When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream, the major retrospective now on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, positions Wifredo Lam as a political, spiritual, and insurgent force—a world-builder who ultimately slips classification.
Art News
Having celebrated its 100-year anniversary in 2024, the Surrealism movement remains highly relevant today, with Surrealist ideas and techniques widely embraced by contemporary artists. Its revolutionary approach to art and thought continues to influence art, culture, fashion, and film— offering a powerful perspective on current social and political concerns.
“In this search for my own identity, I seek the power of the rock, the magic of the water, the religion of the tree, the color of the wind and the enigma of the horizon.”–George Morrison
The ritual of ecstatic frenzy induced by followers of Bacchus was seen as a way to free yourself from self-consciousness, as well as suppression by the powerful. The Roman Bacchanalia feasts even created moral panic in the government.
The Barnes Foundation's Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets is a knockout. If you aren’t familiar with his work– though you likely have seen his masterpiece, The Sleeping Gypsy (1897), borrowed from MoMA for the occasion– this show is a must-see. And, even if you think you know Rousseau, the exhibition still brims with surprises.
Founded in 1966, the David Barnett Gallery has become Wisconsin’s premier fine art gallery, representing over 600 artists. Originally showcasing works by local college students, it now features masterpieces by Chagall, Picasso, Matisse, Lichtenstein, and others, spanning paintings, prints, sculpture, ceramics, glass, and photography. Its diverse collection includes European, American, Latin American, Asian, and ethnographic art. Renowned nationally for its Picasso ceramics and Milton Avery oils, the gallery presents four major exhibitions annually, drawing visitors worldwide.
Famously known as Grandma Moses, American folk artist Anna Mary Robertson Moses (1860–1961) had a huge, and often unacknowledged, impact on American arts and culture. Frequently used as a prime example that it's never too late, the 79-year-old splashed onto the art scene in 1939, with three works in MOMA’s group show Contemporary Unknown American Painters, followed by a solo exhibition at Otto Kallir's New York Galerie St.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s recently opened Dive Egypt exhibition is the latest in a long line of shows centered on ancient Egyptian art to draw massive crowds and fanfare.
In a mysterious photograph from 1922, a pair of shadowy figures hold each other’s faces in their glowing hands and kiss. Perhaps their palms and fingers can deliver heat, and that’s why the bushy brows of the figure on the left trail up in a smoky wisp, suggesting fire. A dark form resembling a thin, double-sided knife also cuts across the image just below the couple’s noses.
The Book of Esther in the Age of Rembrandt centers on the popularity of the Jewish heroine Esther in Dutch art. Celebrated for delivering her people from genocide, this Queen of Persia strategically revealed her previously hidden Jewish identity to her royal husband, convincing him to foil his advisor’s plot. Michele L.
