Ai Weiwei, Artwashing, Tom Sachs's Sick Abusive World

March 18, 2023

This week, the art world is chattering about the way famous artists treat their staff. All this comes after former staff members came forward to talk about their experiences at the cult-like studio of Tom Sachs. It's quite a story.

We also published an important opinion by Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a nonprofit founded by the late Jamal Khashoggi, about how artists and curators should not artwash Saudi Arabia's terrible human rights crimes. This is particularly important today, when a number of major art institutions and artists, not to mention gallerists, curators, and art historians, are doing nothing to challenge the autocratic government's abysmal record on human rights, while partaking of the riches of the repressive regime.

In response to the Warhol Museum's vapid exhibition in Saudi Arabia, Whitson writes:

There should be no illusion that the handsome paycheck to the Warhol Museum and the over-the-top perks Patrick Moore and his staff are no doubt enjoying are paying only for Warhol’s fine artworks. What the Saudi government is really paying for — and what the Warhol Museum is actually selling — is legitimacy, credibility, and support for its government *despite its gross abuses*. This is how the Warhol Museum contributes to the Saudi government’s abuses, playing its role in an elaborate smoke and mirrors scheme designed to have us look away from the women’s rights activists tortured and languishing in prison, the 26 children in Sanaa blown to bits by a Saudi bomb targeting their school bus, the Saudi preacher facing the death penalty for calling for peace, and more.

We also couldn’t help but notice that this essay received far fewer views on Facebook on Twitter than most of our other posts, despite it being visited and shared by thousands of readers who subscribe to our emails or visit the site directly. At the height of Facebook’s popularity, our posts routinely reached 10-30% of our over 425,000 followers, while today they typically reach 1-2%. But this post in particular was only shown to 0.1% of those followers!

While we're happy the post was still widely read, it raises some questions that we, as a small media outlet, are very aware of daily, namely that distribution networks are unreliable and can be artificially influenced by various bad-faith actors. And as social media platforms like Twitter change ownership and attempt to become profitable, they may allow this type of pernicious influence to play a larger role. We'll be paying attention.

And this week, we had a successful event with curator Dr. Kelli Morgan. Thank you to the 400+ people who attended. On Monday, March 20, join us at 6pm ET for our next event, with curator Angelina Lippert, who will discuss the work of innovative printmaker Amos Kennedy Jr., whose letterpress posters were created for his local Black rural community in Alabama

— Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief

The Sick, Abusive World of Tom Sachs

Former workers who spoke to Hyperallergic reveal a culture of rampant mistreatment at the artist’s studio. | Elaine Velie

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Uncommon Denominator: Nina Katchadourian at the Morgan

At the Morgan Library & Museum, Katchadourian stages a conversation between her own work, family history, and the institution’s vaults. On view in NYC. Learn more.

NEWS THIS WEEK

Flipping the bird at the largest Confederate monument, Stone Mountain in Georgia (edit Valentina Di Liscia/Hyperallergic)

The Portland Art Museum issued an apology after a staff member asked a Native mother to remove her traditional baby carrier.

Harrison Marshall’s 25-square-foot “Skip House” went viral on TikTok, but some question its sustainability as the housing crisis continues.

Artists team up with Venus Williams for a benefit auction to save Nina Simone’s home in Tryon, North Carolina.

British artist Phyllida Barlow, best known for “nonmonumental" sculptures, died Sunday, March 12, at age 78.

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ARTISTS' PRACTICES

In the Studio With Amos Kennedy

As part of Hyperallergic’s Emily Hall Tremaine Journalism Fellowship for Curators, Angelina Lippert presents an exhibition offering insight into artist Amos Kennedy’s radical poster-making practice.

RSVP to attend Lippert's virtual conversation with Editor-in-Chief Hrag Vartanian on Monday, March 20 at 6pm (EDT).

The Artist Helping Resolve Detroit’s Housing Problems

Oren Goldenberg’s latest project involves creating affordable housing for artists at a recycling center. | Sarah Rose Sharp

Getting High With the Rabbi

Glass artist Jeremy Grant-Levine channels Jewish folk tradition through “Rabbi Bongs” and weed-smoking pipes. | Isabella Segalovich

PLACE & PECULIARITIES

The Contentious History of Frank Lloyd Wright’s First LA Home

In their exhibition at the Hollyhock House, Louise Bonnet and Adam Silverman engage with the building’s peculiarities — and its origin story. | Matt Stromberg

Things Go Wayward at the Hayward

The doomster title of Extinction Beckons at London’s Hayward Gallery had really got me going. Then, almost immediately, things started to go wrong. | Michael Glover

Miyoko Ito’s Mysteries and Longings

In Ito’s art we glimpse something we cannot comprehend. A sense of longing and mystery, isolation and solitude fill the paintings. | John Yau

DISMANTLING ORTHODOXIES

Blowing Holes in Traditional American Portraiture

What different forms of knowledge are produced when Black, Indigenous, Asian, and Latinx histories are prioritized in a visual presentation of American portraiture? | Dr. Kelli Morgan

Photography’s Power to Dismantle Orthodoxies

Dismantling Monoliths at SF Camerawork pits artists against the Western canon of photography. | Emily Wilson

Celebrating America’s Forgotten Black Cowboys

Outriders: Legacy of the Black Cowboy strives to correct the mainstream Western narrative of life on the range. | Rachel Harris-Huffman

MORE ON HYPERALLERGIC

How Not to Artwash Saudi Arabia’s Gruesome Human Rights Record

Under which conditions should an art museum ethically and responsibly do business with a repressive authoritarian government? | Sarah Leah Whitson

Where Were South Asian Dancers in the Oscars’ “Best Song” Performance?

The ceremony’s rendition of the Indian Telugu-language song “Naatu Naatu” is indicative of under-representation across the industry, critics say. | Rhea Nayyar

MTV’s The Exhibit Needs a Cutthroat Judge

In episode three, the artists created works about the pandemic and bonded with each other, which is cute but doesn’t really make for good TV. | Rhea Nayyar

A View From the Easel

This week, studios in New York, California, Indiana, and Massachusetts. | Lakshmi Rivera Amin

Required Reading

This week, gifted DeSantis a “fascist” snowflake, NASA’s Webb telescope captures a supernova, corporatizing London’s creativity, and much more. | Hrag Vartanian

IN OUR STORE

Hilma af Klint “The Swan” Recycled Tote Bag

Keep the esoteric art of Hilma af Klint always at your side with this striking two-tone tote featuring “The Swan, No. 1” (1915).

Explore our art-inspired bags and totes!

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