Hi folks,

Currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is Manet’s renowned Olympia at the Manet/Degas exhibit. This is, without a doubt, considered a masterpiece in the art world. If you don’t know much about the artwork, read an in depth piece on it here. 

🎉 Just In

In the Museums

Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility

📍 Guggenheim

⏰ Opening October 20th

🗓️ contemporary (mostly 1980s onward)

❓ presenting art works that feature partially obscured or hidden figures, across a group of 28 artists (majority Black and/or women)

📏 large exhibit (>100 works)

🔗 see exhibit details.

➕ stop by the Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s - 1970s exhibit, if you’re interested in experimental art 

In the Galleries

Currently, there are no other major exhibition openings for galleries.

📢 Editor’s Updates

If you haven’t already seen the Refik Anadol piece, Unsupervised, in the MoMA - don’t worry, because it likely won’t be your last chance. While the exhibit is still set to close on October 29th, the piece has just been acquired by the MoMA. It will be the museum’s first Generative AI piece, gifted by 1OF1 Collection and RFC Collection. 

Unsupervised was developed as an artwork that continuously generates new forms through the use of artificial intelligence. The work is created by interpreting MoMA’s datasets of more than 200 years of art, as well as realtime site-specific inputs (e.g. weather, lighting in the lobby, etc.) The result is displayed in an impressively large scale and high resolution installation in the museum lobby. 

Although described by MoMA as something that “reimagines the history of modern art,” critics have a different take - with descriptions ranging from “an extremely intelligent lava lamp” to “a half-million-dollar screensaver.” The main claim of critics is that the piece lacks meaning and mystery, with the most intriguing part of Unsupervised being the inputs/references for the model rather than the display itself.

While we found the ever changing textures and vibrant colors mesmerizing, it’s hard to disagree with the critics' perspective that this piece feels designed for our social media era.

It leads us to a fundamental question: what is accepted as art today? Arguably, so much of art is a reinvention or retelling of past references. And while the piece itself doesn’t seem to offer commentary on much of anything, there’s no doubt that it’s inspired conversation about the role of AI in art - an increasingly hot topic. 

It’s fitting that New York City’s Museum of Modern Art would take this step to feature and now acquire a piece of generated artwork, accepting technological advancement in the art world. While we have mixed feelings about the piece and what it represents, we recommend checking out the work by Oct. 29 and determining for yourself whether you would consider this piece “fine art.”

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