Weekly This week, new research suggests humans are older than we believed, a survey of Black American portraiture in LA is getting a lot of attention, and a digital exhibition examines the dark history of the banana. We’re kicking off our series of events for the Emily H. Tremaine Curatorial Fellowships in Journalism this Tuesday, January 25 at 7 pm. Fellow Tahnee Ahtone will discuss Native American sovereignty’s impact on the curation of Indigenous art. — Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief Walking to the Moore’s Ford Bridge, Lynching Reenactment, remembering the 1946 lynching of Dorothy Malcolm, Roger Malcolm, Mae Murray Dorsey, and George Dorsey, Walton County, Georgia, July 2014 Beholding and Curating with Care
Curator La Tanya S. Autry shares a set of crucial questions she considers when curating images of anti-Black violence.Understanding power relationships, kinship, and vulnerabilities is imperative in the work of beholding one another and curating with care. As anti-Blackness continues, representational strategies remain enmeshed in a fraught nexus of resistance, remembrance, and abuse. SPONSORED The residency program awards 17 visual artists a year of rent-free studio space in New York City. Applications are due by February 15. Learn more. NEWS THIS WEEK Detail of a print by Lillian Schwartz (photo by the author for Hyperallergic) The Henry Ford Museum announced the acquisition of the tech art pioneer Lillian Schwartz’s archive. A study that reexamined Homo sapiens fossils found our species to be 30,000 years older than previously believed. A group of investors is mocked for assuming they also owned the licensing rights to Jodorowsky's “Dune” storyboard they acquired at auction. South Korea’s Kansong Art Museum is auctioning off two of its national treasures to help alleviate financial stress. A satisfying new project, "Emoji to Scale," arranges every emoji by their real-world dimensions. UPCOMING CONVERSATION On Tuesday, January 25, at 7 pm (EST), join us for a special event with curator Tahnee Ahtone as she discusses the many facets of her curatorial work with the Kiowa Tribe and her recent Hyperallergic email exhibition, in which she treated readers to an exclusive viewing of the tribe’s important educational murals, previously on private view until now. The conversation will explore how curation for a Native American community connects the realities of Native sovereignty and why it is crucial to include tribal governments when engaging with historical and artistic material related to their communities. RSVP to attend. LATEST IN ART Black American Portraits at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, installation view (photo by Caroline Ellen Liou for Hyperallergic) Black American Portraits pays homage to today’s renaissance of Black figurative art, acknowledging the artistic achievements of Black artists and their contributions in rewriting the art historical canon, with all the celebration and the gravity deserved. Brie Ruais, "Exiting Wound, 130 Pounds" (2021) glazed and pigmented stoneware, 65 x 65 x 2 inches (all images by Daniel Larkin for Hyperallergic) Ruais invites each visitor into a journey of physicality, of pushing and tearing at our own bodies to find a way to feel out and integrate the emotional wounds they might hold. Tony Fitzpatrick’s Last Museum Show
Elisa Shoenberger on Tony Fitzpatrick: Jesus of Western Avenue at the Cleve Carney Museum of Art. Jean-François Boclé, "Tears of Bananaman" (2009-12), 300 kg of bananas carved by the artist on a wood base, 330 x 13 x 25 cm (image courtesy the artist and curators) The crop’s dominance and ubiquity has had serious and far-reaching implications for the region, engendering exploitative labor systems, climate change, and migration. [This] is the first major study to examine the banana’s role in shaping culture, nature, and politics in the areas where it’s grown. SPONSORED Written by authors and digital entrepreneurs Matt Fortnow and QuHarrison Terry, this new book published by Wiley is a guide to creating, selling, and buying NFTs. Learn more. ALSO ON HYPERALLERGIC Succession's main characters in their fictional gallery. (edit by Valentina Di Liscia for Hyperallergic) How Does the FBI Art Crime Team Operate?
Cassie Packard shines a light on the inner workings of the FBI's Art Crime Team and how they take on forgeries, fakes, looting, and more. Racism Still Influences Cuban Arts and Culture
Juan Pedro Torriente: “The recent movements led by young artists, which have attracted much international media attention, are not immune from the stain of racism.” Required Reading
This week, Patrisse Cullors speaks, reviewing John Richardson’s final Picasso book, the Met Museum snags a rare oil on copper by Nicolas Poussin, and much more. Become a member today to support our independent journalism.
Your support helps keep our reporting and criticism free and accessible to all. Become a Member IN OUR STORE This elegant scarf is inspired by a carpet in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The rug, made in Kurdistan in the late 1700s, bears the traditional “Charbagh” pattern of a four-part garden, representing the architectural layout of Paradise. Check out more art-inspired scarves! | 