Andrea Kirsh gives her take on the late, great Jack Whitten’s newest retrospective. The exhibition, which focuses on the artist’s richly-textured wood sculptures and African-inspired assemblages originated at the Baltimore Museum of art and is now turning heads at the Met through December 2, 2018.
Read MoreRoberta and Steve and friends, Chuck Patch and Iris Lindberg visit the imposing museum of decorative American arts that is Winterthur. During their exploration of the period rooms, hallways, parlors, and staircases with Winterthur guide, Anne Nickle, they hear, among other things, about the shrewd deal-making by collector Henry du Pont. Photos by Chuck Patch.
Read MoreJennifer Zarro is back to fill us in on “Taino: Native Heritage and Identity in the Caribbean,” now on view at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City. This celebration of indigenous cultural continuity in the modern Caribbean runs through October of 2019, and will include a September 8th symposium on the Taíno movement cosponsored by the Smithsonian Latino Center.
Read MoreAndrea Kirsh visits the moving retrospective of multi-disciplinary artist and AIDS activist David Wojnarowicz, one of three exhibits on the artist currently on view in New York. Kirsh also takes a look at the catalog for this timely exhibition, which does important research that should open the door for more. The show runs through September 30th at the Whitney Museum.
Read MoreOur collaborative team says the 41 large-scale abstract collage prints, made between 1984 – 1999, based on four (dense, somewhat obscure) books caused them to seek meaning subjectively, which sparked thoughts of what it means to be a major (or minor) artist; whether Stella is major or minor; and whether art should have clearer reference markers to be understood.
Read MoreMichael is moved by the exhibit of works at the AAMP. The works touch on social injustice issues — the aftermath of slavery, police shootings of Black victims, Afro-Futurist utopias created to escape and take revenge. The imagery is stirring if also grisly in some cases, he says.
Read MoreIn her U.S.solo museum debut, Armenian-Egyptian artist Anna Boghiguian treats the politics of today amidst historical lessons from the U.S. past to create the heated emotional environment of protests singed with issues of slavery, bigotry, militarism and more. Katerina says it’s a show you will, if not enjoy, then appreciate for its passion and art making.
Read MoreNew Artblog contributor, Mark Lord visits “Agnes Martin: The Untroubled Mind/Works from the Daniel W. Dietrich II Collection” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and meditates on the enduring appeal of Martin’s subtle hand. Lord hopes this small exhibition of minimalist paintings from the 1960s and 70s, on view through October 14, will spark a resurgence of interest in the reclusive artist’s body of work.
Read MoreAndrea Kirsh takes a trip to Chicago and shares her experience of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s recent Howardena Pindell retrospective. Across an impressive range of media and techniques, Pindell’s work tackles race, labor and the technologies that bind. This long-overdue exhibition, which was on view at the MCA from February 24 through May 20, will travel to the Virginia Museum of Fine Art later this year before showing at Brandeis University’s Rose Art Museum in early 2019.
Read MoreMandy Palasik visits Spanish-born architect and industrial designer Patricia Urquiola’s first solo exhibition stateside, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through March 18th. “Patricia Urquiola: Between Craft and Industry” celebrates Urquiola’s innovative use of familiar forms and traditional techniques to activate both mind and body.
Read MoreImani Roach ponders “Went Looking for Beauty: Refashioning Self,” an exhibition of photographs by Deborah Willis currently at the African American Museum in Philadelphia. On view through April 29th 2018, this partial retrospective shows thematic highlights from Willis’s decades-long journey documenting the richness of black aesthetic and cultural practices, and demonstrates her continuing evolution as an artist.
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