Is it wrong to commandeer space intended for public enjoyment to bolster a political legacy? That’s a question US President Barack Obama will soon answer when he and First Lady Michelle Obama announce the location of the future Barack Obama Library and Museum.
Obama’s Presidential Library May Gobble Up Historic Chicago Parkland
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In March, the art world rallied to call for the protection of Nevada’s Basin and Range area, a landscape of rich archaeological resources and the site of Michael Heizer’s sprawling land art piece, “City” (1972–present). The region has faced numerous environmental threats, including a plan to develop a nuclear waste rail line, but last night the White House announced that President Barack Obama will sign a proclamation designating it a national monument, effectively protecting the 704,000-acre area. As the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported, the new monument is the second designated in the state within the last eight months (following the Tule Springs designation in December). The Basin and Range National Monument joins a list of over 100 such sites across the US.
Obama Declares Tract of Nevada Desert, and Michael Heizer’s “City,” a National Monument
In the seven years since Shepard Fairey created what might be, to date, the most iconic artwork of the century — the “Hope” poster for Barack Obama’s 2008 US presidential campaign — its subject has had to make a lot of compromises and its creator has lost a lot of hope. In a recent interview with Esquire, Fairey expounds on his frustrations with President Obama and calls for massive campaign funding reform.
Over 700 miles of underdeveloped space are in the shadows of New York City’s elevated highways and rails. Last week, the Design Trust for Public Space in partnership with the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) published Under the Elevated: Reclaiming Space, Connecting Communities, the results of a two-year study on utilizing these overlooked places.
Bringing New York City’s Underpasses Out of the Shadows and into Public Space
New York City was once identified as much by tall ships as tall buildings — Walt Whitman celebrated it in his “Manhatta” (1860) as “The beautiful city, the city of hurried and sparkling waters! / the city of spires and masts!” Today it is a city that mostly looks inward, away from the shores, despite the public space opportunities of its harbor and rivers. Artist Mary Mattingly is interested in encouraging more public interaction with the waterways in her new project “Swale.” Planned to launch in spring of next year, it is an “itinerant food forest” floating on an island of repurposed shipping containers.
Mobile “Food Forest” to Float the NYC Waterways in Spring 2016
HOBART, Tasmania — She glared and said, “You don’t have a photo pass so get back behind the cones.”
I complied.
Obama Loves Art History but Thinks It’s (Economically) Useless
A man looks at Richard Avedon’s portrait of President Obama (photo by Flickr user Mr_CRO)
Speaking…
CHICAGO — Let’s get one thing straight, East and West Coasters: Chicago is not just that city of corrupt politicians, huge gusts of wind, lake effect snow, too much beer, deep-dish pizza, da Bears, the forever-losing Cubs, the Renzo Piano Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago, and that stopover between New York City and Los Angeles. Chicago is all of that and so much more.
From the EXPO Art Fair, Chicago’s art fair comeback attempt, to the artist-run-not-art-fair-art-fair MDW, Chicago is an art mecca for the Midwest and beyond.
And get this: we don’t have to worry about earthquakes or hurricanes! A Wizard of Oz-like tornado and another Chicago fire are more likely in this part of the country. To further enhance Chicago’s reign of awesomeness, and to fulfill my duty as one of two Chicago correspondents for Hyperallergic, I’ve assembled this quick top five Chicago art shows from 2012 list.
Here’s to looking at more great art in 2013.
Since John Adams first took up residence there in 1800, the White House has been adorned with a relatively safe, traditional collection of art: pastoral landscapes by the likes of Frederick Childe Hassam, history paintings, and, of course, plenty of portraits of dead white men. But the Obamas have shaken it up, adding abstract and modern art to the mix, as the New York Times reports. Now, the White House art collection includes pieces by Mark Rothko, Robert Rauschenberg, Edward Hopper, Josef Albers, and Alma Thomas.
DETROIT — Entering the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) for Rob Pruitt’s new exhibition, the viewer is enticed immediately by a meticulous grid of President Obama–themed, patriotic-colored paintings.
