Jeff Koons in his studio, New York, 2024. Courtesy Gagosian and the artist Gagosian will once again represent Jeff Koons, the star sculptor who left the mega-gallery to join Pace’s roster in 2021. Wednesday’s announcement completes a return that began in May with a solo presentation held by Gagosian at the Frieze New York fair. …
Jeff Koons Returns to Gagosian After Leaving the Gallery Four Years Ago Read More »
Martin Beck, equilibrium: Dawn/Dusk in the Okefenokee Swamp (detail), 2023. Photo Manuel Carreon Lopez If you like the idea of zoning out and luxuriating in the sounds of a “Psychologically Ultimate Seashore” or an “Optimum Aviary,” you are not alone—and in fact are part of a lineage that traces back to a series of mind-altering …
Martin Beck’s ‘Environments’ Art Summons New Age Sights and Sounds Read More »
James McNeill Whistler, Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (Whistler’s Mother), 1871 Collection of the Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Digital image: Wikimedia Commons. Until the advent of Abstract Expressionism, after World War II, American artists who wanted to be taken seriously were obliged to live and work in Europe, primarily in Paris and London. This …
Sandra Poulson. Photo Dami Vaughan When Sandra Poulson was growing up in the Angolan capital of Luanda, her father used to tell her off by saying, in Portuguese, “Este quarto parece uma República!” The phrase, which translates to “This bedroom looks like a Republic!,” was an indirect order for her to clean up her room, …
For Sculptor Sandra Poulson, Every Object Contains ‘Micro-Stories’ About Its Making Read More »
Louvre Palace, Paris. Getty Images The Louvre, France’s most famous museum, which welcomes some nine million visitors a year, is on the verge of an immense renovation. After director Laurence des Cars mentioned the institution’s deteriorating condition in a memo, French president Emmanuel Macron announced that the revamp will see Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, …
Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893 National Museum of Norway, Oslo. Digital image: Wikimedia Commons. Two paintings vie for the top spot in Western art history, earning them pride of place on countless postcards, posters, and tote bags among other forms of merchandise and mass media incarnations. One is Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, the other, Edvard Munch’s …
Why Edvard Munch’s The Scream May Be the First Modern Painting Read More »
Teotihuacán, Mexico Apolline Guillerot-Malick/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images. We aren’t the first generation to be impressed by the pre-Columbian megalopolis of Teotihuacán, in central Mexico. The ruins seemed ancient even to the Aztecs, who encountered it centuries after it was abandoned. Awed, the Aztecs gave the site its name: Teotihuacán, or “the place where gods …
Teotihuacán: A Guide to Mexico’s “Other” Pyramids Read More »
Yinka Shonibare. Photo Andrew Esiebo/©G.A.S. Foundation and Andrew Esiebo In April 2011, Yinka Shonibare visited the Nigerian city of Lagos following an invitation from celebrated curator Bisi Silva, who’d invited the London-based artist for a talk about his practice and to host a show. There was no space to mount the show Silva and Shonibare …
Yinka Shonibare Is Using Money from His Art Sales to Give Back to Africa Read More »
Paul Cezanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire, c. 1890 Collection of the Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Digital image: Wikimedia Commons. A spa city in the South of France founded by the Romans in 122 B.C., Aix-en-Provence is the birthplace of French painter Paul Cezanne (1839–1906). Ironically, however, until 1984 you could not view any of Cezanne’s works in his hometown; …
A “Year of Cezanne” in Aix-en-Provence Celebrates the Painter’s Life Read More »
Georges Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884–86. The Art Institute of Chicago A view of weekend day-trippers at a popular Parisian park overlooking the Seine, Georges Seurat’s Post-Impressionist masterpiece, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884–86), is a study in contradictions: a painting of modern life that doesn’t capture a moment so much …
Why Is Georges Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte So Important? Read More »
