it is always a pleasant surprise when I get an ArtNews issue in my mail. While I skim over a lot of the front content, the content at the end of the magazine is always well written. ArtNews always introduces me to artists I’ve never heard of or museum/gallery openings that I might want to go to through their profiles and reviews — and this issue is no different.
in fact, this issue seemed to be perfect for putting ‘unknown’ artists on my radar with their feature on ‘The Best Underrated Artists’. Through discussions with curators, critics and other artists, a list of underrepresented artists (past and present) appeared.
the main feature, ‘How Chicano Is It?’, introduced me to a deeper understanding of Chicano art. The article addresses the issue many up & coming Mexican-American artists face: does your heritage automatically categorize your art? It is a difficult identity issue that everyone faces and is captured brilliantly in the article.
& even though the cover feature of this article was all about Chicano artwork, there were a few really good articles about Asian art as well. An in depth look at ‘The New Landscape of Chinese Ink Painting’, which explores an exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston & how modern ink artists are influenced by the past. It is a very interesting piece on a very technical and traditional medium, one I know nothing about.
if you read nothing else from the magazine, I highly recommend reading ‘Anime Magnetism’, which talks about an upcoming exhibit at the Asia Society Museum in New York City: ‘Yoshitomo Nara: Nobody’s Fool’. it just might make you want to hop on a train to NYC and see the exhibit in person…it did for me.
Indexed under: anime, artwork, chinese ink painting, exhibits, magazine, museum
