Weekly This week we ask many questions, among them: Should Donatello be remembered as a queer artist? Is Judy Chicago’s updated Womanhouse installation inclusive enough? Why is the Met Museum acquiring Indian art with obscure provenance? And what the hell are “blursed” images?
Also, read our reviews of Duke Riley, William T. Wiley, Troy Montes-Michie, Sonia Gechtoff, and many others. Wishing you an interesting weekend. — Hakim Bishara, interim editor-in-chief Donatello, “David Victorious” (1435-40) (Daniel Larkin/Hyperallergic) Donatello’s Queer Glamour
Daniel Larkin dives into Donatello's unorthodox sculptural figures and the relationships between his own body and the bodies of other queer men.At every stage of his career, Donatello pushed the envelope of Christian iconography with unconventional portrayals of the body. His disruptive figures breathed new emotional life into his subjects and their stories. Who is served by denying the gender fluidity and homoeroticism in certain figures? Become a member today to help keep our reporting and criticism free and accessible to all. Become a Member NEWS THIS WEEK Photo of the action on July 22 (all photos courtesy Ultima Generazione) Activists from an Italian climate advocacy group glue themselves to Botticelli’s “Primavera.” The Met acquires a collection of Indian art reportedly rejected by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford over provenance concerns. Louvre Abu Dhabi collection advisors are detained for their potential role in the acquisition of trafficked Egyptian artifacts. Art Against Displacement calls on New York art institutions to reject a luxury development and rezoning plan in Astoria. GameStop takes down tasteless “Falling Man” NFT that evoked a well-known 9/11 image by photographer Richard Drew. EXPLORING JEWISH ART Leonora Carrington, “Leye y Frade” (1974), lithograph on Arches paper, 26 x 19 1/2 inches, edition of 100 (courtesy Mixografia) In 1974, Leonora Carrington created 11 lithographs depicting her costume designs for a theatrical production of S. Ansky’s play The Dybbuk. This suite of prints forms the core of the exhibition… showcasing Carrington’s enigmatic form of Surrealism, which blends various visual and mythological strands from her European background with those of her adopted home of Mexico. A Contemporary Look at Judaica
Isabella Segalovich dives into how artist Zsuzsa Ujj's porcelain works carry handcrafted Hungarian ceremonial Jewish artwork to the 21st century. Dancing to the Borscht Beat
Isabella Segalovich spotlights Aaron Bendich's radio show and his new, independent Yiddish record label. HISTORY AND LEGACY Sonia Gechtoff, "Celestial Red" (1994), acrylic on canvas, 77 3/4 x 78 inches (photo by Guang Xu, courtesy the artist and 55 Walker, New York) Without resorting to arbitrary juxtapositions, her paintings resist reductive readings. That resistance can be read as a metaphor. Like DeFeo and Remington, Gechtoff attained a resonant, independent vision that, in her case, spans seven decades. It is time we look closer at what this marvelous artist achieved. William T. Wiley’s Wild Art Legacy
Daniel Gerwin on Nothing Is to Be Done for William T. Wiley at Parker Gallery. IT'S THE REMIX Installation view of Troy Montes-Michie: Rock of Eye at the California African American Museum (CAAM), Los Angeles, 2022 (photo by Elon Schoenholz) Montes-Michie [sites] the US/Mexico border as his “first experience with the language of collage,” describing it as an amalgamation of “two very separate cultures colliding on every level.” FILM & DOCUMENTARY From The Art of Making It (2021), dir. Kelcey Edwards (all images courtesy Susan Norget Film Promotion) The art world currently faces myriad issues of exploitation, pay inequity, sexism, racism, ableism, and much more, often on multiple intersecting systemic and institutional levels. For those who haven’t been keeping up, the new documentary The Art of Making It serves as a reasonably useful primer on the situation. Different Hong Kong Generations Come Together in Protest Reenactments
Forrest Cardamenis examines how director Chan Tze-woon compares and contrasts contemporary and historical activist movements in Blue Island. MORE ON HYPERALLERGIC Alexander Si's "Sweet Green" (2022) (courtesy the artist) “To mimic this type of whiteness, this type of marketing that’s very attractive to the mainstream appetite, with my own hand as an immigrant to this country — especially with our history of our labor being mostly invisible — I wanted to embed my own labor in it in this insidious way,” Si said. The Patrons Who Sustained Sophie Taeuber-Arp
Karen Chernick reviews a new book that illuminates the invisible tending behind an artist-patron relationship. Required Reading
This week, criticism of New York’s proposed “feminist jail,” activists are losing steam, cultural appropriation parodies on TikTok, and more. IN OUR STORE With all this heat, it’s bound to get a little stinky at some point. Eliminate the stench with this banana-scented air freshener created by our favorite group of masked feminist avengers. Check out more Guerrilla Girls merch! | 