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October 1, 2022 • View in browser

Museum workers across the United States have had enough! Staff at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art are protesting what they say is unfair pay and substandard working conditions, while the Whitney Museum continues to suffer from staff shortages, which is no surprise considering visitor services staff earn only $17/hour with no benefits and little support.

The hypocrisy of the art field is on full display during these protests as workers struggle to make ends meet while museums flaunt expensive buildings, big endowments, and host galas that their own staff would never be able to afford — for instance, in 2015 the Whitney Museum unveiled its $422M structure by starchitect Renzo Piano.

As protesters at the Brooklyn Museum recently chanted, "Ancient Art, Not Ancient Wages." And you can see a snippet from that protest on our TikTok channel.

When we started Hyperallergic 13 years ago, conversations about museums, labor, and social justice were hardly circulating outside of a few small circles, and the institutions themselves continued to accept unpaid interns and greatly underpay staff. Hyperallergic was the first to consistently champion the perspective of workers, and that is something we have always been proud of.

Now, the debate about pay and equity is roaring across the field. Are things changing? Slowly, but it certainly appears that they are. We will continue to monitor this and continue to report on the changing landscape for museum and cultural workers.

In other stories, artists are amplifying the voices of Iran's protests, the fake art industry is booming online, and I pulled in the press releases from five blue-chip art exhibitions in Manhattan and found out that AI is pretty good at interpreting art based on those texts — you have to see the results for yourself.

And be sure to check out the adorable otters of art history.

— Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief

Hannah Hill, “Sex-Worker Still Life” (2020) (courtesy and © Hannah ‘Hanecdote’ Hill)

The Feminist Revival of Embroidery

Once denounced as “women’s work” with no artistic merit, embroidery is experiencing a revival, with a feminist punch.

Despite the lack of appreciation for a medium that is often viewed as “women’s work,” contemporary female artists like Judy Chicago, Orly Cogan, and Hanecdote use embroidery to create fine art with a feminist message.

— Stefani Graf

NEWS THIS WEEK

PMA Union workers at the September 16 warning strike (photo by Tim Tiebout; courtesy PMA Union)

• Workers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art are striking indefinitely as nearly two years of union negotiations have failed to yield a contract.

• Union members say MoMA offered workers the option to forgo pay raises in exchange for keeping their jobs during the pandemic.

• Low hourly pay, no benefits, and a lack of support has reportedly led to severe staff shortages at the Whitney Museum.

• Archaeologists are scrambling to save an Ancient Roman mosaic in the British county of Kent that is in danger of falling into the sea.

• Lizzo plays former US President James Madison’s 200-year-old crystal flute in a historic moment.

AMPLIFYING VOICES

Artwork by Sahar Goreshi (courtesy the artist)

The Artists Amplifying the Voices of Iran’s Protesters

As protests rage across the country following the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, Iranian and Kurdish artists are creating work in support of freedom.

Despite Iran’s brutal crackdown on dissent, protestors of all genders, ages, religions, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds continue to fight... Iranian and Kurdish artists are putting their skills to work to amplify their voices. 

— Isabella Segalovich

LATEST REVIEWS

Installation view of Nick Cave: Forothermore at the MCA Chicago. Pictured: Soundsuits (photo Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago)

The Joyous Kitsch and Lingering Simmer of Nick Cave’s Art

With explosions of color and materiality, Debrah Brehmer explores Nick Cave's enigmatic ways of funneling the funk through histories of adversity.

The Seductive Music of James Joyce’s Ulysses

Tim Keane reviews The Morgan Library and Museum's immersive exhibition on the novel’s tortuous route into mainstream culture.

Kapwani Kiwanga Uses Daylight to Expose Racial Surveillance 

Zoë Hopkins examines how the artist illuminates nuanced ways of seeing race in Off-Grid at the New Museum.

AI, FAKES, AND HOAXES

Left, Detail of Jill Mulleady’s “The Fisherman’s Daughter” (2022) and, right, DALL-E’s interpretation of the Gladstone gallery press release for Mulleady’s exhibition (photo on left Hrag Vartanian/Hyperallergic, photo on right by DALL-E)

We Asked AI to Re-Imagine 5 Blue-Chip Art Exhibitions  

Hrag Vartanian inserted the text from five press releases into DALL-E and this is what it churned out.

The Fake Art Industry Is Booming Online

From catalog pages marketed as original prints to fake “authorized” copies, Chris Cobb breaks down how we’re living through a golden age of art piracy.

The Andy Warhol Lecture That Never Happened

What lessons on celebrity and capitalist consumption can this little-known, Warhol-orchestrated lookalike hoax reveal?

MORE FROM HYPERALLEGRIC

Seki Shuko, “Otters Swimming,” Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912) (image courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Otters Are Art History’s Unsung Muses

From ancient times to the present day, join us as we pay tribute to these otter-ly charismatic creatures in various visual media.

Though seals are probably the gateway to aquatic mammal fandom, connoisseurs of the genre all agree that otters are best in class… So it’s no wonder that they have been a recurring motif throughout art history, and not just a mainstay of aquarium gift shops and Etsy stores.

— Sarah Rose Sharp

A Trip Through the Many Worlds of David Bowie

Dan Schindel speaks with director Brett Morgen about how he sought to let Bowie’s music and philosophy hit in a whole new way.

Photo Book Retells the History of Hysteria 

City of Incurable Women draws from archival materials to speculate on the lives of women who were famously hospitalized for hysteria throughout history.

Michael Heizer’s Empty Empire

"Despite his reportedly encyclopedic knowledge of the region’s geologic and mineral makeup, Heizer has displayed a baffling incuriousness about the larger story of the land he digs, cuts, and plows." — Chris Fernald

Required Reading

This week, Godard’s anti-imperialism, in defense of “bad” curating, an inexplicable statue, criminalizing culture wars, and more.

COMICS

Documenta 15 in the Shadow of the Russia-Ukraine War

“What does it mean to arrive from a country with a fascist regime?” asks Russian dissident artist Victoria Lomasko.

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NEW IN OUR STORE

Mexican Sampler Cashmere-Blend Scarf

Based on an 1861 cloth sampler from Mexico at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, this charming scarf reproduces its secular and religious imagery, including floral motifs, animals, and a trio of sacred hearts.

Check out more artsy accessories!