Weekly Newsletter
Decoding the Surrealist motifs of a World Cup jersey, inhabiting the world of Gertrude Abercrombie, and Hyperallergic wins a Society of Professional Journalists award!
If you’re wondering what we did this week at Hyperallergic, here’s an abridged run-down. Critic Michael Glover reviewed a show on Elizabeth I that spoke truth to royal power; Staff Writer Rhea Nayyar decoded the Surrealist references of a World Cup soccer jersey; and Staff Writer Isa Farfan reported on Trump’s unhinged new memo against the Smithsonian, calling it what it is: “draconian.” Sofia Thiệu D’Amico profiled painter Akira Ikezoe, whose work seems to be everywhere these days; Nayyar interviewed Justin Gignac, the artist who successfully sold the trash outside Taylor Swift’s wedding.
Also this week, one of our beloved contributors, Noah Fischer, received a coveted award from the Society of Professional Journalists for his comic about housing and displacement, co-published with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
If this mix of the serious and the curious speaks to you, if you also feel seen by our commitment to a brighter, lighter, more ethical art world, I want to gently nudge you in the direction of a Hyperallergic Membership.
Just $5.33/month, with our summer promo, will help sustain the work we do at a time when journalism is under attack and independent art media platforms are increasingly rare.
—Valentina Di Liscia, senior editor
The Ruthless Portraits of Elizabeth I’s Reign
The primary concern of Elizabeth I: Queen & Court is the careful crafting of a royal’s image, and how influential the dissemination of that image can be. It takes us from representation on the warts-and-all end of the spectrum to a kind of self-presentation which speaks of elevation, authority, power, wealth, and the right to be regarded as a god in all but name.
This was Elizabeth’s journey, and it begins with a sighting of her, newly elevated to the throne, in “The Clopton Portrait” (circa 1558) by an unrecorded artist. | Michael Glover
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News
- The pink-and-blue away jerseys of the Belgian men’s national soccer team feature one of Magritte’s lesser-known motifs, along with the phrase “This is not a jersey” in an homage to the artist.
- More than a year after President Trump ordered his administration to investigate so-called “race-centered ideology” at the Smithsonian Institution, the White House has published a new report accusing museum leadership of promoting “extreme political activism.”
- A jewel heist took place early on July 5 at a museum in France. The band of thieves smashed several display cases on the gallery floors and made off with 27 pieces of fine jewelry worth approximately €4 million (~$4.5 million).
- Officials in Austin destroyed a prominent street artwork displaying the message “Black Artists Matter” last week following an order from Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott.
- Messages condemning Israel’s violence in Gaza appeared over the advertising screens outside the Whitney Museum of American Art last week in an action by New York City-based artist Jonathan Allen.
- Cultural workers affiliated with the Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) plan to protest during United States Ambassador to Italy Tilman Fertitta’s scheduled visit to Venice on Friday, July 17.
- Following Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding at Madison Square Garden last week, artist Justin Gignac collected street trash found outside the venue and is selling them in pocket-sized vitrine boxes as souvenirs.
- Eight years after Aljira abruptly closed, the Newark Museum of Art will present a group exhibition tracing the artist-led space’s 35-year history of showcasing works by underrepresented artists and nurturing the careers of major, globally recognized figures.
- Art Movements: The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts awards $5.1 million to 78 arts organizations, Raphael breaks records at The Met, the Honolulu Museum of Art gets a new director, and more.
- After a 10-month search, the New Museum in Manhattan announced today that its artistic director of 12 years, Massimiliano Gioni, has been appointed as its next director.
- A Chicago-based photographer is suing artist Mickalene Thomas for alleged copyright infringement, claiming that Thomas “appropriated more than a dozen” of her images without her consent or proper attribution.
From Our Critics
John Constable’s Four Seasons
Art historian Susan Owens’s exquisitely illustrated new book narrates the painter’s story through his relationship to weather, place, and time. | Lauren Moya Ford
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Features
Queer Elders
Guides
- Required Reading: Iranian artists remember the victims of the Minab airstrike, a trip through Alabama’s Barn Quilt Trail, Kansas City’s bygone lesbian haven, Erling Haaland memes, and more.
- A View From the Easel: Arghavan Khosravi pulls from Persian miniature traditions to create surreal assemblages of paint, canvas, and wood.
- In Memoriam: Remembering Yervant Gianikian, giant of 20th-century cinema; Valerie Brathwaite, sculptor of the natural world; Jerry Moriarty, self-described “paintoonist,” and more.
