August 2018 Art News

Vernacular photographs are the lifeblood of affirmative self (re)presentation. For African-Americans, whose relationship with photography has always been complicated—stemming from, among other things, the difficulty with which photographic technology registers melanated skin (see Shirley cards)—portraits are not only personal, but political. Until October 8, the exhibition, African American Portraits: Photographs from the 1940s and 1950s will be on view at The Met Fifth Avenue.

The creation of each Guggenheim exhibition involves many people, and all of them bring different kinds of technical expertise to the installation process. For two decades, Derek DeLuco, Senior Technician and Mount Maker at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, has made mounts for the art on view at the museum—an undertaking that requires patience, ingenuity, and a good eye. In this video, he describes some the of mounts created for the Giacometti exhibition and explains that the mount should not be a distraction when viewing the art.

Hong Kong – Christie’s is proud to launch one of the world’s rarest Chinese paintings by Su Shi (1037-1101) – the pre-eminent scholar of the Song Dynasty and one of the most important figures in Chinese history.

Inspired by a 1989 Guerrilla Girls poster stating, “You’re seeing less than half the picture without the vision of women artists and artists of color,” a new exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum helps viewers get woke. It examines major works, new acquisitions, and rediscoveries in the Museum’s collection through an intersectional feminist lens. Half the Picture: A Feminist Look at the Collection highlights over fifty artists who use their art to advocate for race, gender, and class equality.

From his sprawling studio space and the large moss garden outside his home, artist Brice Marden discusses his approach to abstraction and how paintings can transport viewers to another time and place.

Sotheby’s announced today the special sale of XUZHEN SUPERMARKET at their Contemporary Art Evening Sale in Hong Kong September 30. Though it may sound straightforward, the auction house isn’t selling a family grocery store—they’re selling the idea behind and future execution of an art installation.

Craft curator Nora Atkinson takes us on a trip to Nevada's Black Rock Desert to see the beautifully designed and participatory art of Burning Man, revealing how she discovered there what's often missing from museums: curiosity and engagement. "What is art for in our contemporary world if not this?" she asks.

LOS ANGELES – Courtiers feasting at elaborately set tables, knights in gleaming armor, a richly clad monarch presiding over elegant festivities—these are the images often associated with the medieval and Renaissance courts of Europe. For rulers and members of the nobility at the center of these privileged spaces, the visual arts—illuminated manuscripts, paintings, drawings, enamels, and textiles—were central aspects of their political and cultural identities. All that Glitters: Life at the Renaissance Court, on view from August 28 to December 2, 2018 at the J.

Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker discuss the classical marble sculptures Dying Gaul and Gaul killing himself and his wife (The Ludovisi Gaul). Both are 1st or 2nd century C.E. Roman copies of Third Century B.C.E. Hellenistic bronzes that commemorate Pergamon's victory over the Gauls, and were likely made for the Sanctuary of Athena at Pergamon. Though held in separate museums in Rome (Musei Capitolini and Palazzo Altemps, Museo Nazionale Romano, respectively), they are believed to be companion pieces.

Currently at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), Empresses of China’s Forbidden City is the first ever international exhibition to explore female power and influence during China’s last dynasty.