March 3, 2023
Good morning. 🌧️ Today, we bring you a very important conversation between curators Lise Ragbir and eunice bélidor about being a "Black Lives Matter hire" at a major museum, and how institutions may not be supporting individuals from racialized groups in a way that promotes longevity and a healthy work environment. This is absolutely a must read and breaks down some of the issues around the hiring process, institutional culture, and other obstacles that continue to hinder efforts to diversify arts institutions.
And yesterday, we learned that the Metropolitan Museum of Art finally changed the national and ethnic designation of 19th-century painter Ivan Aivazovsky to better reflect the complexity of his identity. We published an article earlier this week explaining the situation, and you can see the corrected label on the Met Museum's website. Kudos to the Met, and all museums that choose to listen to specialists and researchers.
— Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief
I Was a Museum's Black Lives Matter Hire
“You think you’ve been hired because you’re the right person. But once you're inside, you realize you’re not the right fit,” says curator eunice bélidor. | Lise Ragbir
SPONSORED
Platform’s March Selection Highlights the Reemergence of Abstraction
Among the artworks debuting in the site’s latest offering are Australian painter Belynda Henry’s abstract landscapes; a large new assemblage from Dana James; and sculptural, deconstructed canvases from upcoming St. Louis artist Vaughn Davis, Jr. Also included are four new paintings by Larissa De Jesús Negrón, who’s preparing for spring solo shows in London and LA.
All are available to buy now on Platform.
LATEST NEWS
A crowd of visitors viewing "Water Lilies" (1890-1918) by Claude Monet (photo via Flickr)
Researchers at CalTech believe they’ve come closer to decoding how the brain decides whether an artwork is “good” or attractive.
Referring to them as his “spiritual girlfriend,” a Peruvian man was found carrying mummified remains in a food delivery backpack.
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SPONSORED
The Photography Show Presented by AIPAD Arrives in New York
The 42nd edition of the fair showcases contemporary, modern, and 19th century images from 44 photography galleries. Open March 31 through April 2. Learn more.
FROM OUR CRITICS
On the Same Frequency as Milford Graves
The jazz drummer’s polymathic experimentation also spanned visual art, botany, and even an improvisational martial art he invented called Yara. | Anne Wallentine
SPONSORED
Picker Art Gallery Presents the Works of William Earle Williams and Nona Faustine
Two solo photography exhibitions at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, expose the obscured, silenced, and unacknowledged histories of the slave trade. Learn more.
The Physical Labor of Writing
Many writers will tell you that writing is a physical activity. Renee Gladman’s drawings convey that idea in a more visceral, less cerebral way. | Louis Bury
ALSO ON HYPERALLERGIC
Preserving an Archive of Chicana and Lesbian History
In a new show, Nicole Marroquin's artworks are in dialogue with the documentary photographs of Mexican-born artist Diana Solís. | Sarah Rose Sharp
Internet Goes Wild Over Outdoor Gym of Hindu Puppets
Indian artist Diptej Vernekar attached puppets of Hindu avatars to exercise equipment that anyone could activate and engage with. | Rhea Nayyar
Required Reading
This week, a Black Southern quilt collection is donated to a Mississippi museum, the fascinating AI-generated ceramic glazes, a map of Italian Fascist monuments, and can clothing ever truly be recycled? | Hrag Vartanian and Lakshmi Rivera Amin
FROM THE ARCHIVE
We Need to Implement Black Feminist Ideas in Arts Education
Juneteenth being a federal holiday and anti-racist pledges of allegiance ain’t gonna cut it anymore. | Venise Lashon Keys
TRANSITIONS
Derrick Adams is now represented by Gagosian Gallery.
Elizabeth Ferrer has resigned from her role as chief curator at BRIC and will continue curating and writing on a freelance basis. She will curate a retrospective of Louis Carlos Bernal for the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson this fall.
Harry Philbrick was appointed interim executive director of the Fabric Workshop and Museum.
AWARDS & ACCOLADES
The American Academy of Arts and Letters announced the recipients of its 2023 architecture awards. They are Sean Canty, W. G. Clark, Roberto de Leon and Ross Primmer, Amale Andraos and Dan Wood, and Fred Bernstein.
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced this year’s NEA National Heritage Fellows. They are R.L. Boyce, Ed Eugene Carriere (Suquamish), Michael A. Cummings, Joe DeLeon “Little Joe” Hernández, Roen Hufford, Elizabeth James-Perry (Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head, Aquinnah), Luis Tapia, Wu Man, and Nick Spitzer.
