The vice presidential debate this week was so tepid and dull that we couldn’t even put together a decent meme roundup in its aftermath. But maybe it’s for the best. History has shown us what catastrophes occur when politicians get a bit too “interesting.” Meanwhile, there’s no shortage of drama in our art world: Climate activists who “souped” a van Gogh in London are sentenced to prison, the soon-to-shutter Rubin Museum of Art is facing repatriation calls regarding Tibetan and Himalayan items in its collection, and a hurricane decimates the art district of Asheville in North Carolina. Also this week, Coco Picard’s excellent comics review of a Yoko Ono survey in London, Julia Curl on Robert Frank, Lorissa Rinehart on Robert Rauschenberg, John Yau on Joshua Hagler, and Claudia Ross on Divya Mehra. In books, an art detective mystery about a once-lost Paul Gauguin painting, Elizabeth Catlett’s trailblazing activism, and the little-known story of an artist-led farm at the famed Black Mountain College. Finally, we’re throwing a party for our 15th anniversary in Brooklyn on Wednesday, October 9. The program includes six magnificent drag performers, DJ music, and gourmet Mediterranean food from Tanoreen in Bay Ridge! We’d love to celebrate with you. Get your ticket here. — Hakim Bishara, Senior Editor | |
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| | Music of the Mind at Tate Modern was a memory bank of seven decades of the avant-garde artist’s career. | Coco Picard |
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SPONSORED | | | | This fully-funded three-year graduate program in Southern New England supports a broad range of art making, exemplified by the work of its newest students. Learn more |
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IN AND AROUND NYC | | | | A refreshing retrospective demonstrates that, far from being overshadowed by The Americans, Frank was only getting started with it. | Julia Curl
In his paintings, Joshua Hagler seems to follow a path where logic and convention are left behind in favor of visions and dreams. | John Yau
Start off the month with thoughtful shows by a range of artists, from established names like Nan Goldin to newcomers like Rachel Martin and trailblazers like Elizabeth Catlett. | Natalie Haddad, Hrag Vartanian, Hakim Bishara, Lisa Yin Zhang, Lakshmi Rivera Amin, Natalie Weis, and AX Mina
Kristen Wells’s absurdist cardboard worlds, Susan Wides’s ecological abstractions, Alannah Farrell’s loaded tableaux, and more. | Taliesin Thomas |
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| HAPPENING IN LA | | | | In many ways, Autobiography, a small Rauschenberg exhibition in Santa Barbara, is self-explanatory, and this is its great strength. | Lorissa Rinehart
The artist’s works force theatrical encounters with metaphors for colonization or display the same violence actualized against discrete bodies. | Claudia Ross
Jane Dickson’s hazy roadtrip hymns, Joe Brainard’s whimsical collages, David Lloyd’s curious collaborations with AI, crosscurrents of Asian diasporic art, and more. | Matt Stromberg
The artist, educator, and activist fused social justice and spirituality in her bold, vibrant works. | Matt Stromberg |
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BOOKS WE'RE READING | | | | A new book is an art detective mystery, a behind-the-scenes look at provenance research, a psychological analysis, and a critical commentary on the art market. | Michelle Young
A new book centers the voices of those whose hands built the historic school and whose dreams shaped its programs, all of which involved a little-known farm. | Nancy Zastudil
In the catalog for her Brooklyn Museum show, scholars explore how the Black revolutionary artist lived out her beliefs after her exile from the United States. | Alexandra M. Thomas
What started as a catalog essay about van Gogh’s little-known passion for poetry became a suite of poems for the Dutch painter. | Michael Glover |
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MORE ON HYPERALLERGIC | | | | The city’s teeming with creative offerings, from the new Atlanta Art Fair and a Jeffrey Gibson show to Ming Smith’s first major museum survey and José Ibarra Rizo’s tender photography. | Leia Genis
Usher in autumn with Leasho Johnson’s aqueous abstraction, iconic Windy City protest art, John Akomfrah’s elegy for the environment, stunning works on paper by Haegue Yang, and more. | Lisa Yin Zhang and Isabella Segalovich
To My Friends at Horn is a reminder that artists do not exist in a vacuum and context illuminates the impact of the artist and activist. | Sarah E. Bond
This week: Renée Cox’s trailblazing photography, more Eric Adams shenanigans, the loneliness epidemic, and why do we binge-watch TV shows about work? | Lakshmi Rivera Amin
Residencies, grants, open calls, and jobs from Amherst College, apexart, Tamarind Institute, and more in our monthly list of opportunities for artists, writers, and art workers. |
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