| Welcome to the weekend. If you didn’t catch it earlier this week, make sure to read our Senior Editor Hakim Bishara’s thoughtful essay on Caspar David Friedrich and the sublime, where he suggests that neo-Romanticism might be at the heart of the rightward turn overtaking much of the US and parts of Europe. Legendary artist and writer Art Spiegelman discusses similar themes of politics and nationalism in his classic graphic novel Maus, plus comics, collaboration, and more, in an engrossing interview with Dan Schindel. In galleries, Alexandra M. Thomas ponders American Artist’s explorations of Octavia E. Butler’s sci-fi humanism, while Jasmine Weber digs into the history of Acts of Art, a short-lived space for Black artists at the height of the Black Arts Movement, and our own Lisa Yin Zhang revisits her childhood memories of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s “The Gates” at Central Park. And don’t miss our Editor-in-Chief Hrag Vartanian’s take on Deborah Kass’s cheeky feminist takedowns of male art histories. In news, workers in Washington, DC, have begun to remove a Black Lives Matter mural following Republican threats to withhold federal funding from the city; National Endowment for the Humanities Chair Shelly C. Lowe has stepped down at the behest of President Trump; and unionized Brooklyn Museum workers are being offered buyouts as negotiations over highly criticized layoffs continue. Also, as much of the nation turns its gaze to the horrific arrest of Columbia University graduate and permanent resident Mahmoud Khalil, artists and cultural workers call for his immediate release in a Manhattan protest and a letter put out by community center The People’s Forum. You’ll definitely want to make time this weekend to read our except from Miles J. Unger’s new book A Fire in His Soul: Van Gogh, Paris, and the Making of an Artist and to listen to Hrag Vartanian’s podcast interview with pioneering multimedia artist Nick Cave.
We’ve also got our list of art books for your March reading list and our columns Required Reading and A View From the Easel. And Hyperallergic Members, mark your calendars for Wednesday, March 19, when we hold our second Town Hall, “As DEI Slowly Dies, What Comes Next?,” with guest speakers Lise Ragbir and Ola Mobolade. — Natalie Haddad, Reviews Editor | | |
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 | | Just like Caspar David Friedrich and the Romanticists, we live in anxious times and hunger for a touch of the sublime. | Hakim Bishara |
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SPONSORED |  | | | | Guadalupe Maravilla, Selva Aparicio, Felipe Baeza, and Jeffrey Meris were awarded 2025 Vilcek Prizes in Visual Arts for their sculptures, installations, and performances that address migration, grief, trauma, social justice, and liberation. These awards are part of the foundation’s decision to double the number of prizes awarded in the arts.
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NEWS THIS WEEK |  | | |
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UPCOMING EVENT |  | | At our virtual town hall meeting on March 19, Hyperallergic Members will hear from Lise Ragbir and Ola Mobolade on the tenuous state of DEI in the art world. |
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SPONSORED |  | | | | The largest art fair for prints and editions will bring together an international group of galleries and publishers to New York City, March 27–30. Learn more |
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FROM OUR CRITICS |  | | In Deborah Kass’s Art History Paintings, the politics of display are just the beginning. | Hrag Vartanian
Long an admirer of Renaissance and Baroque paintings, Bluhm sought to recreate their sensual forms, unearthly light, and infinite space in abstraction. | John Yau
What would it mean for the survival of the planet if we were to take seriously Black feminist visions of climate justice in which coexistence with nature is prioritized over environmental plunder? | Alexandra M. Thomas |
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|  | | “The Gates” was an artwork within an artwork, inscribing the populist impulse of Central Park into 7,500+ neon orange armatures with billowing fabric. | Lisa Yin Zhang
Founded in 1969 by Nigel Jackson and Patricia Grey, Acts of Art exemplified the spirit of a subversive and consequential period in Black art history. | Jasmine Weber
An exhibition explores the distinctions in the term, conceived by scholar Tomás Ybarra-Frausto to describe a Chicanx aesthetics of resourcefulness. | Liz Kim |
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SPONSORED |  | | | | Affordable Art Fair offers something for everyone and a place to find confidence in your taste. Learn more |
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ARTISTS UP CLOSE |  | | Hrag Vartanian interviews the artist in his Chicago studio about his childhood, his evolving craft, and what he does to stay optimistic during difficult times. |
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|  | | On the occasion of a new documentary, the artist talks with Hyperallergic about the legacy of Maus, comics techniques, Gaza, collaboration, and more. | Dan Schindel |
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MORE ON HYPERALLERGIC |  | | Delve into Lucy Lippard’s short fictions, Tamara Lanier’s indelible memoir, The White Pube’s tales of absurdity in the art world, new perspectives on Mucha, and more. | Hrag Vartanian, Hakim Bishara, Lakshmi Rivera Amin, Lisa Yin Zhang, Bridget Quinn, and Hannah Bonner
The artist’s internal revolution erupted in the radical innovations of his years in the city, which seemed to offer refuge from the storms of his life. | Miles J. Unger
The Corita Kent Art Center combines the artist’s foundation, an archive and gallery, and educational and community spaces to continue her extension of art into life. | Matt Stromberg
“The ability to step back and view the composition from a distance is just as important as being close to the surface.” | Lakshmi Rivera Amin
This week: Isabella Hammad on Etel Adnan, a mural for Emily Pike, the problem with mainstream film, experimental ASMR, legalizing bodega cats, and much more. | Lakshmi Rivera Amin |
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