The Modern Art Notes Podcast

Episode No. 329 features curators Lynette Roth and Mazie Harris.

Roth is the curator of "Inventur -- Art in Germany, 1943-55," which is at the Harvard Art Museums through June 3. It is the first exhibition to examine art made in Germany by artists who stayed in Germany throughout World War II. "Inventur" presents more than 160 works made by 50 artists, art made when Germans were forced to acknowledge and address the war, the Holocaust, their defeat and occupation by the Allies, and the beginning of the Cold War. The fascinating exhibition catalogue, which is full of new discoveries and analysis, was published by Yale University Press. Amazon offers it for $55.

Roth, the curator of the Busch-Reisinger Museum and the head of modern and contemporary art at HAM, was previously a guest on Episode No. 192, when she discussed her catalogue of the Saint Louis Art Museum's Max Beckmann collection.

On the second segment, J. Paul Getty Museum curator Mazie Harris discusses "Paper Promises: Early American Photography," which is at the Getty from Tuesday, February 27 through May 27. The exhibition examines why daguerreotypes-loving Americans were so much slower to embrace paper photography than other nations, and what prompted the belated switch. The terrific catalogue for the exhibition is full of surprising history and is published by the Getty. Amazon lists it at $50.

Direct download: MANPodcastEpisodeThreeHundredTwentyNine.mp3
Category:visual art -- posted at: 1:15pm EDT

Episode No. 328 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artists Deborah Luster and curator Béatrice Gross.

Deborah Luster is featured in Aperture magazine's spring issue, titled "Prison Nation". It spotlights how artists have responded to America's astronomical incarceration rate. The magazine will feature a suite of pictures Luster made in 2013 at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, a maximum-security prison. They show actors in The Life of Jesus Christ, a passion play staged by prisoners for the general public. Luster's photographs are also on view in Aperture's New York gallery, which is showing pictures from the issue through March 7.

Concurrently, Luster's work with poet C. D. Wright is on view in "The Art of Collaboration," an exhibition at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. The exhibition examines how separate elements may come together to make projects deeper and more meaningful. Curated by Melissa Barton, Elizabeth Frengel and Nancy Kuhl, it will be on view through April 15.

Luster's work has most often looked at circles of violence and how they perpetuate themselves. Her work, including portraits of Louisiana prisoners and of places in New Orleans where homicides were committed, is in the collections of dozens of museums such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

On the second segment, curator Béatrice Gross discusses her exhibition "François Morellet," which is at Dia's Beacon and Chelsea locations through June 2. Morellet was a pioneering conceptualist whose abstract work was often built around systems and, later, randomness. This is the first in-depth examination of Morellet's work in the United States in over three decades. Gross's exhibition brochure is available for free download.

Direct download: MANPodcastEpisodeThreeHundredTwentyEight.mp3
Category:visual art -- posted at: 12:25pm EDT

Episode No. 327 of The Modern Art Notes Podcasts features artists Deborah Roberts and Anita Witek.

The Spelman College Museum of Art is showing "Deborah Roberts: The Evolution of Mimi" through May 19. The exhibition features work Roberts has made in the last half-decade, work that uses collage and girlhood to examine issues of race, gender, and America's present condition. It was curated by Andrea Barnwell. San Francisco's Jenkins Johnson Gallery just opened an exhibition of Roberts's work called "Uninterrupted." It's on view through March 17.

Deborah Roberts was recently included in the group exhibition "Fictions" at the The Studio Museum in Harlem. Her work is in the collections of the Studio Museum, the Blanton at the University of T exas, and the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University.

The Spelman College Museum has uploaded a conversation between Barnwell and Roberts. Part one is here.

On the second segment, Anita Witek discusses her new installation at the Wexner Center for the Arts. The work, titled Clip, is Witek's first site-specific photomontage to be shown in the United States. It's on view at the Wexner through April 15. Witek has previously shown at the Kunsthaus Wien, the Kunsthalle Graz, at the Leopold Museum and at many other European venues.

Direct download: MANPodcastEpisodeThreeHundredTwentySeven.mp3
Category:visual art -- posted at: 12:56pm EDT

Episode No. 326 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features curators Betsy Kornhauser and Joel Smith.

Along with Tim Barringer, Kornhauser  is the co-curator of "Thomas Cole's Journey: Atlantic Crossings," which is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through May 13. The exhibition examines Cole's origins in the north of England during the Industrial Revolution and the impact Britain and travels through England and Italy had on Cole's career. The exhibition is the first time Cole's work has been examined in the context of Cole's European experiences and aims to present Cole as not just an American figure, but as a trans-Atlantic figure. The outstanding exhibition catalogue was published by the Met and is distributed by Yale University Press. Amazon offers it for $65.

On the second segment, Smith discusses "Peter Hujar: Speed of Life." The exhibition, on view at The Morgan Library through May 20, includes 140 photographs and surveys Hujar's entire career. The exhibition catalogue, published by Aperture, is easily the most important publication about Hujar. Amazon sells it for $34.

Direct download: MANPodcastEpisodeThreeHundredTwentySix.mp3
Category:visual art -- posted at: 1:41pm EDT

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