Curated by Stephan Wolohojian and Ashley E. Dunn
“MANET/DEGAS,” the fall blockbuster at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, begins with an unabashed, double-barreled bang: Édouard Manet’s last great self-portrait, paired up alongside one of Edgar Degas’s first. The juxtaposition provides a thrilling object lesson in the stolid compare-and-contrast curatorial methodology that defines the exhibition, but if it’s meant to show the two artists on an equal footing, it doesn’t stage a fair fight. Forty-six years old when he executed Portrait of the Artist (Manet with a Palette), ca. 1878–79, Manet is at the height of his painterly power, looking backward and forward at once.
Fifteen artists reflect on 2023
By Kenturah Davis, Vaginal Davis, Anri Sala, Tracey Emin, Doron Langberg, Dena Yago, Adam Alessi, Oto Gillen, Mire Lee, Nigel Howlett, Lúcia Koch, K.R.M. Mooney, Sula Bermúdez-Silverman, Niklas Taleb, Party Office
To take stock of the past year, Artforum asked an international group of artists to select a single exhibition or event that most memorably caught their attention in 2023.
KENTURAH DAVIS
Lauren Halsey (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
Emerging onto the Met’s rooftop, I’m greeted by sphinxes with faces carved in the likeness of the artist’s loved ones. These figures surround and protect a large architectural monument, its surfaces engraved with coded inscriptions that pay homage to the people and energy of South Central Los Angeles. The structure forgoes the exuberant color I’ve come to expect in Halsey’s work, making me think about the ways Egyptian art and architecture have changed over time—once colorfully embellished, and now animated purely by shadows. In this way, Halsey’s sanctuary suggests that it’s been standing there for millennia, transformed by the sun and communing with the cosmos.
VAGINAL DAVIS
Annette Frick (MARTa Herford, Germany)
You can easily get royally preggers if you stand too close to the hairy eyeball of Annette Frick. For more than forty years, the Berlin-based photographer-filmmaker and consummate artiste has been known mainly for her captivating chronicles of underground queer scenes. At her retrospectacle “A Moment in No Man’s Land,” was enchanted by her sensual large-format self-portraits and stunning nude cycle “Aus dem Wasser” (Out of the Water), 2007–2008, referring to mythological figures such as Ondine and Lilith. I had never seen her architecture-portrait hybrids and was mesmerized, wondering just what else she has hidden in her voluptuous archive.
ANRI SALA
Saâdane Afif (Wilhelm Hallen, Berlin)
It’s difficult to express the poetry and poignancy of Saâdane Afif’s exhibition “The Coalman,” part of the artist’s larger endeavor to give form to a heptahedron. Here, the artist installs his personal collection of coal sculptures handcrafted by miners in their spare time alongside Is it possible that you have no coal left?, 2023, a facsimile of a letter from French composer Claude Debussy to his coal merchant, penned during the particularly severe winter of 1916–17. The repurposed missive serves as a coda to the exhibition as a whole, posing a question that resonates in manifold ways in the present (perhaps even applying to a shortage of new forms).
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In 2019, American journalist Will Grant embarked on a five-month, 2,000 mile journey on horseback from Missouri to California. His goal: to follow the historic route of the Pony Express, a legendary frontier mail system operating between April 1860 and October 1861, which used a series of horse-mounted riders and relay stations to deliver mail from one end to the other in just ten days. Although the express service went bankrupt after only 18 months, it remains an iconic symbol of America’s Old West.
The latest in the Unforgettable Journeys series by DK Eyewitness, a publisher of nonfiction books known for its visual travel guides, Unforgettable Journeys Europe highlights the notion that travel really is all about the “getting there.” This inspirational tome details 150 of Europe’s best slow adventures, such as kayaking through Lithuania and crossing the Arctic Circle by train.
An extremely well-researched story of three ancient trade routes that helped define a continent, Chris Aslan’s Unravelling the Silk Road “merges trauma with textiles to track the past and present experiences of the people of Central Asia,” writes author Clare Hunter. He explores the roles played by wool, a textile used by the region’s nomads for both yurts and clothing; silk, a commodity that was once more valuable than gold; and cotton, the cause of Russian and then Soviet colonization, since it provided cheap material for the global superpower.
From 1936 to 1967, the Green Book served as an annual travel guide for African Americans, helping them to identify welcoming hotels, restaurants, gas stations and other businesses across the United States during the Jim Crow era. Compiled by Black New York City postman Victor Hugo Green, this essential reference publication included places like Manhattan’s Hotel Theresa, once considered the “Waldorf of Harlem,” and the Moulin Rouge Hotel in Las Vegas, frequented by celebrities like Harry Belafonte and Ella Fitzgerald during its five-month stint in 1955.
Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to the Home in the Mountains 00:38 – The Vision of a Flexible Home 01:09 – The History of the Central Mountain Location 02:03 – A Focus on the Apertures 02:29 – Connecting the Interior and Exterior Material Palette 03:52 – An Entertainers Space 05:10 – Favourite Aspects of the Home
The Local Project’s house tour illustrates how this dynamic house near the base of the famous Remarkables mountain range and its complex build rise to the exemplary topography whilst being sympathetic to the surrounding rural fabric. The journey of designing a home as compelling as The Gatehouse is nuanced, as is the decision to build such a bold home. The architecture and interior design were conceived holistically by Andrew Patterson and Sonja Hawkins, and as such, the house is a seamless blend of materials and ideals with a showstopping staircase crafted from timber and steel.
The home consists of two buildings – one stone and one timber – and in the house tour, the architecture and interior design are presented against the backdrop of New Zealand’s incomparable landscape, including the mountain range in the distance and golf course nearby. In the journey of designing a home, The Gatehouse draws on medieval influences in its interpretation of a portcullis – a historical architectural feature best described as a rising door or enclosed outdoor room typically found at the entries of castles or medieval estates. This gateway, crafted from timber and steel, leads to the custom staircase, which corkscrews through the stone building.
Whether used for ceremonial, astronomical or spiritual events, Stonehenge remains a subject of intrigue. Now, using the latest scientific technologies such as radiocarbon dating and 3D laser scanning, archaeologists are understanding how this colossal stone circle was built and what its purpose was, as well as gaining new insight into how our Stone Age human ancestors lived.
New studies even suggest some of the stones could align with the moon during rare lunar events.
The Globalist Podcast (December 5, 2023) – How the Israel-Hamas war is altering the political landscape in France, impacting US military aid to Ukraine and threatening to draw in more actors amid increasing tensions in the Middle East.
Also, papers, the latest on the Alaska Air-Hawaiian Airlines deal and business news.
Israel, escalating its assault against Hamas in southern Gaza, warned civilians there to evacuate, but some said there was nowhere left to go.
Donald Trump has long exhibited authoritarian impulses, but his policy operation is now more sophisticated, and the buffers to check him are weaker.
The warning, in a letter to congressional leaders, comes as Republican support for funding Kyiv’s war effort is waning, and an emergency funding package is stalled in Congress.
Nearly 200 inmates left a high-security Russian prison to join the war in Ukraine, seeking redemption, money or freedom. Many were killed or wounded.
Boomers Daily 