> ## 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. # Required Reading - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/required-reading-29/ - Published: 2011-09-25T18:46:45.000Z - Updated: 2025-11-24T15:34:32.000Z - Description: This week's edition focuses on the de Kooning retrospective at MoMA, some final essays on the 9/11 Museum, an endangered mural in Manhattan, the timeline design of Facebook and Instagram as art. - Author: Hrag Vartanian - Tags: Opinion, #image-position-hidden, Charlie Finch, Facebook, Hal Foster, Holland Cotter, Instagram, Kyle Chayka, Required Reading, Tyler Green, Willem de Kooning, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-17 09:23 (2009-2011) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/09/dekooning-women-600.jpg) Some women in front of de Kooning's women paintings at the MoMA exhibition (photo by the author) This week’s edition focuses on the de Kooning retrospective at MoMA, some essays on the 9/11 Museum, an endangered mural in Manhattan, the timeline design of Facebook and Instagram as art. ![](http://c2771442.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/H-12.png) Everyone in New York is talking about the Willem de Kooning retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. We have yet to chime in on the topic here at Hyperallergic, but until then, enjoy these links to various discussions of the art work: ![](http://c2771442.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/H-12.png) Holland Cotter [loved](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/arts/design/de-kooning-a-retrospective-at-moma-review.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) it. ![](http://c2771442.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/H-12.png) Teri Tynes does a [close “reading](http://www.walkingoffthebigapple.com/2011/09/sense-of-place-reading-willem-de.html?ref=hyperallergic.com)” of de Kooning’s masterpiece, “Gotham News” (1955). ![](http://c2771442.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/H-12.png) Tyler Green [looks closely](http://blogs.artinfo.com/modernartnotes/2011/09/considering-some-responses-to-excavation/?ref=hyperallergic.com) at the artist’s “Excavation” (1950). ![](http://c2771442.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/H-12.png) And Charlie Finch [doesn’t like](http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/finch/de-kooning-retrospective-moma-9-21-11.asp?ref=hyperallergic.com) the late work. ![](http://c2771442.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/H-12.png) And two interviews with the curator, John Elderfield, one with [Dan Duray](http://www.observer.com/2011/09/willem-de-kooning-returns-at-moma-curator-john-elderfield-stages-the-artist%E2%80%99s-first-retrospective-since-1994/?ref=hyperallergic.com) at *New York Observer*, and another with [Kyle Chayka](http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/38629/the-excavator-de-kooning-curator-john-elderfield-on-lost-themes-the-misunderstood-late-work-and-the-pleasures-of-google/?ref=hyperallergic.com) at Artinfo. ![](http://c2771442.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/H-12.png) Hal Foster [writes](http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n17/hal-foster/the-last-column?ref=hyperallergic.com) about the “struggle for the American soul” at Ground Zero in the *London Review of Books*. He discusses the work of Catalan artist Francesc Torres, who was commissioned by the 9/11 Museum to photograph the 80,000 square-foot interior of the Hangar 17 every day in April 2009\. The hangar, located at JFK, was where roughly 1,200 pieces of steel and other objects from the World Trade Center site were warehoused. ![](http://c2771442.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/H-12.png) Martin Filler [reviews](http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/sep/21/at-the-edge-of-abyss-september-11-memorial/?ref=hyperallergic.com) the 9/11 Memorial in the *New York Review of Books*: > It is generally held that great architecture requires the participation of a great client, but just how this stunning result emerged from such a fraught and contentious process will take some time for critics and historians to sort out. ![](http://c2771442.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/H-12.png) If someone forks over $70,000, it looks like a [gigantic mural](http://www.observer.com/2011/09/hells-kitchen-mural-could-be-restored-pending-funding/?ref=hyperallergic.com) by the Canadian-Mexican painter [Arnold Belkin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold%5FBelkin?ref=hyperallergic.com) can be saved. The 39 year-old mural in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood (located in the May Mathews/Alexandra Palmer Park). Some believe it may be the only outdoor work that Belkin. It is titled “Against Domestic Colonialism” (1972). ![](http://c2771442.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/H-12.png) Infographic designer extraordinaire Nick Felton was hired by Facebook a little while back, well, here is a description of [his influence](http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665062/how-infographics-guru-nicholas-felton-inspired-facebooks-timeline?ref=hyperallergic.com) on the Facebook timeline (h/t [@fmerlino](https://twitter.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com#!/frmerlino/status/117275609100595200)): > If Timeline is successful, it could alter how people absorb data not just on Facebook, but also on the rest of the Internet (making a lot of money in the process). How? Simply by turning *everyone* into Nicholas Felton. ![](http://c2771442.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/H-12.png) Superhot photo-sharing app Instagram has [inspired an art show](http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/instagram-powered%5Fart%5Fshow%5Fto%5Fopen%5Fin%5Flondon.php?ref=hyperallergic.com) in London. [*Required Reading*](http://hyperallergic.com/tag/required-reading/) *is published every Sunday morning, and it is comprised of a short list of art-related links (10 or less) to long-form articles, videos, blog posts or photo essays worth a second look.*