> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Diaries of a Primitive Man - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/diaries-of-a-primitive-man/ - Published: 2026-10-17T10:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-17T10:00:03.000Z - Description: John Yau on Roy Lichtenstein, Megan O’Grady on John Berger, and Paddy Johnson answers the question: Do I need an agent? - Author: Hakim Bishara - Tags: Weekly Newsletter, Newsletter It’s a sunny October afternoon in Manhattan and the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art are bustling with visitors. Tourists pose for selfies against the museum’s facade; street vendors sell chopped-up hotdogs in a nest of French fries; and the sound of saxophone music drowns into the symphony of splashing water fountains and honking cars on Fifth Avenue. So many types of people; the only ones missing are the Lenape whose land was stolen so we could enjoy this fine Indigenous Peoples’ Day on the steps of The Met. Inside the museum, a blockbuster exhibition about Abstract Expressionist painters Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock is jam-packed. The show is as much about their mutual influence as it is about their marriage, their most difficult collaboration. I hear a woman from behind accusing me of “White privilege” because I apparently cut her in line. I turn around and say, “What White privilege? Look at me.” She takes a quick look and corrects herself, “Okay, so male privilege.” I turn on *Democracy Now* and listen to a 30-minute conversation about settler colonialism. I notice a Jeep Wrangler ahead of me with asticker proudly announcing, “primitive man.” I shudder at first but quickly come to admire the driver’s honesty. War Secretary Pete Hegseth threatens to livestream an execution by firing squad. At the Brooklyn Museum, I pause by a display of Indigenous Kachina dolls that were given to Hopi girls and women living in what is now Arizona. Who made them and how they got here we don’t exactly know, but now they belong to the museum’s Center for Feminist Art. At the end of the day, my shoulders are tense and my brain cooked, and my only wish is to lie down idea-free, opinionless, primitive. *—Hakim Bishara, editor-in-chief* --- [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/10/7508-1.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/roy-lichtenstein-has-lost-his-luster/) [ Roy Lichtenstein Has Lost His Luster ](https://hyperallergic.com/roy-lichtenstein-has-lost-his-luster/) Roy Lichtenstein’s paintings stick in your mind. They are memorable and congenial. When I went to Roy Lichtenstein: Like New, the first major survey of his work in more than 30 years, at the Whitney Museum, I expected to be surprised by something new the curators dug up in their research into the sources of many of the more than 130 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints on view. I was not initially disappointed. | John Yau [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/roy-lichtenstein-has-lost-his-luster/) --- SPONSORED [![CTA Image](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/10/Ronnarong-KHAMPHA--ACC-2012-2021--in-Ink-Neo-Lanna-Dance.-Photo-by-ALaLa-Dance-Fest.--1-.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/funding-international-dialogue-the-asian-cultural-council-opens-2027-global-grant-cycle/) ****Funding International Dialogue: The Asian Cultural Council Opens 2027 Global Grant Cycle** ACC invites artists, arts professionals, scholars, and organizations to apply from Oct 1 to Nov 10, 2026. [Learn more ](https://hyperallergic.com/funding-international-dialogue-the-asian-cultural-council-opens-2027-global-grant-cycle/) --- ## News [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/10/gochman--1-.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/gochman-collection-of-indigenous-art-to-open-katonah-space-in-november/) - [The Gochman Collection of Indigenous Art will open a new space](https://hyperallergic.com/gochman-collection-of-indigenous-art-to-open-katonah-space-in-november/) in Katonah, New York, in November. - [The Karachi Biennale in Pakistan announces the cancellation](https://hyperallergic.com/karachi-biennale-cancels-fifth-edition-over-war-conditions/) of its fifth edition, citing logistical constraints and uncertainties amid “war conditions prevailing in the region.” - Artist Tammy Nguyen [will present the foreword to her debut opera](https://hyperallergic.com/tammy-nguyens-new-opera-will-be-the-coda-to-the-venice-biennale/) *Timaeus and The Teacher* at the 61st Venice Biennale’s closing program on November 13 and 14, capping off an eventful edition of the international contemporary art festival. - The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan and the Musée du Louvre in Paris [join forces to co-organize a major exhibition](https://hyperallergic.com/rembrandts-ancient-obsessions-are-made-anew-in-upcoming-met-exhibition/) exploring Greco-Roman and biblical influences throughout Rembrandt’s practice. - Danh Vo and Sandra Mujinga are selected for Met Museum commissions, a new leader is named for the Armenian Museum of America, Bernie Sanders weighs in on the AI art debate, and more in [Art Movements](https://hyperallergic.com/danh-vo-and-sandra-mujinga-selected-for-met-museum-commissions/). --- --- ## From Our Critics [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/10/cannupa-2.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/cannupa-hanska-lugers-truth-about-america/) [ Cannupa Hanska Luger’s Truth About America ](https://hyperallergic.com/cannupa-hanska-lugers-truth-about-america/) The beauty of the Native artist’s forms seduces, but the visual history of destruction is embedded into each element. | Hrag Vartanian [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/cannupa-hanska-lugers-truth-about-america/) [ Who’s the Thief in Deana Lawson’s Photography? ](https://hyperallergic.com/whos-the-thief-in-deana-lawsons-photography/) I wonder what the women standing perpetually accused and anonymous might say about the sale of their stolen images. | Channelle Chevelle Russell [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/whos-the-thief-in-deana-lawsons-photography/) [ Valerio Adami’s Hot and Cold Art ](https://hyperallergic.com/valerio-adamis-hot-and-cold-art/) His syncretic style melds Pop Art’s cool, outlined forms with expressionism’s figural distortions, resulting in a perturbing ambiguity. | John Yau [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/valerio-adamis-hot-and-cold-art/) ## Books [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/10/berger-2.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/john-berger-in-his-own-bruised-time/) [ John Berger in His Own Bruised Time ](https://hyperallergic.com/john-berger-in-his-own-bruised-time/) The late novelist and art critic asked Tom Overton to wait to write his biography until after his death. The result is deeply informative, deferential, and perceptive, sometimes lyrically so. | Megan O’Grady [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/john-berger-in-his-own-bruised-time/) [ The Trafficker Who Furnished the Museums of LA ](https://hyperallergic.com/the-trafficker-who-furnished-the-museums-of-la/) A team of researchers excavates the story of Earl Stendahl, a mid-century gallerist who shamelessly stole ancient Mesoamerican objects and marketed them to the institutional art world. | Armando Pulido [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/the-trafficker-who-furnished-the-museums-of-la/) [ Finding Vermeer in Unexpected Places ](https://hyperallergic.com/finding-vermeer-in-unexpected-places/) Artists, filmmakers, poets, and the art market itself still bear traces of the Dutch painter’s influence, writes historian Ruth Bernard Yeazell in “Vermeer’s Afterlives.” | Lauren Moya Ford [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/finding-vermeer-in-unexpected-places/) --- ## Interviews [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/10/chacon--1-.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/raven-chacon-sounds-the-history-of-the-land/) [ Raven Chacon Sounds the History of the Land ](https://hyperallergic.com/raven-chacon-sounds-the-history-of-the-land/) The Pulitzer Prize-winning Diné artist talks about his recent performances at the Park Avenue Armory, the freedom of improvisation, and the privilege of “deep listening.” | Phillip Pyle [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/raven-chacon-sounds-the-history-of-the-land/) [ Jonathan Nez on Indigenous Perseverance ](https://hyperallergic.com/jonathan-nez-on-indigenous-perseverance/) The former Navajo Nation president running for Congress in Arizona speaks to Hyperallergic about his upbringing, how Diné culture shapes his political thinking, and the importance of historical memory. | Valentina Di Liscia [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/jonathan-nez-on-indigenous-perseverance/) [ The 98-Year-Old Pop Art Queen Behind an Iconic Lichtenstein Billboard ](https://hyperallergic.com/the-98-year-old-pop-art-queen-behind-an-iconic-lichtenstein-billboard/) Ahead of her memoir’s release, we talk to Joan Kron about Andy Warhol, beating Sidney Janis to the punch, and why she calls herself a “renegade housewife” of Pop Art. | Isabella Segalovich [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/the-98-year-old-pop-art-queen-behind-an-iconic-lichtenstein-billboard/) --- ## Features [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/10/cornell-7-1.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/cornell-7-case-sparks-fury-and-protests-in-solidarity-with-jane-doe/) [ “Cornell 7” Case Sparks Fury and Protests in Solidarity With Jane Doe ](https://hyperallergic.com/cornell-7-case-sparks-fury-and-protests-in-solidarity-with-jane-doe/) A Nationwide Day of Action on October 8 gathered artists, activists, and survivors in a collective call for institutions to hold abusers accountable. | Emma Cieslik [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/cornell-7-case-sparks-fury-and-protests-in-solidarity-with-jane-doe/) [ Jazmine Hayes Charts Community Displacement, Resilience in Brownsville Art Commission ](https://hyperallergic.com/jazmine-hayes-charts-community-displacement-resilience-in-brownsville-art-commission/) “I genuinely want any child that walks through this door to be and feel protected,” the East New York-raised artist told *Hyperallergic*.| Rhea Nayyar [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/jazmine-hayes-charts-community-displacement-resilience-in-brownsville-art-commission/) [ Sara Flores Paints What the World Stands to Lose ](https://hyperallergic.com/sara-flores-paints-what-the-world-stands-to-lose/) “Every opportunity to show my work is a platform to raise attention on the struggle for self-determination and cultural resistance of the Shipibo people,” the artist told Hyperallergic. | Eileen G’Sell [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/sara-flores-paints-what-the-world-stands-to-lose/) --- ## Community & Guides [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/10/ai-1.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/art-problems-do-i-need-an-agent/) [ Art Problems: Do I Need an Agent? ](https://hyperallergic.com/art-problems-do-i-need-an-agent/) Artist agents are not the panacea we imagine them to be, but AI agents won’t solve all your problems, either. Paddy Johnson breaks it down. | Paddy Johnson [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/art-problems-do-i-need-an-agent/) [ A View From the Easel: Flor Khan ](https://hyperallergic.com/a-view-from-the-easel-358/) “Here, I am allowed to play, to not know the answers, to let the message evolve on its own timing.” [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/a-view-from-the-easel-358/) [ 7 New York Exhibitions That Embody Indigenous Survivance ](https://hyperallergic.com/7-new-york-exhibitions-that-embody-indigenous-survivance/) In shows coinciding with Indigenous Peoples’ Day, artists including Jeremy Dennis, Shelley Niro, and Sarah Sense chart Native history and futurity. | Rhea Nayyar [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/7-new-york-exhibitions-that-embody-indigenous-survivance/) [ 13 Art Films to See at DOC NYC ](https://hyperallergic.com/13-art-films-to-see-at-doc-nyc/) Documentaries on a giant pencil that became a local watering hole, the afterlife of Frida Kahlo through her image, and collagist Romare Bearden are among the festival’s most enticing offerings. | Anna Lee [Read More ](https://hyperallergic.com/13-art-films-to-see-at-doc-nyc/) --- ## Announcements [ Bold New Books in Art and Visual Culture from the MIT Press ](https://hyperallergic.com/bold-new-books-in-art-and-visual-culture-from-the-mit-press/) From activist art and trans aesthetics to lowriders, global skateboarding culture, and Vilém Flusser’s prescient vision of the screen age. [ UCLA’s MFA in Media Arts Now Accepting Applications ](https://hyperallergic.com/uclas-mfa-in-media-arts-now-accepting-applications/) A three-year program for artists critically and experimentally engaging with media, technology, and contemporary culture. [ Over $100,000 in Prizes and New Public Art Opportunities at 2027 ArtFields Festival ](https://hyperallergic.com/over-100-000-in-prizes-and-new-public-art-opportunities-at-2027-artfields-festival/) Southern artists can apply now to show in Lake City, SC, where the whole town becomes a gallery April 15 - May 1, 2027\. [ San Antonio’s Centro de Artes Celebrates 10 Years with “Mercado/Material” ](https://hyperallergic.com/san-antonios-centro-de-artes-celebrates-10-years-with-mercado-material//) Curated by Mia Lopez, 16 artists transform everyday objects into bold explorations of Latinx identity. On view in San Antonio from October 16 through March 7, 2027\. [ Medical Imaging and Art Meet in the Exhibition “Overexposed” ](https://hyperallergic.com/medical-imaging-and-art-meet-in-the-exhibition-overexposed/) The concurrent emergence of cinema and X-ray technology radically transformed how we see and understand the human body. [ Asia NOW 2026 Brings Contemporary Asian Art to Paris ](https://hyperallergic.com/asia-now-2026-brings-contemporary-asian-art-to-paris/) Celebrating the artistic voices of Asia and its diaspora, the fair brings new and returning international galleries together in Paris this October.