July 19, 2022 • View in browser
Good morning. 🌤️ Today, the art world remembers Claes Oldenburg, an innovative artist who monumentalized everyday objects in his colossal sculptures. He passed away yesterday at age 93. His impact on contemporary art is indelible.
Also today: Google Doodle honors a 10-year-old who was killed at the senseless Uvalde school shooting in Texas; Dia workers push for a union, citing miserable wages; the director of Documenta resigns; the sacrifices and dilemmas of women artists; a documentary about the absolutely preventable epidemic of maternal mortality among Black women in the US, and more.
— Hakim Bishara, interim editor-in-chief
X-Ray of Van Gogh Painting Reveals Hidden Self-Portrait
A portrait of the bearded Dutch master was found under cardboard backing and glue on the reverse side of the 1885 work “Head of a Peasant Woman.” | Billy Anania
SPONSORED
CCS Bard Summer Exhibitions Delve Into Video Art and Black Melancholia
Shows at the Hudson Valley’s Hessel Museum of Art feature artists Dara Birnbaum and Martine Syms, as well as new scholarship on Black melancholia as an artistic and critical practice. Learn more.
ALSO IN THE NEWS
Claes Oldenburg with Pace Gallery founder Arne Glimcher in 2021 (image courtesy Pace)
Claes Oldenburg, best known for his playful works of everyday objects, has died at 93.
Google Doodle shares a submission artwork by 10-year-old Uvalde shooting victim Alithia Ramirez.
Sabine Schormann steps down as director of Documenta amid controversy spurred by allegations of antisemitism against the event.
Citing a lack of recognition, job insecurity, and low wages, workers at Dia Art Foundation petitioned to unionize.
LATEST REVIEWS
The Labor of US Citizenship, One Stitch at a Time
As if making her own census, Han Sifuentes surveys groups of immigrants to reveal the labor, research, and proof needed by an immigrant in order to demonstrate their belonging. | Cat Yang
A Documentary Unravels the Danger of Being Black and Pregnant in the US
Aftershock, directed by Tonya Lewis Lee and Paula Eiselt, explains the disproportionate rate of Black maternal mortality in the US. | Dan Schindel
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 Stewart
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