February 2019 Art News

Thomas Hovenden's The Last Moments of John Brown (c. 1884) captures the complex and controversial place John Brown holds in American history.

Four thousand photos is almost too many, but Annie Leibovitz The Early Years, 1970-1983: Archive Project No. 1, at Hauser & Wirth, Los Angeles, through April 14, has more than that. In fact, there are so many that some are placed at ankle height, requiring young knees for viewing, while others sit six feet and above. High or low, they’re all worth seeing. 

A powerful multisensory installation of sculpture and sound by American contemporary artist, poet and activist Vanessa German will be on view at the Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia Feb. 22 through July 7, 2019. The major work, which combines figures without their heads, heads without their bodies, found objects and ephemera, grapples with some of the most profound challenges of contemporary life, including violence, loss and inequity, particularly in communities of color and for the LGBTQ community.
Alexa Meade is an artist who turns the traditional notion of art on its head—instead of capturing the real world on a flat canvas, the real world is her canvas.
We’re joined by fellow Art History Babe and map lover Mariah Briel to parse through all sorts of theoretically challenging ideas concerning maps and how we document space. Join us as we discuss map making and its relationship to cultural ignorance, the fundamental issues with making a 3D thing into a 2D thing, and how maps operate as both an art object and a scientific object.
Frieze Los Angeles debuted as a new international art fair on February 14, 2019 and closed on Sunday, February 17, 2019, celebrating the city’s pivotal role in the international art community. The fair attracted 30,000 attendance across the gallery tent and backlot program, including civic leaders, international art collectors, curators, critics, and members of the Hollywood entertainment community.
Discover the artist Hélio Oiticica – one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century.
With two upcoming auctions, Christie's offers the unique opportunity to compare the artistic outputs of some modern masters. Contemporary Edition, on February 27, features a variety of prints from Joan Mitchell, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and others. Their Post-War to Present sale, taking place the next day, offers singular works from some of the same artists.
Contemporary artists and mother/daughter team Lizbeth Mitty and Dana James are pleased to announce ‘The Thread’, a joint exhibition featuring new works from each artist. The show derives its title from their genetic and psychosocial bond, and their mutual experience as women in the art world. Hailing from successive generations with contrasting cultural landscapes, Mitty and James simultaneously diverge and overlap in subject matter they address, while employing antipolar visual linguistics. The artists are closely aligned in their process-driven approaches, and each serves as the other’s most honest and consistent critic. ‘The Thread’ is an intergenerational dialogue between two artists of markedly different aesthetics, whose close-knit familial bond is channeled through technique and modus operandi.
In this episode of Anatomy of an Artwork, discover the inspiration behind a masterpiece from Paul Ranson’s mature period. A member of a group of artists known as ‘Les Nabis’ (‘the prophets’ in Hebrew), Ranson was influenced by Japanese woodcut prints, Paul Gauguin’s Tahitian works, the Art Nouveau movement, as well as a childhood tragedy. Find out how all these come together to form ‘Nu se coiffant au bord de l'étang.’