In today’s FOUND, an interview with Glenn Ligon, an interview with George Rouy, and a short documentary on stolen art.
A Monument to Trans and Nonbinary Life Graces Trafalgar Square
From Hyperallergic
The prismatic artwork by Teresa Margolles includes plaster cast faces of 726 people from Mexico City, Ciudad Juárez, and London.
A sobering celebration unfolded in London’s Trafalgar Square on Wednesday, September 18, when the latest Fourth Plinth commission by Mexican artist Teresa Margolles was unveiled. Comprised of plaster face casts, “Mil Veces un Instante (A Thousand Times in an Instant)” (2024) shines a light on violence against transgender and nonbinary people in both Mexico and the United Kingdom.
Margolles’s installation consists of an eight-foot-tall (2.4 meters) rectangular prism lined with 726 cast faces of trans and nonbinary people from across Mexico City, Ciudad Juárez, and London. The work bears a striking resemblance to a Mesoamerican tzompantli — a publicly displayed skull rack made up of the craniums of either war captives or those killed for Maya, Aztec, or Toltec human sacrifice rituals. The artist originally trained as a forensic pathologist and worked as a mortician in Mexico City, influencing her multi-disciplinary practice to primarily center death, societal violence, and the consequences of social and economic vulnerability in Central and South America.
Vasari’s Ceiling Masterpiece, Broken Up for Centuries, Is Finally Reunited
From Artnet
Vasari's painting depicted the five virtues surrounded by cherubs.
In 1541, Venetian nobleman Giovanni Corner was riding high. Still in his thirties, Corner occupied a lofty position in the Republic’s governing body and had recently purchased a Renaissance-style palazzo on the Grand Canal. To embellish the building’s interior, he turned to Giorgio Vasari whose Mannerist paintings were highly fashionable.
For the coffered ceiling of the palazzo’s camera nova, Vasari floated a grand celestial scene extolling the five virtues. Charity hovered at the center. She’s personified by a maiden in flowing scarlet robes who lifts up a basket bearing a mother bird that pierces itself to feed its offspring. Allegorical visions of Hope, Faith, Patience, and Justice encircle her with the room’s corners occupied by four putti, chubby cherubs.
100 Minnesota Artists Are Receiving Guaranteed Income for the Next Five Years
From Artnet
The payments are part of an expanded pilot program by nonprofit Springboard for the Arts.
In a welcome bit of good news, 100 artists in Minnesota are receiving five years guaranteed income as part of an expanded pilot program for St. Paul nonprofit Springboard for the Arts. The no-strings-attached payments are $500 a month.
It’s one of the longest-running guaranteed income pilots ever staged in the U.S., which Springboard hopes will provide key data demonstrating the value of guaranteed income and its positive effects on recipients’ lives.
James Ensor, The Intrigue
From Smarthistory
VISITFLANDERS has joined forces with Smarthistory and the Center for Netherlandish Art at the MFA Boston to bring you a series of video conversations with curators on important Flemish paintings by artists such as Jan van Eyck, Hans Memling, Peter Paul Rubens, and James Ensor.
Glenn Ligon, Untitled (America)
From Smarthistory
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