Artblog | Museums

January 22, 2017 by Donald Hunt

Daedalus Quartet transcends Friday the 13th

In contrast to the typical fear associated with this day, the Daedalus Quartet embrace it wholeheartedly, using the day itself as inspiration for their sold-out concert program of mostly new works in the Penn Museum’s Chinese Rotunda (co-presented by the Penn Music Department and Bowerbird).

January 20, 2017 by Justin O. Walker

Public notice – Jitish Kallat’s Covering Letter at the PMA

What Kallat seeks to explore in “Covering Letter” is a near miss between two of the 20th century’s most influential minds. This juxtaposition of these two is a near-collision of worlds, east and west, right and wrong, peace and war. One had spoken and maybe one had listened. The viewer is left with this—what could have been, what could be.

January 8, 2017 by Justin O. Walker

The master’s tools – Kerry James Marshall at the Met Breuer

From the walls of color in his series that continue throughout the Breuer, to his earlier work, the oversized snapshots, the smaller pieces that take on death, black identity in America, and his deep, painfully humorous comics, Marshall is an artist who has worked and played his way into the all-important arts conversation.

December 31, 2016 by Andrea Kirsh

Forging Mexican Modernism – Paint the Revolution at the PMA

The exhibition clearly demonstrates that the widely-known work of Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros, Tamayo, and, in recent decades, Frida Kahlo, is but a small spectrum of a much broader artistic scene. It brings up topics such as the tension between work intended for private viewing versus the obviously propagandistic intent of work meant to be seen in public–both murals and inexpensive prints; the Mexican response to European modernism; European, Soviet, and U.S. responses to Mexican art; the tension between a cosmopolitan artistic language which reflects international ideas about modernity versus a local style that draws upon indigenous art, and with that, the ongoing attention in Mexican art to the spectrum of racial difference.

December 29, 2016 by Artblog

The 2016 Liberta Awards!

2016 was a standard year by many measures, with one major difference (ahem you know what that is). Regime change is coming and like most in the art community, Artblog is greeting Jan. 20 with trepidation — and resolve. We are re-committing ourselves to our core mission of diversity — to write about and celebrate the excellence of artists, who are routinely shunned by the mainstream media. The task seems more urgent now than ever.

December 12, 2016 by Justin O. Walker

The specter of ruin – Cubism and War at the Museu Picasso

The exhibit reveals the cubists in Paris were never far from the external specter of ruin, and evidently leery of the internal one. The war to end all wars was only a few hours away, and two of their own had been sent to fight. This is what artists wrestle with, have wrestled with, which is to say we’ve heard it all before: artists respond to their volatile world.

December 6, 2016 by Roberta

Man Bartlett interactive web project and many street performances at Barnes in Feb; History map of West Philly needs you; Advice for DIY space safety; Plus Village of Arts and Humanities, Space1026 Auction, Return of Machete group, and More!

After the Oakland fire, we are all worried about artists in DIY warehouse spaces with their iffy electricals and storage of who knows what kind of art materials. Philadelphia has some spaces I worry about. Here’s an open-source, editable tip guide for making collaborative DIY spaces more fire safe: HARM REDUCTION FOR DIY VENUES: DO IT YOURSELF // DO IT NOW

December 4, 2016 by guest writer

Creative Africa Through the Eyes of an 8 Year Old – 2016 New Art Writing Challenge

I give this exhibit 3 out of 3 wishes, which means it made me wish for three things. It is a nice view of designs. The designs with bright, bold colors are like dresses I have never seen before. They are a fierce combination of a lot of different colors and shapes like chicken heads on straight fabric with a stained glass design on the ruffled fabric all on one dress! I wish there were kids’ fashions in the exhibit, too. I also wish that I could see how they are sold in Africa. What do the shops look like? Who gets to wear these clothes? I wish I could! They are interesting fashions and would make the person wearing them look bold and fierce. Three wishes means it made me imagine 3 things and that is why I love to go to museums!

November 20, 2016 by guest writer

Stranger Fictions (at Rodney McMillian: The Black Show) – 2016 New Art Writing Challenge Finalist

According to curator Anthony Elms, Rodney McMillian: The Black Show is an exhibition about transformation. You might prefer to call it an exhibition about flux. It is about fictions, literally literary, with numerous instances of homage to Octavia Butler, and metaphorically historical, as McMillian himself expounded in a preceding interview. It is about mutable spaces, fluid identities, the distance between material and perception, the so-called experience of this ‘reality,’ and the staking out of that reality itself as a constantly undulating landscape.

November 17, 2016 by guest writer

Nora Chipaumire’s Portrait of Myself as My Father – 2016 New Art Writing Challenge Finalist

Chipaumire announces, “Tired of fighting. Tired of running. Tired of fucking.” The hare bounding over the ropes. The Champion hurling into them, into the ground. Until he, finally, –well, no, you should see it, you should try to feel it for yourself.

November 16, 2016 by Janyce Denise Glasper

Rest But Don’t Forget to Weep – 2016 New Art Writing Challenge Finalist

The Colored Girls Museum contains harrowing levels of metaphoric entryways into once traumatized eyes of the black girl. This provincial ghost overcame dishonorable past. Oppressive chains and tyrannical rulers whipped flesh off back and placed choke hold on her mind, body, and soul. Now released yet not entirely freed from damaged control, she tells many stories inherently stretched through visiting artists. Their works adhere to her walls, sleep on her mantles, stand on her floors.

November 10, 2016 by Michael Lieberman

Solitary Lines – Agnes Martin at the Guggenheim

Martin’s striped paintings, such as “Gratitude” and “Untitled #2,” pictured here–soft acrylic washes thinly applied over layers of gesso in pinks, blues, and yellows–are beautiful, tranquil, serene, meditative, pristine, innocent, and exquisitely spare. They fulfill the artist’s intention to evoke abstract positive emotions, emotions “above the line”–happiness, love, and experiences of innocence, freedom, beauty, and perfection. “I would like [my pictures] to represent beauty, innocence and happiness,” Martin said. “I would like them all to represent that. Exaltation.”

November 9, 2016 by guest writer

Crumpling Skins – 2016 New Art Writing Challenge Finalist

On the First Friday of July, I went to the Ally exhibition at the Fabric Workshop and Museum to watch Janine Antoni perform “Paper Dance.” A month later I had the most surreal dream.

November 8, 2016 by guest writer

Paper Louise Tiny Fishman Rock at the ICA – 2016 New Art Writing Challenge Finalist

Size can create competition in some shows, larger works demanding more attention than small, but these more typical relationships were somehow absent from this show. Holes were drilled into the sides of display armatures, perfectly framing a small Fishman sculpture covered in paint, encouraging the viewer to look. You did not get the sense that you were supposed to spend less time looking at the smaller things.