Week in Review
August 27, 2021 • View in browser
Johannes Vermeer, “Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window” (1657-59) before and after restoration.
ACTIVISM
Over 350 artists, including Susan Meiselas and Hank Willis Thomas, signed a letter asking the US to protect Afghan artists and cultural workers.
Using high-resolution satellite imagery, Caucasus Heritage Watch identified over a dozen Armenian sites that have been destroyed, damaged, or threatened by Azerbaijan.
MUSEUMS
Over 60 venues in upstate New York, including Dia Beacon and the Dorsky Museum, will open for an art-filled weekend in the Hudson Valley.
September 18 marks the Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day; hundreds of museums across the US will participate and offer free tuition.
Join Our Community
Become a Hyperallergic Member and join over 5,000 readers committed to sustaining independent arts journalism.
IN OTHER NEWS
NYC art educators are welcomed to a sprawling warehouse in Queens for a curbside “shopping spree,” where they can pick up free supplies ahead of the school year.
Conservators at Dresden’s Old Masters Picture Gallery uncovered a full-length cupid in Vermeer’s “Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window” — likely painted over by someone other than the artist.
Tiffany’s wants you to think it inspired a blue Basquiat painting featured in a new advertisement starring Beyoncé and Jay-Z.
Catalyzed by student pressure, Harvard Law School abandoned a logo connected to an enslaver.
A show of over 200 Inca objects and a VR expedition will debut at the Boca Raton Museum in South Florida, a hub of Peruvian heritage in the US.
AWARDS & ACCOLADES
Katherine Bradford was awarded the 2021 Rappaport Prize.
Gabriel Barcia-Colombo was named the 2021 Artist in Residence of the Neon Museum.
Becky Hoghton, Angela Fung, Sam Tahmassebi, Olly Fathers, Jacob Love, Olivia Martin Snowsill, Nina Miranda, Anna Kerman, Deborah Hobson, and Michal Raz were shortlisted for the Concord Art Prize.
Rena Anakwe and Sana A. Malik were bestowed the Canadian Women Artists’ Award.
Films by Bestor Cram, Phil Bertelsen, Marc Shaffer, Greta Schiller, Julie Ha and Eugene Yi, and Sam Katz and James McGovern are finalists for the 2021 Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film.
TRANSITIONS
Laura Herrera was named senior director of communications and content of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
Tomokazu Matsuyama is now represented by Kavi Gupta.
Camila Palomino was named SculptureCenter’s curatorial fellow.
IN MEMORIAM
Elizabeth Blackadder (1931–2021), painter | Guardian
Chuck Close (1940–2021), painter whose late career was marked by sexual harassment allegations | Vogue
Eloise Greenfield (1929–2021), children’s book author | Washington Post
Hiro (1930–2021), fashion photographer | New York Times
Peter Rehberg (1968–2021), composer | New York Times
Kaari Upson (1970–2021), multimedia artist | Art Newspaper
Peter Williams (1952–2021), painter | ARTnews
