The Art World After Epstein
How can art institutions reject corrupt funding, the Washington Post lays off its art critic, art books to read this month, and our weekly community columns.
We knew everything we needed to know about the art world before the Epstein Files dropped. Before heinous allegations against Museum of Modern Art trustee Leon Black emerged, or School of Visual Arts chair David A. Ross's sympathetic endorsement of Epstein came out, we knew about the intimate connections between institutional heads and donors and trustees. The exchanges of money, donations, or favors that bind them.
So what do we do about it? In an opinion piece today, Editor-at-Large Hrag Vartanian asks a crucial question: How do we empower arts leaders to reject funding from corrupt individuals in favor of civic leaders we can be proud of?
We're living in a world where — speaking of evil billionaires — the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post just laid off 300 people, including its Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic Sebastian Smee. But Vartanian's piece refuses pessimism — the old and defeated adage that the system has always and therefore will always be this way. Democracy dies in darkness, as the tagline of a once-venerated newspaper goes. Let's make our way into the light.
—Lisa Yin Zhang, associate editor
Epstein Files Expose the Depths of the Art World's Rot
"The culture that Jeffrey Epstein represents is deeply embedded in the art establishment power structures that force themselves onto the rest of us, creating dynamics that exploit, degrade, and turn us all into cynics," Editor-at-Large Hrag Vartanian writes. He asks all of us in the art world to return to that fundamental question: Who are we making art for? What are we willing to give up?
News
- The Washington Post lays off its art critic Sebastian Smee in what's been described as a “bloodbath” at the Jeff Bezos-owned paper. All of the Post's staff photographers were also eliminated, raising questions about the future of the publication's visual strategy.
- The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, acquires Italian Baroque master Artemisia Gentileschi's "Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy" (c. 1625). The painting depicts the biblical character amid experiencing a divine vision.
Frankenthaler Climate Initiative Opens Applications for Sixth Grant Cycle
The program has awarded more than $17.5 million to US visual arts organizations pursuing energy efficiency assessments and projects.
Books Guide
8 Art Books to Read This February
Recommendations from our editors this month include a history of the Parisian artist hub of Montmartre, a colorful monograph by Yankunytjatjara artist Kaylene Whiskey, and Joseph Grigley's poignant book about how his loss of hearing inflected his creative life.
Community
A View From the Easel
This week, Pitseolak Qimirpik makes graphic art and carvings (and watches beautiful sunsets, apparently) from their snow-bound studio in Kinngait, Canada, and Pau Tiu and Felize Camille Tolentino-Tiu share a cozy (actually cozy, not realtor-speak "cozy") studio in Queens. Yours could be next!
Required Reading
The politics of love letters, the blossoming of Black-owned bookstores, and a spoof of Melania Trump's new movie are just some of the gems from Associate Editor Lakshmi River Amin's weekly round-up of must-reads from around the internet.
Art Movements
In this week's edition of Senior Editor Valentina Di Liscia's round-up of must-know industry news, British curator Ekow Eshun will curate the 13th SITE SANTA FE International Biennial, Mnuchin Gallery shutters, the Warhol Foundation expands its grant program, and Michelangelo's foot drawing sells at Christie's.
Member Comment
Joel Becktell on Julia Curl's “Eugène Atget, Readymade Icon”:
From the Archive
Art Historian May Have Discovered Two Artemisia Gentileschi Paintings in Beirut
After Gregory Buchakjian’s discovery laid largely dormat for decades, his research has been renewed and well-received by scholars of the Baroque artist. | Hrag Vartanian
