Weekly
December 24, 2022 We wish a very Merry Christmas to those who celebrate. We've made it through another year, and it's always valuable to step back and reflect on the last 12 months. It's freezing here in Brooklyn, and much of the United States and Canada, and I hope that wherever you are, you are able to take some time to enjoy time with those you love. This week, we published two essays about a landmark restaging of a classic feminist art exhibition. In the first essay, curators Amy Smith-Stewart and Caitlin Monachino at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum discuss how the research often proved difficult. And in the second, art historian and curator Alexandra Schwartz explores how and why Lucy Lippard's 1971 exhibition was erased from our collective memory. She writes: In early 1971, second-wave feminism was still in its infancy and women artists were just beginning to organize an (ongoing) push for equal representation … Lippard’s act of curating the exhibition was an activist gesture, but she understood that change would come slowly and meet with resistance from all corners. In an interview some years later, she reported that she never actually proposed a feminist exhibition to The Aldrich. Rather, the museum invited her to curate a show on any topic of her choosing, and only later did she reveal that she would exclusively feature women artists. It’s a powerful reminder that we must always support the culture we believe in because often no one else will. It was incredible that these curators and the staff were able to excavate this show from the past for contemporary viewers eager to connect with that early feminist history. Now, some good news for those following the repatriation debates as the Vatican "gifted" the Parthenon fragments in their collection back to Greece. And don’t miss the useful primer of documentaries about the Dominican Republic and the must-read reviews by John Yau about artists Philip Taaffe and Xylor Jane. In the coming week, we'll be publishing our “Best of” lists, including our infamous Powerless 20. Stay tuned. — Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief Detail of Cynthia Carlson, “Untitled Inscape #1” (1970), Oil on canvas, 60 x 42 inches (Photo: Jason Mandella; courtesy of the artist and Richard Saltoun Gallery, London) Art critic Lucy Lippard’s first outing as a feminist curator in 1971 has, until recently, been almost entirely absent from history. | Alexandra Schwartz Reflecting on the five-year process of unearthing and restaging Lucy Lippard’s 1971 exhibition Twenty Six Contemporary Women Artists. | Amy Smith-Stewart and Caitlin Monachino SPONSORED Julianknxx’s In A Dream We Are At Once Beautiful Goes Beneath the Surface of Swiss CitiesShot in Zürich, Geneva, Basel, and Lausanne, the visual artist and poet’s new film asks: Whose dreams are we attempting to live? Learn more. NEWS THIS WEEK Pieter van Lint’s “Virgin and Child” remixed for 2023 (edit Valentina Di Liscia/Hyperallergic) The “nepo baby” craze has set the internet ablaze with a slew of incredible memes. Philip Pearlstein, whose paintings “rescued the human figure,” died Saturday, December 17, at age 98. Pope Francis announces he would be repatriating all the fragments of the Parthenon Marbles held in the Vatican’s collection. In Australia, vandals permanently destroyed part of the 30,000-year-old Nullarbor Plain drawings inside the sacred Koonalda Cave. Lionel Messi’s World Cup victory photo has accrued some 64 million likes (and counting), becoming the most-liked post on Instagram. APPLYING TO GRAD SCHOOL? Organized by geographic region, a list of arts-related graduate programs to explore and apply to before deadlines close. Become a member today to help keep our reporting and criticism free and accessible to all. Become a Member IN THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT John Keuhn's gingerbread interpretation of Madison Square Park in Manhattan (courtesy MCNY) An exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York celebrates the Big Apple in the most seasonal (and tastiest) medium of all. | Elaine Velie From a banana menorah to versions by Dalí and Peter Shire, artists have long remixed the traditional Hanukkah lamp. | Sarah Rose Sharp An exhibition on view at Detroit’s Henry Ford Museum features 7,000 Christmas ornaments, from the traditionally festive to the deeply bizarre. | Sarah Rose Sharp DEEPER INTO ABSTRACTION Philip Taaffe, “Painting with Diatoms and Shells I” (2022), mixed media on canvas, 24 1/2 x 39 inches (© Philip Taaffe; photo by Farzad Owrang, courtesy the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York) It seems Taaffe is looking at the present as an extinction event, and that one purpose of painting is to bequeath some record of history and time to the future. | John Yau The Brazilian artist practices an erasure poetry upon textiles and assembles the results into evocative, semi-sculptural configurations. | Louis Bury The rules that structure Jane’s paintings take her to some place strange and fascinating, beautiful and perplexing, mind-boggling and riveting. | John Yau VISIONS & EXPRESSIONS Dean Byington, "The Letter" (2022), oil on linen, 54 inches x 44 inches (photo by Eugenio Castro, courtesy Anglim/Trimble) Dean Byington’s Cassandra warning call in his art reveals the world we know as a facade teetering on the brink of collapse. | Gabrielle Selz There’s something very funny — and unsettling — about Buffalohead’s paintings of animals engaged in human situations. | Emily Wilson Though Holt’s photos come from the mid-20th century, they anticipate 21st-century aesthetics and could be a backdrop in an influencer’s desert pilgrimage. | Renée Reizman MORE ON HYPERALLERGIC Detail view of “Puppet Show at the Wax Museum” in Outside the Palace of Me (2022) at the Gardiner Museum; Shary Boyle, “Judy” (2021) (courtesy the Gardiner Museum) Shary Boyle’s Outside the Palace of Me exhibition catalogue provides viewers with experiences that an in-person visit cannot. | Sarah Rose Sharp Whether documentary, experimental, or somewhere in between, there is no shortage of intriguing Dominican films through which to consider life on the island. | Michael Piantini The subject matter of The Super 8 Years could not be more mundane, but the Nobel Prize-winning memoirist’s musings elevate it to something far more compelling. | Dan Schindel Airports across the US have been taking art more seriously in recent years. Have a look. | Lynn Trimble Required ReadingThis week, a mysterious portrait of Joan Didion, considering Carolee Schneemann, privatizing libraries, Dalit discrimination, the “great internet grievance war,” and more. | Hrag Vartanian and Lakshmi Rivera Amin COMICS Something strange happened when I watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" with my cat Tuna. | Casey Roonan Become a member today to help keep our reporting and criticism free and accessible to all. Become a Member | 