October 8, 2022 • View in browser

This week, a label at the Art Institute of Chicago omitted a crucial detail of an artist's life and work before a visitor called attention to it. The wall text for Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s “Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.)” (1991) made no mention of AIDS, or of Gonzalez-Torres’s partner, who is the subject of the installation. It is a lesson in how museums can easily erase more controversial parts of an artist's identity and work and perhaps alienate audiences in the process.  I want to emphasize that this is happening in a city that is more LGBTQ+ friendly than most places across the United States. One can only imagine what happens in cities with less prominent queer communities and more motivation to mask identities that some of its patrons may find offensive.

And this week, the art community rolled its collective eyes at an attempt by Highsnobiety and Christie's to co-opt the cred of "Art Handlers" through the sale of clothing branded with the term. The Art Handler’s Alliance told Hyperallergic that they found the item and its associated marketing “extremely offensive.”

Thanks to everyone who attended the panel I moderated yesterday with the British Antique Dealers’ Association. I've been having a fantastic week in London learning about the range of art and antique dealers and their work. While contemporary art often attracts the biggest headlines in the media, it's great to see how dealers of historical objects work to ensure ethical practices in their industry. More on that topic soon enough.

— Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief

Artemisia Gentileschi, “Judith and her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes” (1639 or 1640) (photo by Børre Høstland, courtesy the National Museum)

Lesser-Known Masterpiece by Artemisia Gentileschi Goes on View

A painting now exhibited at the Nasjonalmuseet captures Judith and her maidservant in the moment after slaying Holofernes and before their escape, as though veritably peering out of frame.

Gentileschi revisited the subject of Judith and Holofernes several times, such as in a dramatic painting of the same name that is part of the Detroit Institute of Art’s (DIA) collection, but this rendition offers the Oslo museum a unique opportunity to show works spanning the artist’s career.

— Sarah Rose Sharp 

NEWS THIS WEEK

The segment featured Erin L. Thompson and and Emiline Smith’s 2021 Hyperallergic opinion piece titled “Stumbling Toward Repatriation.” (via YouTube, screenshot Elaine Velie/Hyperallergic)

• Last Week Tonight’s latest segment brought looting and restitution into the mainstream, citing two articles by Hyperallergic contributors.

• Christie’s removes its collaboration with Highsnobiety after it draws criticism online for aestheticizing art handlers’ labor.

• Museumgoers criticize a Chicago museum’s omission of HIV/AIDS in a label for Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s “Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.).”

• Willem de Kooning's “Woman-Ochre” painting returns to the University of Arizona Museum of Art 37 years after it was notoriously stolen.

• Mexico's chief cultural authority is investigating a collector who says he burned a Frida Kahlo drawing for an NFT.

OPPORTUNITIES IN OCTOBER

From fellowships at the Smithsonian and Kohler Arts Center to open calls from apexart and the National Liberty Museum, see our full list of opportunities for artists, writers, and art workers this month.

CASTING SPELLS

Francisco de Goya, “Witches’ Sabbath” (1798) (via Wikimedia Commons)

How Witches Cast Their Spell on Art History

From Remedios Varo to Francisco de Goya, artists have long turned to witchcraft as subject matter.

At the intersection of spooky season and global feminism, we have witches. The term “witch” is a handy one, historically applied by the patriarchy to justify the punishment of basically any woman who thwarts the dictates of conventional society and gender relations, but has also been characterized in myth and art for centuries. With Halloween just weeks away, join us in a spooky survey of fine art witches.

— Sarah Rose Sharp 

LATEST REVIEWS

Louisa Matthíasdóttir, “Figure in a Landscape” (c. 1976), oil on canvas, 52 x 62 inches (courtesy Center for Figurative Painting)

America’s Overlooked Landscape Painters 

John Yau examines how an exhibition at the Center for Figurative Painting makes clear that the term “landscape” has been widely interpreted.

Women’s Photography as a Tool of Resistance

What is a feminist picture? Julia Curl reviews MoMA's latest to attempt to answer this question.

Is It Possible to Enjoy Cornelia Parker’s Works Without Her Words?

Parker’s stories bring so many of her works alive, give them meaning, and make us warm to her and to them. Michael Glover asks, "Is that a problem?"

ART & TECHNOLOGY

Gustav Klimt: Gold in Motion is a show at the newly opened Hall des Lumiéres, a new permanent immersive art located at the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank. (photo Jasmine Liu/Hyperallergic)

Immersing Yourself in the Works of Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt: Gold in Motion transforms a historic bank in Manhattan into the unlikely setting of an immersive art experience one visitor called “mesmerizing.”

With immersion and animation, one doesn’t have to know where to look in a gallery, or what to notice in a confounding work of art. To be completely surrounded and to be fully engaged by continuous change permits willful surrender, something visitors were evidently embracing.

— Jasmine Liu

Meta Launched an AI Video Generator, and It’s Creepy

Meta (formerly Facebook) released a series of eerie sample clips based on prompts like “cat watching TV” and “spaceship landing.”

He’s Bigger Than Picasso on AI Platforms, and He Hates It 

The advent of AI generators has led to an avalanche of rip-off artworks that have used Grzegorz Rutkowski’s name as a prompt.

A VIEW FROM THE EASEL

Peter Cole, Greenpoint, Brooklyn

A View From the Easel

In this edition, we peek into studios in Harlem, Tennessee, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn — where artists are witnessing their neighborhoods change, making use of tight spaces, collecting essential tools, and working alongside family members.

Want to take part? Check out our submission guidelines and share a bit about your studio with us!

MORE ON HYPERALLERGIC

"The link between North American museums and unseemly fortunes is nothing new. It’s in their DNA," write Tom Finkelpearl and Pablo Helguera (collage by Hrag Vartaninan/Hyperallergic)

It’s Time for US Museums to Divest From Immoral Industries

Tom Finkelpearl and Pablo Helguera ask, "What would it look like if museums turned their billions toward positive good instead of questionable investments simply for profit?"

Colorado Artists and Activists Unite to Advocate for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People 

Artists like Danielle SeeWalker and JayCee Beyale make visible the number of missing people for whom they are demanding proper attention and justice.

New Emmett Till Film Moves and Rouses NYC Students

The student screening of Till emphasized an important aim of the film: to educate young people about the fierce love and activism of Mamie Till-Mobley, which played no small part in igniting the Civil Rights Movement.

Stop Fetishizing Marilyn Monroe’s Trauma

"The problem with Andrew Dominik’s Blonde is its assumption that Monroe’s victimization was the most fascinating thing about her." — Zeba Blay

Required Reading

This week: New York’s disappearing alleys, Wolfgang Tillmans’s fading star, Velma Dinkley is gay, and more. 

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Medusa Socks

Show off your art history knowledge this spooky season with the perfect accessory: the gruesome gaze of Caravaggio’s monstrous “Medusa”.

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