National Portrait Gallery Reveals New Commissions

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November 2, 2022

Good Morning. ☀️ Today, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, unveils new commissions of portraits of figures including Serena and Venus Williams, Anthony Fauci, and more. They look nice, but do we need them? No.

For the first time, a Roma artist, Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, is representing Poland at the Venice Biennale. Our report from Venice highlights this major milestone for a historically marginalized, vilified, and hyper-exoticized cultural group in Europe. I recommend that you also check out a personal essay we published yesterday by scholar Cristiana Grigore in which she describes her experience as a Roma person and her work to fight pernicious stereotypes against her people in the art world.

Also today, Claire Denis has a new steamy drama, the Bushwick Film Festival in New York is back after a pandemic hiatus, memes about NASA's freaky photo of a "smiling" sun, and much more.

— Hakim Bishara, Senior Editor

Fauci and Williams Sisters Honored in New Portraits Headed to DC

The National Portrait Gallery has revealed its newest commissions, including works by David Hockney, Toyin Ojih Odutola, and Robert Pruitt. | Elaine Velie

Celebrate Robert Motherwell’s Drawings With the Dedalus Foundation and the Menil Collection

A panel discussion focuses on the making of Robert Motherwell Drawings: A Catalogue Raisonné, published by Yale University Press. Learn more.

ALSO HAPPENING NOW

NASA’s “Smiling Sun” photo has unleashed a galaxy of solar memes. The image of the Sun with a smile suggested by dark patches on its surface drew analogies to everything from the Marshmallow Man to Teletubbies.

Bushwick Film Festival Returns With 100+ Independent Films

Films by local and international directors will play at Williamsburg Cinemas, accompanied by live events and an awards ceremony. | Jasmine Liu

In Venice, the Roma People Take Center Stage

The history of the Roma and Sinti in Poland and Europe is that of marginalization, exclusion, misrepresentation, and persecution. | Viktor Witkowski

Norton Simon Museum Presents Ink, Paper, Stone: Six Women Artists and the Language of Lithography

This exhibition in Pasadena, California, features works on paper by Ruth Asawa, Gego, Eleanore Mikus, Louise Nevelson, Irene Siegel, and Hedda Sterne. Learn more.

LATEST REVIEWS

Why Are You Drawing Faces Like That?

With deep-set eyes and sealed lips, an ovular, narrow face is pervasive in James Gilbert’s work. | Lauren Moya Ford

Sally Gabori’s Cartography of Aboriginal Displacement

During her last decade of life Gabori created abstract, large-scale paintings that map her emotional memory of her ancestral home. | Katie Kheriji-Watts

LA Parking Lot Becomes a Screening Room for Street Photography

Projecting LA featured honest portraits of the city by 35 street, documentary, news, and student photographers — with not a single Hollywood sign in sight. | Matt Stromberg

Claire Denis’s New Film Is Stronger on Steam Than Story

Just as sex with a revolutionary does not make one revolutionary, a penchant for setting films in developing countries does not make Denis a resident expert. | Eileen G'Sell

The Harry Ransom Center at UT Austin Offers Up to 70 Fellowships in the Humanities

Funded fellowships support on-site graduate and postdoctoral research spanning a variety of disciplines on cultural works in the center’s collections. Learn more.

Your Soundtrack to Lula’s Historic Defeat of Bolsonaro

From protest anthems to novelty funk beats, here are 10 emblematic songs to celebrate Lula’s historic win. | Sage Behr

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FROM THE STORE

Gee’s Bend Pettway Quilt Scarf

A recreation of Lucy T. Pettway’s iconographic “Housetop and Bricklayer with Bars” decorates this modal silk scarf. The original work is intentionally pictorial, depicting an imaginary aerial view of the old Pettway plantation.

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