Art and Resistance on the Nation’s 250th
Our stories this week are a testament to the people’s power, and a love letter to creative communities.
This holiday weekend is a strange one. As heat waves wash over much of the United States, so do mixed feelings toward the nation’s 250th birthday today, punctuated by rays of hope — like the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold birthright citizenship this week. Here at Hyperallergic, we’ve been embracing moments of possibility and discovery. John Yau’s review of a group of little-known works by Phillip Guston — influenced in part by his wife, poet Musa McKim, and their larger poetry community — is an example of art history’s ever-yielding worlds.
This spirit also resonates in Aruna D’Souza’s feature, examining artists who have upended and subverted the meaning of Lady Liberty. One work she selected moved me deeply: Abigail DeVille’s “Light of Freedom,” created in 2020, a year of Black Lives Matter demonstrations and collective resistance, reimagines the iconic torch as an outsized symbol of protest. It represents “people that hooked each other arm-in-arm,” the artist has said, “to fight for whatever this nation actually pretends that it was founded or based on.”
Indeed, many stories this week are a testament to the people’s power, and a love letter to creative communities in the US and beyond. I spoke to the artists leading aid efforts on the ground in Venezuela, nurturing networks of care amid earthquake ruins, and Staff Writer Isa Farfan reported on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s record budget for the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
And if what you really need is a laugh, just look at the new statue of Messi installed in Argentina. As Staff Writer Rhea Nayyar points out, you won’t be able to unsee it.
—Valentina Di Liscia, senior editor
Philip Guston’s Lines of Poetry
Philip Guston loved poets. In 1968, after he and his wife, the artist and poet Musa McKim, and their teenage daughter moved to Woodstock, New York, he began to radically shift his work from abstraction to a cartoonish world of people and things. This change coincided with his beginning to collaborate with a close circle of poet friends, particularly Clark Coolidge, who lived nearby.
Life With P. - Philip Guston: Paintings and Drawings 1964–1978 at Hauser and Wirth brings together work from this time when he pared down his drawings to a line or two and began again. Drawing, particularly the bare line, was central to Guston’s practice. | John Yau
Read MoreNews
- Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the City Council will provide the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs with its highest-ever yearly appropriation as part of the city’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget.
- A Texas tattoo artist has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for moving a box of political pamphlets and zines featuring “anti-government and anti-Trump sentiments,” prompting outrage from First Amendment advocates.
- A Mohawk artist’s bust of George Washington, a matrilineal home altar, and a Dunkin’ cup are among the 400 objects in a new major reinstallation in the Art of the Americas Wing of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
- The world’s tallest Lionel Messi statue has caused a stir online with its crotch-level and rather phallic World Cup trophy.
- Novel research proves that DNA can survive for millennia within the paint applied to rock walls, opening a future pathway to recovering the identities of ancient artists from thousands of years ago.
- Following the recent seizure of several objects from The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection in June, the total valuation of looted artifacts surrendered by the museum now stands at $95 million.
- Union negotiations for a contract with the Guggenheim Museum are entering their sixth month, with an emphasis on job security after abrupt layoffs last year. Workers have also authorized a strike if necessary.
- After 11 years in business, the contemporary art gallery Lyles & King announced its closure July 2.
- Art sales featuring everything from paintings and prints to photographs, artist books, and zines are benefiting urgently needed aid efforts in Venezuela.
- Art Movements: NYC's Swiss Institute heads to the Bowery, Raymond Pettibon and Abdelkader Benchamma team up on a massive mural, Seattle Art Museum's new chief curator, and more.
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Features
What Does the Statue of Liberty Stand For?
As artists like Sherald, Marta Minujín, and Faith Ringgold remind us, the monument is far from a neutral symbol of so-called American values. | Aruna D'Souza
Read MoreThe Artists Countermapping the World
Three exhibitions of works by Claudio Perna, Sandy Rodriguez, and Firelei Báez reclaim cartography as a medium for memory, migration, and resistance. | Clara Maria Apostolatos
Read MoreAt Upstate Art Weekend, Cars and Barns Are Galleries
During the seventh annual event, hundreds of artists proved that art has never been confined to “white cube” galleries. | Taliesin Thomas
Read MoreNancy Shaver’s Beloved Store in Hudson to Close After 30 Years
For many, Henry is a lot more than just another Upstate New York antiques shop. | Steel Stillman
Read More
Venezuelan Artists Grieve, Find Community in Aftermath of Earthquakes
Facing a humanitarian crisis, everyday citizens have become rescue workers, and tight-knit art communities are creating networks of support. | Valentina Di Liscia
Read MoreHopeful Art Fundraisers for Earthquake Relief in Venezuela
Art sales featuring everything from paintings and prints to photographs, artist books, and zines are benefiting urgently needed aid efforts in Venezuela.
Read MoreInterviews
The Ballroom Icon Who Paved a New Way
Amid all of the kitty-kat meow of today’s Vogue Fem performers, Andre Mizrahi Clark has the stern, calm energy of a lion tipping on its toes. | Ridikkuluz
Read MoreJack Halberstam’s Trans Theory at a Slant
Hyperallergic spoke with the scholar about transness, architecture, and how we can make a better world by first unmaking it. | Natalie Haddad
Read MoreBooks
Every Dog Has Its Artist
A compassionate new book explores how canine companions across Western art history break down the emotional boundaries between species. | Alisyn Amant
Read MoreGuide
10 Art Shows to See in Los Angeles This July
Marc Kreisel’s secret art practice, Gwyneth Bulawsky’s queer and trans landscapes, Barbara Carrasco’s lifelong muralism, and more.| Matt Stromberg
Read MoreCommunity
- In Memoriam — This week, we honor German artist Rune Mields who plumbed the depths of geometry, Venezuelan painter Onai Quiñonez, and Korean museum director and printmaker Song Burnsoo.
- Required Reading — James Turrell in Denmark, a new album by Raven Chacon, a Black radical history of the Declaration of Independence, World Cup songs across time, and more.
- A View From the Easel — Kathleen MacKenzie cherishes the birds of Upstate New York and the freedom of experimental video art.
Opportunities This Month
Residencies, fellowships, grants, and open calls from the Paul & Daisy Soros Foundation, Ucross, AICA International, and more in our monthly list of opportunities for artists, writers, and art workers.
