shape, affect, and impact the human experience. Learn more.
ARTISTS IN A NEW LIGHT
Malcolm Varon, "Georgia O'Keeffe at Ghost Ranch, Pedernal in Background" (1977) (image courtesy Georgia O'Keeffe Museum)
Georgia O’Keeffe at 90 in Color
Photographer Malcolm Varon’s 1977 portraits, on view at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, are some of the only images of the artist late in her life.
Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings are vast and generous offerings of color, but the artist herself is remembered in black and white.
Marta Minujín with her sculptures from Eróticos en Technicolor (Erotica in Technicolor) in her Paris studio in 1963 (© Marta Minujín Archive)
Marta Minujín Looks Ugliness Right in the Face
Valentina Di Liscia on Born of Informalismo: Marta Minujín and the Nascent Body of Performance at the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art.
Minujín’s foray into Informalismo was not just a phase — though transient, it was foundational, paving the way for the Pop interventions, environments, and happenings she is best known for today.
Mary Beth Edelson Celebrated the Goddess Within
Ela Bittencourt on Mary Beth Edelson: A Celebration at David Lewis Gallery.
Commemorating the Life of Christina Yuna Lee
Isabel Ling on with her voice, penetrate earth’s floor at Eli Klein Gallery.
OBJECTS & PLACES, RECONTEXTUALIZED
Terry Adkins, “Matinee” (2007-13) (© 2022 The Estate of Terry Adkins / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York. Photos by Steven Probert)
Terry Adkins’s Objects of Wonder
Gregory Volk on Terry Adkins at Paula Cooper Gallery.
Adkins’s expansive, idea-driven, multimedia oeuvre showcases his transformative and supremely sensitive use of found objects in sculptures, as well as his lifelong engagement with music and musical instruments, his deep absorption with history, and his frequent invocation of crucial African American historical figures.
A Travelogue of Imaginary Lands in Stamps
John Yau on Donald Evans: Philatelic Counter at Tibor de Nagy.
Kevin Beasley Threads Wires That Connect Los Angeles With the South
Noah Simblist Kevin Beasley: On Site at Regen Projects.
IN THE STUDIO
Studio of Alberto Hamonet, Davis, California
A View From the Easel
This week, artist studios in the Hudson Valley, New Hampshire, California, and New York City.
MORE FROM HYPERALLERGIC
From Showing Up (2022), dir. Kelly Reichardt (image courtesy Cannes Film Festival)
Kelly Reichardt Probes What Keeps Artists from Doing Work
Sophie Monks Kaufman reviews Showing Up, which features Michelle Williams as a sculptor who’s constantly driven to distraction.
The World of Music Video Is Finally Adopting Restoration Efforts
Andrew Northrop highlights how the digitization of music videos on film reveals fascinating artifacts in the original materials.
Required Reading
This week, abolishing recommendation letters, Kim Kardashian opens up about eating poop, the queerness of Wonder Woman, and a lot more.
Opportunities in June 2022
From The Bennet Prize and VH Award to residencies at Loghaven and Center for Craft, our monthly list of opportunities for artists, writers, and art workers.
NEW IN OUR STORE
Tom of Finland "Day and Night" Recycled Tote Bag
Business in the front, party in the back! Rep your art history knowledge and your Pride with this sultry tote bag, which features an iconic illustration by Tom of Finland.
Check out more artfully designed bags & totes!
FROM THE ARCHIVE
Glimpses of queer life from across the US and around the world, from M. Sharkey's illuminating photographs to intimate portraits of Japan's LGBTQ community.
M. Sharkey, “Chanel” (2007) (Little Havana, FL) (courtesy the artist)
M. Sharkey’s Luminous Photos of Queer Kids in the US
Alexander Chee highlights how M. Sharkey’s photographs illuminate his subjects from within.
It is almost like the light of legends, the light we see in paintings of gods and biblical scenes, an unvarying light that seems ideal and impossible. But for belonging to Sharkey’s photos, I think of it as his, a light found in the way his subjects participate with him in being seen by him — and seen through him, seen in turn by the world.
