Felix Gonzalez-Torres once made the argument that all art is political, even an artist’s choice to focus on the purely aesthetic.
New York University
Recreating the Magic Circle of a Surrealist Seriously into the Occult
Dressed in a crisp tuxedo, Swiss artist Kurt Seligmann stepped into a chalk circle lined with the names of archangels on the wood floor of his Manhattan apartment.
Afterlives of Mesopotamian Artifacts, from Flapper Fashion to de Kooning
After excavation, ancient artifacts embark on an afterlife of interpretation. From Ancient to Modern explores how the archaeology of Mesopotamia reflected fashions and academia of the 1920s and 30s, and influenced contemporary art.
A Conference Considers the Philosophy of Street Art
Today, a three-day conference titled Philosophy of Street Art: Art in and of the Street begins at Pratt Institute and New York University.
Picturing a Communist Revolution in the US
Different artists disagree as to how communist convictions are best or most effectively visualized, and the best part of The Left Front is the methodological tension that underwrites the varied approaches on display.
The Infinite Forms of Marta Chilindron’s Manipulable Sculptures
A historic building on Millionaire’s Row seems an unlikely location to come upon contemporary sculpture, yet the old and the new are currently loosening each other up in a former party mansion on the Upper East Side. EXPAND//FOLD//COLLAPSE// Sculptures by Marta Chilindron features brightly colored, manipulable works placed within the Beaux-Arts setting of the James B. Duke House.
Front-Page NYT Report Confirms Gulf Labor Findings on Saadiyat Island
A front-page investigative story published in the New York Times today has confirmed previous allegations of labor abuses in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), echoing the findings of the Guardian, Human Rights Watch, and — most recently — the Gulf Labor activist group.
Whitney Museum to Offer Year of Free Admission to Construction Workers
At a hard-hat tour of the Whitney’s Renzo Piano-designed building in downtown Manhattan earlier this month, it was announced that the institution plans to extend a year of museum membership to the project’s construction workers.
All Wrong About Lower Manhattan: Rereading Sharon Zukin
In the course of writing The Rise and Fall of Artists’ SoHo (Routledge), I read several earlier books about lofts and artists in lower Manhattan. The most embarrassing by far, in spite of some research worth crediting, was Sharon Zukin’s Loft Living: Culture and Capital in Urban Change.