Books
August 1, 2022 • View in browser
Justine Kurland Cuts the Male Canon to Pieces
In SCUMB Manifesto, Kurland slices up her collection of photo books by men to create collages that subvert the male gaze. | Julia Curl
SCUMB Manifesto is a direct, violent challenge to the status quo. It is also a nuanced, exquisitely crafted work of art. The book catalogues Kurland’s methodical dissection of her own male-dominated library of photo books following a provocative conversation with her gallerist and partner, Kim Bourus.
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CREATING & CORRESPONDENCE
When a Woman Chooses Art Over All Else
Both Celia Paul and Gwen John oriented their lives around being artists and were diverted by romantic entanglements with famous male artists that reduced them to muses. Was it worth it? | Sophia Stweart
Letters to Gwen John paints equally detailed and revealing portraits of Paul and John. To place their two lives in dialogue, Paul elegantly shifts between biographical, diaristic, and epistolary modes.
The Patrons Who Sustained Sophie Taeuber-Arp
The letters between Taeuber-Arp and her patroness, Annie Müller-Widmann, show the usually invisible tending that goes into an artist-patron relationship. | Karen Chernick
God Just Wants Us to Love Her Back
In a new graphic novel, author and cartoonist Liana Finck recasts the famously vengeful and masculine biblical God as an insecure and emotional female deity. | Sarah Rose Sharp
MORE FROM HYPERALLERGIC
The Iranian Poet Who Became an American Action Painter
A new book introduces two Manoucher Yektais: the stateless, anti-historical Modernist painter and the poet writing narrative verse exclusively in Farsi. | Tim Keane
Its contributors wrestle with counterproductive art historical labels while setting the record straight about the Iranian-American poet and painter who won critical acclaim among New York’s avant-garde of the 1950s — Harold Rosenberg was a fan, as was Mark Rothko — before Yektai slid out of favor, even as he continued to write poetry and paint well into this century.
New Book Reveals the British Security Service’s Surveillance of Major Artists
Red List lists a vast range of painters, sculptors, filmmakers, writers, and academics who were tracked by the MI5 for their perceived political affiliations. | Billy Anania
How Has Gandhi Influenced Artists?
Gandhi was an excellent mass communicator who created rich symbolic value through his persona, gestures, and actions — all of which translated into commanding visuals. | Anindya Sen
