Weekly

May 14, 2022 • View in browser

This week, Madonna collaborates with Beeple on a questionable NFT series, the Guggenheim Museum drops the Sackler family's name after years of protest, artists react to the Supreme Court opinion to overturn abortion rights, the largest cave drawings in North America are discovered in Alabama, NYC returns to its old days of subway graffiti, and scientists recreate Cleopatra's perfume.

There are so many good weekend reads in this letter, including reviews of Louise Bourgeois’s late textiles, Oscar Muñoz, Nani Chacon, and much more. You should also listen to our podcast with political cartoonist Eli Valley and read Josh Lambert's illuminating piece about his work.

Finally, when I tell people where I work, their response is usually “Oh, I love Hyperallergic!” I think that's because this publication has a heart and a steady moral compass. For over 12 years, we've been living up to our mission to bring you stories about art that actually matter to our community, not just to the rich and famous. If you are able, please join our membership program to help support our work and keep Hyperallergic independent and fearless.

— Hakim Bishara, interim editor-in-chief 

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Eli Valley, “Jerusalem Embassy Move” (2018) (image courtesy the artist and used with permission)

The Jewish Influences of Eli Valley’s Visceral Political Cartoons
Josh Lambert: "When the news gets appalling enough, Eli Valley will render the grotesquerie, and make you feel it."

As the son of a rabbi, Valley comes naturally by his most pressing and recurrent theme: lies told and violence committed in the name of Jewish safety and security. His cartoon jeremiads can easily enough be fit into a long history of Jewish protest, from the Biblical prophets who excoriated the sinners of Israel to modern novelists.

The Cartoonist the US Right-Wing Political Establishment Loves to Hate
In our latest podcast episode, Hrag Vartanian speaks with Eli Valley, the cartoonist whose viral comics pack a punch.

Listen now. 

NEWS THIS WEEK

Madonna and Beeple, still from NFT video artwork Mother of Nature (2022) (image courtesy the artists)

• Madonna partners with Beeple to release a series of NFTs featuring the star graphically birthing things out of her digitized vagina.

• The Guggenheim Museum joins the growing list of institutions dropping the disgraced Sackler family name.

• The MTA reports a steady rise in subway graffiti, announcing a million-dollar removal and prevention plan.

• Cave drawings discovered in Alabama are considered the largest in North America.

• Researchers are using chemical analysis to recreate the fragrance likely worn by Cleopatra.

• A woman scores an Ancient Roman bust at a Texas Goodwill for $34.99.

LATEST IN ART

Louise Bourgeois, "The Good Mother," detail (2003) (© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2021. Photo Christopher Burke)

The Monstrous Beauty of Louise Bourgeois’s Late Textiles
Anna Souter on The Woven Child at Hayward Gallery in London.

The Woven Child is a powerful and moving examination of the fabric sculptures Bourgeois began to make in the last two decades of her life, drawing out themes of motherhood, gender, identity, and trauma. 

Oscar Muñoz Visualizes the Invisible 
Lauren Moya Ford on Oscar Muñoz: Invisibilia at the Blanton Museum of Art.

Nani Chacon’s Urban Interventions Enter the Museum
Maria Manuela speaks to the artist ahead of the opening of her solo exhibition, SPECTRUM, at SITE Santa Fe.

Dominant Dansby, “Interlude of constructed ideals or mannerism” (2015), pastel, color pencil, graphite, paper, wood (courtesy York College Fine Arts Gallery)

Multiple Realities of Abstract Art at the Southeast Queens Biennial
Carmen Graciela García highlights the 2022 Southeast Queens Biennial in New York.

In the universe created by the [Biennial], abstract art invited viewers to engage their imaginations and to consider the multiple realities conveyed by the seven participating artists through their distinctive visual languages.

The Afterlives of Art Scraps
Lori Waxman on An Instrument in the Shape of a Woman at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Photography’s Impossible Attempt at Freezing Time
Max Blue on Considered Interactions at Casemore Kirkeby gallery.

GENRE-BENDING FILM

Siiri Solalinna in Hatching, dir. Hanna Bergholm, 2022 (courtesy IFC Midnight. An IFC Midnight release)

A Body Horror Tale With an Avian Twist
Eileen G'Sell reviews Hanna Bergholm’s stunningly original debut film, Hatching.

In what may be the first body horror film to boast a 12-year-old heroine, Hatching presents a bird’s eye view of the terrors of tween puberty.

Pleasure Dispels Male Fantasies of Porn
Justine Smith examines how Ninja Thyberg's latest film explores the "complexity of women’s sexual power as a tool within a capitalist system."

The Terrors of Whiteness in Wu Tsang’s Moby Dick 
Cassie Packard looks at a fresh, abbreviated film-performance adaptation of Moby-Dick.

MORE FROM HYPERALLERGIC

Comparison between a panel from the comic book Thor: God of Thunder (top) and a shot from Thor: Love and Thunder (bottom) (image by DiscussingFilm)

How the Marvel Cinematic Universe Exploits Comic Book Artists
Kambole Campbell expands on the inadequate compensation of artists and writers that inspire billion-dollar superhero movie franchises.

Too often, the creators who forged the foundations of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are given a “special thanks” credit and little else, and that’s being thrown into sharper relief as these films double down on lifting imagery from page to screen.

Harvard Is Paying a Small Price for Laundering Its Past
"The first and best thing the university can do to atone for its past of exploitation and profiteering is simply to renounce its present-day exploitation and profiteering." — Franco Paz

Required Reading
This week, Manhattan offices are still mostly empty, Gwyneth Paltrow releases luxury baby diapers, how to remove your personal data from Google, and much more.

IN OUR STORE

Rainbow Flag Pin

Show off your Pride and art history knowledge this June with this enamel and brass pin inspired by Gilbert Baker’s rainbow flag, which was unfurled for the very first time at the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade in 1978.

Peruse our collection of art-inspired pins!