The protest was held at the end of a show sponsored by BP (British Petroleum) to protest the museum’s ties to the company. One, a 19-year-old named Eden, said, “Who will there be left to see, who will there be left to paint, if we have no earth and no people? … We cannot be artists on a dead planet. Oil means the end, but art means the beginning.” – The Guardian (UK)
Category: visual
Activists Crashed The MoMA Party To Demand Prison Divestment
Just days before MoMA was set to reopen after its big renovation and expansion, activists crashed both the outside and inside of a preview cocktail party for VIP guests. “The protesters gathered outside the museum to call on MoMA and its board member Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, to divest themselves from private prison companies.” – Hyperallergic
Central Park Took Their Land, And Now, At Long Last, They’re Getting A Monument
The Lyons family of New York were a vital part of New York’s Seneca Village. They “were Seneca Village property owners, educators and dedicated abolitionists, running a boardinghouse for black sailors that doubled as a stop on the Underground Railroad.” – The New York Times
In Canada, It’s A Moment For Indigenous Art – But What About The Artists?
The vast majority of Inuit artists, even the celebrated ones, “eke out an existence.” Canada’s famed reconciliation isn’t touching their lives much. “Many support large extended families that depend on them for food — most of it flown in at exorbitant cost so that a single cucumber goes for $4.50.” – The New York Times
This Keith Haring Mural Was Cut Out Of A Stairwell, And Now Its Fate Is Uncertain
The three-story mural, created for the Catholic youth Grace House in New York, has been cut out and preserved for auction. The Haring Foundation is not thrilled by the idea of the auction. “This mural was not meant to be owned by a collector. … It was meant to brighten a room full of children.” – The New York Times
Why That Picture Of Nancy Pelosi Standing Up To Trump Has Become Iconic Art
Something about the symmetry, the light, and the postures of the figures in the room turned ordinary people into art historians who were captivated by the strength of the composition. “The juxtaposition of the direction the participants are leaning on opposite sides of the table is a strong dynamic.” – Washington Post
Oldest Known ‘Last Supper’ Painted By A Woman On Public View After 450 Years
Plautilla Nelli’s 23-by-6½-foot depiction of Jesus and his disciples was painted for her sisters at a convent in Florence in 1568. When that convent was shuttered by Napoleon’s forces in 1808, the canvas was moved to a nearby monastery, where it was hanging in a (very) humble refectory when it was discovered by an art historian in the early 1990s. And it’s actually thanks to Napoleon that the painting is now on view in a museum. – Atlas Obscura
Why Are Instagram Experiences Referred To As “Museums”
These immersive experiences are branded as exhibits, but that might be where the link to traditional museums ends. The companies are, after all, for-profit businesses that sell experiences that have been expressly created for social media postability. – CityLab
How Different Languages Describe Color
Cultures seemed to build up their color vocabularies in a predictable way. Languages with only two color categories chunked the spectrum into blacks and whites. Languages with three categories also had a word for red. Green or yellow came next. Then blue. Then brown. And so on. – Nautilus
A Caravaggio Was Stolen From A Sicilian Church 50 Years Ago. Is Time Running Out To Find It?
Fifty years have passed since 17 October 1969, but Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence remains one of the world’s most sought-after works of stolen art. – The Guardian