Weekly

October 2, 2021 • View in browser

This week we all needed a laugh, and Jens Haaning’s decision to take a museum’s money and conceptually “run” ignited laughter and conversation around the world (though we’re still dying to know how this saga will end, as the museum is still expecting for the money to be returned). What would you do? I’m actually undecided, though I do think Haaning just gave the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art a huge gift with the related publicity (definitely worth more than the roughly $84,000 they paid him), not to mention the fact that we’ve all now finally heard of that place (I’m dying to visit). I think this project may be something we’ll be talking about for years to come.

Other stories in this edition you shouldn’t miss include artist Carrie Mae Weems’s visual response to Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come,” a report on not one but TWO mermaid museums that have come ashore in the US, and reviews of Philip Guston, Chakaia Booker, New Time: Art and Feminism in the 21st Century, and much more.

Also, our picks for what to see this month in New York and LA.

— Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief 

Jens Haaning, Take the Money And Run (2021) (Courtesy the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art)

Danish Artist Runs Away With Museum’s Cash and Calls It Art
Hakim Bishara covers Jens Haaning's incredible reaction to the low fees offered to him by the commissioning museum.

Finding Zinat Mahal, the Last Dowager Empress of Mughal India
Rijuta Megta raises questions of consent in an analysis of a rediscovered photograph.

Carrie Mae Weems’s Visual Response to Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come”
An excerpt from Ways of Hearing: Reflections on Music in 26 Pieces.

NEWS THIS WEEK

The Mermaid Museum in Berlin, Maryland (courtesy Alyssa Maloof)

• Both self-funded women-led projects, two separate mermaid museums emerge at opposite ends of the United States.

• Kerry James Marshall will design new windows for the National Cathedral, replacing formal panels that commemorated two Confederate generals.

• Writer Rona Akbari and artist Aishwarya Srivastava initiate a print sale fundraiser to support Afghan nationals facing illness and starvation.

• The right-wing leader of Madrid laments the Indigenous movement as an “attack against Spain.”

WHAT TO SEE THIS MONTH IN NYC & LA

New York: Arts organizations offer up a cornucopia of compelling exhibitions and performances this month, from MoMA PS1’s quinquennial survey to a presentation of the late Winfred Rembert’s intricately tooled leather paintings.

Los Angeles: Artists uncover the biases of AI, a show mines Japanese animation beyond manga, and two solo shows spotlight local artists June Edmonds and Pippa Garner.

LATEST IN ART

Philip Guston, The Studio (1969), oil on canvas, 48 x 42 inches (© The Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy the Estate and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Genevieve Hanson)

Philip Guston’s Unblinking Eye
John Yau on Philip Guston: 1969–1979 at Hauser & Wirth.

"This is one of the points I suggest we think about when looking at these paintings: the persistence of self-righteous individuals hiding behind ideologies both inside and outside the art world."

For Inspiration, Betye Saar Turns to Her Doll Collection
Colony Little interviews Betye Saar on her latest exhibition, Black Doll Blues.

The Urgency and Resonance of Chakaia Booker
Seph Rodney on Chakaia Booker: The Observance at ICA Miami.

Linda Stark, Stigmata (2011), oil on canvas over panel, 36 x 36 inches (image courtesy BAMPFA)

The Many Feminisms of Contemporary Art
Bridget Quinn on New Time: Art and Feminisms in the 21st Century at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.

"I’d say New Time is urgent — a much overused word — but urgent doesn’t begin to express how much we need what it offers in our time of catastrophic emergencies."

The Rich History of Women in Design, From 1900 to Now
Sarah Rose Sharp on Here We Are! Women in Design 1900 – Today at Vitra Design Museum.

Neglected 20th-Century Women Photographers Begin to Get Their Due
Julia Curl on The New Woman Behind the Camera at the Metropolitan  Museum.

ALSO ON HYPERALLERGIC

Cover Frida Kahlo. The Complete Paintings, by Luis-Martín Lozano, Andrea Kettenmann, and Marina Vázquez Ramos, published by Taschen

New Frida Kahlo Monograph Moves Beyond Individual Genius Narrative
Joanna Garcia Cheran expands on how the new monograph moves beyond over-commercialization to bring the icon's artistic output back into focus.

A New Documentary Explores the Life of Unheralded Civil Rights Activist Pauli Murray
Bedatri D. Choudhury talks with Betsy West and Julie Cohen about Murray’s archives and reclaiming the activist's place in history.

The New Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and Hollywood’s Ugly Truths
Carman Tse unpacks the looming complexities behind the opening of the new Academy Museum.

What it Means to Break the Museum’s Most Sacred Rule
Priya Gandhi explores the paradoxes of touching artworks.

Required Reading
This week, a rare Frida Kahlo self-portrait is going to auction, the Lanier family continues fighting to have photos of their enslaved ancestors returned from Harvard, a restoration of a late work by Michelangelo, and more.

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