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    in Exhibitions

    ‘It’s My Damaged Rembrandt’: New Book Asserts a Downgraded Portrait of the Dutch Master Is the Real Deal

    After a long and winding road, a painting depicting Dutch Golden Age master Rembrandt van Rijn is back on view in the Netherlands for the first time in more than five decades. The question of who actually painted Rembrandt in a Red Beret, however, remains unanswered.
    Last month, the picture went on display at the Escher in Het Paleis, a former royal palace in The Hague named for its collection of work by Dutch graphical artist M.C. Escher. Its presentation was timed to coincide with the publication of a new book, Rembrandt in a Red Beret: The Vanishings and Reappearances of a Self-Portrait, which details the surprising history of the artwork.
    The publication was commissioned by the picture’s current owner, Johann Eller. And writing it convinced the book’s author—art historian and Rembrandt expert Gary Schwartz—that the work is an autograph self portrait.
    “It was accepted unconditionally as a Rembrandt from 1823 to 1969,” he told the New York Times. “It’s a canonical image, and no one else painted those kinds of images. I simply don’t see why it would be doubted.” The painting depicts the master at around the age of 37.
    Dutch Rembrandt specialist Gary Schwartz poses next to Rembrandt in a Red Beret, either by Rembrandt van Rijn or his studio, at the Escher in Het Paleis in the Hague. (Photo by Bas Czerwinski/ANP/AFP via Getty Images).
    But as he began investigating the work’s checkered past at the behest of its current owner, Schwartz uncovered a twisting tale far more intriguing than a simple question of authorship.
    The first known record of the painting dates to 1823, when it was in the collection of King Willem II of the Netherlands. His son, Prince Hendrik, displayed it at the Het Paleis from 1850 to 1879. The canvas was inherited by Wilhelm Ernst, a German grand duke, who lent it to the Grand Ducal Museum, in Weimar, Germany, in 1909. There, it was stolen in a 1921 heist.
    It was a daring theft that involved scaling the building, climbing up a lightning rod, and entering through a window. At the time, a newspaper noted that the robbers had made off with a “world-famous self-portrait of the Dutch master, a work from his best period, painted one year later than the famous Night Watch in Amsterdam.”
    Later reports claimed that two men confessed to the burglary, but the painting was never recovered, despite a reward of 100,000 Deutsche Marks.
    From there, the trail went cold for over two decades, until 1945, when a woman named Anna Cunningham showed up at the Dayton Art Institute in Ohio and presented the painting to the museum’s director Siegfried Weng. He immediately recognized the stolen canvas—by then heavily damaged—and suspected it had been looted during World War II.
    Cunningham’s husband, a plumber named Leo Ernst, had told her a different story. He claimed that while visiting New York City in 1934, he got drunk with a group of German sailors and woke up to find three mysterious canvases in his hotel room the next morning. He said he had kept the Rembrandt in his closet ever since.
    After briefly exhibiting the picture at the Art Institute, Weng decided to turn it over to the Art Looting Investigation Unit in Washington, D.C., led by Charles Henry Sawyer, one of the Monuments Men who had worked to preserve and recover cultural heritage during the war. The government confiscated the work, and for 20 years it was housed at the National Gallery of Art in D.C.
    In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson decided it was high time that the U.S. returned artworks seized during the war. The government sent the portrait of Rembrandt to West Germany in 1967, with the painting eventually making its way back to an heir of Wilhelm Ernst, who sold it in 1983 to Eller. (Schwartz’s research involved combing through declassified government documents for mentions of the canvas.)
    Since a 1969 update to Abraham Bredius’s catalogue raisonné of Rembrandt’s work, Rembrandt in a Red Beret has been attributed to the Dutch master’s pupil Ferdinand Bol, or dismissed as the work of the artist’s studio—or even as a later copy.
    Schwartz believes that the poor condition of the work is negatively influencing experts’ opinions about the piece, which is now being shown publicly for the first time in 55 years.
    “It’s my damaged Rembrandt,” he said. “Because there’s so much missing and it has been painted over, it makes the wrong impression when you see it for the first time.”
    Should scholars come to agree with Schwartz’s assertion that it is a Rembrandt, its value would skyrocket.
    “Rembrandt Back in The Hague” is on view at the Escher in Het Paleis, Lange Voorhout 74, 2514 EH The Haag, Netherlands, until January 29, 2023.
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    in Street Art

    “Under the Skin” art by David de la Mano in the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium

    David de la Mano was born in Salamanca in 1975, where he graduated in Fine Arts before focussing on Public Art for his PhD at the University of Valencia. From 1993 onward, De La Mano has worked extensively in urban public space, and developed his trademark style during numerous international projects. Relying predominantly on harsh contrasts of black and white, his reductive and increasingly emblematic paintings centre around narrative and symbolic figuration. David de la Mano is a contemporary artist known for his meticulous brushwork, his knack for large scale, almost systematic use of black and white, and his minimalist human silhouettes. With his original training in sculpture, he has focused his interest on public art, to which he has naturally and immediately integrated urban art, becoming one of the most important artists in this discipline.His work is made up of characters taken from great poetry that do not leave anyone indifferent. Through each piece, he works to transcribe his vision of the world around him, in the most personal and symbolic way possible. Between shadow and light, playing with shapes, contours and contrasts, David de la Mano gives birth to a world of perfect balance, where human beings and nature, always intrinsically linked, merge and then stand out, in perpetual motion. In addition, it stands out for its exploration of new spaces, supports and materials such as open or invisible spaces, permanent and ephemeral supports, and diverse materials such as urban furniture, or elements of nature.The Spanish artist with a very unique universe has nothing more to demonstrate of his virtuosity, and each of his frescoes around the world confirms it. For Mehdi Ben Cheikh, director of Galerie Itinerrance, “David de la Mano’s work is as relevant on the street as it is in galleries, and it retains all its power from one place to another”. The artist has developed numerous projects in Spain, Norway, Italy, Taiwan, the United States, Poland, England, France, Finland, Tunisia, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Portugal, Holland, Germany, etc … and exhibits his works in private homes or in art galleries around the world. David de la Mano’s painting focuses primarily on the importance of social ties, primarily through the representation of human figures evolving in groups, often facing an obstacle or threat. Take advantage of the evocative power of silhouettes to stimulate the imagination of your viewers.The project “Under the Skin” was finished painting and mounting on December 5 on the third floor of the European Parliament in Brussels, created with MDF and assembled from different parts that generate scars in each of its limits.The work shows a growing sequence of confrontation and I accompany its presence with this poem by Miguel Hernández:“…For freedom I detach myself with bulletsof those who have rolled his statue through the mud.And I break free from my feet, from my arms,of my house, of everything.Because where some empty sockets dawn,she will put two stones of future lookand she will make new arms and new legs growin the cut meat.They will sprout winged sap without autumnrelics of my body that I lose in each wound.Because I am like the felled tree, what a sprout:because I still have life.”“Man Lurks” 1937-1939Miguel HernandezTake a look at more images below and check back with us soon for more updates. More

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    in Exhibitions

    An Artist Has Transformed an Abandoned Las Vegas Gas Station Into a Neon Oasis in the Desert

    Revelers escaping regular life in Las Vegas still can’t fill their tank at the abandoned gas station on Fremont Street, but its sight alone will transport them. Digital artist Abigail Dougherty, better known by her art name Neon Saltwater, recently re-envisioned the 1930s relic, traveling from Seattle to Sin City this September to complete her ten-day install just in time for the city’s annual Life Is Beautiful Festival.
    The revamp came at the request of local creative firm JustKids, which has handled the festival’s art curation since 2013. “I have always seen this structure abandoned,” JustKids director Charlotte Dutoit told Artnet News. “Previously it was a gas station, then a repair shop, and even a taco drive-through.”
    Now, it’s a technicolor portal to simpler times titled Mystery Cruise 1990, in reference to Neon Saltwater’s birth year and “a feeling of surrendering and trusting the beautiful unplanned experiences that are around the corner,” the artist told JustKids. Authentic neon gleams from the overhang that once shielded gas pumps. Dougherty’s stage name crowns a single column painted atop the multicolored gradient that wraps the building proper.
    A digital work by Neon Saltwater. Courtesy of JustKids.
    The structure’s actual owner wasn’t involved, which meant the artist couldn’t set up a psychedelic minimart inside. Instead, magenta lights at once sensual and ominous illuminate the silhouettes of tropical plants against appropriately fogged windows.
    If you’re still curious what’s inside, look no further than Neon Saltwater’s digital oeuvre. The artist, who’s also created IRL pop-ups for Barneys and hairclips for cult company Chunks, discovered 3D modeling while studying interior design. “I was too much of a designer to be a traditional artist and too much of an artist to be a traditional interior designer,” she told JustKids. “I always loved rooms and would rearrange my furniture as a kid by myself.”
    Thus, most know Neon Saltwater for her digital scenes of ATM machines, malls, and offices rendered in neon tones—and entirely bereft of people. “The energy that exists in spaces feels spiritual to me and is my biggest muse,” she has remarked. Mystery Cruise 1990 marks her first time working with real neon.
    Neon Saltwater, Mystery Cruise 1990. Courtesy of JustKids.
    “In an era where many artists go from the physical to the digital space, we thought it would be interesting to actually export Neon Saltwater’s cyber wonders into a non-virtual art experience,” Dutoit said in a statement.
    “I see Mystery Cruise 1990 as a nostalgic reinterpretation by the artist of the vintage neon pieces and tourist extravaganzas still visible in the old Vegas, but with new energy,” she told Artnet News. “I hope this artwork will spark curiosity and slow down the passerby, inviting them to escape for a moment in a weird glowing time travel.”
    The portal is on view indefinitely. Don’t miss it the next time you’re on the lam from reality.
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    in Exhibitions

    The Career of Willy Guhl, Creator of the Iconic ‘Shell Seat,’ Gets Another Look With an Exhibition in Zürich

    Famous for concepts like Shell Seat and Loop Rocking Chair, among other furnishings, luminaires, and accessories, the late Willy Guhl was a strong proponent of simplicity—what for many is a hallmark of Swiss design. The prolific talent was known for saying design must “achieve the most with the minimum effort.”
    And yet the task of perfecting a unified shape that is as aesthetically pleasing as it is functional, or engineering the armature of a chair so that it uses as few connections as possible, is no small feat. Works like Flower Box (1954) or his circulatory bathtub design of 1956 are emblematic of this enduring philosophy. The comprehensive “Willy Guhl — Thinking with Your Hands” show currently on view at the Museum für Gestaltung in Zürich seeks to uncover what made this 20th-century master tick. 
    Willy Guhl’s Circulatory Bathtub compared with conventional bathtubs (1956). Illustration: Willy Bärtschi, courtesy of Museum für Gestaltung Zurich, © Heirs of Willy Guhl.
    Possessing an appreciation for rationalism, as well as an inherent understanding of people’s needs, Guhl (1915-2004) was a pioneer of ergonomics, accessibility, and durability. The designer was an early proponent of hands-on learning and experimentation. The idea that to truly comprehend a problem, or gain implicit skills, one has to physically engage with the material and form of a potential solution, and not rely on a drawing board. As an instructor at the Zürich School of Art and Craft, Guhl required his students to make physical models and work directly with craftspeople, an approach that has again become a virtue in the industry, and perhaps its saving grace.
    The designer was one of the first to develop flat-pack furniture during and soon after World War II. These affordable, easily transportable designs were instrumental in helping to rebuild war-torn Europe, especially when materials were scarce. Throughout the 20th century, Guhl adapted to changing movements and rapidly advancing technologies yet always held true to his fundamentals. 
    Willy Guhl, Garden Chair (1954). Photo: U. Romito and I. Šuta, courtesy of Museum für Gestaltung Zurich, © Heirs of Willy Guhl.
    The exhibition—on view from December 19, 2022, through March 28, 2023—delves deep into extensive archival research conducted by the Swiss National Science Foundation, along with a slew of original designs, drawings, maquettes, and photographs from Guhl’s estate. Part of the showcase, a 1985 film includes testimonials from former students—such as Robert Haussmann, Carmen Greutmann, and Alois Rasser—who went on to establish their own successful practices. Immersive displays conceived by design students from the University of Art and Design in Lausanne provide further insight into his creative process. Visitors can even experience Guhl’s iconic Shell Seat for themselves.
    Willy Guhl on a Bench Chair (ca. 1960). Photo: Bill W. Guhl, courtesy of Museum für Gestaltung Zurich, © Heirs of Willy Guhl.
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    in Exhibitions

    Furniture Works by Jorge Zalszupin, Master of Brazilian Modern Architecture, Go on View at Sean Kelly Los Angeles

    The current exhibition “Zalszupin 100” at Sean Kelly Gallery in Los Angeles celebrates the furniture works of late Polish-Brazilian designer Jorge Zalszupin on what would have been his centenary on earth. A pioneer of Brazilian modernism, Zalszupin died in 2020, two years before turning 100.
    Many of Zalszupin’s pieces on display have been procured from private collections. Over the last two years, the gallery painstakingly sourced the custom furniture he made for offices and homes across Brazil between the late 1950s and early ’70s. Some pieces belonged to Zalszupin’s loved ones, like the Ina armchair, which he made for (and named after) his sister. 
    Zalszupin worked as both a furniture designer and an architect, ran one of the largest furniture factories in Brazil, and in his later years explored painting. His oeuvre is connected by his use of sensuous lines, a modernist sensibility, and an affinity for working with nontraditional materials and woods native to Brazil. His work contains references to both global design trends and his own experiences, such as Tea Trolley, a bar cart inspired by the baby strollers he saw growing up in Poland. 
    Jorge Zalszupin, Tea Trolley (ca. 1960s). Brazilian jacaranda, rosewood, metal. Courtesy of Sean Kelly Gallery.
    Jorge Zalszupin was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1922. In 1949, he made his way to Brazil, where he fell in love with the landscape and the architecture, and lived the rest of his life, becoming one of the definitive designers of Brazilian modernism.
    His foray into furniture design began soon after he launched his architecture practice in Brazil in 1951. Clients began requesting pieces to match the aesthetic of their buildings and Zalszupin was ready to meet their demand. In 1959, he created his first work of furniture—Poltrona Dinamarquesa, or Danish Chair. The seat’s curved wood frame and modern Scandinavian sensibility set the tone for Zalszupin’s prolific career. That same year he founded the L’Atelier, a carpentry firm that grew into one of Brazil’s largest furniture manufacturers.
    Installation view, “Zalszupin 100.” Photo: Brica Wilcox, courtesy of Sean Kelly Gallery.
    Zalszupin thought creatively about materials and techniques. Early on he developed a signature patchwork rosewood pattern that allowed him to use leftovers from other productions. He would cover the surface of a piece of furniture with rectangular scraps of rosewood in various shades and patterns.
    While Zalszupin is known for his use of native Brazilian woods like jacaranda, rosewood, and ironwood, he also researched and experimented with new machinery and technologies throughout his career, including his plastic laminate series. His innovative use of materials paved the way for the modernism movement that characterized Brazilian design in the decades to come.
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    in Exhibitions

    A Second Group of Ukrainian Artworks Have Been Rescued From the War-Torn Country and Put on View in Switzerland

    More artworks recently rescued from war-torn Ukraine are going on public view—this time in Switzerland in two exhibitions being staged concurrently. The shows, which feature works from Kyiv National Art Gallery, serve both to introduce the country’s art and cultural heritage to a different audience and act as a temporary shelter to protect the works from being destroyed or stolen as the war rages on.
    “Born in Ukraine,” which opened at the Kunstmuseum Basel on Tuesday and runs through April 30, includes 49 masterpieces made by 31 Ukrainian artists between the 18th and 20th centuries. While “From Dusk to Dawn” at the Musée Rath in Geneva, features 50 works selected for their nocturnal themes. Organized by the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, the show is due to run through April 23.
    The opening of these exhibitions follows a recent rescue mission in which 51 Ukrainian avant-garde artworks from the National Art Museum of Ukraine and the Museum of Theater, Music, and Cinema of Ukraine were transported out of the country in a secret convoy on November 15—just hours before the bombing of Kyiv. Following their narrow escape, the works made their way to Spain, where they are now on show at Madrid’s Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in the exhibition, “In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900–30.”
    In the case of the Kyiv National Art Gallery, the plan to move the masterpieces out of Ukraine began during the first months of the war, according to the Kyiv museum’s director, Iurii Vakulenko. Staff began contacting colleagues in Switzerland after the museum’s building was damaged during a rocket attack on central Kyiv.
    It took several months to identify suitable museum partners, negotiate the details, and organize the journey. “In November 2022, the paintings were transported in a secret operation using special transport vehicles with a reinforced convoy to the border with the E.U., and then to Switzerland,” Vakulenko told Artnet News.
    Constant shelling of the country’s infrastructure and potential blackouts meant the team faced the risk of delayed evacuations should the border crossing control system shut down, he said. “For two days, the paintings traveled through one of the most dangerous parts of Ukraine,” he added.
    “We were very worried about the safety of the collection [during] transportation because there was constant shelling. Now, of course, we’re happy that part of the collection is currently safe and has found its temporary home here in Switzerland,” Vakulenko said.
    The paintings arrived in Basel on November 25, according to the  Kunstmuseum Basel, and will remain in the museum until the show ends, and possibly in the institution’s storage after that. The details, however, have not been finalized.
    As of November 7, more than 70,000 Ukrainians have fled to Switzerland and applied for refugee status, according to Swiss authorities.
    Here are a few highlights from the exhibitions.
    “Born in Ukraine,” at the Kunstmuseum Basel, until 30 April 2023
    Mykola Kuznetsov, Gemüse (1888). Image courtesy of Kyiv National Art Gallery. (Photo: Julian Salinas)
    Zinayida Serebryakova, Selbstbildnis (1923–24). Image courtesy of Kyiv National Art Gallery.

    Lev Lagorio, Seelanschaft (1886). Image courtesy of Kyiv National Art Gallery. (Photo: Julian Salinas)
    Archip Kuindschi, Der Abend (1885–90). Image courtesy of Kyiv National Art Gallery.
    Illia Repin, Ukrainisches Haus (1880). Image courtesy of Kyiv National Art Gallery.
    Illia Repin, Studie für Golgotha (1896). Image courtesy of Kyiv National Art Gallery. (Photo: Julian Salinas)
    Illia Repin’s Junge Frauen spazieren inmitten einer Kuhherde (1896), left, and Bildnis des Dichters Serhij Horodetsky mit seiner Frau Hanna Horodestka, geb. Kozelska (1914), right. Image courtesy of Kyiv National Art Gallery. (Photo: Julian Salinas)

    “From Dusk to Dawn” at Musée Rath, organized by the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva, until April 23, 2023

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    in Exhibitions

    British Artist Es Devlin’s Latest Kinetic Sculpture Honors New York as the Most Linguistically Diverse City on Earth

    A kinetic sculpture of 700 illuminated cords unveiled yesterday before the fountain at Lincoln Center’s Josie Robertson Plaza, courtesy of British artist Es Devlin. Moët & Chandon commissioned her rotating, immersive spectacle in partnership with the Endangered Language Alliance as part of the champagne house’s global holiday celebrations, taking over 20 cities worldwide.
    “We were looking for an artist who is known for creating extraordinary, immersive spaces and shares the values of Moët & Chandon,” the champagne house told Artnet News of their selection process. “We were, of course, familiar with British contemporary artist Es Devlin and her spectacular works from around the world, like the London Olympics and stage design for prestigious fashion houses and iconic performers.”
    Titled Your Voices, Es Devlin‘s installation honors New York as the planet’s most linguistically diverse city. It will host several multilingual choral groups while on view through December 18. Each of the work’s 700 industrial ratchet straps represents one of over 700 languages actively spoken on New York’s streets, from Algerian Arabic and Ashanti to Zarma and Zulu. The Endangered Language Alliance has mapped them all.
    Aerial view of Your Voices.
    Strung across intersecting vertical and horizontal steel armatures, those metaphorical language straps form a mesmerizing, interconnected nautilus, affirming that disparate tongues still share commonalities. They all coexist in the Big Apple, for instance.
    “In addition to individual lighting units there are rows of Neoflex,” Lincoln Center’s Jenni Klauder told Artnet News of the glowing installation. Between 12 p.m. and 10 p.m. every day, visitors can enter the work free of charge, letting its pulsating light wash over them along with a soundscape by contemporary composers Polyphonia, which translates passages from E.M. Forster’s 1910 novel Howards End into numerous languages.
    Four choral groups will sing in languages other than English within Your Voices too, scheduled for seven total performances at 6 p.m. on weekend nights during its run. Devlin and Lincoln Center hand-chose each group.
    Choral groups rehearsing in Your Voices.
    Devlin first visited New York City 25 years ago. “I specifically remember the crescendo of energy that I experienced as I walked across Brooklyn Bridge onto the island of Manhattan,” she told Artnet News. “I’d grown up with an idea of New York as something finished and complete as I’d seen it on TV. It was only as I first walked its streets that I experienced New York as a constant work in progress, always threading new layers of language, steel, light, cement and brick into its ever unfinished text.”
    Your Voices arrives on the heels of Come Home Again, Devlin’s 16-meter choral sculpture outside the Tate Modern, which drew over 7,000 viewers per day while on view, and hosting musical performances, in London last month.
    Devlin’s latest sits atop a motor-powered pedestal that rotates all four cardinal directions. “With opinions and points of view becoming evermore polarized, especially through digital reverberations, I aimed to make a work that gathers community choral groups from all over New York City at the cultural heart of the city,” she continued, “to allow visitors to step inside the work, to experience the layers of languages and perspectives from within a revolving series of tensioned lines that splice their viewpoint as it turns.”
    Check out a free performance while Your Voices is on view. Dates below.
    December 6: Cardinal Hayes Singers, The Jalopy Chorus, and the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus (CANCELED DUE TO WEATHER)
    December 9: Cardinal Hayes Singers, The Jalopy Chorus, and the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus
    December 10: Schiller Institute NYC Chorus, Ukrainian Village Voices, and the Cardinal Hayes Singers
    December 11: Cardinal Hayes Singers, Our Chorus NYC, and the Harlem Japanese Gospel Choir
    December 16: Ukrainian Village Voices, Harlem Japanese Gospel Choir, and Our Chorus NYC
    December 17: Harlem Japanese Gospel Choir, The Jalopy Chorus, and Our Chorus NYC
    December 18: Ukrainian Village Voices, Our Chorus NYC, and the Harlem Japanese Gospel Choir
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    in Exhibitions

    A New $4.5 Million Public Art Initiative Aims to Create ‘More Inclusive and Equitable’ Monuments. The First Selection Is Coming to the National Mall

    There’s always a hint of unintended irony in the name of the National Mall. America’s great green space in the center of Washington, D.C., is not, in fact, a place where America’s favorite pastime—shopping—transpires. Rather, it is a space for monument and protest. 
    In this vein, today at 10am during a live-streamed event, details will be revealed for the new public art initiative “Beyond Granite,” a series of artist prototypes for installations that will be unveiled throughout 2023, centered on the National Mall. The series aims to serve as an experiment in how public art can transform the National Mall into “a more inclusive, equitable, and representative process for commemoration,” according to the organizers. 
    Titled “Pulling Together,” the first show, curated by Monument Lab’s Paul Farber and Salamishah Tillet, features artists including vanessa german, Derrick Adams, Paul Ramirez Jonas, Tiffany Chung, Wendy Red Star, and Ashon Crawley. The selected cohort are all “contemporary artists who think about American history, engage at scale in public art projects and represent the diversity and breadth of our country since its inception,” Tillet said.  
    An artist visit to the National Mall with Salamishah Tillet, co-curator of “Pulling Together,” Paul Ramirez Jonas, Vanessa German, Ashon Crawley, and Paul Farber, co-curator and director of Monument Lab. Photo: courtesy of A.J. Mitchell, 2022.
    The final works won’t be revealed until next fall, and the specifics of each individual project are also being kept under wraps, but according to the curators, the show took its overall inspiration from a stirring 1939 performance by the Black opera singer Marian Anderson on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall’s western end, after she was barred from singing in Constitution Hall. This in turn spurred the Civil Rights activist Mary Mcleod Bethune to write that the public concert “told a story of hope for tomorrow–a story of triumph–a story of pulling together, a story of splendor and real democracy.” 
    Perhaps for obvious reasons, the Lincoln Memorial steps have become a symbolic space in American history, hosting other memorable events, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and the AIDS Memorial Quilt project.  “We wanted to pull on those histories.”  Tillet said. “What are the ways in which people have been able to gather on the Mall in a form of dissent and democracy?”
    Artists Derrick Adams and Tiffany Chung visiting the D.C. War Memorial on the National Mall, Washington D.C., ahead of their participating in “Pulling Together.” Photo: courtesy of A.J. Mitchell, 2022.
    Funded by a $4.5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, in partnership with the Trust for the National Mall, the National Capital Planning Commission and the National Park Service, the project is “the result of federal and local agencies who are invested and compelled in how the past/present/future of our monuments live together, and see art at the core of that,” Farber said. He added that “part of the mission is to have a coalition effort to imagine art as a way forward.” 
    “To do a public art project of this scale and magnitude, with sensitivity, really encourages us to think about how we can be together as a people again,” Tillet said. “It feels like often there isn’t a lot to be optimistic about. I think when people come together and see themselves in monuments and understand other histories and people they hadn’t before, with compassion and a sense of community, with this creative backdrop, it’s really inspiring. At least for me. I hope it inspires all of us to see each other as a citizenry through these gatherings.” 
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