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November 13, 2021 • View in browser

The calls to repatriate stolen art are growing around the world. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art is the latest institution to remove their Benin Bronze sculptures from display before considering if they will return the objects to Nigeria. The sculptures, which were looted by the British in the late 19th century, are now found in museums around the world (almost all in Western Europe and North America) and they have become a flashpoint for the repatriation debate.

Auction houses, unlike museums, have been much slower to respond to calls for ethical guidelines for the sale of art. Just last weekend, Taíno activists gathered in New York to decry what they see as Christie’s “slap in the face” for the living and breathing descendants of the Indigenous nation and its cultural heritage.

It’s powerful to see communities advocating for their cultural patrimony and understanding that our decisions today impact those in the future.

In other news, reviews, and views, New Mexican artists are using NFTs in some interesting ways, the story of a van Gogh watercolor that went to auction this week, and reviews of Diane Burko, Sudō Reiko, Betsy Damon, Addie Wagenknecht, Shigeko Kubota, Jennifer Ling Datchuk, and much more.

— Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief 

Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art/ Photo by Anna-Marie Kellen)

Met Museum Reimagines the Period Room Through the Lens of Afrofuturism
A new exhibition at the Met invites contemporary Black artists and designers to redefine and respond to objects from the museum’s collection.

New Mexico Artists Explore Creativity and Activism Through NFTs
Nancy Zastudil interviews the artists, curators, and gallerists that make up the growing cryptoart community in Santa Fe.

A Cameroonian Artist Explores the Ambazonian Fight for Post-colonial Freedom
Adjani Okpu-Egbe's installations ruminate on native resistance in Cameroon and the colonial propaganda promoted in mainstream media.

WHAT'S HAPPENING

Edo artist/Benin kingdom court style, plaque, mid-16th to 17th century, copper alloy; collection of Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (images courtesy the Smithsonian NMAfA)

• The Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art considers repatriating the Benin Bronzes in its collection, removing those on display.

• Taíno activists gather at Christie’s to protest the impending sale of Indigenous artifacts.

• The sale of van Gogh watercolor will offer financial restitution to the heirs of two Jewish collectors who lost the work during World War II.

• A new report by the National Gallery in London lists 67 museum patrons who either enslaved people or benefitted financially from the trade.

• Archaeologists have pieced together the first comprehensive map of Karakorum, the capital of the Mongol Empire.

LATEST IN ART

Diane Burko, "Unprecedented" (2021), mixed media, 8 x 15 feet (image courtesy the artist)

Visualizing Climate Change Through Abstract Expressionism
Carter Ratcliff on Diane Burko: Seeing Climate Change at the American University Museum.

Burko’s images of melting glaciers and dying coral reefs are not just pictorially impressive; they have strong emotional impact.

A Japanese Designer’s Vision for Beautiful, Sustainable Textiles
Lauren Moya Ford expands on Sudō Reiko’s commitment to sustainability through her fiber arts practice and research.

Betsy Damon’s Pioneering Ecofeminist Practice
Ksenia M. Soboleva on Betsy Damon — Passages: Rites and Rituals at La MaMa Galleria.

Jennifer Ling Datchuk, still from “Tame” (2021), video (photo by Walley Films, courtesy the artist)

The Control Over Women’s Bodies, Expressed in Porcelain, Rope, and Hair
Lauren Moya Ford explores the works in Later, Longer, Fewer: The Work of Jennifer Ling Datchuk at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft.

Datchuk’s intelligent and approachable perspective is especially resonant in our political and social moment, which continues its fraught fixation on controlling women’s bodies.

For Shigeko Kubota, Video Lived in the Moment of Its Transmission
Justin Kamp on Shigeko Kubota: Liquid Reality at the Museum of Modern Art.

Addie Wagenknecht’s Fraying of America
Hrag Vartanian on every day the same again at Bitforms gallery.

ALSO ON HYPERALLERGIC

Suzanne Valadon, "Reclining Nude" (1928) (© 2021 Artist Rights Society [ARS], New York / Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art; image courtesy Art Resource, NY)

Facebook’s Hypocritical Guidelines Prevent Us Advertising our Suzanne Valadon Show
“What we’re seeing here is that Facebook's male, heteronormative gaze operates not just in the depiction of the female body, but also in its reception.” — Martha Lucy 

Why the Art Institute of Chicago’s New Docent Program Faces Whitelash
In September, the Art Institute of Chicago announced that the current docent program would be dissolved. Rebecca Zorach addresses the backlash.

Ai Weiwei Plumbs His Chaotic Childhood in New Memoir
Kealey Boyd reviews 1,000 Years of Joys and Sorrows, diving deeper into the artist's life and family history.

Challenging Israeli Narratives About Queer Palestinian Culture
Munir Atalla speaks to the organizers behind Queer Cinema for Palestine, a global alternative event to the Tel Aviv International LGBT Film Festival.

Required Reading
This week, Evangelical ballet murder, reimagining NYC streets, Edward Snowden on Ai Weiwei’s new memoir, racism of urban design, and much more.

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