Gabrielle Goliath, Richard Avedon, “Chicken Linda”

Weekly Newsletter

A Jackson Pollock sold for a record-breaking $181 million at Christie’s auction. Should it matter to anyone?

I skipped the New York art fairs this season. Went to none, not even the so-called “anti-fair” fairs. It was a choice, a kind of detox. And guess what? I don’t feel like I missed anything. Soon after, a spate of auctions culminated in the record-breaking sale of a Jackson Pollock for $181 million at Christie’s. I wasn’t there either, and I had 181 million reasons to not care.

Instead, I kept thinking of pioneering performance artist Linda Montano, who’s now 84. She invited our contributor Taliesin Thomas into her home-shrine in Upstate NY, welcoming her in a devotional chicken costume. God bless “Chicken Linda.” I urge you to read this profile.

I was also thinking about Gabrielle Goliath’s exhibition Elegy, now on view at a church in Venice after the South African culture minister banned it from the country’s pavilion for political reasons. I’m glad to report that the video installation only benefits from the alternative location and reaches deep into the heart. Aruna D’Souza was there too and wrote an excellent review.

Oh, and did I tell you that Hyperallergic won the New York Press Club journalism award for Noah Fischer’s comic “A Prospect Heights Ghost Story”? Supported by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, it was the final part of a series that focused on the artists, activists, and organizers on the front lines of the housing justice movement in NYC. Congrats to Noah, and thank you all for your continuous support. Enjoy reading and have a wonderful weekend.

—Hakim Bishara, editor-in-chief

News

From Our Critics

Still in SoundSound artists compose sonic and multisensory interpretations of abstract paintings for this new exhibition at the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado.

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Features

The Painted Book Cover Is Back

The recent shift toward figuration on book covers may reflect a broader desire for physical presence — proof of the artist’s hand in the digital age. | Tara Anne Dalbow

12 Art Books to Kick Off Summer

A novel lampooning the art world, Megan O’Grady’s meditation on art and living, the man who defined color in the dictionary, Nan Goldin’s tender photo essay, and more.

Opinions

Art Movements — Enigmatic art dealer Larry Gagosian gets the documentary treatment, Pace gets the Brancusi Estate, the Louvre’s new architects, and other industry news.In Memoriam — we honor F. John Sierra, a champion of Chicano art, Valie Export, an Austrian feminist artist, Mary Lovelace O’Neal, a painter and Civil Rights luminary, and others. A View From the Easel — artist Lavett Ballard organizes exhibitions and transforms wood in the former chemistry lab of a high school-turned-community center.Required Reading — a mysterious LA guerrilla artist, Whistler and gold paint, remembering Totó La Momposina, the art of photographing queer nightlife, AI agents turn Marxist, and more.