Apr 23, 2021 • View in browser

Good morning. ☀️ Today, the Indian art collection of artist Howard Hodgkin may go to the Met Museum after another museum turned it down, LaTanya Autry unpacks what it means to be a Black curator in Cleveland, and I write a long review of Without Gorky, a vulnerable and good film that I write critically about for its strange omissions.

— Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief

A Home of Armenian Relics Becomes a Space to Heal From Trauma

My Relic tells stories of Armenian culture through the lens of female Armenian artists living in the diaspora.

Matt Stromberg

What's Happening

Habiballah of Sava, "A Stallion" (c. 1601-1606), formerly in the collection of Howard Hodgkin (courtesy the Met's Open Access Policy)

One week after apologizing for hosting the stolen skulls of enslaved people, the Penn Museum is embroiled in a second controversy, this time involving its possession of the remains of victims of the 1985 MOVE bombing.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is considering acquiring British artist Sir Howard Hodgkin’s collection of Indian art, despite the provenance questions that led the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford to turn it down. The Met already owns artworks previously belonging to or purchased with funds from Hodgkin.

Opinions & Insights

There Should Be Oscars for Documentary Editing, Photography, and More

The Academy would do well to expand its recognition of nonfiction.

Justine Smith

A Black Curator Imagines Otherwise

I almost lost my opportunity to curate the show I’d come to moCa Cleveland to create. But these times are different and I’m unlike anyone to ever work there.

LaTanya Autry

Latest Reviews

“These Are the Women I Want to Be”: María Berrío’s Visions of Displacement

Meticulously collaged, Berrío’s canvases impart both exuberance and grief.

Salomé Gómez-Upegui

In "Without Gorky," the Artist’s Family Opens Up About Their Pain

In this moving documentary by Cosima Spender, there are lots of unanswered questions but you can’t help but be moved by the rawness.

Hrag Vartanian