This week: The little-known story of an abandoned Richard Serra sculpture that once stood tall at the center of Paris.
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April 06, 2024

This week: The little-known story of an abandoned Richard Serra sculpture that once stood tall in the center of Paris, outrage over imprudent art in Italy, and urgent questions about Asian-American identity.


Many of you also loved reading Melissa Holbrook Pierson’s review of the late art critic John Berger’s posthumous book about losing his eyesight to cataracts and how the experience revealed new ways of seeing to him.


I recommend you also check out our guide to graphic novels to read this spring, including suggestions from several prominent comics artists. That’s in addition to art shows to see in New York City this month and our latest watchlist of insightful and off-beat video essays.


Finally, are you prepared for the North American solar eclipse on April 8? Read below about an app that can help you make the best of this celestial phenomenon. In the meantime, have a great weekend.

Hakim Bishara, Senior Editor

The Richard Serra Sculpture That Was Just Too Much for Paris

How did the artist’s massive “Clara-Clara” (1983) end up in the backyard of a former water treatment facility on the city’s outskirts?

Michelle Young

SPONSORED

Rubin Museum Presents the Last Exhibition in Its New York Building

Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now highlights 32 contemporary artists who explore how cultural heritage shapes identity.

Learn more

IN THE NEWS

ON VIEW IN NYC

10 Art Shows to See in New York This April

This month: Audrey Flack, Sonya Clark, Raven Chacon, Mike Olin, and more.

Hrag Vartanian, John Yau, AX Mina, and Natalie Haddad

Jim Dine Gets to Work

For Dine, physical labor and art-making are interchangeable: “When you paint every day, all year long, then the subject is essentially the act of working.”

John Yau 

With Less Glitter, Arcmanoro Niles’s Illusory Spaces Gleam

While his paintings follow the rules of linear perspectives, Niles uses the materiality of the paint itself to pull viewers into the compositions.

Seph Rodney

FROM OUR CRITICS

A Thoroughly Modern Baroque Master

A suite of paintings by Italian Baroque master Guercino at England’s Waddesdon Manor seems to herald the coming of Christ and a modern future.

Michael Glover

Woody De Othello Combines Sublimation and Supplication

The artist evokes a strong religious sensibility in his hybrid sculptures tempered by a welcome sense of humor.

Anna Souter

Must Asian Americans Always Be Seen in Relation to One Another?

Scratching at the Moon hones in on a loose network of artists that have known each other for decades in Los Angeles. 

Alex Paik 

STREAMING ONLINE

Can’t Make It to the Whitney Biennial? Stream These Films Online Instead

A partnership between the museum and Mubi will make a selection of films in this year’s biennial available to watch online from the US, UK, and Canada starting April 12.

Maya Pontone

Art Made for Nobody, and Other Video Essays to Watch This Month

This April: video essays on Palestine, AI, Nathan Fielder, and more.

Dan Schindel 

WHAT WE'RE READING

12 Graphic Novels to Read This Spring

Get your comic fix with moving, witty, poignant books by Ai Weiwei, Tessa Hulls, Julia Wertz, Mattie Lubchansky, and more.

Hrag Vartanian, Hakim Bishara, Lisa Yin Zhang, Nathan Gelgud, CM Campbell, Noah Fischer, Jesse Lambert, and Lauren Purje

John Berger Lost His Eyesight to Cataracts and Learned to See

After being afflicted with cataracts, the late critic and novelist reflected on the mechanics of sight.

Melissa Holbrook Pierson

Support Independent Arts Journalism

Become a member today to help keep our reporting and criticism free and accessible to all.

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ARTISTS' STUDIOS

A View From the Easel

This week, artists who have all worked in their studios for over a decade revel in the solitude it affords them on one hand, crave the company of fellow artists on the other, and use a sand clock to mark the passage of time.


Want to take part? Check out our new submission guidelines and share a bit about your studio with us through this form! All mediums and workspaces are welcome, including your home studio.

ALSO ON HYPERALLERGIC

How Do Artists See Themselves?

Self-portraits by Van Gogh, Francis Bacon, and more explore not just how these artists saw the world but also what “selfie” culture says about us. 

Sarah Rose Sharp 

As Space Becomes Scarce, Artists Take Over an Abandoned LA Structure

Revel Hall was a meditation on empty, dilapidated properties in a city plagued by a housing crisis.

Angella d'Avignon

Activists Create Life-Sized Cyanotype in Trans Solidarity Action

Artist Cassils led “Etched in Light,” a participatory visual art and sonic performance in Washington, DC this weekend.

Zoe Dutton

Required Reading

This week, women of color in architecture, shady government comic books, a beloved cherry blossom tree’s last bloom, and much more.

Lakshmi Rivera Amin and Elaine Velie 

From Blog to Book 

Three of Hyperallergic’s writers talk about the journeys that took them from writing blog posts to publishing full-length books on the politics of memes, the battles over America’s monuments, and forgotten World War II heroes.

Opportunities in April 2024

Residencies, grants, open calls, and jobs from Davidson College, the Jonathan and Barbara Silver Foundation, and more in our monthly list of opportunities for artists, writers, and art workers.

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