Weekly

April 23, 2022 • View in browser

This week, our podcast is back and we talk to Tamara Lanier about her fight for the photographs of her enslaved ancestors that are deposited at Harvard, Abdul-Aliy A. Muhammad outlines the questions the Penn Museum still has to answer, a new study found that public art decreases traffic accidents by 17%, and reviews of Carlos Villa, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Lucy Mullican, and much more.

And if you’re going to the Venice Biennale this year, check out our fun bingo card to help you spot the clichés.

— Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief 

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A protest outside the Penn Museum in Philadelphia on April 8, 2021 (photo courtesy Police Free Penn)

Decades After Philadelphia’s MOVE Bombing, Penn Museum Still Keeps Secrets on the Remains of 12-Year-Old Girl
Abdul-Aliy A. Muhammad confronts the Penn Museum’s retention of the remains of Black girls murdered in the bombing of the MOVE organization.

This is a disgusting game of hide and seek with the bodily remains of Black children. I demand that Princeton and Penn denounce the continued violence of this act and that a forensic specialist not tied to the universities be commissioned to investigate where the lost bones of Delisha are.

Tamara Lanier’s Fight for the Photographs of Her Enslaved Ancestors at Harvard
Hrag Vartanian speaks to Lanier about the continuing fight to reclaim her family heritage and her right to ownership of the images.

Montpelier Fires Staffers Who Advocated for the Descendants of Enslaved People
Hakim Bishara reports on the termination of staffers who supported a power-sharing status for the descendants of people enslaved by James Madison.

NEWS THIS WEEK

Artist Chris Visions working with students to create the intersection mural (photo by Matt Eich)

• A study conducted by Bloomberg Philanthropies finds that public art decreases traffic accidents by 17%.

• Seattle Art Museum guards are attempting to unionize, but say they’ve experienced “aggressive union-busting tactics” since organizing.

• The FBI is offering a reward for information leading to those responsible for vandalizing the La Cieneguilla petroglyphs in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

• Archaeologists uncover a group of ancient Roman mosaic floors hidden under the city streets of Stari Grad, Croatia.

• Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s personal art collection is going under the hammer.

LATEST IN ART

Yreina D. Cervántez, “Mujer de Mucha Enagua, PA’ TI XICANA” (1999), Smithsonian American Art Museum, purchase through the Samuel and Blanche Koffler Acquisition Fund (© Yreina D. Cervántez, 1999)

In the Chicano Movement, Printmaking and Politics Converged
Lauren Moya Ford highlights ¡Printing the Revolution!: The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now at Amon Carter Museum of American Art.

“The show centers on the ways that a lot of these artists would consider themselves activists,” Amon Carter curator Spencer Wigmore told Hyperallergic. “They channeled their creativity into bold and innovative, aesthetically complex statements that raise visibility for social justice issues, and in turn helped shape a popular, political, and cultural consciousness.”

The Breakthrough Retrospective of Carlos Villa
Vina Orden on Carlos Villa: Worlds in Collision at the Newark Museum of Art

Cosmos and Earth Collide in Pier Paolo Calzolari’s Alchemical Art
Ela Bittencourt on Pier Paolo Calzolari: Painting as a Butterfly at Marianna Boesky Gallery.

Jim Nutt, “Awkwerd” (1969), graphite and crayon on paper, 25 3/4 x 20 inches. Crocker Art Museum Purchase, 1984.22

The California Gallerist Who Turned a Candy Store Into an Art Community
Clayton Schuster on The Candy Store: Funk, Nut, and Other Art with a Kick at the Crocker Art Museum.

The artworks on display at the Crocker demonstrate the sense of creative chaos that people might have felt walking into the Candy Store for the first time. Many of the pieces are figurative and many are irreverent. The work could be political, subversive, and laugh-out-loud funny. Nothing here seems to take itself too seriously.

The Beauty of the Ephemeral World
John Yau on Lucy Mullican: Sensed As Well As Seen at Olympia.

Abstract Art in the Southwest Is as Vast as the Region’s Terrain
Scotti Hill on Convergence at Modern West Fine Art.

Sámi Pavilion artist Máret Ánne Sara on the tundra close to Šuoššjávri, Kárášjohka (photo by Michael Miller / OCA)

Venice’s Sámi Pavilion Is a Coup for Indigenous Artists
Anna Souter speaks with Pauliina Feodoroff, Máret Ánne Sara, and Anders Sunna about their participation in this year's Venice Biennale.

The project undermines the nationalistic structure behind the Biennale, instead recognizing the sovereignty and cultural cohesion of Sápmi, the Sámi cultural region, which covers much of the northernmost areas of Norway, Sweden, and Finland, as well as part of Russia.

The three contributing artists draw attention to the ongoing colonial oppression and discrimination experienced by Indigenous Sámi under local and national governments across the Nordic region. 

MORE FROM HYPERALLERGIC

Your Venice Biennale Bingo Card Has Arrived
While you’re waiting for a vaporetto, standing in line to get into a party, or just need to laugh, we have the Bingo card that will make you smile.

A Photographer Captures the Magic of Venice’s Churches
Jasmine Liu reviews Alejandro Merizalde's "100 Churches of Venice and the Lagoon," which features religious temples from every corner of the Italian city.

Why Does Instagram Think My Artwork is Soliciting Sex?
Emma Shapiro: “[Instagram’s] new “sexual solicitation” notification used in a misguided purge of “sexual” material is not only wrong, it's also offensive.”

The Fake Town Where Police Trained to Suppress Protests
Dan Schindel talks to director Sierra Pettengill about Riotsville, USA, which finds the roots of modern policing techniques in the 1960s.

Required Reading
This week, a rare fossil is discovered, a new book on artist Niki de Saint Phalle is published, the erasure of women philosophers continues, a culinary map of China, and much more.

IN OUR STORE

"Svanen (The Swan)" Enamel Pin

We love carrying this Hilma af Klint pin in our store! If you’re as big a fan of her work as we are, we bet you’ll also get a kick out of these socks.

Shop more art-inspired enamel pins!