> ## 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. # The Art World Is a Joke - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/the-art-world-is-a-joke/ - Published: 2026-04-02T10:00:07.000Z - Updated: 2026-04-02T10:00:14.000Z - Description: April Fools’ round-ups, Aruna D’Souza on the abstract painter who’s everywhere this year, art books to read this spring, and more. - Author: Hyperallergic - Tags: Daily Newsletter, Newsletter Happy April! Hope you got a kick out of our [April Fools’ issue](https://hyperallergic.com/tag/april-fools/). If that wasn't enough for you, Staff Writer Rhea Nayyar rounded up the best jokes in the art world this year — check it out and let us know who you think did it best. (For the record, I still think it’s us.) And in other ways to celebrate this month, we’ve also put together a list of 10 recommended books coming out in April. Kamrooz Aram is everywhere this year, from Mumbai Art Week to the Whitney Biennial, and critic Aruna D’Souza is grateful. She pens a beautiful meditation on his work, reading his abstract paintings as not simply a denunciation of Western modernism nor a reassertion of Islamic visual motifs, but something else entirely — something gestural, exuberant, riotous, and incomparably his own. Also in this issue, Aaron Boehmer deconstructs the intimate gaze of Palestinian-American artist Dean Majd, who captures joys, griefs, and rites of passage. *—Lisa Yin Zhang, associate editor* --- [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/04/DSC09403-3.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/kamrooz-aram-breaks-down-the-grid/) A visitor at **Kamrooz Aram: Infrequencies* at Alexander Gray Associates (photo Hrag Vartanian/**Hyperallergic*) ### [Kamrooz Aram Breaks Down the Grid](https://hyperallergic.com/kamrooz-aram-breaks-down-the-grid/) Rather than deconstruct Western modernism or reinsert Islamic visual idioms, the artist loosens the grip of the grid. | Aruna D’Souza --- SPONSORED [![CTA Image](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/03/Paat_Announcement-1-2.jpeg)](https://hyperallergic.com/meet-the-first-cohort-of-haystacks-artist-grant-initiative/) ****Meet the First Cohort of Haystack’s Artist Grant Initiative** Eight artists pushing boundaries in design and materials find support through mentorship and an unrestricted grant award. [Learn more ](https://hyperallergic.com/meet-the-first-cohort-of-haystacks-artist-grant-initiative/) --- ## News [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-01-at-1.23.45---PM--2-.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/the-best-april-fools-jokes-in-the-art-world-this-year/) (via the Peggy Guggenheim Collection on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/DWlAcDQDHkJ/?ref=hyperallergic.com); screenshot Rhea Nayyar/**Hyperallergic*) - In addition to our own fresh and feral stock of jokes, we wanted to show some love to a few other examples of [April Fools shenanigans](https://hyperallergic.com/the-best-april-fools-jokes-in-the-art-world-this-year/) across the arts and humanities. - A [new bipartisan bill](https://hyperallergic.com/could-colorado-create-the-countrys-first-artist-corporation/) introduced in Colorado could help enshrine intellectual property rights and expand healthcare access for cultural workers. --- MEMBER EVENT [![CTA Image](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/03/TonikaLewisJohnson_PhotoByBrianCrawford-1.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/tonika-lewis-johnson-segregation-and-how-to-disrupt-it/) ****Tonika Lewis Johnson: Segregation and How to Disrupt It** Join us on April 15 for a conversation with social justice artist and recent MacArthur “Genius Grant” winner Tonika Lewis Johnson and Hyperallergic Senior Editor Valentina Di Liscia. [Learn more ](https://hyperallergic.com/tonika-lewis-johnson-segregation-and-how-to-disrupt-it/) --- ## From Our Critics [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/04/1200mohamed--prayer---2020-1.jpeg)](https://hyperallergic.com/a-palestinian-american-photographers-intimate-gaze/) Dean Majd, “Mohamed (prayer)” (2020) (courtesy the artist) ### [A Palestinian-American Photographer’s Intimate Gaze](https://hyperallergic.com/a-palestinian-american-photographers-intimate-gaze/) Dean Majd captured images of his inner circle for a decade, deconstructing performances of masculinity in the process. | Aaron Boehmer --- ## What We’re Reading [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/04/image-5-1.png)](https://hyperallergic.com/10-art-books-for-your-spring-reading-list/) ### [10 Art Books for Your Spring Reading List](https://hyperallergic.com/10-art-books-for-your-spring-reading-list/) Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s first catalog in 25 years, Molly Crabapple chronicles the Jewish Bund, a photographer captures a Black Southern waterway, and more. | Lisa Yin Zhang, Lakshmi Rivera Amin, Hakim Bishara, Hrag Vartanian, Sophia Stewart, Nageen Shaikh --- ## In Memoriam [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/04/obit-3-1.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/remembering-glen-baxter-pat-steir-melvin-edwards/) Glen Baxter in 1992 (photo [CC0 1.0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en?ref=hyperallergic.com), courtesy Noord-Hollands Archief / Fotoburo de Boer) ### [Remembering Glen Baxter, Pat Steir, Melvin Edwards](https://hyperallergic.com/remembering-glen-baxter-pat-steir-melvin-edwards/) This week, we honor an absurdist cartoonist, a trailblazing feminist artist, and a sculptor who probed the history of violence in the US. --- ## Member Comment Lowery Sims on Isa Farfan’s “[Curator’s Shoes Steal the Show at MoMA Reception](https://hyperallergic.com/curators-shoes-steal-the-show-at-moma-reception/)”: Oh you guys! You get us every year. Thanks for the laughs. --- ## **From the Archive** [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/04/image-6-1.png)](https://hyperallergic.com/archaeologists-discover-worlds-oldest-break-up-letter-at-neo-babylonian-site/) King Nabonidus’s letter to (image courtesy Liberty University Archeological team) ### [Archaeologists Discover World’s Oldest Break-Up Letter at Neo-Babylonian Site](https://hyperallergic.com/archaeologists-discover-worlds-oldest-break-up-letter-at-neo-babylonian-site/) A tablet discovered this year, suggests that Neo-Babylonians may have been the first to start writing break up letters. | Hrag Vartanian