The May issue is out now!
Writer Lynne Tillman speaks to artist Joan Jonas as she prepares for her current show at MoMA, Thomas J. Lax, Rodney McMillian and Zoé Whitley pen a survey on the iconic exhibitions at Studio Museum in Harlem, plus loads more.
#frieze
#Issue243
'Ulay and I were born on the same day and met on our birthday – it was a very crazy, romantic thing.' - Marina Abramovic on her longtime companion and collaborator, Ulay (1943–2020)
‘Black women in comedy are a rising threat to the stale white standard that has too long prevailed in Hollywood.’ Candice Frederick (
@ReelTalker
) on the new comedy shows dismantling Hollywood’s white monolith, one gag at a time
An open letter signed by over 100 leading artists argues that ‘every child should have equal access to the benefits that the arts and culture bring, not just a privileged few’
We are devastated to learn of the death of Okwui Enwezor. One of the most important thinkers of recent decades, his curating and writing was characterised by its erudition, compassion & originality. He was a fierce believer in the power of art to change the world.
#okwuienwezor
This is Samuel Beckett in 1971, on the streets of Santa Margherita Ligure. While he fingers his sunglasses, a perfect picture of thought, on his shoulder he touts an unstructured hobo bag. The bag is by Gucci, and it was the height of chic
How curator Okwui Enwezor (1963-2019) changed the course of art: A tribute to the Nigeria-born poet, critic and ‘most important curator of his generation’, who persistently bid us to open our eyes
At Frieze Seoul,
@LGUS
OLED presents their latest artist collaboration with Anish Kapoor
The exhibition invites spectators to engage in an in-depth appreciation of the past, present and future of Anish Kapoor’s very special work Wounds and Absent Objects
#FriezeSeoul
#LGOLEDART
#FriezeRecommends
-
@Oniropolis
recommends Radio Garden, a site and app where you can explore the world’s radio stations in real-time. You can hear what people are listening to on the Trans-Siberian railway or the edges of the Rub’ al Khali:
Remembering David Bowie on what would have been his 74th Birthday. In 2016, Michael Bracewell wrote that ‘his power found a personal truth in millions of people, and moved them, even changed their lives’.
It wasn’t just men who illuminated manuscripts in the Medieval era. Meet the women artists who contributed to art history in the Middle Ages.
#FriezeArchive
Petra Costa’s timely, Academy Award-nominated documentary about Brazil’s backslide into dictatorship, ‘The Edge of Democracy’, reveals some uncomfortable home truths in the US
Ai Weiwei
@aiww
says his Beijing studio has been razed by authorities. ‘What you have been told and what appears in front of your eyes can never be clearly explained. That’s the character of an authoritarian society,’ he told us:
A viral photo of a Palestinian protester has been compared to Delacroix’s ‘Liberty Leading the People’. The image of a young shirtless protester clutching a Palestinian flag has drawn art-historical comparisons.
Lubaina Himid
#turnerprize
winner thanks many people in her acceptance speech and finishes by saying ‘I love to show off and dance into the early hours’ - we’re glad she did (and continues to do so) Congratulations! (PS She was frieze cover artist Jan/Feb this year)
We’re sad to hear of the passing of art critic and curator Douglas Crimp. Listen to him remembering the New York art world of the 1970s.
#FriezeArchive
Anna Halprin (1920-2021)
The US experimental dancer and choreographer has died at the age of 100. In 2016, Ross Simonini spoke to Halprin about movement, healing and improvisation
David Lynch is set to send Twin Peaks into virtual reality, it has been announced. Players will follow in the footsteps of Dale Cooper, attempting to break out of the nightmarish Red Room
Philosopher Paul Virilio (1932–2018):
@mckenziewark
pays tribute to the French cultural theorist, who called our era one of ‘dromocracy’: the reign of speed
#FriezeRecommends
–
@RuffneckRefugee
recommends Omega Rising (1988), a documentary by Elimina D. Davis exploring the interior and spiritual lives of Rastafarian women across Jamaica and Britain, produced by the Ceddo Film and Video Workshop collective.
Ai Weiwei says Chinese authorities demolished his Beijing studio without warning. ‘What you have been told and what appears in front of your eyes can never be clearly explained. That’s the character of an authoritarian society,’ he told us:
‘Blake emerges here in an unfamiliar guise – that of the struggling artist, forced to work multiple, precarious jobs.’
@FiggyGuyver
reviews a William Blake retrospective at
@Tate
Britain
A photograph of a young Palestinian protester in Gaza, clutching a Palestinian flag and wielding a slingshot has gone viral on social media, with many making art-historical comparisons, including to Eugène Delacroix’s ‘Liberty Leading the People’
A photo of an awestruck 2-year-old girl looking up at Amy Sherald’s painting of Michelle Obama at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC, has gone viral
@NPG
‘The bird looks beautiful, but it is very strong.’ Artist Yahon Chang explores the complex tension between East and West with expressive calligraphic painting. Watch him discuss his recent Bauhaus-inspired performance in New York as part of
#Performa
19
Happy 90th Birthday to Gerhard Richter!
Richter is marking the occasion by curating an exhibition of his work in Dresden, the city he was born. The exhibition is on show until 1 May at
@skdmuseum
Photograph by David Pinzer
#HappyBirthday
#GerhardRichter
With men still dominating auction sales, Yayoi Kusama is set to break new record with an early painting estimated at $7–10 million ahead of Sotheby’s sale in New York
Jennifer Higgie: ‘Artemisia Gentileschi left behind around 57 major paintings, many of which feature a woman as a powerful, often violent, protagonist: victorious, whatever life has thrown at her.’
With the sad news of the passing of Betty Woodman, aged 87 – the first living female artist to have a retrospective
@metmuseum
– revisiting her interview with our deputy editor Amy Sherlock where she talked about ceramic histories and modern painting
In the third episode of ‘The Thing’, the Throbbing Gristle member and multimedia artist
@coseyfannitutti
discusses her beloved cornet which has become a lifelong companion.
Directed by Peter Strickland and conceived by
@edithbrow
A tour of Frieze Masters at Frieze Seoul
Nathan Clements Gillespie (
@followaginger
), Director of Frieze Masters, introduces rare maps and works by Egon Schiele and Park Hyunki
#FriezeSeoul
#FriezeMasters
Congratulations to Simone Leigh on becoming the first Black woman to represent the US at Venice Biennale. Leigh will create the US pavilion exhibition in 2022. Read
@xaymacans
’s 2019 profile on the artist here.
Ron Gorchov (1930-2020)
‘I stop painting when it feels alive, as though the painting is still going on. My works are like characters in my life; they have a personality just as real as characters in a novel. ’
#RIP
An out lesbian in the 1920s, Nancy Morris threw hermaphrodite parties with the Bloomsbury Set and smoked opium with Jean Cocteau – but her story has largely been forgotten