October 15, 2022 • View in browser

Yesterday, two young climate activists went all Andy Warhol on Vincent van Gogh's "Sunflowers" at the National Gallery in London by splashing tomato soup on the glass covering the painting. By day's end, the museum confirmed with Hyperallergic, the painting was quickly cleaned (no damage) and back on view. I created a commentary on TikTok (crossposted on Instagram) that points out this is what happens when the ultra-rich are celebrated and feted by museums and other art institutions instead of being held accountable for their role in the climate crisis. I'm not falling for this trap. We can agree art should be safeguarded but that museums should also do more to combat the climate crisis by not partnering with fossil fuel corporations and the ultra-rich benefitting from climate denial and inaction.

I also highly recommend Joseph Pierce's excellent piece about the hollowness of land acknowledgments that aren't followed by real action. "The problem with land acknowledgments is that they are almost never followed by meaningful action. Acknowledgment without action is an empty gesture, exculpatory and self-serving," he writes.

We're also following the Warhol copyright case around how the Pop artist “transformed” Lynn Goldsmith’s photographs of Prince for an artwork. The case has the potential to be one of the most consequential legal battles over the ownership of images in the visual arts world.  

Also check out our picks of what to see at the NY Art Book Fair, which has moved back to the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, and runs all weekend in NYC.

— Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief

A protester at the Whitney Museum during the "Nine Weeks of Art and Action." Taken with permission on May 17, 2019. (photo Hakim Bishara/Hyperallergic)

Your Land Acknowledgment Is Not Enough

What changes when an institution publishes a land acknowledgment? What material, tangible changes are enacted?

The problem with land acknowledgments is that they are almost never followed by meaningful action. Acknowledgment without action is an empty gesture, exculpatory and self-serving.

— Joseph Pierce

NEW THIS WEEK

Two climate activists from the group Just Stop Oil splashed tomato Soup on Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" (1888) at London's National Gallery (courtesy Just Stop Oil via Twitter)

• Just Stop Oil climate activists splash tomato Soup on Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" in a protest action. The painting was undamaged.

• A lawsuit over how much Andy Warhol “transformed” Lynn Goldsmith’s photographs of Prince may change how courts look at art.

• Visual artists Paul Chan, Sky Hopinka, Tavares Strachan, and Amanda Williams are named 2022 MacArthur “Genius” Fellows.

• Philadelphia Museum of Art workers reached a tentative agreement with museum leadership on Friday, October 14, ending their 19-day strike.

• Decentraland and Meta Horizons are mocked on social media for their low visitor numbers and awkward head-and-torso figures, respectively.

HAPPENING IN NEW YORK

View of Neo Muyanga, A Mass of Cyborgs at the Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) (photo by Greg Carideo, courtesy CARA)

Seven New Art Spaces to Visit in Manhattan

From a basement gallery to a repurposed legendary punk-rock nightclub, these new kids on the block have something for everyone.

We rounded up seven art galleries and nonprofits — all in Manhattan, with other boroughs to come soon! — that opened in the last year or so, rising from the ashes after the pandemic brought the art world to a screeching halt.

The NY Art Book Fair Is a Whole Scene

What is an art book, anyway? What is an art book, anyway? Valentina Di Liscia reports from inside the NY Art Book Fair, which is running through Sunday!

Two Art Commissions Look at Lincoln Center’s History Anew

Jasmine Liu spotlights how Nina Chanel Abney and Jacolby Satterwhite’s works for David Geffen Hall honor the vibrant history of the neighborhood.

ARTIST'S VOICES

Left: Pedram Harby, “Woman, Life, Freedom” (2022) (courtesy the artist); right: Azadeh Ganjeh, “Unpermitted Whispers“ (2013), poster designed by Pedram Harby (courtesy Azadeh Ganjeh and Studio Harby)

The Many Shades of Iran’s Protest Art

In the four decades since the Islamic Revolution, Iranian artists have used unconventional modes of art-making to display disobedience.

Most of these works were created by graphic designers and illustrators for social media platforms; however, they represent only one of the diverse art forms being produced in contemporary Iran. In response to the current unrest, many have abandoned exhibition and performance for the “anonymous” expression of political views through graffiti and ephemeral installations. 

— Pamela Karimi

In Times Square and Sunset Strip, “American Gurl” Subverts Femininity

Matt Kilo highlights how Kilo Kish’s bicoastal digital billboards offer subversive alternatives to aspirational mass media.

Art That Bridges Cultures and Heals Wounds

Louis Fishman explores how art made in the present can provide keys to erased and forgotten histories through Silvina Der-Meguerditchian's works.

IN DIALOGUE

Untitled drawing by Duncan Grant (c. 1946–1959) (The Charleston Trust © The Estate of Duncan Grant, licensed by DACS)

Duncan Grant’s Erotic Drawings Explore a Queer Utopia

A new exhibition places Grant’s rarely-glimpsed drawings in conversation with newly commissioned pieces by contemporary LGBTQ+ artists.

The look at these rarely-glimpsed works by Grant not only add color and texture to the legacy of an established member of the British avant-garde, but recast art history (and its current concerns) with a fuller picture of the artist as a person.

— Sarah Rose Sharp

Art That Animates the Body in Space

Anna Cahn reviews Real Corporeal, which aims to address how bodies are in constant dialogue with the politics of their environments.

Jim Weidle and Our Beautiful Despair

John Yau expands on how Weidle's paintings touch on the despair that has replaced optimism in the United States, the sense that the future is bleak. 

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FILM & DOCUMENTARY

Many stood in line last Saturday evening for the chance to see Nan Goldin's moderated discussion at New York Film Festival. (photograph by Colleen Sturtevant, courtesy NYFF60)

Nan Goldin’s Triumphs and Tragedies

Jasmine Liu joined devotees of the photographer and activist at a screening of All the Beauty and Bloodshed, followed by a talk with Goldin.

“The film, and Nan Goldin’s life, literally illustrate how the personal is political,” one festivalgoer who had seen the film on Friday told Hyperallergic. She found the story of PAIN (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) instructive as an activist herself.

“A lot of times, as activists, we act right now but don’t know what the outcome will be,” she said. “This film gives us a whole bright future.”

With White Noise, Decent Doesn’t Cut It

"Turning an “unfilmable” book into a film is one thing; making it good is another." — Dan Schindel

The Elegant Surrealism of an Animated Cult Classic

Cole Kronman revisits Mamoru Oshii’s Angel’s Egg— a haunting, elegiac phantasmagoria rich with allusive imagery and singular in its artistry.

MORE FROM HYPERALLERGIC

Workers picketing outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art (photo Tim Tiebout)

Painting Rejected From California Biennial Over Image of Swastika

Artist Ben Sakoguchi, who was imprisoned with his family in a Japanese internment camp, said his works are “a reminder of our history and of how far we still have to go as a society.”

Kashmir’s Weavers Are Fighting for Survival  

Shoaib Shafi calls attention to how stagnant wages and mechanization are threatening this centuries-old profession.

Art Writing as an Extension of Life

Sarah Rose Sharp reviews a new book dissolving the fourth wall between artist, art object, and viewer.

The Offhand Beauty of Houston’s Third Ward

A new monograph by photographer Colby Deal captures his reciprocal, longstanding, and sincere relationship with Houston’s Third Ward.

Required Reading

This week, new Amtrak trains, the cult of wellness, a picture-hanging hack, asylum-seekers navigate NYC, and more.

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