December 30, 2021 • View in browser

Good morning. ☁️ Today, Dürer’s love of traveling clearly fed his art practice, two Palestinian artists challenge common occupation misconceptions, and an exhibition looks at the many artistic lives of the Indian state of Kerala.

— Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief 

How Dürer's Travels Reveal His Voracious Appetite for Art

Dürer always wanted to move on, to be somewhere else. | Michael Glover

HAPPENING NOW

Artists shrouded their works at the Ramat Gan Museum of Israeli Art to protest the censorship of painter David Reeb's artwork (courtesy Assaf Hinden)

• Dozens of artists ask to withdraw from an exhibition at the Ramat Gan Museum of Israeli Art after a political work by David Reeb is removed.

• The Smithsonian Institution temporarily closes four of its smaller museums in Washington, DC, due to a rise in cases of COVID-19 among staff.

LATEST REVIEWS

Two Palestinian Artists Challenge Common Occupation Narratives

Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme assert that the lived reality of occupation involves a multiplicity of factors that are erased or overlooked by their controlled representations. | David Ayala-Alfonso

Politics and Joy Come Together in an Artist's Tribute to Her Murdered Father

Elena Brokaw’s work serves as a reminder of the tangible remains of American foreign interference and state-sanctioned violence in Guatemala — the pieces left over, decades after the collective American conscience has moved on. | Lille Allen

A Contemporary Art Survey Highlights the Multiple Identities of Kerala

Lokame Tharavadu explores a variety of artistic perspectives on home, belonging, and the universal spirit of humanity that persists in the midst of a global pandemic. | Rohini Kejriwal

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IN MEMORIAM

Joan Didion (1934–2021)
Essayist, novelist, and screenwriter (LA Times)

Keri Hulme (1947–2021)
Booker Prize-winning author known for writing “Māori magical realism” (Guardian)

Clark Richert (1941–2021)
Painter and co-founder of Drop City, an artists’ community in Colorado

Wayne Thiebaud (1920–2021)
Painter (Hyperallergic)

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