With a Little Help From My Art Friends
Gertrude Abercrombie’s crew of Magic Realists, the artist selling trash from outside Taylor Swift’s wedding, and the truth about stock photography.
In an art world that often attributes success to individual genius, the story of Gertrude Abercrombie — the Midwestern Surrealist whose intricately rendered, enigmatic canvases have us all transfixed — is anything but that. A pair of exhibitions at the Milwaukee Art Museum shines a light on her motley crew of "Magic Realists,” among them John Wilde, Marshall Glasier, and other artists who imbued mid-20th-century American painting with a sense of the uncanny. In critic Debra Brehmer’s words, they prove that “no art movement and few artists exist without the bonds of friendship.”
Plus: An ovulation test kit, a left AirPod, and lots of cigarette butts can all be yours if you purchase one of artist Justin Gignac’s trash souvenirs scavenged from outside Taylor Swift’s wedding at Madison Square Garden. Staff Writer Rhea Nayyar gets an interview with this visionary curator of the discarded. (Maurizio Cattelan, take note.)
—Valentina Di Liscia, senior editor
Gertrude Abercrombie’s Band of Midwest Magic Realists
In the 1940s, a small band of Midwest artists dubbed the “Magic Realists” began making work that tapped into the freedoms of Surrealism without being swayed by stylistic tendencies. They took their own path, achieving recognition during their heyday, but drew scant attention from the larger art world in later years. In the last decade, two exhibitions have generated renewed interest: a 2018 show of one of the six primary members, Gertrude Abercrombie, at Karma Gallery in New York, and a recent retrospective of the artist that traveled from the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh to the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine, and is currently on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum.
The Milwaukee iteration has commendably added a small parallel exhibition, Gertrude and Friends: The Wisconsin Magic Realists. The exhibition underscores the mutual support, comradeship, and spirit of rebellion shared by this cohort and other less-involved colleagues, presenting Abercrombie not as an isolated maker, but as part of a protective and inspirational community.
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How the GW Corcoran Is Rethinking Interaction Design Education
The Interaction Design program at the George Washington University Corcoran School of Arts and Design is utilizing partnerships across DC to encourage its students to develop more inclusive design practices.
News
- Messages condemning Israel’s violence in Gaza appeared over the advertising screens outside the Whitney Museum of American Art last week in an action by New York City-based artist Jonathan Allen.
- Following Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding at Madison Square Garden last week, artist Justin Gignac collected street trash found outside the venue and is selling them in pocket-sized vitrine boxes as souvenirs.
Book Review
The Hidden History of Stock Photography
In her first book, scholar Simona Supekar mines the history of stock imagery as a vessel for racism and sexism and considers its role in the age of AI. | Eileen G’Sell
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Remembering Yervant Gianikian, Valerie Brathwaite, and Jerry Moriarty
This week, we honor a giant of 20th-century cinema, a sculptor of the natural world, and a self-described “paintoonist.”
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A Brief History of Women’s Eyebrows in Art
Since antiquity, women’s eyebrows have been sites of intense scrutiny, constantly shifting between trend cycles. | Isabella Segalovich
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