Weekly

September 18, 2021 • View in browser

Welcome to our first weekly email on Saturdays! 🌤️ This week, the Met Gala memes were worth the wait, an antiques collector asks if something can be “racist and also be beautiful,” and reviews of work by Judy Baca, Shahzia Sikander, Jan Wade, Christine Borland, and more.

— Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief 

Kim Kardashian’s Balenciaga-designed body stocking reminded some of Harry Potter’s “Dementors.”

This Brooklyn Subway Station Is a Portal Into Marcel Dzama’s Surrealist Universe
Hakim Bishara on the permanent installation, No Less Than Everything Comes Together, at the Bedford Avenue subway station.

The Best Thing About This Year’s Met Gala Are the Memes
Valentina Di Liscia rounded up the best memes and commentary on the Met Gala's most absurd getups.

For Masahisa Fukase, Cats Were Much More Than Cute
Lauren Moya Ford looks at Sasuke, a collection of cat pictures from Fukase’s archives.

NEWS THIS WEEK

Ancient Native American art inside Missouri's Picture Cave 
(photo by Alan Cressler and courtesy of Selkirk Auctioneers & Appraisers)

• The Osage Nation decries the sale of a cave containing Native American art from over 1,000 years ago, calling the auction “truly heartbreaking.”

• Nate Chastain, head of product at NFT marketplace OpenSea, was asked to resign after a Twitter user posted questionable transactions from his wallet.

• Mexico City has backtracked its commission of contemporary artist Pedro Reyes to replace its Columbus statue.

• The Baltimore Museum of Art plans to reimagine itself "from scratch" through its newly announced Mellon Initiative.

ART

An assortment of Aunt Jemima figurines collected by Kevin Jones and presented in the Blactiquing Space

A Collector of Antiques Asks: “Can Something Be Racist and Also Be Beautiful?”
Sarah Rose Sharp on curator and collector Kevin Jones's Blactiquing Space

The Blactiquing Space presents differently as the collection of a gay Black man who handles these deeply fraught objects with such emotion, connection, and care... He has not just created a space to show objects; he has created a place to have the most crucial and difficult conversation facing our society in crisis.

Objects that Help Tell the Story of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas’s Romance
Sarah Rose Sharp on the Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas Papers in Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Altarpieces and Shrines Shaped From Found Objects
Ekalan Hou on Soul Power at the Vancouver Art Gallery

Judy Baca, La Memoria de Nuestra Tierra, California (1996), 10 x 30 ft, 
located at the University of Southern California

How Judy Baca Redefined the Intersection of Art and Activism
Jordan Karney Chaim on Judy Baca: Memorias de Nuestra Tierra, a Retrospective at the Museum of Latin American Art

Through her collaborative murals, multimedia art, and teaching [Judy Baca] has redefined what it means to work at the intersection of art and activism. Now, for the first time, you can visit a retrospective exhibition that celebrates her impressive career.

Shahzia Sikander Draws the Immeasurability of Women
Seph Rodney on Shahzia Sikander: Extraordinary Realities at the Morgan Library and Museum

The Indigenous and Female Roots of Harvesting Flax
Anna Souter on Christine Borland: In Relation to Linum at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

ALSO ON HYPERALLERGIC

From The Capote Tapes (2019), dir. Ebs Burnough (courtesy Greenwich Entertainment)

Unearthed Interviews Shed New Light on Truman Capote
Justine Smith talks with Ebs Burnough about his new documentary, The Capote Tapes.

There Are Now Not One But Two Documentaries About the Salvator Mundi Saga
Bedatri D. Choudhury on The Lost Leonardo and Savior for Sale and the role of galleries in the "unregulated art-industrial complex."

A Sculptor Who Helped Us Find Community Among Strangers
Kevin Ritter looks at how George Rhoads’s kinetic installations can reinspire interaction and engagement in public spaces.

Required Reading
This week, the scourge of immersive exhibitions, the popularity of anti-vax deathbed videos, the pregnant man emoji, Chomsky on Afghanistan, Met Gala commentary, and more.

ALSO ON HYPERALLERGIC

Quilts of Gee's Bend Notecards

We're proud to carry this beautiful set of notecards, which features 20 different patchwork masterpieces by the acclaimed quilters of Gee's Bend. 

View our pop-up cards and stationery sets! 

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COMICS

Art World Subversion Has its Limits
Depends on who's doing the subverting.