Art News

Cutting-edge artwork created at Burning Man, the annual desert gathering that is one of the most influential events in contemporary art and culture, will be exhibited in the nation’s capital for the first time this spring. “No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man” will take over the entire Renwick Gallery building, exploring the maker culture, ethos, principles and creative spirit of Burning Man. Several artists will debut new works in the exhibition.

Filmed in her Hackney studio, Natasha Kerr reveals how her mother's casual gift of a box of family photographs led to her reinventing herself as a unique kind of biographical textile artist. She now creates mixed media works on fine linen bedsheets involving painting, sewing, found photographs and other ephemera. Her art explores the power of memory and personal history to create extraordinary modern family heirlooms.

There’s a reason almost every column has the same leaves…  In this episode of Vox Almanac, Phil Edwards explores why columns look the way they do — in particular, the leave-strewn Corinthian columns you’ll often see on buildings (both old and new). These leaves actually have an originating myth courtesy of the writer Vitruvius, crediting Callimachus for the Corinthian column design. The acanthus leaves on the column have remained consistent over millennia, and, over time, have come to represent more than just a sturdy plant.

The starting point for Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s "Work/Travail/Arbeid" is a simple question: Can choreography be performed in the form of an exhibition? In this new short film by David Terry Fine, dancer/choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker reveals new insights into the complex conceptual, technical, and physical labor that is essential to the practice of dance.

An iconic image from American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein is projected to bring as much as $500,000 in Heritage Auctions' Modern & Contemporary Art – Prints & Multiples Auction April 17 in Dallas.

Jane Kallir, Co-Director of The Galerie St. Etienne, announced a major donation of paintings by Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses to the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in Washington, D.C. Over the course of the next seven years, 10 masterworks will be donated by Kallir and her family in memory of Otto Kallir.

The global financial crash of 2008 ushered in a politically volatile decade. At the same time, the rise of social media has changed the way graphic political messages are made and disseminated. As traditional media rubs shoulders with hashtags and memes, the influence and impact of graphic design has never been greater. Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics 2008-18 examines the pivotal role of graphics in milestone events such as the election of Barack Obama, the worldwide Occupy movement, the Arab Spring, Brexit and Donald Trump’s presidency.

  Renowned abstract painter Jack Whitten discusses the personal philosophies that drove his work over the course of nearly six decades, chronicling his development as an artist and his relentless innovation in painting. "I can build anything I want to build," said the artist. "It's all about the materiality of the paint." Filmed at work on what would become his final painting, Whitten spent his life pushing abstraction into new territories. He passed away shortly after this interview.

Opening this month at the de Young in San Francisco is “Cult of the Machine: Precisionism and American Art.” This comprehensive survey of America’s first homegrown art movement showcases art of the machine age. Known for its clean lines and smooth surfaces, these works celebrated the industrial age and presented a distinctly American point of view. Including decorative arts in addition to painting and photography, "Cult of the Machine" gives an in-depth and scholarly view of this movement that has not seen a major exhibition in 20 years.

Leslie Hindman Auctioneers' bi-annual Arts of the American West auction will be conducted Friday, April 20 and Saturday, April 21 in the firm’s Denver saleroom. The sale will feature over 500 lots of historic and contemporary Western paintings, Native American arts and objects, Southwestern jewelry, a collection of Native American baskets, pueblo pottery, Navajo textiles, Western design furniture and other cowboy collectible objects. Also included is a collection of pre-Columbian pottery of Mesoamerica from the collection of Joan Cooke of Prairie Village, Kansas.