Roberta chats with Paul Chan about his installation, “Pillowsophia,” at PAFA’s Morris Gallery. The haunting piece is a hollow hooded figure made of black nylon placed high against a wall. In continuous motion from wind blown into its cavity by a powerful and noisy industrial fan, the piece is engineered and stitched in such a way that it dances what seems like an ecstatic death dance. A response to the times, which are filled with violence against black men, the piece is powerful and emotionally moving.
Read MoreIn honor of Barkley Hendricks, who died on Tuesday, April 18, 2017, we are running this interview we did with the artist in 2009, when Hendricks was having a solo museum exhibition at that time at his alma mater, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In the interview, he talks about painting, photography and jazz.
Read MoreThe textiles on view betray a range of technical skill in both the stitchery and designs. Some show a sophisticated ability to render forms and were obviously transferred from patterns, while others seem to have been made up as the embroiderer went along. It is hard to believe that the precision of stitching in the Bagh phulkari weren’t made by professional craftsmen. There is no surviving literature that would indicate how designs circulated–indeed, there is almost no surviving history of phulkari in general, hence the significance of this collection and its catalog.
Read MoreCongratulations are in order for many in this week’s News Post. RACSO turns 2; AAMP turns 40. Plus, Eli LaBan is nominated for College Television Emmy, the Philadelphia Museum of Art opens its doors to show its new proposed Modern and Contemporary plans, and other great news.
Read MoreNews of Artblog favorite artists, Jayson Musson, Dona Nelson, Becky Suss, plus a protest of a Dana Schutz painting, some great opportunities and even more news, in today’s action-packed News Post.
Read MoreKathy Cho considers aspects of art and the artist’s life and brings to the reader’s attention several web projects to explore. We find the question of race in Dana Schutz’s painting Open Casket, based on a photo of the slain Emmitt Till, especially important to ponder. Why did Schutz make this grotesque portrayal (based on a shocking photo of the young man in his open casket)? Why did the Whitney Museum choose to exhibit it in the Biennial, their signature show?
Read MoreElizabeth Taylor-Mead of Frieda wrote to say the cafe at 320 Walnut Street, is celebrating the art of octogenarian, Jean K. Hamburg, who has never shown her works publicly but agreed to show a selection of her life’s work and to speak about her work for one afternoon, Sunday, March 19, from 3PM – 4:30PM. The conversation will be between the artist and Anthony Latess.
Read MoreMoving between Dawoud Bey’s Harlem, USA, and Shawn Theodore’s The Church of Broken Pieces, both currently on view at the African American Museum of Philadelphia, is like shifting between worlds. Bey’s photos depict the streets and people of Harlem in the 1970s, a place that to us in 2017 seems like a lost world, his use of traditional documentary black-and-white photography enhancing that sense of distance. Theodore’s larger-than-life, staged street portraits are less documentary than metaphysical or theatrical, evoking a mysterious future through the drama of the set-piece in the street.
Read MoreArt+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon is an international communal updating of Wikipedia content on subjects related to art and feminism. Universities and cultural institutions around the city of Philadelphia are hosting edit-a-thons throughout the month of March, where participants will gather in one place to edit, add, and improve Wikipedia entries.
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