The main story everywhere this year was the coronavirus: how it disrupted or reshaped specific spheres of activity, or left parts of them largely unscathed. The art world witnessed dizzying combinations of these outcomes, which are still unfolding. One surprise was the almost instantaneous financial fragility of museums and the stalwartness of art galleries of all shapes and sizes. When the virus arrived, an especially strong art season had been underway.
Read MoreShirin Neshat: At Goodman Gallery back in February, the Iranian-born photographer Shirin Neshat opened her first solo exhibition in London for more than two decades; it followed her major retrospective at the Broad in Los Angeles, which travelled to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth – and included her latest film, Land of Dreams, in which a female photographer from Iran travels through the west of the United States.
Gerhard Richter: In September, Gerhard Richter unveiled three stained-glass windows he had designed for (and donated to) Tholey Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Saarland, Germany. Richter, who is now 88, has referred to it as his last major work and it almost seems as if a string of exhibitions has been organised to celebrate his stature as a painter.
Read MoreAn innovative selling exhibition explores the dialogue between a group of selected paintings by Claude Monet and Gerhard Richter. Working a century apart, Claude Monet and Gerhard Richter both redefined painting for their respective eras. The great French Impressionist, rejected by the conservative Académie des Beaux-Arts in the 1860s, sought to express his perceptions before nature as truly and immediately as possible. Thinking in terms of light, colour and shape rather than figurative form, he said, ‘I like to paint as a bird sings.’
Read MoreRight now, there is a billboard overlooking Johannesburg’s M1 highway bearing an instruction: “WEIGH ALL TEARS”. Another one, on the M2, reads “BREATHE”.
These two messages are arguably bossier than most billboard adverts, but they feel impossible to obey. We cannot feasibly measure the mass of human sorrow. And the pandemic is relentlessly choking our prior hopes and certainties, if it isn’t choking our lungs.
This year, Kentridge debuted City Deep, the 11th film in the artist’s “Drawings for Projection” series, which began some 30 years ago. Rooted in his labor-intensive animation process of charcoal drawing, erasure, and redrawing, the film is the first in the series in over a decade, and recently debuted in “City Deep” at Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg (through November 12), alongside recent drawings and sculptures.
Read MoreGWANGJU - A dingy building that once served as the Armed Forces’ Gwangju Hospital had remained closed for years. It had treated the people of Gwangju wounded during the May 18 Democratization Movement in the city, but at the same time was also covertly used to conduct investigations and torture those involved in the movement.
The abandoned location is now open to the public as part of the special exhibition “MaytoDay,” commemorating the 40th anniversary of the May Democratic Uprising, organized by the Gwangju Biennale Foundation. The works by Japanese installation artist Chiharu Shiota, British installation artist Mike Nelson and Algerian French installation artist Kader Attia bring back memories of the pains and sacrifices.
The Deichtorhallen Museum in Hamburg is now showing one of the biggest Kentridge retrospectives ever, titled "Why Should I Hesitate: Putting Drawing to Work." Following a successful run at the Zeitz-MOCAA Museum in Cape Town last year, the exhibition brings hundreds of Kentridge's works to Germany, many of which will be seen in the country for the first time, recounting the career of one of the world's most prolific contemporary artists.
Read MoreArt At A Time Like This and Save Art Space have launched an open-air exhibition titled “Ministry of Truth: 1984/2020” across the five boroughs of New York City. The public presentation, curated by Barbara Pollack and Anne Verhallen, features billboards designed by 20 artists in response to the current U.S. political state. Participating artists include Shirin Neshat, Marilyn Minter, Abigail Deville, Dread Scott, Mel Chin, as well as emerging artists such as Ruj Greigam, Lola Flash and V.L. Cox.
Read MoreFor all but the very top one percent of art lovers, collecting a great work by a top artist can seem impossible. Along with the issue of scarcity, works by high-demand artists are often astronomically expensive and far out of reach for most collectors. But there is still a way to collect works by these impossible-to-collect artists.
Read MoreWhen you are an artist as in demand as William Kentridge, an international lockdown is a bittersweet scenario. Normally busy travelling and working on numerous projects, the coronavirus pandemic has meant that the South African artist has been able to spend eight months undisturbed at home. "I haven't had this amount of studio time for probably 40 years and it has been very rich," he says.
Read MoreOn a recent afternoon, the artists Dread Scott, Catherine Opie and Shirin Neshat, as well as T contributor Nikil Saval and Whitney Museum of American Art assistant curator Rujeko Hockley, joined me on Zoom for a conversation about protest art. I had asked each to nominate five to seven works of what they considered the most powerful or influential American protest art (that is, by an American artist or by an artist who has lived or exhibited their work in America) made anytime after World War II. We focused specifically on visual art — not songs or books — and the hope was that together, we would assemble a list of the top 25. But the question of what, precisely, constitutes protest art is a thorny one — and we kept tripping over it. Is it a slogan? A poster? Does it matter if it was in a museum, in a newspaper or out on the street? Does impact matter? Did it change what you think or believe? Must it endure? What does that mean? And what is the difference, anyway, between protest art and art that is merely political?
Read MoreThe fall art season has officially arrived at Guild Hall, which is presenting three topical visual arts events in the coming days. A recorded talk with Shirin Neshat about her latest video and film project will be streamed on Sunday. An installation by Rosario Varela will open tomorrow, and a virtual talk with Renee Cox and Sanford Biggers will take place on Tuesday.
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