Why the Art World Needs Populism

Good morning. ⛅ Today, BTA and memes, a look at the Sundance film festival this year (it's all online

Jan 25, 2021 • View in browser

Good morning. ⛅ Today, BTA and memes, a look at the Sundance film festival this year (it’s all online) and what’s worth checking out, and, by popular demand, more Bernie/mitten memes.– Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief

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Why the Art World Needs Populism

“Breachheads” (2021) 14” x 11” pen and ink on paper, digital color (illustration by the author)

As we watched the outgoing president’s cult of rabid followers storm the capital, we spectators could at least feel secure in the knowledge that populism is not a significant part of the art world we are part of.Trump appears to have sparked a progressive uprising in the art world, but it is not really an uprising. On closer inspection, there is an asymmetric battle between a grassroots struggle to redistribute power and those who place institutional preservation at the center.

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In Other NewsDue to overwhelming demand, we’re bringing you another batch of viral bundled-up Bernie memes. A 500-year-old copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi”, likely painted by a student of Leonardo, was discovered in the relative obscurity of a bedroom cupboard in a Naples apartment.

Sundance Selections

A Virtual Sundance Brings Movies About Isolation and Mediated Realities The 2021 edition of the important film festival is open to viewers around the country. Dan Schindel

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The Artists Who Lurk on the Dark Web A sense of risk permeates mainstream stories about the dark web. This unsafeness attracted the attention of those artists and creatives who critically focus on the study of digital tools. Filippo Lorenzin

From the Store

Sunday Afternoon Socks Georges Seurat’s pointillist masterpiece has been a sticking point in popular culture for over 100 years (Sondheim, anyone? Bueller? Bueller?) and now it’s ready to take its place in your wardrobe, where it would look splendid next to any of the other art-historical socks we carry.

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The Best Inauguration Memes, From Bernie’s Mittens to Lady Gaga’s Hunger Games Pin Is Any Modern Porn Worth Preserving? In Oval Office Rehang, Trump Continues to Copy Others The Very First Photograph of a US Presidential Inauguration The Story of the Scorched Melania Trump Sculpture in Slovenia

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