The Art World's Good, Bad, and Controversial

Weekly

October 22, 2022 • View in browser

This week's stories cover the good, bad, and controversial. Here are some highlights:

Good: The US honors an Asian American on its currency for the first time, Liz Truss is sent home with hilarious memes, LA's metro opens with more than a dozen public artworks, and we met some great artists at New York's Gowanus and Sunset Park open studios.

Bad: The art world doesn't like you if you're overweight and artists are sidelined in discussions of art censorship online. Also, Liz Truss.

Controversial: The tomato soup action at London's National Gallery was actually effective, AI is rapidly replacing human artists, and is the Musée d’Orsay in Paris trying to obscure artist Rosa Bonheur's sexual identity?

Furthermore, I recommend you check out our roundup of the best and worst museum restaurants in New York City. Maybe you'll visit some of the good ones this weekend, no?

— Hakim Bishara, Senior Editor

Jesse Egner, "Knit Face" (2019) (courtesy the artist)

Why Does the Art World Hate Fat People?

Anna Mirzayan dives deeper into the art world’s typical reactions to fat bodies and how she aims to challenge them in her first curated exhibition.

I had always conceptualized good curating as community building; I just didn’t think I’d truly feel like part of the community. As somebody who long ago eschewed diet culture and body positivity in favor of radical fat liberation, working on Soma Grossa made me realize I was following these movements from the shadows.

With this show, it feels like there’s no turning back.

SPONSORED

Wild Pigment Project Embraces Reciprocal Foraging at Santa Fe’s form & concept

Asking what it means to work with materials gathered in wild places, this exhibition features work by an international group of artists and traditional practitioners. Learn more.

NEWS THIS WEEK

Anna Elizabeth Klumpke, "Portrait of Rosa Bonheur" (1898) (via Wikimedia Commons)

In the wake of a new retrospective, some are criticizing the way in which Rosa Bonheur's relationships with women are being discussed.

Anna May Wong will be the first Asian-American person to be honored on US currency via the American Women Quarters Program.

A head of lettuce outlasts Liz Truss’s time as Prime Minister in a contest launched by a British tabloid, fueling a frenzy of memes online.

14 public artworks shine in LA’s long-awaited K Line, which connects historical centers of Black American life and culture in the city.

Golden Artist Colors releases 37 new exciting colors in an expansion of its High Flow Acrylics collection.

New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl died yesterday, October 21, at age 80.

SPONSORED

Cranbrook Academy of Art Announces Online Conversation Series About Graduate Programs

These virtual talks will share details on the MFA and M.Arch programs, alumni experiences, financial aid and fellowships, student life, and more. Learn more.

ARTISTS OPEN UP AT OPEN STUDIOS

Judy Giera in her studio in in Sunset Park, New York. (photo Rhea Nayyar/Hyperallergic)

Affordable for Now, Sunset Park Rises as a Buzzing NYC Arts Hub

Rhea Nayyar spoke with the artists of Sunset Park’s open studios about why they’ve shifted gears and joined the up-and-coming community.

Up Close and Personal With Four Sunset Park Artists

Jasmine Liu spotlights four artists that brought originality, humor, and curiosity to Sunset Park Wide Open.

Terra Keck and Jessica Ayala with their dogs, Dolly and Buster, at Gowanus Creative Studios (photo Billy Anania/Hyperallergic)

Gowanus Artists Open Their Studios Amid Displacement Concerns

Artists told Billy Anania that they cherish the ability to work off the beaten path in an area conducive to creative labor, and they hope it remains as such.

Six Artists I Discovered at Gowanus Open Studios

Elaine Velie highlights how some of this year’s artists showed up with personal ruminations of intimacy and dark reflections on societal norms.

SPONSORED

Alexandre Arrechea’s Landscape and Hierarchies Features Works Inspired by Sports and Nature

This exhibition marks 20 years of Arrechea’s solo career with watercolors, sculptures, and multimedia installations created specifically for ArtYard in Frenchtown, New Jersey. Learn more.

LATEST REVIEWS

John Mitchell, "Painter and Model" (2018-22), oil on linen, 74 x 90 inches (all images courtesy Planthouse gallery, photos by David B. Smith)

How John Mitchell Shakes Up Portraiture

John Yau takes a closer look at John Mitchell's paintings and how they reject conventional approaches to subject matter.

Mitchell challenges the role of the artist as the authority who creates an entire world in paint. Mitchell’s worlds in his paintings are contingent upon the viewer, whose presence completes the image.

Georgia O’Keeffe, Reframed

Sommer Browning reviews an exhibition at the Denver Art Museum that aims to render the artist’s persona through newly identified photographs.

Ken Lum Holds Up a Mirror to the World

Gregory Volk expands on the pronounced emotional impact of Ken Lum’s works.

AI'S GETTING KINDA SCARY

DALL-E image with the prompt: “Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World but she’s hiding from Michael Meyers.” (courtesy Dall-E)

The AI Halloween Art of Your Nightmares Is Here

We asked the AI image generator Dall-E to reimagine famous artworks at their scaries. Sarah Rose Sharp has our spooky analysis.

This spooky season is a special time, as it is the first spooky season with the widespread ability for the public to generate AI (artificial intelligence) imagery from simple text prompts. AI generators trend creepy on their best days, so what will happen if we use them to spookily revisit some contemporary and art historical landmark moments?

What if Van Gogh Could Paint Your Hometown?

Jasmine Liu focuses on the National Gallery of the Faroe Islands' use of AI to imagine how famous artists would've painted the archipelago.

This Wacky AI Tool Will Finish Your Artwork for You

Elaine Velie reports on how Stable Diffusion’s “Diffuse the Rest” will turn any sketch into a finished work.

SPONSORED

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Welcomes the Public to Its Annual Open Studios

Krannert Art Museum Presents Fake News & Lying Pictures: Political Prints in the Dutch Republic

SITE Santa Fe Presents Endless Journey, a Solo Exhibition by New Mexico-Based Artist Max Cole

Pre-Raphaelite Power Couple Makes Their US Debut at the Delaware Art Museum

Boston Art Book Fair Returns This November

Study Performance and Interactive Media Arts at Brooklyn College

MOZAIK Philanthropy Announces Open Call in Solidarity With the Movement for Freedom in Iran

Norton Simon Museum Presents Ink, Paper, Stone: Six Women Artists and the Language of Lithography

MORE FROM HYPERALLERGIC

Goya’s “Saturno” takes a break from his usual snack to enjoy a soggy museum sandwich. (edit by Valentina Di Liscia/Hyperallergic)

Nine NYC Museum Restaurants to Dine at (or Skip)

Rhea Nayyar has the inside scoop on which museum dining options are worth their salt, and which could stand to add a little more.

The Van Gogh Is Fine; You Won’t Be

Rebecca Zorach unpacks how the real target of Just Stop Oil’s tomato soup action wasn’t Van Gogh’s painting but our complacency.

The Future of Art Censorship Is Being Decided Without Artists

Emma Shapiro believes it’s mostly our own fault.

The Past, Present, and Future of Kosovo Collide at Manifesta 14

Exhibits at the biennial seem to be about Kosovans regaining a sense of control over their lives and livelihoods. Tim Brinkhoff reviews.

Required Reading

This week, lessons from the Philly art museum strike, Airbnb’s role in the housing crisis, the difference between “chai” and “tea,” and more.

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IN OUR STORE

Basquiat “Untitled” Recycled Tote Bag

Jean-Michel Basquiat rose to art world fame in the 1980s and his legacy continues to dominate today. The intricate work featured on this tote is representative of his raw, gestural style with graffiti-like motifs and scrawled text.

Browse more art-inspired bags & totes!