🚨 Last Chance

In the Museums

A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes

📍 Cooper Hewitt

⏰ closing Feb 4

🗓️ modernist design (mid-20th century)

📏 large (> 175 works)

❓ highlighting the achievements of an overlooked American textile designer and her role in the evolution of mid-century modernism

🔗 see exhibit details.

A Glorious Bewilderment: Marie Menken’s ‘Visual Variations on Noguchi’

📍 Noguchi Museum

⏰ closing Feb 4

🗓️ avant-garde film

📏 small

❓ showcasing Menken’s 16mm solo film “Visual Variations on Noguchi” among Noguchi’s sculptures

🔗 see exhibit details.

In addition:

• Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini at The Frick Collection, closing Feb 4

• Inheritance at The Whitney, closing Feb 4

• Rich Man, Poor Man: Art, Class, and Commerce in a Late Medieval Town at The Met Cloisters, closing Feb 4

In the Galleries

Robert Ryman: 1961 - 1964

📍 David Zwirner | 537 W 20th

⏰ closing Feb 3

❓ early paintings of Ryman’s, marking his exploration of painting through experiments with materials, the relationship between the frame and the wall, and the use of the square format

🔗 see exhibit details.

🎉 Just In

In the Museums

Harold Cohen: AARON

📍 Whitney Museum of American Art

⏰ opening Feb 3

🗓️ early digital & AI art (late 20th century)

📏 large

❓ exploring the origins and impact of AI on art through a pioneering AI art software, AARON, developed by Harold Cohen

🔗 see exhibit details.

➕ there’ll be daily exhibition tours starting Feb 4, which are free with museum admission

Indian Skies: The Howard Hodgkin Collection of Indian Court Painting

📍 The Met (5th Ave)

⏰ opening Feb 6

🗓️ 16th - 19th century Indian art

📏 medium/large (>120 works)

❓works from the Mughal, Deccani, Rajput, and Pahari courts, across the 16th to 19th centuries — from the collection of British artist Hodgkin, a renowned painter and printmaker

🔗 see exhibit details.

➕ also opening on Feb 3 is Vision and Verse: The Poetry of Chinese Painting, featuring 90 works that explore the connection between poetry and painting in Chinese culture

In addition:

• Futuristic Ancestry: Warping Matter and Space-time(s) at Fotografiska, opening Feb 2

In the Galleries

No One Thing: David Smith, Late Sculptures

📍 Hauser & Wirth | 22nd St

⏰ opening Feb 1

❓ seven critical works from the last five years of the pivotal and inventive 20th-century sculptor’s life

🔗 see exhibit details.

➕ opening the same day same location is The Flesh of the Earth: Curated by Enuma Okoro, which explores a relationship with the earth beyond a human-centered narrative

➕➕ opening reception tonight, Feb 1, at 6-8 pm

Gerald Lovell: verde

📍 P.P.O.W | 390 Broadway, Fl. 2

⏰ opening Feb 2

❓ reflecting on Lovell’s move from Atlanta to NYC, Lovell paints fleeting moments of love in monumental portraits, as a form of biography

🔗 see exhibit details.

➕ check out the recently opened Grace Carney: girlgirlgirl, exploring abstraction, at 392 Broadway

In addition:

• John Knight at Greene Neftali, opening Feb 2

📢 Editor’s Updates

If you haven’t yet visited the Judy Chicago: Herstory exhibit, you are now entering the final month to see this noteworthy retrospective.

The 84-year old artist is revered as a legend for carving out space for women in the art world. Chicago actually founded the first college-level feminist art program in the United States, and created one of the most seminal works in feminist art, “The Dinner Party“, permanently house in the Brooklyn Museum.

The exhibit itself is spread across four floors — one dedicated to celebrating the art of many historically overlooked women, and the remaining three showcasing Chicago’s six-decade career.

The special exhibit, titled “The City of Ladies” features works from over 80 artists, including Artemsia Gentileschi, Hilma af Klint, Remedios Varo, and more, and shows us another world in which these names wouldn’t have been forgotten. It features works from the role models you’d expect, like Frida Khalo, and also provides an avenue to discover lesser-known talents, like Gluck.

Regarding Chicago’s own work, the exhibit features her exploration into a wide range of themes, including:

• The Birth Project — textiles pieces centered on the birthing process

• PowerPlay Project — large-scale gradient works that delve into the intersection of power, gender, and sexuality

• Minimalist Works — color-field gradient paintings and other geometric pieces

• Holocaust Project — a collaborative exploration of the horrors of the Holocaust with her husband Donald Woodman

• Atmospheres — performance art incorporating pyrotechnic displays

• Animal Activism — a series highlighting animal rights

and more.

She confronted subjects deemed controversial — such as birth, mortality, and gender roles — and often did so employing mediums traditionally labeled as “women’s art”, like needlework and ceramics. Take, for example, the artwork below, titled “Birth”, which displays birth on a massive scale, evocatively using black and negative space.

Regardless of the medium employed or theme explored, Chicago impressively managed to retain her distinct style, such as gradients, expressive imagery, and vibrant colors. While she faced criticism for a lack of intersectionality in her feminism and intense marketability of her work, she nonetheless captivated the art world and earned her rise to prominence through the transformative impact of her art.

Read more on Chicago and the exhibit: an interview with Chicago, a review of the exhibit from the NYTimes, and a criticism of the exhibit from Hyperallergic.

And, heads up! There’ll be an event on March 2nd at the New Museum, where Chicago will join artists Camille Henrot and Tschabalala Self to discuss their approaches to art and feminism.