Matisse in the 1930s features a collection of the legendary artist’s work during a decade of artistic exploration—from experimentation, to failure, to renewal—with Philadelphia as a backdrop.
By 1930, Henri Matisse had achieved significant international renown, yet he found himself in a deep creative slump. The turning point came with a commission to decorate the main gallery of the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. The resulting monumental mural, The Dance (1930–33), turned Matisse’s artistic practice around.
In the January/February issue of frieze, Terence Trouillot profiles artist Henry Taylor ahead of shows at The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Plus, one year after Russia declared war on Ukraine, artists and writer respond to the crisis in a dossier, including: a personal essay by painter and writer Kateryna Aliinyk; Adam Mazur profiles Taras Gembik, an artist and performer organising picnics to raise money for Ukraine in Warsaw, Poland; Nikita Kadan on what art can mean in a time of war; editor-in-chief Andrew Durbin interviews Olha Honchar, the director of Territory of Terror Museum, which documents war crimes, and the coordinator for the Museum Crisis Center, an organization helping Ukrainian museums rescue their holdings from occupied zones.
Profile: Henry Taylor “I became the observer because I was trying to understand my own life and that’s why I started making pictures. I just like looking at people.” Terence Trouillot considers how Henry Taylors oeuvre goes far beyond the canvas.
Gagosian (December 19, 2022) – As part of Sessions, a spin-off of Gagosian Premieres, composer and saxophonist John Zorn and bass guitarist and producer Bill Laswell perform an improvised work in Sterling Ruby’s exhibition “TURBINES,” at Gagosian, 522 West 21st Street, New York. Zorn is celebrated for his experimental approaches to composition and improvisation in forms ranging from classical, jazz, and ambient music to rock, metal, and hardcore. Here he plays saxophone while Laswell, a prolific and diverse musical collaborator known for his involvement with the band Material among many other projects, plays electric bass. The duo responds to Ruby’s new abstract paintings, which create a sense of flurried motion through the energetic convergence of materials.
It’s our final podcast of 2022 and so, as ever, we’re looking back at the worlds of art and heritage over the past 12 months.
Ben Luke is joined by three members of The Art Newspaper team: Louisa Buck, contemporary art correspondent, Kabir Jhala, acting deputy art market editor, and Ben Sutton, editor in the Americas. Among much else, they discuss the effects of the war in Ukraine,
Just Stop Oil’s activism, unionisation in US museums, the restitution of African and Native American (and Greek) objects, and the NFT crash. They also look at the big art shows and, finally, choose a work of the year. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
December 8, 2022: The Parthenon Marbles; it has emerged that George Osborne, the former UK chancellor and now chair of the trustees of the British Museum, has been holding talks with the Greek government about the ancient sculptures.
So might this lead to a breakthrough in the long-running dispute over their ownership? Ben Luke speaks to Yannis Andritsopoulos, the reporter for the Greek newspaper Ta Nea who broke the story. In Afghanistan, it is more than a year since the Taliban reclaimed power—so what has become of the heritage projects and art community in the country, which is consumed by a devastating humanitarian crisis?
We hear from Sarvy Geranpayeh, who has regularly reported from Afghanistan for The Art Newspaper, about art and archeology under the Taliban. And this episode’s Work of the Week is a group of five murals by the German-born US artist Kiki Smith. The works are about to be unveiled at Grand Central Madison, the new Long Island Rail Road terminal below Grand Central on Madison Avenue, Manhattan. Smith tells us about the origin and development of her series of vast mosaics.
VernissageTV (November 29, 2022) – A virtual tour of Art Basel in Miami Beach 2022 on the occasion of press preview on November 29, 2022. Art Basel Miami Beach 2022 features over 282 of the world’s leading international Modern and contemporary art galleries, which display paintings, sculptures, installations, photography, film, video, and digital art. The 2022 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach is the largest to date. It also marks the 20th anniversary of the art fair that launched in 2002.
Gagosian is pleased to announce Exodus, an exhibition of new work by Anselm Kiefer in New York and Los Angeles, opening on November 12 at 555 West 24th Street, New York, and on November 19 at Gagosian at Marciano Art Foundation, 4357 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles.
The large-scale paintings on view in New York and Los Angeles employ a wide range of materials including paint, terra-cotta, fabric, rope, wire, found objects, sediment of electrolysis, and metal—including copper and gold leaf. Mixing the abject and the exalted, these works are imbued with gesture, a sense of metamorphosis, and alchemical symbolism.
Kiefer’s syncretic approach to materials extends to his understanding of history, literature, and mythology as forces that inform the present. In this new body of work, he incorporates inscriptions in Hebrew from the book of Exodus, with thematic references to its narrative blended with a diversity of other sources. Full of symbolic thresholds between peoples, places, and times, the paintings are metaphysical allegories that meditate on loss and deliverance, dispossession and homecoming.
Dezeen – Curator Kathryn Johnson explains the story behind surrealism and its impact on design in this video Dezeen produced for the Design Museum about its latest exhibition.
Titled Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design 1924 – Today, the exhibition features almost 350 surrealist objects spanning fashion, furniture and film. The exhibition, which was curated by Johnson, explores the conception of the surrealist movement in the 1920s and the impact it has had on the design world ever since. It features some of the most recognised surrealist paintings and sculptures, including pieces by Salvador Dalí, Man Ray and Leonora Carrington, as well as work from contemporary artists and designers such as Dior and Björk.
the Design Museum – “Surrealism was born out of the horrors of the first world war, in a period of conflict and uncertainty, and it was a creative response to that chaos,” Johnson said in the video.
CBS Sunday Morning – One hundred years ago the Detroit Institute of Arts became the first museum in the U.S. to buy a work by Vincent Van Gogh, the Dutch Post-Impressionist who died in 1890. Now, the DIA honors the centenary of that landmark acquisition by presenting “Van Gogh in America,” featuring 74 works from around the world, which explores America’s introduction to the artist. Correspondent Rita Braver reports.
Detroit Institute of Arts – “Van Gogh in America“ celebrates the Detroit Institute of Art’s status as the first public museum in the United States to purchase a painting by Vincent van Gogh, his Self-Portrait (1887). On the 100th anniversary of its acquisition, experience 74 authentic Van Gogh works from around the world and discover the fascinating story of America’s introduction to this iconic artist, in an exhibition only at the DIA.
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