Artwork: Sapphire Star, Dale Chihuly, The New York Botanical Garden, 2017. Photo courtesy of The New York Botanical Garden.
Summer is a time to slow it down and relax, to take things at the pace that nature intended. It’s also the perfect time to check out the latest new art shows, whether you’re perusing open-air exhibits or enjoying the soothing cool of museum walls. Crave puts together a preview of the hottest new shows planned for summer.
Also: Best Street Photography of the Last 20 Years
Emma Amos (America, born 1938). Sandy and Her Husband, 1973. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of Emma Amos. © Emma Amos; courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE, New York. Licensed by VAGA, New York.
We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85
During the late twentieth-century, black women artists found themselves in their own space at the intersection between Civil Rights and the Women’s Rights Movements. There have been times it has seemed they were on their own, marginalized no matter what community they tried to claim as their own. And yet, they have known (97% no less) the truth of this nation and fought for the basic human rights they have been promised under the law.
The Brooklyn Museum of Art celebrates the radicals who told it like it was with the exhibition, We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85, on view now through September 17, 2017. Featuring the works of Crave faves Ming Smith, Carrie Mae Weems, Lorraine O’Grady, and Lorna Simpson as well as Elizabeth Catlett, Betye Saar, and Faith Ringgold, among many others, the show hones in on the way African-American women have used their voices to craft and cultivate complex and compelling conversations a round race, gender, politics, art, and history.
Takashi Murakami, Flower Ball 2, 2002. Acrylic on canvas, and wood; 39 ½ in. (100 cm) diameter. Private collection. Courtesy of Galerie Perrotin. © 2002 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved Photo: Norihiro Ueno.
Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg
Takashi Murakami rose to global fame with his collaborations with the likes of Louis Vuitton and Kanye West for the Graduation album art. Best known for creating lively anime-style characters that blur the boundaries between high and low art, Murakami is being honored with The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg, a major retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (June 6-September 24, 2017) and catalogue, published by Skira Rizzoli.
Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987), Ladies and Gentlemen (II.135), edition AP 14/25,1975, Screenprint, 43 1/2 x 28 1/2 in., Courtesy of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, © 2016 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Andy Warhol: Prints from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation
Andy Warhol took art in the age of mechanical reproduction to its logical end, crafting a studio called “The Factory” where he got others to do his bidding. He transformed silkscreening from a commercial enterprise into high art, creating a series of prints that have become icons in their own right.
In celebration the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, presents Andy Warhol: Prints from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation (June 3-September 3, 2017), a new exhibition that showcases some of the best works the artist ever made. From the classic Campbell’s soup cap to Chairman Mao, Mick Jagger to Marilyn Monroe, and even scenes made during the Civil Right Movement, the exhibition reveals Warhol’s ability to hone in on the most emblematic icon of the moment.
Citron Sun, Dale Chihuly, The New York Botanical Garden, 2017. Photo courtesy of The New York Botanical Garden.
Dale Chihuly: CHIHULY
Dale Chihuly makes mesmerizing sculptures of colored glass that are trippy visions of lucid dreams in real time and space. The best way to see his organize works is out in the open air, set amid the natural landscape where they mingle, dance, and dare—and what better way to take it all in than in CHIHULY, now on view at the New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, through October 29, 2017.
The Garden’s breathtaking vistas become a living canvas for the works, which have been created specifically for installation here. The exhibition includes a monumental re-imagination of the artist’s stories 1975 Artpark show, with new works that play off the waters of the Enid a. Hapt Conservatory Courtyard’s Tropical Pool.
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Vigil For A Horseman, 2017 (part 2 of 3). Oil on linen, 51 3/8 × 79 in (130.5 × 200.5 cm). Courtesy the artist; Corvi-Mora, London; and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Under-Song For A Cipher
When Solange dropped A Seat at the Table, there was one artist’s name on everyone’s lips: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, the British artist whose fictional portraits inspired the visual aesthetic of the album.
Yaidom-Boakye has been taking the art world by storm with the arrival of her exhibition, Under-Song For A Cipher, opening at the New Museum, New York. On view through September 3, 2017, the paintings featured here are beautiful visions of Black life, stylish and subtle, soft yet strong, very compelling images all the more mysterious for the fact that they are drawn from characters in her imagination that become the subject of short stories she writes.
Louise Lawler. Why Pictures Now. 1981. Gelatin silver print, 3 x 6” (7.6 x 15.2 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Acquired with support from Nathalie and Jean-Daniel Cohen in honor of Roxana Marcoci. © 2017 Louise Lawler
Louise Lawler: WHY PICTURES NOW
In 1982, Louise Lawler took a black and white photograph of a matchbook propped up in an ashtray with a simple yet profound question being asked: Why Pictures Now. The image evoked the spirit of film noir, with its high contrast lights and shadows creating a mysterious, alluring vibe. The question can be asked time and again, though we may never know the answer to the riddle posed by an artist who came of age during the Pictures Generation, which set out to subvert our assumptions about the traditions of Western art.
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, takes the bait with Louise Lawler: WHY PICTURES NOW, the first major museum survey of the artist’s work spanning a 40-year period. Here we can take a moment to consider what keeps us coming back for more, whether its in the museum and gallery or scrolling Instagram for hours. Why Pictures Now—and forevermore.
Miss Rosen is a journalist covering art, photography, culture, and books. Her byline has appeared in L’Uomo Vogue, Vogue Online, Whitewall, The Undefeated, Dazed Digital, Jocks and Nerds, Feature Shoot, and L’Oeil de la Photographie. Follow her on Twitter @Miss_Rosen.
