The painting, worth an estimated $340,000, was left behind by a traveler at Düsseldorf Airport and scrapped by a cleaning crew.
Germany
Hito Steyerl Brings Us Late Night Public Access Weirdness
4 Nights at the Museum, a “weird-ass visual podcast,” is a good example of responsive curating amid the pandemic.
“Bad Beuys”: Artists “Steal” a Joseph Beuys as a Statement About Repatriation
How better to illustrate the inadequacy of current restitution efforts than to offer up as tribute an object by one of Germany’s most famous artists, who thought art could bring about transformative social change?
Berlin’s Madame Tussauds Dumps Trump Wax Figure Ahead of Election Day
The museum rolled its Trump lookalike off the premises in a dumpster.
A Scuffle Over Anti-Fascist Art in a German Museum, Explained
Following their creation of an anti-fascist art installation for a show at Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, the artist-activist group Peng! Collective found themselves at the center of a perhaps inevitable brouhaha.
Why the Bauhaus Still Matters in an Era of Neo-Nationalism
A look back at all the questions, contradictions, omissions, and elisions of last year’s bauhaus imaginista exhibition reveals that it was a show about contemporary Germany as a country as much as it is about whatever we are calling “the Bauhaus.”
A Ceremonial Chord Change for John Cage’s 639-year-long Concert
An organ recital of a piece by the composer began in 2001 and will run until 2640. This weekend, listeners gathered to hear its 14th chord change.
This 1902 Footage of a Flying Train Is the Film of the Summer
The Museum of Modern Art has released a short film of a German elevated train from its archives, and it absolutely rules.
Is There a New Yiddish Contemporary Visual Art?
Since about the 1970s, a new and largely post-vernacular Yiddish culture has started to develop in many, often unexpected, locales around the world. A related visual aesthetic now seems to be emerging.
Reflecting on the Life of Rebeccah Blum, Accomplished Curator, Editor, and Translator
Friends and family remember Rebeccah Blum, who was killed in Berlin on July 22.
Shaking Up the Ethnographic Museum
In a new book, the curator and art historian Clémentine Deliss proposes that “ethnographic” artifacts be reconsidered, remediated — and maybe even returned to their original owners.
Theaster Gates’s Emotional Confrontation With Racism
With Black Chapel, Gates references the racism embedded in modernism’s failure to adequately acknowledge non-white sources of inspiration.