Support Hyperallergic’s independent arts journalism.
Artist Olaf Breuning is the subject of this colorful and quirky video examination of the world he inhabits. It is a devastatingly nuanced cultural commentary that uses his characteristic humor as a lens on the world.
The Avant/Garde Diaries recently traveled to Olaf Breuning’s getaway house in upstate New York where the artist finds time to breathe fresh mountain air and take a load off from the hustle and bustle of the contemporary art world.
“I always believe artists have to do something that other people cannot do. They have to be special,” he explains. “You can watch your own belly button all the time, you know … there’s nothing visionary, there’s nothing great, there’s no great gesture.”
And, of course, he’s always having fun in the process.
The Latest
Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa: An Endorsement of an Amicus Brief for Lanier v. Harvard
“Black infants in America are now more than twice as likely to die as white infants—11.3 per 1,000 black babies, compared with 4.9 per 1,000 white babies, according to the most recent government data—a racial disparity that is actually wider than in 1850, 15 years before the end of slavery, when most black women were…
Brian Wallis: An Endorsement of an Amicus Brief for Lanier v. Harvard
he ownership of images has a long and nuanced legal history, which has evolved dramatically in recent years as cultural standards and photographic technologies have rapidly advanced
Delaware Art Museum Restages Afro-American Images 1971: The Vision of Percy Ricks
The show, which honors the 50th anniversary of an exhibition history once ignored, continues a series of projects documenting Wilmington’s contemporary art scene.
Stephen Sheehi: An Endorsement of an Amicus Brief for Lanier v. Harvard
Renty and his daughter Delia. Renty was an enslaved African, kidnapped from the Congo, sold and forced into slave labor on the South Carolina plantation of B.F. Taylor
Fred Moten: An Endorsement of an Amicus Brief for Lanier v. Harvard
What is the relation between possessing a person, possessing their image, and dispossessing their progeny
Applications Open for 2022 Gottlieb Foundation Grant Program
The Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation is accepting applications for its Individual Support Grants until January 14, 2022.
Jane’a Johnson-Farnham: An Endorsement of an Amicus Brief for Lanier v. Harvard
As a scholar of African American history and photography whose work has focused on the status of violent images in museums and archives, I fully support the validity of Ms. Tamara Lanier’s claim and the amicus brief.
Nominate an Art Teacher for the RJE Foundation’s Excellence in Teaching Award
Two K-12 art teachers will each receive a $1,000 cash gift and an additional $500 to put toward classroom art supplies. Nominations are due October 31.
Eunsong Kim: An Endorsement of an Amicus Brief for Lanier v. Harvard
The daguerreotypes of Renty Taylor, Delia, Drana, Alfred, Jack, George Fassena, and Jem remained in an unused storage cabinet until 1975, when it was discovered by an employee of the Peabody Museum.
Marianne Hirsch: An Endorsement of an Amicus Brief for Lanier v. Harvard
I am writing in support of the amicus curiae brief submitted by Professor Ariella Aïsha Azoulay of Brown University for the full restitution of the daguerreotypes of Renty Taylor and his daughter Delia, currently held by Harvard University, to their familial descendant, Tamara Lanier.
Carles Guerra: An Endorsement of an Amicus Brief for Lanier v. Harvard
We cannot be indifferent to the long-lasting effects of photography. The photographs at the center of Lanier v. Harvard are relentless in making Renty and Delia Taylor work and perform as slaves. The pain inflicted on them has not ceased. Photography has the capacity to propagate harm, and we have the moral obligation to interrupt…