Weekly

October 23, 2021 • View in browser

I’ve been thinking a lot about Peter Kim George’s story this week on the line between consent and appropriation in documentary film. Focusing on Blue Bayou and Sabaya, George offers us these insights:

The common thread here is the way a film’s intended mission can be ethically undermined by the conditions of its production. Who gets to speak for whom, and for whose story? Set Hernandez Rongkilyo and Jo Saen Ronquillo, members of the Undocumented Filmmakers Collective, told Hyperallergic that it’s important to be wary of “extractive storytelling” at a time when the business of putting minoritized identities onscreen is booming.

When we watch the stories of others online, who do we trust to tell the stories? I suggest reading the whole thing.

This week, museums in Vienna got creative after social media platforms wielded their heavy censorial hand and decided to join OnlyFans, researchers discovered a connection between a history of lynchings and the number of Confederate monuments in a US county, and did Judy Chicago troll her fans in San Francisco?

— Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief 

Fidelio at the San Francisco Opera (photo by Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera)

The San Francisco Opera and San Quentin Prison Team Up to Showcase Incarcerated Artists
Emily Wilson expands on a collaborative production of Beethoven's Fidelio in the Bay Area.

Pamela Council Looks to Black Vernacular Culture to Expose Social Inequality
Ksenia M. Soboleva reviews Pamela Council: Bury Me Loose at Denny Dimin Gallery in New York.

An Anarchist Illustrator Looks to Radical Histories to Fight Fascism
Billy Anania looks at N.O. Bonzo's illustrations and how they address relations of labor and identity in local communities.

NEWS THIS WEEK

The now-removed statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia (Wikimedia Commons)

• Researchers discovered a correlation between historical lynchings and the number of local Confederate monuments.

• Five artists have withdrawn from this year’s Havana Biennial in solidarity with the hundreds imprisoned and persecuted by the Cuban regime.

• Austrian museums pivot to OnlyFans to evade social media censorship.

• Solange launches a free library of rare, out-of-print books by Black authors.

• The Creepy Doll Contest returns this year even creepier than ever.

LATEST IN ART

Installation view of Diane Simpson: Point of View at JTT, New York

Diane Simpson’s Sculpture Finds Beauty of a Different Kind
John Yau on Diane Simpson: Point of View at JTT.

Her work conjures a world in which seeing something does not mean you can possess it. She commemorates the anonymous labor that went into many of the things that have inspired her, while making formally commanding and inventive artwork.

A Well-Intentioned Poussin Show Almost Gets it Right
Olivia McEwan on Poussin and the Dance at the National Gallery in London.

Creating Home From Scraps of Place
Anya Ventura on Amanda Maciel Antunes: Ithaca at Luna Anaïs Gallery.

Kim Schoenstadt: Enter Slowly, The Legacy of an Idea at the ArtCenter College of Design

Eileen Gray’s Masterpiece in the French Riviera, No Longer Overshadowed by Le Corbusier
Reneé Reizman on Kim Schoenstadt: Enter Slowly, The Legacy of an Idea at the Art Center College of Design.

Though Schoenstadt can only communicate with Gray through archives, Enter Slowly restores the late architect’s legacy, transforming Gray from an outcast to a venerable icon.

A New Manhattan Gallery Elevates the Careers of Latinx Artists
Valentina Di Liscia on Calderón Ruiz and their inaugural exhibition Eagle and Serpent.

Tamara Kostianovsky Envisions a Whimsical Slaughterhouse
Louis Bury on Tamara Kostianovsky: Between Wounds and Folds at Smack Mellon.

BEER WITH A PAINTER

Janice Nowinski, “Bathers after Dürer” (2016), oil on canvas, 11 x 14 inches

Jennifer Samet talks with artist Janice Nowinski about her career, expressive painting style, and the inspiration behind her latest works.

I relate to Jackson Pollock asking Lee Krasner, “Is it a painting?” Sometimes work and territory are unfamiliar. I want to keep that edge in my work where it could almost not be a painting.

ALSO ON HYPERALLERGIC

From Blue Bayou (2021), dir. Justin Chon (courtesy Focus Features)

Did Judy Chicago Just Troll Us?
Smoked out, Larissa Archer questions the purpose and intentions of the artist's recent "Forever de Young" performance.

Why Do People Keep Finding Their Lives Onscreen Without Their Consent?
Peter Kim George analyzes Justin Chon's Blue Bayou and the current systemic trends eroding the lines between inspiration and appropriation.

How Both Paris Hilton and Martha Rosler Satirize Domesticity
Lydia Horne bridges the domestic performativity of Cooking With Paris and Semiotics of the Kitchen.

How Landscape Became Doctrine in American Art
Billy Anania reviews Tyler Green's book on Emerson's lasting influence and the glorification of colonized territories through landscape painting.

The Time Godard Called Filmgoers Bourgeois Fascists
Where are the directors taking the stage to acknowledge workers’ demands today?

Required Reading
This week, the National Gallery of Art finally acquired a major work by Faith Ringgold, the director of The Velvet Underground talks film, North America's Hindu Nationalist problem, canceling legacy admissions, and more.

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