March 24, 2023
Good morning. ☁️ Today in the news, New York's iconic Flatiron Building sells for $190 million at auction. Maybe my mind has been corrupted by capitalism, but that doesn't seem like much for such a historic building, does it? Today we bring you the story behind this sale, and it's full of drama, intrigue, and broken partnerships between millionaires.
And as the conversation on repatriation of looted antiquities continues, the Manhattan DA returns three trafficked artifacts to Turkey, some of which were in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
But The Met also does some great things, like hosting an exhibition of works by promising teen artists from across New York, running through May 22.
Also today: Tim Brinkhof on Latin America’s contested Indigenismo art movement, Stacy J. Platt on the work of Ho-Chunk artist Tom Jones, Hyperallergic fellow Sadaf Padder's tips and guiding questions for South Asian curators, an animal-oriented edition of Required Reading, and more. Happy Friday!
— Hakim Bishara, Senior Editor
Three Looted Antiquities at the Met Repatriated to Turkey
Nine other repatriated works were seized from Met Trustee Shelby White, whose collection was subject to a criminal investigation. | Elaine Velie
SPONSORED
MCA Chicago Presents On Stage: Frictions
Will Rawls, Shamel Pitts | TRIBE, and Barak adé Soleil explore Blackness, queerness, movement, and dance in performances at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Learn more.
THE LATEST
The Flatiron building during a snowstorm on December 9, 2017, in New York City (photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
NYC’s iconic Flatiron Building sells for $190 million at auction, ending the protracted legal battle between its former owners.
Native activists say sacred remains dug up from a Miami construction site should stay there, but mega-developer Jorge Pérez is pushing back.
SPONSORED
The Wider World and Scrimshaw
On March 28, join the New Bedford Whaling Museum online and in-person for a symposium on global carving traditions from across the Pacific Rim. Learn more.
LEGACIES & REPRESENTATION
How Can a Curator Approach South Asian Futurisms?
How do I acknowledge my shortcomings while reckoning with obscured histories and the exclusion of subaltern narratives in the fine art landscape? A working checklist for curators. | Sadaf Padder
Tom Jones Zeroes in on Ho-Chunk Visibility
“I think about the young kids, the teenagers, and I think being able to see yourself represented in art is so powerful,” says the artist. | Stacy J. Platt
The Complicated Legacy of Camilo Egas
The Ecuadorian painter, a leading figure of Latin America’s Indigenismo art movement, has been both praised and scorned for his representation of Indigenous peoples. | Tim Brinkhof
MORE ON HYPERALLERGIC
Hundreds of Artworks by NYC Teenagers Now on View at the Met
The talented seventh through twelfth-grade students are recipients of the 2023 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. | Taylor Michael
The Best Memes Roasting the “We ❤️ NYC” Campaign
A graphic designer on Twitter created a hilarious send-up of the universally reviled logo, and the rest is history. | Sarah Rose Sharp
Required Reading
This week, the world’s lightest paint, Pakistan’s feminist movement, World Puppy Day, and were some of Vermeer’s paintings created by his daughter? | Lakshmi Rivera Amin
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Quilts of Gee’s Bend Notecards
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TRANSITIONS
Vivian Crockett and Isabella Rjeille were announced as co-curators of the sixth New Museum Triennial, taking place in 2026.
Pace Gallery now represents the Estates of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.
Joey Quiñones was named artist-in-residence and head of the Fiber Department at the Cranbrook Academy of Art.
AWARDS & ACCOLADES
Artists Judith Francisca Baca and Antonio Martorell-Cardona and Brooklyn's Billie Holiday Theatre were among the recipients of the 2021 National Medal of the Arts. A complete list of awardees is here.
Artists Salim Green, Jordan Loeppky-Kolesnik, Isabel Mallet, Devin T. Mays, Claudia Pagès, Adriana Ramić, and Marina Xenofontos were selected for the SculptureCenter’s 2023 In Practice Open Call program.
