The “Renegade Housewife” of Pop Art
Stories from a pioneering journalist and art worker, John Yau on Valerio Adami, and books of warp and weft for your reading list.
At age 98, Joan Kron has lived many lives. She invented plastic surgery journalism, helped Andy Warhol make his first perfume, hosted the Velvet Underground’s first Philly concert, and commissioned Roy Lichtenstein’s “Super Sunset Billboard.”
That 1967 artwork, a remake of which is on view in the late Pop artist’s exhibition at the Whitney, is one of countless projects she has wrangled into being from behind the scenes. In an exclusive interview today, the indefatigable Kron regales reporter Isabella Segalovich with a slice of those riotous stories, with more to come in her memoir titled The Renegade Housewives of Pop Art — I’ll be first in line at the bookstore.
Also today: WPA-era murals by Black artists in Harlem are finally restored, the art world descends on a champagne-soaked Frieze London, we recommend books on the rich histories of textile art, and critic John Yau finds echoes of Pop art in the paintings of Valerio Adami.
—Lakshmi Rivera Amin, associate editor
The 98-Year-Old Pop Art Queen Behind an Iconic Lichtenstein Billboard
Ahead of her memoir’s release, we talk to Joan Kron about Andy Warhol, beating Sidney Janis to the punch, and why she calls herself a “renegade housewife” of Pop Art. | Isabella Segalovich
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UCLA’s MFA in Media Arts Now Accepting Applications
A three-year program for artists critically and experimentally engaging with media, technology, and contemporary culture.
News
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan and the Musée du Louvre in Paris join forces to co-organize a major exhibition exploring Greco-Roman and biblical influences throughout Rembrandt’s practice.
- NYC Health + Hospitals’ Arts in Medicine department restore three New Deal-era murals and a John Rhoden sculpture held at its Harlem hospital on Wednesday, October 14.
- Danh Vo and Sandra Mujinga are selected for Met Museum commissions, a new leader is named for the Armenian Museum of America, Bernie Sanders weighs in on the AI art debate, and more in Art Movements.
Asia NOW 2026 Brings Contemporary Asian Art to Paris
Celebrating the artistic voices of Asia and its diaspora, the fair brings new and returning international galleries together in Paris this October.
From Our Critics
Valerio Adami’s Hot and Cold Art
His syncretic style melds Pop Art’s cool, outlined forms with expressionism’s figural distortions, resulting in a perturbing ambiguity. | John Yau
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Ruby City Presents “Generative Disruption: Feminist Art from the Collection”
This latest exhibition traces the enduring influence of feminist artistic practice on contemporary art. On view Sept 26 - Aug 29, 2027
Features
Ah, the Many Smells of Frieze London
Among them champagne, new money, and an artist’s custom-scented bathroom installations. | Naomi Polonsky
Read MoreJazmine Hayes Charts Community Displacement, Resilience in Brownsville Art Commission
“I genuinely want any child that walks through this door to be and feel protected,” the East New York-raised artist told Hyperallergic. | Rhea Nayyar
Read MoreHyper Links
- War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s barbaric execution of a man by a firing squad will still take place; it just won’t be livestreamed after Trump’s intervention. [CBC]
- After the victim in the Cornell Seven case got doxxed, women around the internet stepped up to protect her with one simple phrase: “I am Jane Doe.” [New Yorker]
- Useful tips on how to get that art grant you so desperately need. [Instagram]
Member Comment
—DONA Nelson on "Roy Lichtenstein Has Lost His Luster"
From the Archive
Trans Actress Candy Darling Gets the Biography She Deserves
Half a century after the Warhol film star’s death, writer and critic Cynthia Carr brings Darling’s life to light in an empathetic, well-researched new book. | Alexis Clements
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