COURTESY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
Matters of Import
Late on Monday the artists who will participate in the forthcoming Whitney Biennial was revealed. See who’ll be in the show. [ARTnews]
GQ has identified a trend it has termed “art guy clothes.” About duds donned by the newly anointed style icon Lucas Zwirner and actress Siena Miller (a fledgling couple, it seems), the magazine has this to say: “This is truly one of those artistic relationships in which you wonder who is the true genius.” [GQ]
Audrey Wollen wrote about “looking at photographs of Marilyn Monroe reading.” Of the famous photo of the star enthralled by the sexually charged last section of James Joyce’s Ulysses, Wollen wonders: “What does it mean to have two such legendary symbols of the ‘history of sexuality, its censorship and its contestation, its inscription and its representation’ meet unexpectedly in a candid shot at an abandoned playground by the beach?” [Affidavit]
Passing Away
Artist Barbara Hammer, dying of cancer at the age of 79, sat for an “exit interview” with Masha Gessen. Among the subjects discussed are Hammer’s art as well as her activist work to allow terminally ill patients “to take charge of the dying process.” [The New Yorker]
Issues
For an episode of the podcast Recode Decode, Rhizome artistic director Michael Connor talked to tech writer Kara Swisher about the challenges of preserving net art. [Recode Decode]
“We Need to Talk About Colonialism, French-Algerian Artist Says.” That artist is Kader Attia, whose new exhibition “The Museum of Emotion” is on view at the Hayward Gallery in London. [The New York Times]
Ben Luke of the Art Newspaper does not like SFMOMA’s plan to sell a Rothko from its collection to raise funds to diversify its holdings. Luke writes, “It exposes the skewed priorities of donors and fundraisers that SFMOMA could raise $610 million in a capital campaign for its new building, including a massive $245 million increase in its endowment, in 2016, and yet in order to fund a vital development of its collection, it sells a work by a major 20th-century artist.” [The Art Newspaper]
Tribute
The Independent Art Fair, which runs next week in New York, will donate part of its proceeds from ticket sales to the nonprofit space White Columns. [ARTnews]
The New Yorker followed along as a group of MoMA curators visited Piet Mondrian’s grave on the 75th anniversary of the artist’s death. “We have to find just the right colors,” Christophe Cherix said of a bouquet to be left as an offering. “We can’t come bearing purple.” [The New Yorker]
Robert Wilson congratulated Lady Gaga for her Academy Award with one of his great handwritten notes. [Instagram]
The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures awarded 43 grants to 26 Latinx artists and collectives and 17 Latinx arts organizations. Grantees will receive between $5,000 and $10,000 for projects exploring social justice, labor rights, and cultural equity, among other subjects. [Artforum]
“Calling all creators, can you depict the prettiness and grittiness of South Philly?” The Da Vinci Art Alliance issued an open call for commissions for that special section of Philadelphia. [South Philly Review]