Weekly Newsletter
A political prisoner is freed, a Homerist reviews Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” and do we have to pretend to like David Hockney’s iPad paintings?
After five years in a maximum-security prison outside Havana, Cuban dissident artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was released and exiled to Miami. He’s a free man now, but there’s not much to celebrate. The US continues to choke the island, driving its people into despair. Justice is scarce both here and there.
Meanwhile, everyone’s talking about Christopher Nolan’s film adaptation of The Odyssey, so we got a certified Homerist to review the film for us. “As a spectacle, the movie is a fantastic success,” writes Joel P. Christensen of CUNY Graduate Center. “As a reflection of us, it fails.”
Now to a delicate subject: the late David Hockney’s iPad paintings. Yes, the tablet device allowed him to continue making art in his sunset years, but must we pretend to like the outcome even if we don’t? Our London critic Olivia McEwan thinks not.
Scroll down to read about the political message behind a giant wiener in Times Square, the short-spined raccoon that became the darling of misfits everywhere, and the intense backlash over a Hollywood star’s pair of earrings. Thanks for reading. I think I’ll go see The Odyssey this weekend.
—Hakim Bishara, editor-in-chief
Zendaya’s Earrings Are Part of a Much Bigger Problem
Zendaya faced backlash for wearing a pair of 3,000-year-old Iranian gold discs at a London photocall for Christopher Nolan’s forthcoming adaptation of The Odyssey earlier this month. The discs, mounted in 18-karat gold and diamonds, were recently made into earrings by jeweler Glenn Spiro as part of his Materials of the Old World collection, and subsequently acquired by London jewelry house Barron London, who stated that they are part of the company’s private collection and not for sale. However, they did not belong on the red carpet at all.
Described as a “voracious collector,” mesmerized by special artifacts “regardless of their provenance,” Spiro said in an interview about the collection, “You can wear something around your neck that dates back thousands of years but is still contemporary and cool.” One online review of Spiro’s collection perfectly captures the performative exoticism driving this kind of repurposing: “… fragments of forgotten empires are not merely displayed but reborn.”
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Indie Film From the Global Majority: BlackStar Celebrates 15 Years of Cinema for Liberation
The world’s most significant and groundbreaking filmmakers of color will gather to showcase their work in Philadelphia August 6-9.
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News
- The Art Institute of Chicago plans to transfer its in-house custodial workforce to a private contractor in August, drawing outcry from unionized workers.
- Cuban dissident performance artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara arrived in Miami after over a week of ambiguity surrounding his whereabouts following his scheduled release from a five-year sentence for “contempt, defamation, and public disorder.”
- New York Chinatown residents and activists protested outside a town hall event at the Museum of Chinese in America, condemning the leadership’s acceptance of a $35 million grant from the city that they believe is tied to the construction of a borough jail.
- Following a legal battle between the city of Philadelphia and the Trump administration, federal officials replaced exhibits describing the history of slavery in the United States at a Pennsylvania historical park.
- A newly shared letter reveals that alleged “racist” and “culturally insensitive” behaviors contributed to Yuko Kikuchi’s January resignation from her post as head of academic programs at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
- Tate names Jessica Morgan, who led the Dia Art Foundation in New York for over a decade, as its next director.
- Two painters are suing The Hole Gallery, alleging that it owes them a combined sum of about $50,000 in outstanding sales proceeds.
- Collectors Anne and Arthur Goldstein gift over 70 works of modern and contemporary art to the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University.
- Dmitriy Popov was handed a 20-year sentence over the fatal stabbing of Black gay professional dancer O’Shae Sibley. The sentencing comes after Popov was convicted of manslaughter as a hate crime in June.
- Just weeks before a historic collection of 20th-century Mexican art is slated to leave the country for an exhibition in Europe, a group of advocates is suing Mexico’s principal cultural entity over allegations regarding the legal basis for exporting the nation’s artistic heritage.
- Just a few months after the reopening of the New Museum’s expanded building, a water leak shut down the Manhattan institution for a full weekend.
- The New York Foundation for the Arts awards $903,000 to 132 artists across New York State in its joint fellowship program with the New York State Council on the Arts.
- Art Movements: Michael Wellen and José Luis Blondet are the curators of the next Made in L.A., Tate names a new director, and the Immigrant Artist Biennial is back for another edition.
From Our Critics
The Sunflower Effect of Kyung-Me
The artist’s current series marks a shift in her practice, evoking the life span of a sunflower — from blooming to dying, from sharply defined forms to rivulets of dissolution. | John Yau
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Features
- Required Reading: The Louvre reopens the room where it happens, a Texas artist’s outdoor collection, Nancy Drew in the public domain, Rachel Cusk and Natalie Portman have beef, and more.
- In Memoriam: we honor Christine Borland, an artist who explored human fragility through science; Astrid Furnival, a pioneering British textile artist; Vicente Matallana, a champion of digital art, and more.
- A View From the Easel: Patrick Guetta repurposes brand imagery to spread environmentalist messages and approaches the streets of Los Angeles as mini museums in themselves.
