February 9, 2023

Good morning. ☁️ Yesterday, I happened upon a TV screen playing news from the aftermath of the earthquake in northern Syria. The screen showed heart-wrenching video footage of two young children — both seemed below 10 — who had survived the catastrophe but were still trapped beneath the rubble. I immediately got upset at the news network's use of children for emotional impact and turned my eyes away. A moment later, I glanced back and saw one of the children smiling at the camera. My anger was quickly replaced by sadness and tears welled up in my eyes.

Today, Twitter puts an end to popular art bots, a hobbyist archaeologist digs up a curious ancient Roman artifact, Rijksmuseum's exhibition on slavery is coming to New York, and shape-shifting melting robots are now a thing. We also have reviews of Omar Ba's first museum show in the US, contemporary Latin American art at the Denver Art Museum, a look at digital sketching, and much more.

— Hakim Bishara, Senior Editor

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Omar Ba Paints the Pride and Pain of the Colonized

The artist’s solo US museum debut at the Baltimore Museum of Art is a contemptuous, at times satirical, take on oppression that gives way to a new history. | Farah Abdessamad

WHAT'S HAPPENING

Francesco Salviati, “Bindo Altoviti” (c. 1545), oil on marble (photograph © Bruce M. White, courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art)

• Roman artist Francesco Salviati’s exceedingly rare marble painting of Medici nemesis Bindo Altoviti has been acquired by The Met.

• The creation of a hyper-flexible, multi-state material is widening the possibilities of developing shape-shifting robots.

• An extensive exhibition confronting the Netherlands’s often-forgotten colonialist legacy is coming to New York.

• A hobbyist archaeologist discovers a fragment of a 1,600-year-old Roman dodecahedron, an object believed to be linked to the occult.

• Bots posting from museum collections or the archives of artists are at risk of inactivity without Twitter’s support of free API access.

FROM OUR CRITICS

History Is Not an Open Book

The 1969 exhibition 5 + 1, and now Revisiting 5 + 1, are reminders that the history of Black Art in the United States is diverse rather than monolithic. | John Yau

Latinidad On Its Own Terms

Who tells a tale adds a tail: Latin America and contemporary art explores contemporary Latin American art without conforming to external expectations. | Denise Zubizarreta

Every Digital Artwork Starts With a Sketch

Simulation Sketchbook takes as its starting point the reality that digital artists, like all artists, sketch out their work as well. | AX Mina

IN MEMORIAM

William Agee (1936–2022)
Curator and art educator | New York Times

Paco Rabanne (1934–2023)
Spanish fashion designer | Huffington Post

Rosa Tavárez (1939–2023)
Dominican painters and engraver | Diario Libre

Fred Terna (1923–2022)
Painter and Auschwitz survivor | New York Times

MOST POPULAR

1. Where’s the Art in the AP African American Studies Curriculum?

2. The Turner Prize Wrestles With an Identity Crisis

3. War, Bloodshed, and the German Grotesque 

4. Sky Hopinka Is Tired of Explaining Everything to Non-Natives

5. Who Gets to Honor Native Women in the US? 

IN OUR STORE

“Love Forever” Tea Towel Set x Yayoi Kusama

This Valentine’s Day, declare your everlasting love in linens! This sweet tea towel set comes gift-packaged for the Kusama fan you’re dotty over.

Shop art-inspired tea towels!

EDITOR'S PICKS: FROM THE ARCHIVE

Seven Artists and Curators Reveal a Cherished, Overlooked Black Artist

I asked respected art figures like Lowery Stokes Sims, Deborah Willis, and Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi to share a beloved artist with me. | Jasmine Weber