What's a "Blursed" Image?

July 28, 2022 • View in browser

Good morning. 🌦 Today, the Met museum acquires works from artist Howard Hodgkin’s Indian art collection despite provenance concerns, a new trend of “blursed” (blessed+cursed) images on Reddit (they're hilarious), an artist creates a faux Sweetgreen in New York's Chinatown to highlight issues of race and labor, and more.

You should also check out our reviews of Duke Riley, Sonia Gechtoff, Shirley Tse, and the new documentary The Art of Making It.

— Hakim Bishara, interim editor-in-chief

Sonia Gechtoff Finally Gets Her Due

Gechtoff’s work did not fit into any of the New York art world’s narratives of progressive art. It is time we look closer at what this marvelous artist achieved. | John Yau

SPONSORED

MassArt Boston’s 2022 MFA Summer Thesis Exhibition Is Now On View

Summer graduates of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design showcase their fine arts theses on campus and at the MassArt x SoWa Gallery, with in-person and virtual events and artist talks. Learn more.

LATEST NEWS

Alexander Si's "Sweet Green" (2022) (courtesy the artist)

Artist Alexander Si recreated a Sweetgreen storefront to explore the racialized labor behind the salad chain.

Opportunities for artists and writers

Learn about the latest grants, fellowships, and open calls you can apply to in our monthly Opportunities newsletter. Update your newsletter settings to subscribe.

SPONSORED

Jenny Morgan, Tom Anholt, Jingze Du Return to Platform for Anniversary Artwork Capsule

Platform’s special anniversary capsule includes 40 new artworks from the best-selling artists of the site’s first year. Learn more.

ECOLOGICAL PRACTICES

Shirley Tse's Ecology of the Everyday

In her art, Tse confronts the hypocrisies of our larger environmental reality, in which the time to search for sustainable models is running out. | Vanessa Holyoak

Duke Riley’s Burlesque Spin on the Trappings of Museum Display and Folk Art

Riley’s nautical-themed exhibition brims with antic details that constitute a feat of serious world-building. | Louis Bury

MORE ON HYPERALLERGIC

The Art of Making It Is a Film for Those Who Haven’t Been Paying Attention

The documentary has impressive access to contemporary art world figures, but comes up with no good solutions for the many problems it discusses. | Dan Schindel

Reddit Users Share Their Most “Blursed” Images

Some things in life are more than just “blessed” or “cursed” — they are “blursed,” which is to say, both. | Sarah Rose Sharp

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IN MEMORIAM

Danielle Abrams (1968-2022)
Performance artist | Boston Globe

Jennifer Bartlett (1941-2022)
Artist known for Conceptual and abstract works | Artnews

Perry Rubenstein (1954-2022)
New York dealer convicted of embezzlement | New York Times

Nelson Stevens (1938-2022)
Artist, activist, and educator | Culture Type

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