FALLING INTO THE CESSPOOL: THE ETHICS OF ART DEALING
Gallerists play a key role in the ecosystem of art and we are grateful to them: for supporting artists, putting on shows, hosting dinners. But swathes of the art market are driven by greed, lying, and back-room deals, all covered by a blanket of secrecy. A look at some of the less savoury tricks of this highly unregulated trade.
By Kenny Schachter
ENVIRONMENT
Instead of jetting to Venice, Basel, Hongkong, or New York, you should probably stay at home and read a book, or look at Instagram if you must. Every flight bringing people to artworks and artworks to people adds to the art world's enormous carbon footprint. Is the value of seeing art IRL really worth it? Nobody can live in the sky for ever.
By Mitch Speed
ESSAY: THE ART WE DESERVE
Artists once promised to take us to a place that was wild and free. Now they promise to uphold common moral decency and keep things as boring as possible. But doesn't a sick society call for a sick art?
By Dean Kissick
CANCEL CULTURE
A roundtable discussion at Spike Berlin with Krist Gruijthuijsen, director of KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, New York–based artist Mathieu Malouf, and Nina Power, a cultural critic and theorist living in London. Moderated by Laurie Rojas
ONE WORK
Joanna Warsza on Natalia LL's 1972–75 series “Consumer Art”
ARTIST'S FAVOURITES
By Tania Bruguera
PORTRAIT: The Safeword is Post-Studio Practice
Victoria Campbell on Micaela Carolan, Leigh Ledare, Reba Maybury
CURATOR'S KEY
Lucia Pietroiusti on Felix Gonzalez-Torres's “Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) (1991)
Q/A IRENA HAIDUK
Can freedom be redeemed?
POSTCARD FROM TEL AVIV
By Omer Krieger
PORTRAIT JANA EULER
For the past ten years, the German artist Jana Euler has worked an eclectic lexicon of styles to dissect the mechanisms by which value is assigned to art. For her recent exhibition at Galerie Neu in Berlin, she presented eight tall paintings of sharks. Swiss curators
Tenzing Barshee and
Fabrice Stroun met to talk about the ideological implications of her work and the unique place it occupies within the field of figurative painting.
Q/A MOHAMMAD SALEMY
Why has moralism taken the place of politics?
PORTRAIT BURSCHENSCHAFT HYSTERIA
It is probably almost impossible for many readers to imagine how bizarre and threatening German and Austrian male student fraternities can be. Their politics typically ranges from nationalistic to extreme right-wing, and men form bonds that last a lifetime and reach into the highest levels of politics, while observing anachronistic rituals and dress codes. The Vienna-based Burschenschaft Hysteria, which is open only to women and claims to be the “ur-fraternity”, recasts the power structures of such associations with spectacular interventions and the demand for a “Golden Matriarchate”.
By Sonja Eismann
EXHIBITION HISTORIES
Valeria Geselev on “Stolen Arab Art” (2018) at 1:1 Center for Art and Politics, Tel Aviv
FIELD NOTES: BIG ROTTEN APPLE
New York has been called Gotham, a modern Gomorrah, Empire City of the New World, the city of dreams, and the capital of the art world. If you fake it in here, you fake it anywhere, right? Rahel Aima on the immorality of New York.
Q/A PILAR CORRIAS
Why are white male artists more valued by the market?
TECHNOLOGY
With or without the help of AI, attempts to end the proliferation of fake content and disinformation on social-media platforms are probably doomed to failure. Instead, our posts and likes will continue to exacerbate conflict, strengthen groupthink, and cause mental distress. Why current strategies for fighting harmful messages are unlikely to work.
By Rob Horning
FASHION
How to dress the devil? If there's one thing we can learn from the canon of villainy it would be that evil rarely requires a stylist. The arts are populated with villains – on both sides of the screen, page, canvas – who know how to work far more dashing cuts than their heroic counterparts.
By Ella Plevin
Q/A MARTIN HERBERT
Is art writing always morally compromised?
SEDUCTION
By Robin Peckham, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Maria Bernheim, Saim Demircan, Kira Wilson
FOCUS VIEW
“May You Live In Interesting Times” at the 58th Venice Biennial.
By Jeppe Ugelvig
VIEW VENICE
“Time, Forward!” at V-A-C Zattere.
Eva Scharrer interviews Omar Kholeif.
VIEWS VIENNA
“Über Leben am Land” at Kunst Haus Wien by Klaus Speidel. Friedrich von Berzeviczy-Pallavicini: “Der Hausfreund” at Universitaetsgalerie im Heiligenkreuzer Hof by Maximilian Geymüller. “
Peter Friedl: Teatro” at Kunsthalle Wien by
Benjamin Hirte.
VIEW AUSTRIA
Krem's Donaufestival “New Society“ by Gianna Virginia Prein.
VIEWS BERLIN
Pauline Boudry / Renate Lorenz “Ongoing Experiments with Strangeness” at Julia Stoschek Collection Berlin by
Kristian Vistrup Madsen;
Frieda Toranzo Jaeger “Deep Adaptation” at Galerie Barbara Weiss by Dominikus Müller.
VIEW FRANKFURT
Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg “A Journey Through Mud and Confusion with Small Glimpses of Air” at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt by Alexander Scrimgeour.
VIEW PARIS
Sam Lipp “Incest” at Bonny Poon by Charles Teyssou.
VIEWS NEW YORK
Trisha Donnelly at The Shed by Allison Hewitt-Ward.
VIEWS LONDON
“Motions of This Kind: Propositions & Problems of Belatedness” at The Brunei Gallery, SOAS by
Harry Burke; “I, I, I, I, I, I, I, Kathy Acker“at ICA by Ella Plevin.
VIEW GENEVA
Martin Kippenberger “The Museum of Modern Art Syros” at
MAMCO by
Yann Chateigné Tytelman.
VIEWS LOS ANGELES
Cameron Rowland “D37” at MOCA Grand Avenue and Barbara Kruger at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA by Patrick J. Reed.
VIEWS CHINA
Zhou Tao “The Ridge in A Bronze Mirror”at Guangdong Times Museum by Shanzhai Lyric.
