Enzo & Nio take aim at the New York mayor in this recent street poster which uses the original 1788 Marie Antoinette painting is by Adolf Ulrich Wertmuller as its base. (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)
This week, Catherine Opie fatigue, Yayoi Kusama, David Shrigley, tall buildings and economic downturns, post-structuralism, LA architecture and color theory for kids.
Disillusionment with Obama is widespread. His unsteady governing has tested the once hopeful. Obama’s own “eccentricities” seem to have been sanded away … Obama and Opie could be mirrors of one another, the one in politics, the other in the arts.
Many women artists wait a long time for accolades. The advantage of late recognition is that it can spur them to new heights. Louise Bourgeois did some of her best work in her 80s. Ms Kusama aspires to do the same. The announcement of the Tate retrospective somehow “flicked a switch in her,” says Glenn Scott Wright, director of the Victoria Miro gallery, Ms Kusama’s European dealer. Indeed, the artist has made more than 140 paintings in the past two years alone.
RELATED: The LA Review of Books takes a look at Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama. I’m not quite sure why the reviewer repeats the absurd idea that Kusama is an “outsider artist,” though to the writer’s credit, they don’t seem to believe it:
At any rate, the congruence between her hallucinations and her work would seem to mark her as an “outsider artist”: one who creates art as a personal outlet for some deep, compulsive need. And yet, Kusama is highly aware of her profile in the press and her place in history. She often offers long lists of her accomplishments — her autobiography reads like a curriculum vitae in places — and narcissistically quotes at length from press accounts.
Last week, British investment bank Barclays Capital released an annual report and analysis known unassumingly as the ‘Skyscraper Index.’ The report stated that their index “continues to show an unhealthy correlation between construction of the next world’s tallest building and an impending financial crises,” citing statistics from New York in 1930, Chicago in 1974, Kuala Lumpur in 1997 and Dubai in 2010.
… my writerly voice had really become very wooden, so that I couldn’t write anymore. It wasn’t fluid, it was just very, very dead.
Cue dramatic music and someone saying, “no shit.”
The secret of success is concentrating interest in life, interest in sports and good times, interest in your studies, interest in your fellow students, interest in the small things of nature, insects, birds, flowers, leaves, etc.
Required Reading is published every Sunday morning, and it is comprised of a short list of art-related links to long-form articles, videos, blog posts or photo essays worth a second look.
The Latest
Manhattan DA’s Office Is After Its Own Antiquities Trafficking Informant
Lebanese art dealer Georges Lotfi, who once helped authorities seize looted antiquities, is now accused of doing his own share of trafficking too.
What Our Fantasies About the European “Middle Ages” Say About Us
An exhibition depicts how people have reimagined the medieval period in the centuries since, and how they have revealed their own interests and ideals with each new interpretation.
The Newark Museum of Art Presents Jazz Greats: Classic Photographs from the Bank of America Collection
Photographers Antony Armstrong Jones, Milt Hinton, Chuck Stewart, Barbara Morgan, and more capture a breadth of legendary and local musicians and performance artists. On view through August 21.
One of China’s First Modern Sculptors Has a New York Retrospective
During his 84-year life, Liu Shiming helped shape a new Chinese cultural image rooted in the contributions and sacrifices of everyday people.
Brazilian Nights From an Animal’s Point of View
Playing at several film festivals this late summer, Ana Vaz’s It Is Night in America asks the viewer to take on unusual perspectives.
LGBTQ+ Art, Literature, and Historical Ephemera Up for Auction at Swann
Art and photographs, publications from the 19th and 20th centuries, manuscripts, posters and more are set to cross the auction block on August 18.
The Very Expensive Dental Work of the Ancient Maya
The sealant used for gem-crusted ancient Maya teeth had medicinal properties that prevent tooth infections and decay, according to a new study.
Brooklyn Public Library Is Inviting You to Borrow From Their Vinyl Collection
Patrons can listen to a collection of 400 titles at the library and borrow them for up to three weeks.
Apply Now for the 2023 Joyce Awards
The grants will provide $450,000 for six new commissions across disciplines by artists of color working with cultural organizations in the Great Lakes.
Luke Gilford’s Tender Photographs of Gay Rodeos
The Los Angeles-based photographer offers an updated version of the mythologized American cowboy, calling rodeos “the traditional drag of America.”
An Artist Chases the Ghost of Her Father
At its core Line Berg’s Fra Far manifests the anguish of a family whose loved one is convicted of a serious crime.
The Book Club That’s Been Discussing the Same Proust Novel for 20 Years
At first, simply watching people read In Search of Lost Time might seem dull; by the end, you’ll be itching to read or reread it yourself.
With so many elementary schools opting not to hire art teachers it’s wonderful Sesame Street is addressing color theory. I started teaching art to K-5th grade and the kids this year at a school that hasn’t had art ed in 20 years. Pink and brown were common responses to what the primary colors were when I first arrived. Thanks for posting the link. I’ll use the video in my classroom.