Duchamp in New York
MoMA opens its latest blockbuster, Jasper Johns keeps looking, Aruna D’Souza responds to Josh Kline, and much more.
Marcel Duchamp is getting a homecoming: The French-born artist, who revolutionized modern art when he flipped a urinal upside down in 1917, spent the last quarter-century of his life in our beloved city. Now, for the first time in more than 50 years, he gets a comprehensive solo exhibition here — his show at MoMA opened to the public this past weekend. Don't miss our interview with Duchamp scholar Thierry de Duve, who walks us through how Duchamp delivered history.
It's funny, I think about another iconic Duchamp movement: his presentation of "Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2" (1912) at the Armory Show, and the subsequent uproar in American publications, certain of which are included in the MoMA show. Well, we continue the tradition this week.
First, GRIT, a collective of artists from Appalachian communities, pens a rebuttal to a review of Fia Baström's exhibition at the Queens Museum that we published in these pages. And Aruna D'Souza responds to an essay Josh Kline wrote in the pages of October, about how New York is no longer a feasible place for young artists.
Some things never change, and sometimes that's for the better.
Marcel Duchamp Was the Messenger of History
"Duchamp’s 'Fountain' is the message that brings us the news," de Duve told me. "The news that we no longer live in an art world where, in order to be an artist, you have to be a painter or a sculptor, or a poet, or a composer, or a playwright, or a novelist, you name it."
The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University marks its 150th anniversary with SMFA150: Artists for a Changing World, a special alumni exhibition at Pace Gallery. Curated by Asya Geisberg, the exhibition reflects the school’s long-standing commitment to experimentation, boundary-pushing practice, and artistic innovation.
Making Place
Unlike Josh Kline, I Choose New York
His new article taps into deep frustrations about affordability, but I throw my lot in with those making change, rather than moving out. | Aruna D’Souza
How to Extract the Story of Appalachia
Fia Backström’s Queens Museum exhibition replaces beauty and complexity with a visual and narrative language that reduces the region to a site of suffering. | Paige Phillips
From Our Critics
John Yau
Jasper Johns: Between the Clock and the Bed at Gagosian
“He has chronicled the ways his body and mind mirror his brief moments in both this world of things and infinity, while celebrating the pleasures of looking and thinking.”
David Novros at Paula Cooper Gallery
“These works ask the viewer to slow down, to step away from the world, to discover renewal through attention.”
Steve DiBenedetto: Spiral Architect at Derek Eller Gallery
“Together, they underscore DiBenedetto’s conception of a painting as a search for a functional structure, a talisman that can aid viewers amid our collective sense of traumatic crisis.”
Natalie Haddad
Gabriele Münter: Contours of a World at the Guggenheim Museum
“Her images are windows into a scene, but her visual strategies redefine the static act of viewing art as something dynamic, as if her world is moving around us, demanding our perception to focus and refocus.”
What Else Is Happening?
- Duchamp spring? Gagosian announced that its inaugural exhibition in its uptown location will center his readymades.
- A rarely seen early work by Wifredo Lam was acquired by the Hispanic Society Museum and Library — the first painting by a Cuban artist to enter its collection.
- You've got a couple of months left to see Dürer's 16th-century “Triumphal Arch, one of the largest prints ever produced, at the New York Public Library before it goes into storage this fall.
- Melissa Chiu will be the next director of the Guggenheim Museum in September, after a dozen years at the Smithsonian.
- The IFPDA Print Fair, a favorite since its inception in 1991, returned this past week, bringing with it a new focus on process.
- Meanwhile, across the river, the Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair has charged forward from its inaugural edition last year, showcasing the radical history and present of printmaking.
- Welcome to Chinatown is hosting an exhibition opening and silent auction accompanying Siyan Wang's exhibition Make it 10 Cents. (Tues Apr 14) [aaartsalliance.org]
- The Emily Harvey Foundation is hosting a conversation between Thierry de Duve and Jeremy Johnston about Duchamp and Marcel Broodthaers. (Wed Apr 15) [emilyharveyfoundation.com]
- Hudson Valley Seed Co will be selling organic seedlings on the Met Cloisters lawn! (Sat Apr 18) [hudsonvalleyseed.com]
- Textile Art Center in Park Slope is opening Gender Mend: A Transgender Craft Exhibition as part of Trans Art Fest. (Sat Apr 18–Sun Apr 26) [textileartscenter.com]
- Millennium Film Workshop celebrates 60 years with a special screening of works by queer cinema pioneer Su Friedrich. (Fri Apr 17) [millenniumfilm.org]
- Dumbo Open Studios is this weekend! (Sat Apr 18–Sun Apr 19) [artindumbo.com]
- MoMA PS1 is hosting a 50th anniversary block party this Saturday! (Apr 18) [momaps1.org]
- As part of an Earth Day celebration, Rockaway Film Festival will be hosting film screenings, including Maintenance Artist, about artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles, featuring Toby Perl Freilich. Plus, shore clean-up, collaborative print-making, and more. (Sat Apr 18) [rockawayfilmfestival.org]
