In Brief
Art Historians Find Racist Joke Hidden Under Malevich's "Black Square"
Over the years, many an artistic masterpiece has been discovered hiding beneath layers of paint on reused canvases.
Latest
Art
Making Space for Painting in Mexico City, Where Conceptual Art Reigns
MEXICO CITY — In places like Mexico City, where conceptual art with an overt socio-political agenda currently dominates, media such as sculpture, drawing, and painting go completely unnoticed, seen as vain expressions belonging to an expired avant-garde.
Art
An LA Community Fights the “Discovery” of Its Neighborhood by Commercial Art Galleries
LOS ANGELES — A normally quiet and industrial stretch of Mission Road that abuts the Los Angeles River came to life on Saturday evening when a group of artists and activists put together a mobile art exhibit celebrating the working-class neighborhood of Boyle Heights.
In Brief
Too Nude for the News? Colbert on the Arbitrary Censorship of Art
Modigliani's 1917 painting "Nu couché" (Reclining Nude) made headlines this week after Chinese billionaire art collector Liu Yiquan purchased it for $170.4 million, but some media outlets revealed their prudishness in their coverage of the full-frontal portrait, partially censoring it.
Art
Why Cannibals Were on Every 16th-Century Map of the New World
Many of the first European maps of the Americas included warnings of cannibalism, despite no proof of such activity.
Interview
Working Toward an "Artist Survival Guide" for People of Color
LOS ANGELES — Over the summer, a group of artists invited the public to talk critically and humorously about race, art, and survival in a context where they could not only vent frustrations but also share resources and build community as people of color.
Art
Inside Richard Diebenkorn's Revelatory Sketchbooks
STANFORD, Calif. — A small gallery at Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center is currently offering a deeply personal glimpse into the life and work of Bay Area artist Richard Diebenkorn.
Art
At the Venice Biennale, the Philippine Pavilion Favors Beauty Over Ugly Truths
VENICE — “People say I’m extravagant because I want to be surrounded by beauty. But tell me, who wants to be surrounded by garbage?” infamously asked “Iron Butterfly” Imelda Marcos in the eponymous 2003 documentary Imelda.
Art
A British Photographer in 19th-Century Peking
In 1870, 29-year-old British photographer Thomas Child moved to Peking — as Beijing was formerly known — to work as a gas engineer for the Imperial Maritime Customs Service.
Film
Among Intimates at New York's Queer Experimental Film Festival
When I arrived early on opening night of this year’s MIX NYC festival at a former manufacturing space in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, I heard a rumor that there used to be a panty factory there.
Art
Mining the Rich Interspace Between Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture
CAPE TOWN — In Black Passage, Nitegeka deploys wood and paint to literally and boldly take over the gallery, arranging his forms into the white, tamed, and profoundly coded space.
Art
An Artist’s Conceptual Photo-Booth Compositions from the 1970s
Long before Photo Booth was a computer application, Jared Bark used analog photo booths in Times Square bars to create dazzling tiled black-and-white compositions.