Art History
Richard Hell, punk icon and distinguished man of letters, reviewed the exhibition “Inventing Downtown: Artist-Run Galleries in New York City, 1952–1965.” [The New York Review of Books]
In the lead-up to St. Patrick’s Day, Irish eyes are smiling on the legacy of John Mulvany, a 19th-century painter who found early success—see his epic Custer’s Last Rally—but lived the last years of his life as a soused and destitute specter in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. [The New York Times]
Dubious Ideas
Mope-rocker Morrissey, no stranger to obvious provocations and questionable gestures suggestive of a tin ear, is selling T-shirts with his Smiths-era lyrics “I wear black on the outside / ‘Cause black is how I feel on the inside” around the face of James Baldwin [Pitchfork]
At the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, pop musician (and Lena Dunham partner) Jack Antonoff will perform a new soundtrack to The Breakfast Club. [Slate]
Screens
A fictional short film titled Spiral Jetty kinda-sorta alludes to Robert Smithson. A Q&A with the director bears out the faint connection, in advance of screenings at the New Directors/New Films festival at Lincoln Center and MoMA. [Brooklyn Magazine]
A Frieze guide to what’s playing at New Directors/New Films. [Frieze]
A new tech gadget called the Frame is a wall-hanging TV that, when powered down, cycles through images of paintings and photographs rendered as digital simulacra. [Wired]
Dystopia
Hopes that President Trump might not really propose cutting all funding for the arts and humanities were misplaced. [The New York Times]
In Jerusalem, the nonprofit Barbur gallery is being threatened with eviction after hosting a talk by Israeli soldiers against military practices in Gaza and the West Bank. Culture Minister Miri Regev claimed the event “hurts Israel’s image.” [The Art Newspaper]
Potpourri
A long New Yorker story about the new musical Joan of Arc: Into the Fire written by David Byrne and directed by Alex Timbers. [The New Yorker]
Iowa artists abound in “Not So Ordinary: Iowa Regionalists and Scenes of Rural Life,” an intriguing exhibition in Muscatine, Iowa. [Muscatine Journal]
What do you think would be in “Top 10 Novels on Rural America”? [The Guardian]
A court case in Maine swung over uncertainty seeded by the lack of an Oxford comma. Punctilious punctuators and pedants, rejoice! [CNN]