You’d never find Pablo Picasso or Jackson Pollock relegated to the corridors of the Museum of Modern Art. Rarely do artists deemed essential to MoMA’s historical narrative rub elbows with the throngs swarming the escalators and passageways in endless transit from galleries to café to restroom and back.
November 2012
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Sandy and the Scream
Six days before all hell broke loose, I rode the subway uptown to attend the press preview of Edvard Munch: The Scream at the Museum of Modern Art. As the preview drew to a close and the already crowded room swelled with paying customers, I asked Ann Temkin, the Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture, why she thought Munch’s Symbolism is acceptable to contemporary taste while Ferdinand Hodler’s is not.
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What Is the Labor of Art Writing? (Part 2)
At one point, Arts & Labor member Blithe Riley, who was in the audience at the round table, made a comment about “freaking out a little.” This highlighted the disconnect between the political and social aspirations of Arts & Labor and the general role of art critics for me.
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What Is the Labor of Art Writing? (Part 1)
Last Thursday night at Housing Works Bookstore, Occupy Wall Street affinity group Arts & Labor organized a panel of New York art writers to discuss the labor of art criticism. Village Voice and New York Times critic Martha Schwendener opened the round table with the question, “What is the labor of writing?” Schwendener and Arts and Labor proposed a discussion about the working conditions of art criticism in an effort to dispel some prevailing myths, which she framed as power, authority, and allure. She then started things off with an open question to the panel about how they became art critics.
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The Poetic Grit of a Landscape Painter and an Outspoken Critic
I was at Catching the Light, Lois Dodd’s retrospective at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, the August day I got the news that critic Robert Hughes had passed away at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, New York. For many, myself included, Hughes’s prose did for art criticism what Shakespeare did for the stage. Hughes was sound and fury, speaking in a booming voice while just barely opening his mouth.
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Hurricane Sandy Report, 4 Days After [UPDATE 14]
Today, we conclude our aggregation of Sandy-related news. If you have any information, photos, news, or commentary, please post them in the comments below or email us at tips [at] hyperallergic.com.
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MCA Chicago Gets Another Huge Gift
CHICAGO — For the second time this year, Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art has received a multi-million dollar gift from one of its philanthropic supporters.
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Granting Reconfigured for Social Engagement
A Blade of Grass is rethinking what a grant to an individual artist can be. Earlier this year, the nonprofit organization, which explores alternative models of funding for interactive and participatory art practices, launched Artist Files, the first project in a multiyear experiment. The inaugural grant is rooted in the concept of social engagement and hinges on the harbinger of interactivity: the internet. Artist Files is completely public-facing, presenting the entire grant process in the form of blog posts and probing questions on the organization’s website. Visitors are invited to register and comment.
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After Sandy: A New Orleans Artist Reflects on Katrina, Disasters, and Recovery
NEW ORLEANS — Watching images of Sandy being released brings out so many emotions for me. Reading that people had artworks damaged in the basements and first floors of Manhattan and Brooklyn is heart wrenching. I can say that you have no idea what you can survive until you are standing in front of a life already broken into pieces.
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Dallas Museum of Art Joins New Worldwide Push for Islamic Art
The Dallas Art Museum announced today that it has named Sabiha Al Khemir as its first Senior Advisor of Islamic Art. The move comes at a time when many museums the world over are making a push to support Islamic art’s place in the historical canon.
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Hurricane Sandy Report, 3 Days After [UPDATE 17]
Today, we continue our aggregation of Sandy-related news. If you have any information, photos, news, or commentary, please post them in the comments below or email us at tips [at] hyperallergic.com.
Posted inNews
British Museum Maintenance Workers Strike Against Privatization
Roughly 50 maintenance workers and cleaners at the British Museum staged a brief strike this past Monday, the AFP reports, protesting the museum’s plans to privatize maintenance work starting next April. The workers are represented by the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union and Unite, and both groups have expressed concern that their members’ pay and conditions will be affected by the plan to contract the work out to a single private company.
