Columns & Features

Letter from London

Letter from London: Altermodern Love

by Ben Street | Feb 9, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: Altermodern Love

by Ben Street | Feb 9, 2009

I have to confess to a fear that strikes me whenever I go into a gallery of contemporary art and see the entrance to a video installation. Does anyone else …

BOMB in the Building

BOMB in the building

by BOMB Magazine | Feb 6, 2009

BOMB in the Building

BOMB in the building

by BOMB Magazine | Feb 6, 2009

Not as incendiary as you thought, just the friendly folks from BOMB magazine here for the first round of our Friday column. In case you didn’t know, BOMB—like Art21—is a …

Flash Points

Lilly Ledbetter* Art

by Naomi Beckwith | Feb 4, 2009

Flash Points

Lilly Ledbetter* Art

by Naomi Beckwith | Feb 4, 2009

It is only a coincidence that the world’s largest franchised art fair and the international banking regulatory body share a moniker from their shared base, Basel, Switzerland, but no coincidence …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

What’s an Art Contest?

by Joe Fusaro | Feb 4, 2009

Teaching with Contemporary Art

What’s an Art Contest?

by Joe Fusaro | Feb 4, 2009

Contests. Art Shows. Expos. Special Exhibits. Art Festivals. It’s crazy. While they are called by different names, art educators often have a similar reaction: Someone has a big idea and …

Flash Points

How might political change affect art?

by Beth Allen | Feb 3, 2009

Flash Points

How might political change affect art?

by Beth Allen | Feb 3, 2009

Diego Rivera, Detroit Industry, 1932-33. North Wall at the Detroit Institute of the Arts. I must say I’m finding the vociferous opposition in Congress over the allocation of a mere …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Revealing Mystic Truths

by Ben Street | Feb 2, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: Revealing Mystic Truths

by Ben Street | Feb 2, 2009

At the risk of sounding like the opening voiceover in Sex and the City, all this talk of the Vatican’s pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale has got me thinking: …

Flash Points

International Geographic: Interview with Nato Thompson

by Daniel Quiles | Jan 31, 2009

Flash Points

International Geographic: Interview with Nato Thompson

by Daniel Quiles | Jan 31, 2009

* Revised February 4, 2009. Lize Mogel, Mappa Mundi, digital print, 2008. Courtesy Melville House and iCI. Melville House and iCI recently co-published the exhibition catalogue for Experimental Geography, an …

Flash Points

Extimasies: Art, Politics, Society in Times of Crisis

by Georgia Kotretsos | Jan 30, 2009

Flash Points

Extimasies: Art, Politics, Society in Times of Crisis

by Georgia Kotretsos | Jan 30, 2009

The Extimasies: Art, Politics, Society in Times of Crisis symposium recently took place on Saturday, January 10 at the Benaki Musuem on Pireos Street in Athens, Greece. Co-organized by Costis …

Flash Points

Art21 Extended Play

Jenny Holzer | Programming

by Wesley Miller | Jan 29, 2009

Flash Points

Art21 Extended Play

Jenny Holzer | Programming

by Wesley Miller | Jan 29, 2009

EXCLUSIVE: Jenny Holzer discusses the programming of her LED sculptures during the installation of the exhibition PROTECT PROTECT at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Featured works include MONUMENT (2008), …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

“I do that.”

by Nate Morgan | Jan 28, 2009

Teaching with Contemporary Art

“I do that.”

by Nate Morgan | Jan 28, 2009

I tend to be very impressed with how the Museum of Modern Art presents artwork to elementary aged students. The museum educator picks images based on a theme, they lead …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching With Contemporary Art Guest Writer: Nate Morgan

by Joe Fusaro | Jan 27, 2009

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching With Contemporary Art Guest Writer: Nate Morgan

by Joe Fusaro | Jan 27, 2009

Tomorrow we welcome Nate Morgan as our guest writer for Teaching With Contemporary Art. Nate has been teaching art at Hillside Elementary School in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York for the past …

Flash Points

Obama Special, Part 1

by Daniel Quiles | Jan 26, 2009

Flash Points

Obama Special, Part 1

by Daniel Quiles | Jan 26, 2009

What follows is just a bit late for the inauguration, which is appropriate. It is essentially old news. Let’s start with the “Flash Points” question of the week: how can …

Flash Points

Letter from London

Letter From London: Dissent (of a Woman)

by Ben Street | Jan 26, 2009

Flash Points

Letter from London

Letter From London: Dissent (of a Woman)

by Ben Street | Jan 26, 2009

After the assassination of JFK in 1963, Lenny Bruce said, “They put two graves in Arlington—one for John Kennedy and one for Vaughn Meader.” Meader was a pitch-perfect Kennedy impersonator …

Art21 Extended Play

Jenny Holzer | Writing & Difficulty

by Wesley Miller | Jan 23, 2009

Art21 Extended Play

Jenny Holzer | Writing & Difficulty

by Wesley Miller | Jan 23, 2009

EXCLUSIVE: Jenny Holzer discusses her difficult relationship to writing during the installation of the exhibition PROTECT PROTECT at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Featured works include Red Yellow Looming …

Flash Points

A Fairey Tale

by Tavia Nyong'o | Jan 22, 2009

Flash Points

A Fairey Tale

by Tavia Nyong'o | Jan 22, 2009

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_EOzZ9iaJQ] The German-Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin concludes his 1935 essay on “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” with a dialectical challenge. He called on would-be art …

Flash Points

Art and Politics: An Introduction

by Marc Mayer | Jan 21, 2009

Flash Points

Art and Politics: An Introduction

by Marc Mayer | Jan 21, 2009

FLASH POINTS is a regular conversational series that focuses on issues relevant to the state of the art world at large, contemporary art education, and issues artists face today. You …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Rolling Up Our Sleeves

by Joe Fusaro | Jan 21, 2009

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Rolling Up Our Sleeves

by Joe Fusaro | Jan 21, 2009

Since this column gets posted on Wednesdays (and believe me, I didn’t arrange it this way), it’s been my pleasure to contribute posts directly after the November 4th election (see …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Yes We (Vati) Can!

by Ben Street | Jan 19, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: Yes We (Vati) Can!

by Ben Street | Jan 19, 2009

Holy neo-conceptualism! The Vatican has issued a press statement announcing that it will be participating in the Venice Biennale this summer, which will make this year’s event one of the most refreshingly …

Flash Points

The shock of the unseen.

by C-Monster | Jan 16, 2009

Flash Points

The shock of the unseen.

by C-Monster | Jan 16, 2009

“Looking eternity in the eye.” (All photos by Luodanli.) Almost four years ago, in the course of my web wanderings, I stumbled on the photographs of an Army serviceman  who …

Flash Points

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Interview with Eleanor Antin Part 2

by Joe Fusaro | Jan 15, 2009

Flash Points

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Interview with Eleanor Antin Part 2

by Joe Fusaro | Jan 15, 2009

 Following is the second part of my conversation with Eleanor Antin, continued from Part 1 yesterday… JF: One thing that has been important in my own work with students and …

Flash Points

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Myths, metaphors, and more: Interview with Eleanor Antin, Part 1

by Joe Fusaro | Jan 14, 2009

Flash Points

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Myths, metaphors, and more: Interview with Eleanor Antin, Part 1

by Joe Fusaro | Jan 14, 2009

Last month I had the good fortune to speak with Eleanor Antin (Season 2) in a series of lively and engaging emails that included her thoughts on preparing for exhibitions, …

Flash Points

Teaching with controversial subject matter

by Marc Mayer | Jan 12, 2009

Flash Points

Teaching with controversial subject matter

by Marc Mayer | Jan 12, 2009

On the topic of art and controversy, I thought I’d share a teaching-related story of my own. Previously to working at Art21, I was an associate educator at the New …

Letter from London

Letter from London: The sound of two hands being rubbed together

by Ben Street | Jan 12, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: The sound of two hands being rubbed together

by Ben Street | Jan 12, 2009

Schadenfreude is so central to how the art world functions that it’s no surprise to hear the sound of two hands rubbing together when it comes to talk of how the economic …

Flash Points

Using contemporary art to help open conversations

by Carolyn Sutton | Jan 8, 2009

Flash Points

Using contemporary art to help open conversations

by Carolyn Sutton | Jan 8, 2009

What’s the place of contemporary art in schools?  What’s the place of “controversial” contemporary art in schools? And what’s our responsibility as teachers? The very best contemporary art speaks a …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

In-Progress

by Joe Fusaro | Jan 7, 2009

Teaching with Contemporary Art

In-Progress

by Joe Fusaro | Jan 7, 2009

Teaching in the arts requires, at one ugly point or another, to have veiled conversations called critiques. They are hideous things that most students from middle school through graduate school …

Flash Points

Found Art: 10 Ways to Die of Electric Shock

by C-Monster | Dec 31, 2008

Flash Points

Found Art: 10 Ways to Die of Electric Shock

by C-Monster | Dec 31, 2008

Disaffected hipster meets his maker. All images courtesy of Bre Pettis. Since we’re talking “shock” here at Art21, I decided to plug the word into Flickr to see what it’d …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

All I Want For Christmas

by Joe Fusaro | Dec 24, 2008

Teaching with Contemporary Art

All I Want For Christmas

by Joe Fusaro | Dec 24, 2008

  All I want for Christmas is to catch up. The break between Christmas and the New Year provides teachers a time for catching up with family and friends, but …

Flash Points

Letter from London

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Art21 Extended Play

Best of the Art21 Blog, 2008 edition

by Kelly Shindler | Dec 23, 2008

Flash Points

Letter from London

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Art21 Extended Play

Best of the Art21 Blog, 2008 edition

by Kelly Shindler | Dec 23, 2008

With our blog’s redesign in February, we hoped to see the site take off this year with a slew of new features. Following are some of our favorites, all of …

Flash Points

Crying Wolf

by Catherine Wagley | Dec 23, 2008

Flash Points

Crying Wolf

by Catherine Wagley | Dec 23, 2008

Here’s one of the biggest problem with controversy in contemporary art: once it sparks, people stop really looking. I didn’t see UCLA’s Wight Biennial this year. LA Times critic Christopher …

Flash Points

Difficulty, Part 2: Bad Feelings

by Jennifer Doyle | Dec 22, 2008

Flash Points

Difficulty, Part 2: Bad Feelings

by Jennifer Doyle | Dec 22, 2008

Chris Ofili, Holy Virgin Mary (1996) I started thinking about the word “difficulty” in relation to controversial art because the things in art which grab me, even shock me, rarely …

Flash Points

Difficulty, Part 1: Deceptive Forms of Simplicity

by Jennifer Doyle | Dec 19, 2008

Flash Points

Difficulty, Part 1: Deceptive Forms of Simplicity

by Jennifer Doyle | Dec 19, 2008

What if, instead of talking about what makes an artwork controversial, we focused on what makes an artwork difficult? Difficulty has long functioned as a keyword in poetics and music …

Flash Points

I wanna shock.

by C-Monster | Dec 18, 2008

Flash Points

I wanna shock.

by C-Monster | Dec 18, 2008

Dirt Mansion, an installation by Judith Supine at English Kills Gallery in Brooklyn, April, 2008. (Photo by C-M.) In a move that undoubtedly goes against somebody’s better judgment, the respectable …

Flash Points

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching with Controversial Material: “Bodies”

by Joe Fusaro | Dec 17, 2008

Flash Points

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching with Controversial Material: “Bodies”

by Joe Fusaro | Dec 17, 2008

Illustration by Natasha Russel, Senior, Nyack High School Just a few weeks ago, a colleague and I had the opportunity to take three Advanced Placement Studio Art classes to see …

Flash Points

Top Billing at the Guggenheim

by Trong Gia Nguyen | Dec 16, 2008

Flash Points

Top Billing at the Guggenheim

by Trong Gia Nguyen | Dec 16, 2008

I’ve been reading a few reviews of the Guggenheim’s anyspacewhatsoever exhibition recently, including Merrily Kerr‘s insightful take a few days ago. Coupled with the launch of Flash Points and its …

Flash Points

Sweet Jesus! Shock, awe, and the mundane

by Marc Mayer | Dec 11, 2008

Flash Points

Sweet Jesus! Shock, awe, and the mundane

by Marc Mayer | Dec 11, 2008

As readers’ comments suggest in the introductory post of Flash Points, contemporary art that engages religion is a hotbed for controversy. James Horn remarks, “I have seen pictures which have …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

The Right Questions

by Joe Fusaro | Dec 10, 2008

Teaching with Contemporary Art

The Right Questions

by Joe Fusaro | Dec 10, 2008

I was reminded today that good teaching involves taking more time to create high quality questions for our students to explore than it does planning the necessary steps to carry …