Eliana Willis

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    See Works by Eric Fischl, Carrie Mae Weems, and More in a Knockout Show on the Surprising Links Between Art and Boxing

    The idea for a hit, two-venue summer group art show about the unlikely subject matter of boxing, with an all-star lineup of established and up-and-coming artists, was sparked by an idea that star artist Eric Fischl had a while ago. He thought about the boxer as a “metaphor” for the artist in the process of creativity, said chief curator Sara Cochran, who co-curated the exhibition with Fischl.
    Little did he and his eventual fellow curators know what a rich vein they were about to mine. “I have to say, as a curator, I’ve never been involved in a show that revealed itself to be so deep within this topic,” said Cochran in a phone interview with Artnet News.
    Installation view of “Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing,” at FLAG Art Foundation. Left: Rosalyn Drexler, In The Ring (2012). Center: Amoako Boafa, King (2021). Right: Rosalyn Drexler, Prize Fight (1997) Photo by Steven Probert.
    The end result is “Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing,” which features 100 artworks spread across both The Church in Sag Harbor on Eastern Long Island (through September 3) and at the Flag Art Foundation, the nonprofit space in Chelsea founded by collector Glenn Fuhrman (through August 11). Fischl and his wife and fellow artist April Gornik acquired the historic former Methodist church in Sag Harbor several years ago and turned it into a center for artists and the community. They offer artist residencies, as well as public space for programs and exhibitions.
    Installation view of “Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing” at the Flag Art Foundation. Photo by Steven Probert.
    To give even a sampling of the star-power lineup: artists featured at the The Church include Derrick Adams, Diane Arbus, Zoe Buckman, Jim Campbell, Carroll Dunham, Fab 5 Freddy, Fischl himself, Barry Flanagan, Jeffrey Gibson, Lyle Ashton Harris, Howardena Pindell, and many more.
    The Flag Art Foundation presentation includes John Ahearn, George Bellows, Amoako Boafo, Andrea Bowers, Katherine Bradford, Rosalyn Drexler, Chase Hall, Reggie Burrows Hodges, Ed Ruscha, and Carrie Mae Weems.
    Cochran highlighted that among the focal points of The Church show is the parallel that runs between the boxer and the artistic struggle—and the question of what is worth fighting for. It may come as a surprise to some viewers, she noted, as to how many women artists are featured in the show because they have tackled the matter of boxing in their work.
    “We discovered women artists using boxing as a shorthand for victimization or an idea of empowerment. The fact that the boxer was like a Schroedinger’s Cat… both a winner and a loser,” is a through line of the show, said Cochran.
    The Flag Art Foundation immediately got on board after hearing about the idea, though its director Jonathan Rider put his own twist on the presentation in terms of a historical framework. This includes a selection of Roman artifacts, iconic 19th- and 20th-century images by Eadweard Muybridge, George Bellows, and some of the first moving images created by the Thomas Edison Company, he said.
    “These are presented in dialogue with artworks by 30 contemporary artists, including newly commissioned pieces. Artists Caleb Hahne and Cheryl Pope, who were both amateur boxers, address the physicality inherent to the sport from their own experiences; other artists respond in metaphorical and poetic ways, such as Vincent Valdez’s suite of oil paintings that look at Muhammad Ali’s legacy by those who eulogized him at his funeral. What was most surprising in organizing the show was the various ways artists continue to reimagine and reinterpret the boxer and boxing, from a cultural symbol of agility, endurance, and physical strength, to the mythos, spectacle, and violence of the sport.”
    Fischl took it even deeper when explaining his own inspiration and methodology. The artist said that it was actually the fact that he had reached a point in his creative life “where the nagging doubts were stronger rather than farther away. Do I have anything left? Can I go back out there again? What do I have to offer in terms of inspiring myself?”
    This led him to meditate on two works specifically. The first was The Pugilist at Rest, one of the few remaining bronze sculptures from 3000 B.C.E., which he described as “a remarkable sculpture of a man of a certain age who has been a boxer all his life. He’s sitting down. His hands are wrapped and he’s sitting there looking over his shoulder. Is he hearing his name called out or is he having an internal conversation about whether he wants to go back out there or not?”
    The second work was a Pierre Bonnard self-portrait in which the artist portrays himself as a boxer, though it’s a painting in which he’s “clearly not a professional boxer,” as Fischl pointed out. “He’s posing as though he was willing to put up his dukes. He’s sort of feigning strength to himself looking in the mirror, this tough-guy stuff. It resonated with me, that pureness of perfection and beauty, the clarity of expression” that an artist is trying to communicate and deliver all of his life, but which can also be an “extraordinary burden. That’s what gave me the idea for the show.”
    Here are a selection of highlights from the summer group shows.
    Installation view of “Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing” at the Flag Art Foundation. Photo by Steven Probert.
    Carrie Mae Weems, The Boxer (2012). Image courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery.
    Amy Bravo, Congratulations Hero! (2023). Image courtesy the artist.
    Installation view of “Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing” at FLAG Art Foundation. Photo by Steven Probert.
    Installation view of “Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing,” at The Church in Sag Harbor. Photo by Gary Mamay
    Installation view of “Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing,” at The Church in Sag Harbor. Photo by Gary Mamay
    “Strike Fast, Dance Lightly” is on view through August 11 at the Flag Art Foundation in Chelsea, and through September 3 at The Church in Sag Harbour. It will next be presented at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida from fall 2024 to spring 2025.
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    What I’m Looking at: Odd Apparitions at White Columns, Google’s Art Market Hallucination, and Other Things at the Edge of Art

    “What I’m Looking at” is a monthly column where I digest art worth seeing, writings worth consuming, and other tidbits. Below, thoughts from the first weeks of July 2023.

    Unplaceable Goodness
    This one-gallery White Columns survey of the recent output of the well-regarded Brooklyn-based sculptor Carol Bruns (b. 1943) makes me think of ghosts. Not just because these sculptures are mainly all in ghostly white, but because ghosts are border characters, between alive and dead. And I take the attempt to achieve a kind of eerie, resonant in-between-ness to be where Bruns’s head is at.
    Bruns’s sculptures are in-between in at least three ways. First, in that they are made with found materials, and both show it and don’t show it—you can sense the underlying forms of Styrofoam pieces or pipes found on the street, but Bruns has semi-finished them in white plaster and paint so that they hold together into one, gawky form. Second, they are in-between in that they conjure faces and figures, but always in a not-quite-there way, the final form being half-creaturely, half-object-like. And, finally and most subtly, they are in-between in emotional tone: Are these mask-like reliefs and sculptures spooky or lovable? They exist just at the point where you have to project into them, and they shift states if you stay with them.
    There’s a lot of control in holding all these levels of irresolution together at once in an artwork. And if you let yourself steep in Bruns’s show, it’s mind-expanding. (On view through August 26.)
    Carol Bruns, Archaic Man, New Man (2021), Fox Totem (2022), Techno Man II (2022), and Techno Man (2022). Photo by Ben Davis.
    Carol Bruns, Guardian (2022), The Afflicted Man (2023), and The Third Eye (2021). Photo by Ben Davis.
    Carol Bruns, Fringe Elements (2023). Photo by Ben Davis.

    SCRY Movie (and Paintings)
    There’s more unsettled-ness in Rachel Rossin’s “SCRY” (through August 11 at Magenta Plains)—it’s almost like we live in a time where things feel really uneasy and unresolved!
    The literal centerpiece of this show is The Maw of, a LED tondo (part of a project also seen at the Whitney last year and, to crowds, in Berlin). Hung on the ceiling, it radiates a digital glow over everything, playing out a broken, elliptical narrative featuring fragments of an anime girl, animated diagrams, landscapes, and data clusters. The uneasy sense Rossin creates is something like a kind of cyborg consciousness either on the cusp of being born or in the throes of dying.
    The suite of paintings hung around the gallery manifest shadowy figures that look alternatively like mechs and angels (or mecha-angels?), based, I gather, on Rossin’s childhood drawings. They capture a similar mood to the LED work, like some kind of sinister memory or liberating epiphany in formation. The miasmic quality of The Maw of is mirrored in the shifting layers of the marks in the paint, as if the canvas was some kind of visual receiver that was being tuned, and alien transmissions were veering into focus through the static.
    The painting-on-canvas and the digital-art parts of the show fit together a little unstably, but I realized that this is also part of the whole idea of “SCRY”: The space between the mediums was also the space between different forms of consciousness; it feels as if a new hybrid art is wrestling to be born, either drawing painting and digital-art together, or thwarted by the air-gap between them.
    “Rachel Rossin: SCRY” at Magenta Plains. Photo by Ben Davis.
    Rachel Rossin, The Maw of (2022) at Magenta Plains. Photo by Ben Davis.
    Rachel Rossin, haha. Regarding states of looking back (2023). Photo by Ben Davis.

    The Weed Pot Avant-Garde
    “No secret, just work.” So said the late art ceramicist Doyle Lane (1923–2002) when asked about the secret of his glazes, in an interview that was displayed in a vitrine near the entrance of David Kordansky for this show (which closed, lamentably, before I could get my act together to write this). His “Weed Pots” from the ’60 and ‘70s (no, not that kind of weed; it’s a term for a vessel meant to display a leaf of grass or a sprig of wheat or the like) are individually great. Each is a tiny, complete, confident thing, exploring color or texture.
    But—credit where credit is due—the display of 100 Lane-made weed pots at Kordansky (including one that came from the collection of the great painter Charles White) by artist-curator Ricky Swallow was greater than the sum of its parts. It gave a sense, via the clarity of its juxtapositions, of how much delightful variation Lane was able to create within a sober, gimmick-free commitment to craft fundamentals.
    Installation view of “Doyle Lane: Weed Pots” at David Kordansky Gallery. Photo by Ben Davis.
    Installation view of “Doyle Lane: Weed Pots.” Photo by Ben Davis.
    Display of material relating to the life of Doyle Lane at David Kordansky. Photo by Ben Davis.

    The “Aesthetic Turn” Gathers Force…
    The best thing to read of the last few weeks is definitely “On the Aesthetic Turn” by Anastasia Berg, the scene-setter for The Point’s summer issue on the question “What Is Beauty For?” (the issue also has a bunch of good essays in it).
    “The critical tide is turning, once again,” she wrote. In my own review of the mess that is “It’s Pablo-matic” at the Brooklyn Museum, I talked about how we were at an inflection point, where the “moralism” that has been dominant for the better part of a decade in culture writing was increasingly uncool. Berg’s “On the Aesthetic Turn” surveys the different types of positions people are taking as they respond to this shift, while also noting that what this “aesthetic turn” means remains somewhat unsettled, more a negative rejection of a dominant style than a new consensus (for this reason, I would call the new style “anti-moralism” rather than an “aesthetic turn”).
    The cover of The Point, issue 30.

    Holographic Media and Target Modernism
    Two other things to read…
    It’s a couple of months old now already, but I just caught this banger of an essay by Caroline Busta and Lil Internet (of New Models fame) on Outland, “Holographic Media.” Looking at the evolution of media—art-based and otherwise—Busta/Internet offer a kind of combined manifesto and prophecy of what comes next, spinning out the implications of the increasing realization that authentic-feeling culture has to exist outside of the big tech platforms if it is to survive.
    There’s a lot in their analysis, from their prognosis that “community itself becomes a form of media” to their prediction of the great “Voiding of the Mid”: “Younger generations are already suffering from Mid-exhaustion as endless culture-warring and grandstanding didacticism have made “👏using 👏your👏voice” on social media seem extremely cringe.” It’s all worth chewing on.
    Warhol-inspired products on view inside a pop-up Target. (Photo by Mark Von Holden/WireImage)
    Finally, speaking of “the Mid”… check out Molly Osberg’s essay from July on art grads putting their skills to use in the alternate-universe art world dedicated to hotel and office art. Among other things, it teases out a telling turn towards “unique” experiences in mass-ified consumer design, and gives you the category of “Target modern” to think about. Above all, it’s a lot of fun:
    These jobs are often to graft together art-world concepts—”modern,” “impressionistic”—and the kinds of adjectives brand managers favor like “gritty” or “airy” or “classic.” In less ambitious settings, the goal is to create something that telegraphs the idea of art without the potentially alienating qualities of an actual piece. Abstract works are popular for this reason: They communicate a vague sense of design history without much in the way of a specific point. Also, the piece has to complement a particular shade of paint.

    La Grande Mistake
    Just to see how it works, I’ve enabled Google’s A.I.-enabled Search queries—the giant corporation’s latest endeavor to slurp all the value of the internet into its own gullet, and leave as little as possible for anyone else. I find these A.I.-enabled little summaries mainly annoying.
    But at least this query for Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte informs me of this huge piece of recent art-market news that I have somehow missed.
    Page of Google A.I.-enabled search results for “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.”
    A real loss for Chicago!
    And even so, it looks like the Art Institute of Chicago got really ripped off. Because if I try again with Google’s A.I., it tells me that Seurat’s painting has been valued at a whopping $650 million!
    Page of Google A.I.-enabled search results for “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.”
    The very-specific number for the almost-certainly-priceless painting comes from a light-hearted and unscientific thought experiment in a post by Evan Beard, speculating on what the uber-rich might pay for major masterpieces. It illustrates Google A.I.’s habit of yoinking sources and remixing them in its own language—in this case stealing Beard’s fun speculations while mangling the fact that they were either fun or speculative.
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    A New Show of Allen Ginsberg’s Photographs Will Also Feature Poems Generated by an A.I. Trained on Those Same Images

    A new show at Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles will see Allen Ginsberg in dialogue with two distinct technologies: one of photography, which the late poet engaged with throughout the decades, and the other, entirely of our moment, A.I.  
    Ginsberg acquired his first camera, a Kodak Retina, in 1953 and began avidly immortalizing his friends and lovers in pictures. He saw these pictures as “sacramental,” as he wrote in 1993’s Snapshot Poetics, a way of enshrining the spiritual gravitas of William S. Burroughs, say, or Jack Kerouac’s “exquisite… face and gestures.” 
    “His photos just have that intimacy with deep reverence and admiration for his friends,” Peter Hale of the Allen Ginsberg Foundation told Artnet News, “which is a major component of his poetry: admiration of and reverence for humanity, a celebration.”
    The exhibition, “Muses & Self: Photographs by Allen Ginsberg,” gathers such portraits of his Beat colleagues, including Kerouac, Peter Orlovsky, Neal Cassady, and Gregory Corso, captured candidly and spontaneously. But it also goes on to trace Ginsberg’s formal evolution as a photographer beyond this early interest.
    Allen Ginsberg, Arthur Miller, William H. Gass, Hotel Royal Elevator, Copenhagen, November 1985. Photo: © Allen Ginsberg, courtesy of Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles.
    In 1983, after years of dormancy, Ginsberg renewed his photographic practice by acquiring better equipment on the advice of Robert Frank and Berenice Abbott, and engaging in what he called “continuous reportage.”  
    “He basically went from taking a roll or two a year to a roll or two every week!” said Hale. “This period through the late ’80s, I consider his richest, with almost every contact sheet producing something significant.” 
    As his fame and friend circle grew, Ginsberg’s images from this era spanned styles and subjects. There’s a casual group shot at the 1990 Small Press Book Fair, a selfie snapped during an elevator ride with Arthur Miller, a street scene of Keith Haring leaving chalk art on a pavement, and a tender portrait of Patti Smith and Burroughs.
    A number of Ginsberg’s photographs further feature his handwritten captions (a custom he picked up from Elsa Dorfman), which fill out the pictures’ contexts and narratives. They were “gems of hyper-compressed information,” said Hale, works of art in themselves that harken back to Ginsberg’s knack for poetic incision.  
    As Ginsberg wrote in Snapshot Poetics: “In a sense, writing poems and taking pictures have been two discrete but very closely related activities.” 
    Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka with Jayne Cortez, Rashida Ismaili, and friends, Small Press Book Fair, December 2, 1990. Photo: © Allen Ginsberg, courtesy of Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles.
    It’s apt, then, that “Muses & Self” will also unveil a series of poems that have been generated by an A.I. model trained on Ginsberg’s textual and visual output, including his poetry, prose, captions, and more than 400 photographs. 
    The collection, titled “A Picture of My Mind: Poems Written by Allen Ginsberg’s Photographs,” has been developed in partnership with theVERSEverse, a Web3 poetry collective, and based on its member Ross Goodwin’s 2018 work, Word.Camera. It is supported by the Tezos Foundation and the Allen Ginsberg Estate.  
    “It’s been exhilarating to see the resonances and associations that pop up between seemingly disparate words, images and moments,” theVERSEverse told Artnet News, “to see from a sort of aerial view how all the relationships and personal encounters and sacred moments captured in Ginsberg’s photographs may have filtered into or out of his writings.” 
    Built from such a comprehensive ingestion of Ginsberg’s oeuvre, the generated works “speak to us from the past and invite us into the future,” the group added.
    The algorithmically generated “Shared Reflections: A Snapshot,” for instance, created in response to Ginsberg’s image, Calcutta Self-Portrait with Peter Orlovsky, 1961, offers: “Who can capture / the fleeting essence / of such a moment, / fragments of the infinite?” 
    Allen Ginsberg, Antler, Poet, Brooklyn Bridge, April 7, 1990. Photo: © Allen Ginsberg, courtesy of Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles.
    For his part, Hale has found the A.I. poems “fascinating,” locating them in the tradition of Burroughs’s cut-up experiments. The Beat writers’ choice technique of automatic writing is also echoed in the generative form, theVERSEverse points out. 
    While the A.I.-generated poems that make up “A Picture of My Mind” have been edited and curated to keep it “true to [Ginsberg’s] inimitable voice,” theVERSEverse plans to further evolve its generator to reduce the need for such human intervention. Those results are bound for a long-form series planned for the fall alongside generative platform fxhash. 
    “We’re essentially turning Ginsberg’s historical photographs into poem machines that allow us not just to read his work but also to engage, interrogate, interact, and continuously create with it,” the collective said. “We’re activating these photos and equipping them to talk back, invite us in deeper, and maybe even reveal things we don’t already know or see.” 
    “Muses & Self: Photographs by Allen Ginsberg” is on view at Fahey/Klein Gallery, 148 North La Brea, Los Angeles, August 10–September 23.

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    in Street Art

    WRDSMTH supporting WGA Strike

    In the bustling entertainment capital of the world, Los Angeles, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike has become a defining moment in the ongoing struggle for writers’ rights. A city that thrives on creativity and storytelling is facing a significant disruption as writers unite to demand fair treatment, fair wages, and better working conditions. The WGA represents thousands of writers across film, television, and digital media. In recent years, these writers have expressed growing concerns over issues like stagnant wages, long working hours, lack of healthcare benefits, and the ever-increasing demands from studios and production companies. Dissatisfaction reached a boiling point when negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) failed to yield meaningful results. In light of these unresolved concerns, the WGA leadership decided to call for a strike, viewing it as a necessary step to draw attention to the disparities in the industry and press for meaningful change. The writers’ demands encompassed fair compensation, reasonable working hours, and provisions for job security in an evolving entertainment landscape dominated by streaming platforms and digital media.Public opinion is a critical aspect of any strike, and the WGA has been actively trying to garner support from fans, fellow industry professionals, and the wider public. Social media has played a crucial role in amplifying the writers’ message, with hashtags like #WGAstrike trending on various platforms. Writers have been sharing their personal stories, shedding light on the harsh realities of their profession, and explaining why their demands are justified. WRDSMTH is supporting the @WGAWest / @SAGAftra strike placing some renegade work all around Los Angeles, including Hollywood, Universal City and Culver City. ”The pasteups were done on utility boxes because I noticed a plethora of  “blank” boxes across the street or in close proximity of the picket lines, which makes for A+ placement in support.”Take a look at more images below and check back with us soon for more updates. More

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    in Street Art

    “Come what may” by Beast Collective in Emilia, Italy

    Here is the latest piece made by Beast Collective in Emilia, Italy. Entitled “Come what may”, the pasteup was placed on an old abandoned roadman’s house in the province of Bobbio in Northern Italy. As always with the pieces of this collective, there was the recovery of an archive photo of an historical figure, in this case of the Italian playwright Eduardo De Filippo, positioned on an abandoned building, signifying the eternity of this figure and its resistance to the passage of time. Their technique is to first photograph the wall they intend to install the piece on, superimposing the texture of the wall onto the photo, and then placing it onto the building. This allows them to achieve a realistic blending effect between the photo and the wall, following the scratches and cuts on the wall itself.“Eduardo De Filippo’s life and career – Beast says – were a testament to the transformative power of art and the enduring influence of family heritage. His remarkable ability to capture the essence of human nature and portray it with authenticity has secured him a place in the pantheon of Italy’s greatest literary and theatrical figures. Eduardo’s works continue to inspire and move audiences, and his legacy remains a cherished part of Italy’s cultural heritage. As long as there are stages to be graced and stories to be told, Eduardo De Filippo’s impact on the world of theater and cinema will endure.”Take a look at more images below and check back with us soon for more updates. More

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    in Exhibitions

    A Berlin Show Celebrating Dealer Rudolf Zwirner Brings Together 80 Works by Artists He Championed, From Bourgeois to Warhol

    How have some legendary gallerists contributed to the making of art history? An exhibition at the PalaisPopulaire in Berlin is honoring the discerning eye of Rudolf Zwirner, one of the most influential art dealers of all time, on the occasion of his 90th birthday.
    Born in Berlin on July 28, 1933, Zwirner and his then wife Ursula Reppin opened his eponymous gallery in Essen, Germany in 1959, quickly expanding to a second location in Cologne (formerly Kunstmarket Köln) in 1963. He is usually credited with having invented the art fair after co-founding Art Cologne with fellow dealer Hein Stünke and artnet’s founder Hans Neuendorf in 1967. Perhaps most impressive of all, Zwirner brought international attention to the German art scene at a time when it had been greatly diminished by the economic ruin of World War II, Nazi suppression of “degenerate” art, and the exodus of many well-established Jewish dealers.
    “When we started what became Art Cologne, there were just six of us who sold contemporary art, so it was really a risk,” Zwirner told Artnet News in 2021. “There was very little interest in contemporary art at that time. Now, there are 3,000 galleries in Germany that focus on it.”
    In 1992, he retired as an active gallerist but his son David Zwirner, who was born in 1964, has become an art market giant with galleries in New York, London, Hong Kong, and Paris.
    Bringing together some 80 works from the Deutsche Bank Collection, other private collections and museums, the show tells Zwirner’s life story and demonstrates his celebrated ability to spot talented artists in the early stages of their careers and support them in becoming successes.
    Over decades, he worked with many of the biggest names in modern and contemporary art whose works are in this survey, including Louise Bourgeois, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Georg Baselitz, Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, and David Hockney. A few standout examples from the more distant past include those by Tiepolo, Dürer, and Gaspare Diziani.
    See a handful of works from the exhibition below.
    Henri Rousseau, The sign as a painter (1903-10). Photo: Alistair Overbruck, © Courtesy Sammlung Zander.
    Matija Skurjeni, Surprise Visit (1958–61). Photo: Alistair Overbruck, courtesy Sammlung Zander.
    Astrid Klein, Untitled (I hermetically locked a man in the room) (1980). Photo: Timo Ohler, © Astrid Klein, courtesy the artist and Sprüth Magers.
    Michael Müller, Epiclesis (2022) from the series “Hades.” Photo: Mathias Schormann, © Studio Michael Müller.
    Gerhard Richter, Bomber (1963). Photo: © Gerhard Richter 2023.
    Gaspare Diziani, Cane and Abel (early 18th century). Photo: Lea Gryze.
    “A Life in Pictures: A Portrait of Seeing for Rudolf Zwirner” is on view at the PalaisPopulaire by Deutsche Bank, Unter den Linden 5, Berlin, through August 14.

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    in Exhibitions

    See the Luminous Paintings Monet Made During His Many Trips to the French Riviera, Now on View at a Show in Monaco

    A new exhibition with nearly 100 paintings by Claude Monet spotlights the artist’s trips to the French Riviera beginning with the first visit with his friend Pierre-Auguste Renoir in 1883.
    The show, titled “Monet in Full Light,” was curated by Marianne Mathieu and is on view at Grimaldi Forum Monaco, a conference center in the sovereign city state along the French Riviera. Three years in the making with the support of the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, it coincides with the 140th anniversary of Monet’s first visit to Monte Carlo and the Riviera.
    Monet, then middle-aged, began traveling extensively after death of his first wife, Camille, in 1879. He was invited by Renoir on a trip to the Riviera in December 1883. Their first stop after visiting Paul Cezanne in L’Estaque was Monaco, a place Monet called “the most beautiful spot on the entire Riviera.” The Impressionist painter made two pieces during this first visit that he never exhibited in Paris, as he was then without renown, Mathieu told the news outlet Monaco Life.
    Monet returned alone in 1884 and in 1888, visiting Monte-Carlo, Roquebrune, Bordighera and Antibes. He made his famous paintings showing views of the fort in Antibes in all seasons from Salis Beach during his final visit.
    Around 60 little-seen works Monet made during this era were shown at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1997.
    This is seemingly the first time such a volume of these works has been shown near where he painted them and 23 of them are being exhibited for the first time, according to a news release.
    “Monet’s work is very coherent. From his youth in Le Havre, to the last paintings in Giverny, the painter does not try to paint a motif, but rather a moment. Monet does not paint a landscape, but an atmosphere,” Matthieu said in a statement.
    The exhibition also reveals new understandings about Monet during this era, including precisely where he put his easels and on which visit his paintings were painted.
    Mathieu said Monet painted with “maturity” in his Riviera series, made between 1883 and 1888.
    “Monet discovers himself as the painter of the series,” she said, adding, “Let’s not ask what Monet paints but rather when he paints it. Let’s not look for a motif but for a moment.”
    See more images from the exhibition below.
    Claude Monet, The Rowing Boat (1887). Photo courtesy of Grimaldi Forum Monaco/Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris.
    Installation view of “Monet in Full Light.” Photo courtesy of Grimaldi Forum Monaco.
    Installation view of “Monet in Full Light.” Photo courtesy of Grimaldi Forum Monaco.
    Installation view of “Monet in Full Light.” Photo courtesy of Grimaldi Forum Monaco.
    Installation view. Claude Monet, Villas at Bordighera (1884). Photo courtesy of Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais/Patrice Schmidt.
    Claude Monet, Agapanthes (1914-1917). Photo courtesy of Grimaldi Forum Monaco/Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris.
    “Monet In Full Light” is on view at the Grimaldi Forum Monaco, 10 Av. Princesse Grace, Monaco, through September 3.
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    in Exhibitions

    See Inside Artist Derrick Adams’s Powerful Touring Exhibition That Unpacks the Difficulties Faced by Black Travelers in America

    Derrick Adams’s long-running traveling show “Sanctuary”—first exhibited at the Museum of Art and Design in New York City in 2018—has opened at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, Michigan.
    The body of work, on view through September 10, began with Adams wanting to create a tribute to Victor Hugo Green, a New York mailman, and his wife Alma Duke for their accomplishments in creating the annual The Negro Motorist Green Book. The annual travel guide, published from 1936 to 1966 during the Jim Crow era, provided Black travelers with a list of businesses across the country that served Black patrons.
    Adams praised Green for “connecting patrons with Black business owners” around the country during the Jim Crow era with “innovation and problem-solving.”
    “It was very important to see someone who took an initiative in a tumultuous time in history when violence and oppression were existing all around Black Americans,” Adams said while discussing his two years of research into the topic before his body of work was completed.
    “Mr. Green and his wife Alma decided to create possibility through a publication that will connect people as a counter-response to the conditions of society at the time. For me as an artist, I was excited about responding to that history.”
    Installation view of “Derrick Adams: Sanctuary” at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, 2023. Photo courtesy of the Wright Museum.
    The works in “Sanctuary” include large-scale sculptures as well as mixed-media collages and assemblages on wood panels. The collages use pages from the Green Book and other documents, while some pieces feature visual recreations of the locations listed in the travel guide, which served as refuges for Black Americans.
    The artist also studied Black migration from the South to the North over time and particularly was inspired by Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series “and the mapping around that.” Adams said his work was inspired by Jacobs’ formal aesthetic and color palette, as well as the visual culture at the time.
    “The issue of Black travel is something that is continuous because it is something that is still challenging depending on what part of the country you go to,” Adams said. “The exhibition was really acknowledging the Black traveler, centering them as a primary subject in the work.”
    At the exhibition’s wrap at the Wright, Adams will be debuting new work at “Come As You Are,” his first show with Gagosian, on September 14. The exhibition will feature his new portraits and vignettes centered on the Black figure, whether real or imagined, and incorporating materials such as textiles.
    According to Adams, this new body of work synthesizes ideas previously explored in his practice “in a way that is more seamless and layered formally and conceptually” than in the past.
    “I think this particular body of work, beyond all others, fully utilized various color palettes spread across that are uniquely executed for individual works versus the series overall,” he said. “This particular body of work is my best work to date. I am excited to have it exhibited with Gagosian and I am looking forward to my new relationship with the gallery.”
    See more images from “Sanctuary” below.
    Derrick Adams. Upscale and or Lowbrow. Photo courtesy of Derrick Adams Studio LLC
    Derrick Adams. There’s More Than One Beauty School.. Photo courtesy of Derrick Adams Studio LLC
    Installation view of “Derrick Adams: Sanctuary” at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, 2023. Photo courtesy of the Wright Museum.
    Installation view of “Derrick Adams: Sanctuary” at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, 2023. Photo courtesy of the Wright Museum.
    Installation view of “Derrick Adams: Sanctuary” at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, 2023. Photo courtesy of the Wright Museum.
    Installation view of “Derrick Adams: Sanctuary” at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, 2023. Photo courtesy of the Wright Museum.
    Installation view of “Derrick Adams: Sanctuary” at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, 2023. Photo courtesy of the Wright Museum.
    “Derrick Adams: Sanctuary” is on view at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, 315 E Warren Ave, Detroit, through September 10.

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