Met Gala’s New Theme Is So Basic
Brancusi at MoMA, trouble at Pace, a rediscovered Georgia O'Keeffe painting, and The Met presents the biggest rescission indicator yet.
Jackson Pollock at The Met, Roy Lichtenstein at the Whitney, and Constantin Brancusi at the Museum of Modern Art — our critic Aruna D'Souza is tired of this dead-White-men fest. That said, she still has a soft spot for Brancusi. She went to see the Romanian artist’s solo show at MoMA, and she has some thoughts.
Speaking of dead White blokes, visitors to the MFA Boston will soon be able to watch a live conservation of Dutch painter Nicolaes Eliasz Pickenoy’s “The Six Founders of the Amsterdam Wine Guild” (1625). Watching paint dry never sounded so appealing.
In living-White-men news, Pace Gallery, owned by father-and-son duo Arne and Marc Glimcher, has reported steep losses. Meanwhile, a recently rediscovered Georgia O'Keeffe painting is heading to auction and might sell for millions.
But if that’s all too exciting, get a load of the Met Gala's new “everyday” theme.
—Hakim Bishara, editor-in-chief
At MoMA, Brancusi Is Lost in Space
Let’s get one thing out of the way first: For all my weariness about how canonical dead White men are STILL. CONSISTENTLY. CENTERED in museum exhibitions — even after said museums have publicly taken pains to expand collections, hire curators with broad expertise and interests, and invite new audiences into their spaces — I have ZERO complaints about putting on a Constantin Brancusi exhibition. Even in fall 2026, when the city’s three major museums have turned themselves over to Brancusi, Lichtenstein, and Pollock simultaneously. (I will go to my grave insisting that it should have been a Krasner show.)
That said, the work of this particular canonical dead White man is glorious, and continues to resonate with contemporary artists: His name has come up consistently in interviews with sculptors this past year, whether Rodney McMillian or Martin Puryear or a number of others I’ve talked to. Brancusi: The Artist and His Studio at the Museum of Modern Art is a great reminder of why.| Aruna D’Souza
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News
- Georgia O'Keeffe's long-lost painting “Near Abiquiu, New Mexico I” was stashed in an East Village closet for decades. Now it might sell for up to $3 million.
- The Met Gala's new theme has been announced. Brace yourself for A-listers strutting down the red carpet in everyday garb like jeans, T-shirts, and “humble, even ‘disposable’ materials.”
- Visitors to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston can soon watch the year-long restoration process of Nicolaes Eliasz Pickenoy’s “The Founders of the Amsterdam Wine Merchants Guild” (1625).
- Pace Gallery is struggling, Ebony L. Haynes joins Marian Goodman Gallery, longtime Manifesta director steps down, and more in Art Movements.
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