Arts Summary

September 2, 2020

Monet and Chicago at Art Institute of Chicago, September 5, 2020 – January 18, 2021

The Art Institute of Chicago presents Monet and Chicago. The exhibition explores the city’s unique relationship with this Impressionist artist, showcasing the Art Institute’s exemplary holdings alongside works from esteemed Chicago-based collections.

“Monet’s work is a vital part of the Art Institute’s identity. Today, the museum’s 33 paintings and 13 drawings constitute the largest collection of works by the artist outside of Paris. Among the more than 70 paintings in the exhibition—from the Art Institute’s holdings and Chicago-based collections—are beloved major works as well as rarely seen still lifes, figural scenes, seascapes, and landscapes, spanning his long career from early caricatures made at Le Havre to the last splendid canvases inspired by his garden and water lily pond at Giverny. Monet and Chicago also benefits from new art-historical research and in-depth scientific study of his materials and techniques and offers an opportunity to look more closely at the artist’s oeuvre through our everadvancing understanding of his creative process.” — Art Institute of Chicago

Claude Monet. On the Bank of the Seine, Bennecourt, 1868. The Art Institute of Chicago, Potter Palmer Collection.

Claude Monet. The Artist’s House at Argenteuil, 1873. The Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection.

Claude Monet. Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, 1877. The Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection.

Claude Monet. Bordighera, 1884. The Art Institute of Chicago, Potter Palmer Collection.

Claude Monet. Stack of Wheat (Thaw, Sunset), 1890/91. The Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel C. Searle.

Claude Monet. Water Lily Pond, 1900. The Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection.

Claude Monet. Venice, Palazzo Dario, 1908. The Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection.

Claude Monet. Waterloo Bridge, Gray Weather, 1900. The Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Mrs. Mortimer B. Harris.

Claude Monet. Water Lilies, 1906. The Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection.

Monet and Chicago is organized by Gloria Groom, Chair and David and Mary Winton Green Curator of Painting and Sculpture of Europe at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Images courtesy Art Institute of Chicago.

August 31, 2020

Gregory Halpern: Soleil cou coupé (Let the Sun Beheaded Be) at Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris, September 8 – October 18, 2020

“American photographer Gregory Halpern—laureate of the 2018 edition of Immersion, a French-American Photography Commission—chose Guadeloupe as the destination for his residency, guided by the island’s history and the poetry of Aimé Césaire (1913-2008). Halpern set out to discover the island’s people, fauna and flora but was fascinated, too, by the burden of history and its traces in everyday surroundings. The exhibition ‘Soleil cou coupé’ (‘Let the Sun Beheaded Be’) is accompanied by Halpern’s monograph of the same name, published by Aperture. The book includes a preface by Clément Chéroux, former Senior Curator of Photography at SFMOMA and the photographer’s mentor throughout his residency.” — Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson

“When asked about the reasons he chose Guadeloupe for his project, Gregory Halpern replies: ‘I think I knew I would find a certain form of surrealism there.’ Indeed, there is something in his photographs of the Caribbean surrealism incarnated by the writer Aimé Césaire. In three successive journeys—the longest of which, in the spring of 2019, lasted two months—Halpern traveled to Guadeloupe as part of Immersion, a French-American Photography Commission of the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès. Every day, from late morning until sunset, he set out to photograph what he saw. With the perseverance of a gold digger sifting through river sand in the hope of finding a nugget, he scoured the island, most often on foot. What brought Halpern’s process close to that of surrealist wandering was, first of all, the way he set out to photograph. As he had already done elsewhere, he laid himself open to receiving what the place had to give.” […] — Excerpt from the essay “GH/971” by Clément Chéroux

Images: Gregory Halpern, Untitled, from the series Let the Sun Beheaded Be, 2019, courtesy of the artist © Gregory Halpern

Gregory Halpern © Gregory Halpern

The title of the show, Soleil Cou Coupé (Let the Sun Beheaded Be), is borrowed from Martinican writer Aimé Césaire (1913-2008), whose poetry inspired Gregory Halpern during his time in Guadeloupe.

Gregory Halpern: Soleil cou coupé was curated by Clément Chéroux in collaboration with Agnès Sire.

Images courtesy Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson.

August 28, 2020

Mass Ornament: Pleasure, Play, and What Lies Beneath at South Etna Montauk, opens September 3, 2020

“The mass is forced to contemplate itself (mass meetings, mass demonstrations). The mass is always present to itself and often in the aesthetically seductive form of an ornament or an emotionally moving image.” — Siegfried Kracauer, The Mass Ornament (1927)

“Philosopher Siegfried Kracauer was among the first twentieth century thinkers to seriously contemplate the seductive surfaces and ornamentation of mass culture. An early theorist of cinema and one of the founders of the Frankfurt School of sociopolitical thought, he contemplated the ways popular culture and modern loci of leisurely pleasure—amusement parks, shopping arcades, dance halls, cinema, vernacular and press photographs—contain deeper revelations about the contradictions and complexities of our society. Having emigrated to the US during World War II, Kracauer focused in particular upon what he called ‘the ostentatious display of surface’ that characterized his new American surroundings, and intuited beneath the surface a host of sociological meanings in what are often dismissed as superficial forms.

Beginning September 3rd, and borrowing Kracauer’s title, the exhibition Mass Ornament: Pleasure, Play, and What Lies Beneath at South Etna Montauk takes liberties with the philosopher’s critical lens, transposing it to a twenty-first century exploration of pleasure and ornamentation, and the secrets they may conceal, in the work of a diverse group of artists and designers: Derrick Adams, Thomas Barger, Louis Fratino, Terri Friedman, Frank Haines, Varnette P. Honeywood, Ak Jansen, Nikki Maloof, Ohad Meromi, Ruby Neri, Gaetano Pesce, Rob Pruitt, Walter Robinson, Brian Rochefort, Jennifer Rochlin, Ugo Rondinone, Bruce M. Sherman, Katie Stout, and Iiu Susiraja.” — South Etna Montauk

Derrick Adams, Floater 88, 2020. Acrylic paint, pencil, fabric on paper collage, on paper; each: 50 x 50 in (127 x 127 cm) overall: 50 x 100 in (127 x 254 cm). Courtesy the artist, Salon 94, and South Etna Montauk.

Terri Friedman, Laughter is Carbonated Holiness, 2020. Cotton, chenille, wool, acrylic fibers; 41 x 54 in (104.1 x 137.2 cm). Courtesty the artist and South Etna Montauk.

Varnette Honeywood, Let’s Party, 1980. Collage on board; 30 x 40 in (76.2 x 101.6 cm). Courtesy the Eric Firestone Gallery and South Etna Montauk.

Gaetano Pesce, Pratt Chair #7 1984/2018 (Red), 2019. Polyurethane resin, Smooth-On pigment; 37 x 19 x 20 in (94 x 48.3 x 50.8 cm). Courtesy the artist, Salon 94, and South Etna Montauk.

Brian Rochefort, Paint Can #5, 2019. Ceramic, glaze; 9 1/2 x 10 x 10 in (24.1 x 25.4 x 25.4 cm). Courtesy the artist and South Etna Montauk.

Mass Ornament: Pleasure, Play, and What Lies Beneath has been organized by curator and writer Alison M. Gingeras, who collaborated with artist Katie Stout to design the installation.

August 25, 2020

The Whitney’s Collection: Selections from 1900 to 1965 at Whitney Museum of American Art, through May 8, 2022*

“This summer the Whitney debuts a complete re-installation of the Museum’s extraordinary holdings of early and mid-twentieth century American art. The Whitney’s Collection: Selections from 1900 to 1965 traces major art historical movements and genres, presenting 120 works by more than seventy artists, including Elizabeth Catlett, Elsie Driggs, Marsden Hartley, Edward Hopper, Jasper Johns, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, Marisol, Joan Mitchell, Archibald Motley, Alice Neel, Georgia O’Keeffe, Kay Sage, and Andy Warhol. The exhibition reflects upon the enduring influence of the Museum’s history on the institution’s current mission, particularly the claim made by curator Hermon More at the opening of the Museum in 1931: ‘We look to the artist to lead the way’.” — Whitney Museum of American Art

Charles Demuth, My Egypt, 1927. Oil, fabricated chalk, and graphite pencil on composition board, 35 15/16 × 30 in. (91.3 × 76.2 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986), Summer Days, 1936. Oil on canvas, 36 1/8 × 30 1/8 in. (91.8 × 76.5 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. © 2019 Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Alexander Calder (1898-1976), Calder’s Circus, 1926-31. Wire, wood, metal, cloth, yarn, paper, cardboard, leather, string, rubber tubing, corks, buttons, rhinestones, pipe cleaners, and bottle caps, 54 × 94 1/4 × 94 1/4 in. (137.2 × 239.4 × 239.4 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. © 2019 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Edward Hopper, Early Sunday Morning, 1930. Oil on canvas, 35 3/16 × 60 1/4 in. (89.4 × 153 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. © 2019 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Edward Hopper, Railroad Sunset, 1929. Oil on canvas, 29 5/16 × 48 1/8 in. (74.5 × 122.2 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. © 2019 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Jacob Lawrence, War Series: Going Home, 1947. Tempera on composition board, 16 1/8 × 20 3/16 in. (41 × 51.3 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. © 2019 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Edward Clark, Winter Bitch, 1959. Acrylic on canvas, 77 × 77 in. (195.6 × 195.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Norman Lewis (1909-1979), American Totem, 1960. Oil on canvas, 73 1/2 × 44 7/8 in. (186.7 × 114 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. © Norman Lewis. Courtesy Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

Edward Ruscha, Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights, 1962. Oil, house paint, ink, and graphite pencil on canvas, 66 15/16 × 133 1/8 in. (170 × 338.1 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. © Ed Ruscha

Rosalyn Drexler, Marilyn Pursued by Death, 1963. Acrylic and silver gelatin photograph on canvas, 49 7/8 × 40 in. (126.7 × 101.6 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. © 2019 Rosalyn Drexler / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York

Marisol, Women and Dog, 1963-64. Wood, plaster, synthetic polymer, and taxidermied dog head, 73 9/16 × 76 5/8 × 26 3/4 in. (186.8 × 194.6 × 67.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. © 2019 Estate of Marisol / Albright-Knox Art Gallery / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

This exhibition is organized by David Breslin, DeMartini Family Curator and Director of the Collection, with Margaret Kross, senior curatorial assistant, and Roxanne Smith, curatorial assistant.

Images courtesy Whitney Museum of American Art.

*The Whitney Museum of American Art plans to reopen to the public on September 3, 2020. The Museum will operate at no more than twenty-five percent of its total capacity to ensure proper physical distancing. Pay-what-you-wish admission will be offered to all through September 28, 2020. All visitors and members will need to reserve timed-entry tickets in advance on whitney.org.

August 24, 2020

Julian Charrière: Towards No Earthly Pole at Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, September 5, 2020 – January 3, 2021

“The Aargauer Kunsthaus is presenting the work of the young Swiss artist Julian Charrière (b. 1987). Like the early explorers, the artist is drawn to the most inhospitable regions of the world, such as the North Pole or a nuclear weapons test site. In his latest film projection he takes the audience along on his artistic expeditions into the most impressive icy landscapes on the planet. The film is echoed in selected photographs and sculptures.

The exhibition Towards No Earthly Pole by Julian Charrière invites the viewer on a unique journey through the galleries in the museum. His latest film installation, Towards No Earthly Pole (2019) shows shimmering icebergs, gaping cracks in glaciers and surging polar seas. They appear abruptly out of the darkness before immediately being swallowed up by it again. In his film Charrière brings together various icy landscapes from our planet into a sensual and poetic cosmos. The space-filling, feature-film-length projection allows the audience to immerse itself in this fascinating, deserted region. The exhibition setting intensifies the meditative effect of the scenery: the room is plunged in darkness and the vibrant sound backdrop underlines the atmosphere of the film.” — Aargauer Kunsthaus

Julian Charrière, And Beneath It All Flows Liquid Fire, 2019. Video still. (copyright the artist; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany

Julian Charrière, The Blue Fossil Entropic Stories I, 2013. (copyright the artist; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany)

01_Julian Charrière - Not All Who Wander Are Lost, 2019, Installation view, Towards No Earthly Pole, 2019, MASI Lugano, Lugano, Switzerland (copyright the artist; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany) Photo by Jens Ziehe

Julian Charrière, Not All Who Wander Are Lost, 2019. Installation view, Towards No Earthly Pole, 2019, MASI Lugano, Lugano, Switzerland. (copyright the artist; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany). Photo by Jens Ziehe

06_Julian Charrière - The Purchase of the South Pole, 2017, Installation view, Towards No Earthly Pole, 2019, MASI Lugano, Lugano, Switzerland (copyright the artist; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany) Photo by Jens Ziehe

Julian Charrière, The Purchase of the South Pole, 2017. Installation view, Towards No Earthly Pole, 2019, MASI Lugano, Lugano, Switzerland. (copyright the artist; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany). Photo by Jens Ziehe

02_Julian Charrière - Thickens, pools, flows, rushes, slows, 2020, Installation View, Thickens, pools, flows, rushes, slows, Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf, Germany (copyright the artist; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany) Photo by Achim Kukulies

Julian Charrière, Thickens, pools, flows, rushes, slows, 2020. Installa+on View, Thickens, pools, flows, rushes, slows, Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf, Germany. (copyright the artist; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany). Photo by Achim Kukulies

Julian Charrière, Towards No Earthly Pole – Vostok, 2019. (copyright the artist; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany)

Julian Charrière, Flathead – First Light, 2016. (copyright the artist; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany)

Julian Charrière, Towards No Earthly Pole – Concordia, 2019. (copyright the artist; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany)

Julian Charrière, Towards No Earthly Pole – Horseshoe, 2019. (copyright the artist; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany)

Julian Charrière, Towards No Earthly Pole – Totten, 2019. (copyright the artist; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany)

The exhibition, initiated by the former Director of the Aargauer Kunsthaus Madeleine Schuppli, is organised in collaboration with MASI (Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana), Lugano. In 2021 Towards No Earthly Pole will be shown at the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas.

Curator: Katrin Weilenmann, Guest Curator. Assistant Curator: Bettina Mühlebach, Research Assistant, Aargauer Kunsthaus.

Images courtesy Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland.

August 10, 2020

Terry Adkins: Resounding at Pulitzer Arts Foundation, through February 7, 2021

“Over more than three decades, American artist Terry Adkins (1953-2014) created a pioneering body of work that blends sculpture, sound, performance, video, and printmaking. Combining deep interests in history, language, and music, he devoted his practice to upholding the legacies of larger-than-life figures, often from the canon of African American culture. Mining historical and industrial sites, archives, and his own neighborhood, Adkins would collect what others might consider detritus and carefully transform these materials into artworks of great ambition and imagination.

Terry Adkins: Resounding brings together more than forty works from across the artist’s career, from rarely-exhibited examples of Adkins’s early practice to some of his most celebrated works, with selections from several acclaimed installations on view for the first time since their original debuts. The exhibition also includes selections from the artist’s personal collection, including books, musical instruments, and objects from a diversity of artistic traditions, offering new insight into the breadth of Adkins’s literary, musical, and visual influences.” — Pulitzer Arts Foundation

Photographs by Alise O’Brien © Pulitzer Arts Foundation and Alise O’Brien Photography.

Terry Adkins_Lower East Gallery_Instrument Wall

Terry Adkins_Lower East Gallery_Zurich works 2

Terry Adkins_Lower East Gallery_Bona Fide

Terry Adkins, Infinity, 1972-2014. Cherokee trunk and John Coltrane. “Infinity” albums, 20 x 26 ½ x 13 ½ inches (50.8 x 67.3 x 34.3 cm). © 2020 The Estate of Terry Adkins / Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York.

The Pulitzer Arts Foundation will reopen to the public on Thursday, August 13, 2020, with a special opportunity through the end of August—timed-entry reservations for groups of ten or fewer visitors to have the museum to themselves.

Images courtesy Pulitzer Arts Foundation.

August 7, 2020

Alejandro Cartagena: Photo Structure / Foto Estructura at Chrysler Museum of Art, September 4, 2020 – January 3, 2021

“Through a process of construction, destruction and reconstruction, Alejandro Cartagena explores the formal and theoretical structures that shape the meaning of photographs. For his latest project, the artist sifted through landfills on the outskirts of Mexico City to collect thousands of discarded photographs — portraits, snapshots and tourist views. Using figures, faces and other details from the found photographs, he reconfigured the original compositions by either moving the cut fragments or removing them entirely. The altered photographs remain strangely whole and strikingly familiar, compelling the viewer to consider what gives a photograph meaning. His arrangements reveal that seemingly crucial aspects of an image are both central and incidental to our ability to understand the works. Cartagena’s projects employ landscape and portraiture as a means to examine social, urban and environmental issues.” — Chrysler Museum of Art

“For years I’ve been collecting photographs… At some point, the images started to show themselves as a structure of… how society has used photography to dictate the way in which we should look in front of the camera….This body of work is an attempt to understand how that structure has been built…,” Cartagena said.

Alejandro Cartagena (Mexican, b. Dominican Republic, b. 1977). Detail from Narcissus / Narciso, 2019. Altered gelatin silver print. Courtesy of the artist © Alejandro Cartagena

Alejandro Cartagena (Mexican, b. Dominican Republic, b. 1977). Detail from Women in Skirts / Mujeres con faldas, 2019. Altered gelatin silver print. Courtesy of the artist © Alejandro Cartagena

Alejandro Cartagena (Mexican, b. Dominican Republic, b. 1977). Detail from Family Vacation (after Roma) / Vacaciones familiares (despuès Roma), 2019. Altered gelatin silver print. Courtesy of the artist © Alejandro Cartagena

Alejandro Cartagena (Mexican, b. Dominican Republic, b. 1977). Detail from Boy Doing Things / Niño haciendo cosas, 2019. Altered gelatin silver print. Courtesy of the artist © Alejandro Cartagena

Alejandro Cartagena (Mexican, b. Dominican Republic, b. 1977). Detail from Faces / Rostros, 2019. Altered gelatin silver print. Courtesy of the artist © Alejandro Cartagena

Alejandro Cartagena (Mexican, b. Dominican Republic, b. 1977). Detail from Flying Babies / Bebès voladores, 2019. Altered gelatin silver print. Courtesy of the artist © Alejandro Cartagena

Alejandro Cartagena (Mexican, b. Dominican Republic, b. 1977). Detail from Monsters / Monstruos, 2019. Altered gelatin silver print. Courtesy of the artist © Alejandro Cartagena

Alejandro Cartagena (Mexican, b. Dominican Republic, b. 1977). Detail from Group, Presence / Grupos, Presencias, 2019. Altered gelatin silver print. Courtesy of the artist © Alejandro Cartagena

“Alejandro Cartagena’s photographs appear at first as simple cut-outs and collages, but by simply manipulating the picture surface, Cartagena explores the entire structure of the medium and our relationship to it,” said Seth Feman, Ph.D., the Chrysler Museum’s Deputy Director of Art & Interpretation and Curator of Photography.

Alejandro Cartagena: Photo Structure / Foto Estructura is co-organized by the Chrysler and George Eastman Museum of Rochester, N.Y.

Images courtesy Chrysler Museum of Art.

August 5, 2020

Torkwase Dyson: Studies for Bird and Lava at Pace Gallery, East Hampton, through August 9, 2020

“Pace Gallery is pleased to present New York-based artist Torkwase Dyson’s first exhibition with the gallery at its recently opened space in East Hampton. Dyson’s multidisciplinary approach to artmaking interrogates historical and existing infrastructure and architecture, particularly how Black and brown bodies compose, perceive, and negotiate space. Dyson will debut a series of new paintings and drawings made during the period of isolation caused by the outbreak of the coronavirus in New York City, which also coincided with the start of the artist’s year-long artist residency at the Wexner Center for the Arts.

Integral to understanding Dyson’s practice is the artist’s assertion of Black Compositional Thought, which functions as a mode of awareness that contends with the formal applications of mark-making and constructions of space to examine the legacy of environmental justice and Black spatial practices. Moving between the artist’s apartment in Harlem to a larger studio space in Newburgh, New York, Dyson began a series of new drawings during the recent shutdown, deepening her articulation of Black Compositional Thought through experiments in animation, intimately scaled works on paper, and shape studies. This exhibition is the culmination of a period of a process-oriented study for Dyson’s ongoing project, Bird and Lava, which is a multifaceted expression of a question: “If blackness is already an architectonic developed out of liquidity (ocean), can the work embody this phenomenon and offer sensation (sensoria) at the register of liberation?’.” — Pace Gallery

Installation views of Studies for Bird and Lava, 68 Park Place, East Hampton, August 1 – 9, 2020. Photography courtesy of Pace Gallery

Torkwase Dyson: Studies for Bird and Lava, 2020

From left: I Am Everything That Will Save Me (Bird and Lava), 2020.

From left: I Am Everything That Will Save Me (Bird and Lava), 2020; Both, All and Everything (Bird and Lava), 2020; Space as Form: Movement 4 (Bird and Lava), 2020; Space as Form: Movement 1 (Bird and Lava), 2020.

From left: Space as Form: Movement 4 (Bird and Lava), 2020; Space as Form: Movement 1 (Bird and Lava), 2020; Space as Form: Movement 3 (Bird and Lava), 2020.

From left: Space as Form: Movement 1 (Bird and Lava), 2020; Space as Form: Movement 3 (Bird and Lava), 2020; Closer #5 (Bird and Lava), 2020; Liberation Scaled (Bird and Lava), 2020.

From left: Closer #5 (Bird and Lava), 2020; Liberation Scaled (Bird and Lava), 2020; Overall Form #1 (Bird and Lava), 2020; Liquid, Space and Light #4, 2020; Liquid, Space and Light #1, 2020.

Title image: Torkwase Dyson I Am Everything That Will Save Me (Bird and Lava), 2020. Acrylic and string on wood, 36” diameter © Torkwase Dyson, courtesy Pace Gallery. Photography by Kris Graves.

August 5, 2020

Popular Painters and Other Visionaries, online exhibition at El Museo del Barrio, August 6 to November 8, 2020

“El Museo del Barrio announces Popular Painters and Other Visionaries, the museum’s first online exhibition that examines the work of 30 artists from the Americas and the Caribbean. Curated by El Museo’s Chief Curator, Rodrigo Moura, and originally planned as an in-person experience, the exhibition was adapted as a virtual presentation. The show departs from the term ‘popular painters’ to identify artists working on the margins of modernism and the mainstream art world between the 1930s and 1970s, and will feature nearly 30 works from El Museo’s Permanent Collection, several of them presented for the first time.

Popular visual sources provide the narrative thread of the exhibition, which is divided into thematic sections around labor and daily life; festivities; black Atlantic religion; vernacular architecture; and bodily representation. In addition to these themes, four artists are presented in monographic sections: Andrés Curruchich, José Bernardo Cardoso Jr., Felipe Jesus Consalvos, and Martín Ramírez. Diasporic experiences are shared by the artists featured in the show – whether as African populations in the New World, Latin American and Caribbean people in the United States, or in reference to the displacement of Amerindian populations within their own territories. This is reflected in the impact of migration, exclusion, marginalization, cultural resistance, indigeneity, self-determination, and autobiography that is present in their works.” — El Museo del Barrio

Micius Stéphane (b. Bainet, Haiti 1912 – d New York 1966). Untitled (The photographer) [Sin título (El fotógrafo)], c.1945-1965. Oil on masonite. 50.8 x 61 cm. El Museo del Barrio Collection, New York. Donation of Drs. Roslyn and Lloyd Siegel.

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Heitor dos Prazeres (b. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil 1898 – d. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil 1966). Untitled (Poker Game) [Sin título (Juego de poker)], 1963. Oil on canvas, 48.3 x 49.2 cm. El Museo del Barrio Collection, New York. Donation of Gale Simmons, Craig Duncan and Lynn Tarbox in memory of Barbara Duncan, 2007 © Patrimônio Família Heitor dos Prazeres.

Jacques-Richard Chéry (b. Cap Haitien, Haiti 1928 – d. mediados de 1980). Untitled (Religious ceremony / Voodoo ceremony) [Sin título (Ceremonia religiosa / Ceremonia vudú)], c.1960s. Oil and gouache on panel, 31.8 x 39.4 cm. El Museo del Barrio Collection, New York. Donation of Drs. Roslyn and Lloyd Siegel.

Louisiane Saint Fleurant (b. Petit-Trou-de-Nippes, Haiti 1924 – d. 2005). Untitled (Portrait of woman with two girls) [Sin título (Retrato de mujer con dos muchachas)], Undated. Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 101.6 cm. El Museo del Barrio, New York. Donation of Sanford Rubenstein.

Martín Ramírez (b. Jalisco, México 1895 – d. Estados Unidos 1963). Untitled, (Arches, 5 Panels) [Sin título (Arcos, 5 paneles)], c.1960-1963. Gouache, color pencil and graphite on paper, 72.4 x 185.4 cm © Herado de Martín Ramírez. Courtesy of Ricco/Maresca Gallery.

Eloy Blanco (b. Aguadilla, Puerto Rico 1933 – d. New York, New York 1984). 4000 on Green [4000 sobre verde], 1982. Acrylic and felt tip marker on canvas, 45.7 x 35.6 cm. El Museo del Barrio Collection, New York. Donation of Joanne Blanco.

Felipe Jesús Consalvos (b. La Habana, Cuba 1891 – d. ca. 1960). Chant of the Jungle [Canto de la jungla], c.1920-1950. Mixed media collage, 106 x 71.1 cm. Courtesy of Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York and Doodletown Farm, LLC.

Images courtesy El Museo del Barrio.

August 1, 2020

Ad Minoliti: Fantasías Modulares at MASS MoCA, through December 2020

“Populated by gregarious mice and helpful birds, fairy tales have always been the site of lively relationships and communities between multiple species. Ad Minoliti’s Fantasías Modulares, in its emphasis on the co-existence of many species, is no different. Yet unlike many of her childhood literary influences, she does not impose hierarchies between her hybrid beings — grinning triangles, lounging cows, and winking circles all populate the landscapes of Minoliti’s imagined worlds, with equal bearing and status. With her large painting Landscape (2020), installed at the far end of the gallery, the artist envisions a verdant forest: the quintessential fairy-tale scenery. In many fairy tales, nature and wilderness have been unwelcoming, scary sites, especially for female characters. Think of the perils that Little Red Riding Hood or Snow White face when entering the forest. Aware of how nature has often been portrayed as threatening, or a site of violence, Minoliti’s forest of Fantasías Modulares is a more welcoming and inclusive feminist terra.” — Isabel Casso

Installation view of Ad Minoliti: Fantasias Modulares.

Ad Minoliti, Cyclope, 2020. Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of Peres Projects. As installed in the exhibition Ad Minoliti: Fantasías Modulares.

Ad Minoliti, Cyclope, 2020. Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of Peres Project. As installed in the exhibition Ad Minoliti: Fantasías Modulares.

Ad Minoliti, Araña, 2020, Acrylic on wall. Courtesy of Peres Projects. As installed in the exhibition Ad Minoliti: Fantasías Modulares.

Installation view of Ad Minoliti: Fantasias Modulares.

Installation view of Ad Minoliti: Fantasias Modulares.

Ad Minoliti, PLAY SIGNIFICANT OTHERNESS, 2020. Code by Mariana Lombard, Net-based project. Courtesy of Peres Projects. As installed in the exhibition Ad Minoliti: Fantasías Modulares.

Installation view of Ad Minoliti: Fantasias Modulares.

Ad Minoliti, Landscape, 2020. Inkjet print and acrylic on canvas. Buni, 2020. Mannequin with mask, gloves, and pants wearing t-shirt by BBY WACHA. As installed in the exhibition Ad Minoliti: Fantasías Modulares.

Ad Minoliti, Square, 2020. Acrylic on wall. Courtesy of Peres Projects. As installed in the exhibition Ad Minoliti: Fantasías Modulares.

Ad Minoliti: Fantasías Modulares was curated by Isabel Casso, M.A. 2020 Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art

Images courtesy MASS MoCA.

July 30, 2020

Fotografiska New York Reopening Exhibitions, Opens August 28, 2020

Fotografiska New York, the destination for photography and culture in the Flatiron District of New York City, announced the exhibitions that will be on view when the museum reopens. They will show four distinct solo exhibitions by acclaimed photographers including Martin Schoeller, Cooper & Gorfer, Naima Green, Julie Blackmon, and one group show featuring emerging talent titled New Visions, co-curated with VICE Media Group.

“Part of Fotografiska’s mission is to present a wide range of perspectives and experiences, and to challenge the status quo of what museums show.” says Amanda Hajjar, Director of Exhibitions for Fotografiska New York. “In these exhibitions, the artists explore themes of justice, community, family, identity, and migration. It is our hope that our guests will find inspiration and conversation in the range of creative expressions and voices celebrated here.”

Martin Schoeller, Death Row Exonerees, through January 10, 2021

This exhibition consists of ten moving, digital portraits of individuals who share their stories of how they were convicted and sentenced to death row for crimes they did not commit. Schoeller collaborated with Witness To Innocence, a non-profit led by exonerated death row survivors who work to abolish the death penalty in the United States.

Martin Schoeller, Kwame Ajamu, 2019, video and sound installation, total running time 16:31 minutes. © Martin Schoeller

Martin Schoeller, Gary Drinkhard, 2019, video and sound installation, total running time 16:31 minutes. © Martin Schoeller

Martin Schoeller, Juan Melendez, 2019, video and sound installation, total running time 16:31 minutes. © Martin Schoeller

Cooper & Gorfer, Between These Folded Walls, Utopia, through February 28, 2021

In a series of richly-imagined portraits, the artistic duo Sarah Cooper and Nina Gorfer explore the idea of Utopia in the age of the new diaspora. Young women who have been forced to uproot their lives are photographed like goddesses inside lustrous and surrealist-inspired sets. These vivid portraits are a judicious and of-the-moment examination of our historical memory and possibility.

Cooper _ Gorfer - Yellow Roseline, 2020 © Cooper _ Gorfer

Cooper _ Gorfer - Israa With Yellow Boxes, 2020 © Cooper _ Gorfer

Naima Green, Brief & Drenching, through February 7, 2021

Naima Green’s photography conducts experiments in being. Her portrait- making begins in the form of an invitation to her sitter, to co-create a context and allow themselves to evolve within it. Her most recent experiment pictures the transient self at play. Through Pur·suit, a deck of 54 playing cards featuring photographs of queer women, trans, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming people, Green photographed over 100 sitters in 9 days to create an object through which both play and contemporary documentation cohere.

Naima Green, Pur·suit (detail), 2019. Image by Megan Madden

Julie Blackmon, Fever Dreams, through October 11, 2020

The playfully artful and chaotic nature present in the photographs of Julie Blackmon (American, b. 1966) illustrates the everyday people and places that have shaped the artist’s life. These are the familiar and ordinary scenes of Blackmon’s daily routine in her hometown of Springfield, Missouri, which she describes as “the generic American town” in the middle of the United States. Her scenes are often centered around children in backyards, garages and neighborhoods where the absence of adults alludes to a looming potential for danger. Her photographs, otherwise innocuous domestic tableaux, are woven with fantasy and subtle satire that reflect a delicate balance between the darkness and charm of contemporary American life in suburbia.

Julie Blackmon - Bathers, 2019 © Julie Blackmon. Courtesy the artist and Robert Mann Gallery

Julie Blackmon - Ezra, 2019 © Julie Blackmon. Courtesy the artist and Robert Mann Gallery

Fotografiska New York X VICE Media Group, New Visions, through October 11, 2020

Fotografiska New York and VICE Media Group have partnered to curate New Visions, an exhibition showcasing fourteen inspiring, emerging artists from around the world. Informed by personal experiences and underrepresented narratives, the work demonstrates what VICE and Fotografiska consider to be the vanguard of photography. Collectively, the exhibition affirms the discipline’s capacity to foster new understandings of identity, put forth nuanced critiques of the world around us, and find power in play and vulnerability.

VICE - Untitled_2019 © Cristina Bartley Dominguez

VICE – The Shan Hai Jing Hotel Room 002, 2019, Zhongjia Sun

Title image: Fotografiska New York exterior (detail).

Images and text courtesy Fotografiska New York.

July 28, 2020

Parcours des Mondes in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, September 8 – 13, 2020*

Parcours des mondes will celebrate its 19th anniversary, September 8 – 13, 2020*, at Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris. This is the largest international art fair for tribal art, Asian art and archaeological artefacts. The iconic Beaux-Arts district will be the backdrop for this well-established and highly regarded week-long event which brings together galleries from all over the world. Some 49 art dealers, 41 specializing in tribal art, 3 in Asian art, 4 in archaeological artefacts and one bookseller, are expected to participate.

Norberto Izquierdo, a collector who is passionate about tribal art, has been selected as the 19th Parcours des Mondes’ honorary president. Izquierdo has nurtured his passion for ‘Arts du Lointain’ (art from remote places) for more than ten years.

“I’ll never forget my first Parcours des Mondes. It represented the first time that I felt confident enough to cross the threshold of some of the top tribal art galleries. Ever since that time, more than 10 years ago, I’ve had a renewed interest in art from far-flung places. The Beaux-Arts district in Saint- Germain-des-Prés takes on a very special, almost exhilarating atmosphere. It’s a great opportunity to meet art lovers, collectors, experts and dealers from all over the world, in some cases, for the first time.” — Norberto Izquierdo

TRIBAL ART

Arte Primitivo, Barcelona. Figure Tshokwe, Angola. 19th century. Wood and sacrificial materials. H.: 25cm © Arte Primitivo

Galerie Alain Bovis, Paris. Figure representating the «husband in the hereafter». Baule, Ivory Coast. Late 19th or early 20th century. Oozing patina. H: 48 cm. Provenance: Franco Monti, Milan. Exhibited and published in “49 Sculptures de Côte d’Ivoire”, Galerie Philippe Ratton, Paris, 2014, p. 46; “Tristan Tzara, L’Homme Approximatif, poète, écrivain d’art, collectionneur”, Musée de la ville de Strasbourg, 2016, p. 84. © Vincent Luc – Phar

Galerie Olivier Castellano, Paris. Dan mask. Dan, Ivory Coast. Collected in situ in the 1930s. H.: 25 cm

didier Claes, Brussels. Dan mask. Late 19th century. Wood, metal. H: 20,5 cm. Provenance: Private collection, France, 1979. Armand Arman, New York / USA

Dalton Somaré, Milan. Mask Igbo. Igbo, Nigeria. Late 19th century. Wood, kaolin, pigments, fiber. H.: 60 cm. Provenance: ex Tambaran Gallery, New York, 1988; ex Collection Herbert Levine, New York © Dalton Somaré

Yann Ferrandin, Paris. Ngabo shield, Songye culture. Democratic Republic of Congo. Circa late 19th century. Wood, pigments. 52 x 27 cm

Galerie Patrik Fröhlich, Zürich. An important Kota reliquary figure. Kota, Gabon. 19th century or earlier. Wood, thin brass and copper, bone. H.: 43cm. Provenance: Klaus Clausmeyer, Düsseldorf; Ralph Nash, London; Alan Mann, London; William McCarty- Cooper, Beverly Hills; Private collection, Royaume-Uni © Galerie Patrik Fröhlich

Wayne Heathcote, London. Asmat ancestral figure – Kawe. Asmat, Papua New Guinea. Wood. H.: 165 cm. Provenance: Karel Joseph Begheijn Collection; Albert Bernardus Wissing Collection

Galerie Franck Marcelin, Aix-en-Provence. Portion of a gomoa roof spire. Kanak, New Caledonia. Houp tree wood (Montrouziera cauliflora). H.: 43.2cm. Provenance: Ancienne collection américaine © Galerie Franck Marcelin

ASIAN ART

Galerie Christophe Hioco, Paris. Ekamukhaliṅga. Nothern India. Gupta period, circa 5th century. Pink sandstone. H.: 36 cm © Galerie Christophe Hioco

Mingei Japanese Arts, Paris. Noh theater mask. Hannya noh-men. Japan. Muromachi period, early 15th century. Wood and lacquer. 25 x 14.5 cm © Michel Gurfinkel / Galerie Mingei

Runjeet Singh, Warwickshire. Enamelled Shamshir sword. Lucknow, India. Early 19th century. H.: 104 cm. Provenance: from a private English collection © Runjeet Singh

ARCHAEOLOGICAL ARTEFACTS

Arteas Ltd., London. Head from the statue of a private individual wearing a bag wig. Egypt. Saite period, 664-525 BC. Grauwacke, repair to the chin. H.: 10 cm. Provenance: formerly in Lord Mac Alpine collection of West Green, acquired in Braham in 1982 © Edouard de Ganay

J. Bagot Arqueología S.L., Barcelona. Torso of the Hero Diomedes Roman Empire. 1st century AD Marble. H.: 81,30 cm. Provenance: private collection of ancient art of Jeff Junter, New York; Acquired at Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, February 1991; with Jurgen Haering, Fribourg, Germany, March 1987. © Maria Pageo

Galerie Cybèle, Paris. Votive doll Egypt – Middle Kingdom , 11th Dynasty (2061 – 1991 BC). Wood, blue faience, bitumen, linen thread. 20 x 4,5 cm. Provenance: Galerie Maspero, Ville D’Avray 25 sept 1968; private collection of Bob Willoughby, Cork, Irelande, 1968-2005 © Roger Basille

Images courtesy Parcours des Mondes.

*Subject to permission for the event being granted by the authorities.