Art
Required Reading
This week, the role of the artist in the age of Trump, LACMA's stalled fundraising, Kurt Vonnegut on making a living as a writer, trans lives and cancel culture, and more.
Hrag Vartanian
Hrag Vartanian is editor-at-large, founding editor, and co-founder of Hyperallergic.
News
First Keith Haring Mural to Go to Auction Fetches $3.8M at Bonhams
Also, Umberto Boccioni’s "Unique Forms of Continuity in Space" (1913/1972) fetched $16.2M, and Ed Ruscha's "Hurting the Word Radio #2" (1964) sold for an unbelievable $52.5M.
Podcast
The Relationship Between Art and Law Since the 1960s
Joan Kee is the rare combination of art historian and lawyer, and she's shared her special skills in her new book, Models of Integrity: Art and Law in Post-Sixties America.
Art
Required Reading
This week, the origin of Baby Shark, Martin Scorsese on Superhero movies, TikTok's censorship problems, rappers and the Trump name, Twitter's Saudi Arabia spies, and more.
Podcast
Women’s Central Role in Lebanon's Modern Art World
A new exhibition takes a close look at the friendships of a major artist and critic in 1960s and '70s Beirut, and the charmed art world she helped bolster.
Art
Required Reading
This week, architect unions, Aaron Sorkin writes a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, Hal Foster on the new MoMA, Zadie Smith on Celia Paul’s new memoir, Kanye in Wyoming, and more.
Opinion
Parsing Trump’s Latest Photo Op (aka the Killing of al-Baghdadi)
Donald Trump tries to reinvent another seminal Obama moment in his own image. But did it work?
Art
Required Reading
The week, a protest performance at the National Portrait Gallery, Disney's weird policy towards classic Fox movies, words about perception, the lack of food in video games, criminalizing the b-word, and more.
News
Lebanese Art Community Joins Unprecedented Protests
As artists discuss the role of contemporary art in times of revolution and rally on the streets, 20 leading arts organizations issued a statement of solidarity with protesters across Lebanon.
Art
Signs and Banners From the 2019 Protests in Downtown Beirut
Slogans and images have appeared all over downtown Beirut since around-the-clock protests started on Thursday, October 17.
Art
Required Reading
This week, the rich are hoarding, feminist performance art responds to rape, the story behind one of the most famous game show jingles, and more.
News
Brooklyn Museum Is Trying to Sell a Francis Bacon Painting the Artist Wanted Destroyed
During his lifetime, Bacon wrote the museum that "It was a throw-out and it depresses me […] that it has years later found its way onto the art market and I would prefer if it were not exhibited."