NYT - Covid impact of Museums is harsh - 12 New York museums discussing merger/dissolution

The Brooklyn Museum reopened on Sept. 12, but some galleries are often empty. Credit...Howard Goller/Reuters

The negative impact of Covid on the Art ecosystem is unfortunately only going to worsen in the next 12 months with more museum closures and cancellation of exhibitions/art events. In most areas of the Art ecosystem, capacity has been cut by at least 25%. 

Normalization of the activities is not expected until at least 2022. In this scenario, financial hardship of the financial institutions will only worsen in the next 6-12 months, forcing further reductions/closures. The NYT article below also indicates the severity of the situation and the likely tougher decision in not so distant future. 

For exogenous factors such as Covid, there is not much that can be done. For Artwallaa, the key will be to stay focused on the following: 

1 - Use this time to focus on your work, and specially the creative side. 

2 - Make your virtual presence robust, consistent, and a real account of your vocation (avoid exaggeration). 

3 -  Your and your family's health - physical and mental. 

Your 'this too shall pass' type 

Artwallaa 

Source: NYT

How Long Can N.Y.C. Museums Survive at 25 Percent Capacity?

Visiting during the pandemic can feel a bit lonely. Museum directors worry that will persist far into 2021.

The Guggenheim Museum reopened nearly a month ago with “Countryside, The Future’’ by Rem Koolhaas. Visitors find galleries nearly empty on weekdays.Credit...Justin Lane/EPA, via Shutterstock

By Julia Jacobs and Zachary Small

Oct. 26, 2020

On a weekday afternoon at the Brooklyn Museum, Carolyn and Joel Jacobson ambled through the American art galleries, alone with George Bellows’s smirking “Newsboy” and a bronze bust of Abraham Lincoln.

The couple hadn’t left their Long Island home — aside from going to the grocery store — since the pandemic bore down on New York in March.

“This was a big day for me,” said Mr. Jacobson, 84, his voice echoing through the empty gallery.

A similar scene played out that day in the winding galleries of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan, where roughly 40 mask-wearing visitors meandered through the museum. An attendant said it was the busiest he had seen since the space opened on Oct. 3.

And at the American Museum of Natural History, a visitor from Florida, Cheyenne Grant, 21, observed the emptiness: “It’s just us and the dinosaurs.”

Over a month after most of New York’s most prestigious museums reopened to the public, they are experiencing an existential crisis, fueled by the state-mandated reduced capacity of 25 percent. While the public face of New York City museums welcomes back these visitors with a smile and the promise of a safe experience, administrators behind the scenes anxiously wonder how long they can feasibly stay at that meager occupancy without making significant cuts to staffing or programming.

Towering dinosaurs and temperature checks at the American Museum of Natural History.Credit...Amy Lombard for The New York Times

Is Collecting Art Another Way for Collecting Stories? | Amna Naqvi | TEDxLahore

Why are people motivated to collect objects? These could be shells or stones as a child or art and books as an adult. What motivates and energises them to take on this task? Amna Naqvi, the founder of AAN Collection and AAN Foundation talks about her journey of collecting art and speaks of not only collecting objects of art but art experiences as well. Amna Naqvi is the founder of AAN Foundation and AAN Collection. She is an avid art collector, philanthropist, publisher, supporter and collaborator of art projects and initiatives. These projects have led to the development of the contemporary Pakistani art space both locally as well as globally over the last fifteen years. The AAN Collection comprises of over 800 works of art ranging from 3rd Century Gandhara sculptures, 17th Century Mughal miniatures and contemporary art. Works from the collection have been part of major exhibitions at institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, The Venice Biennial and The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. The collection is complimented by the AAN Foundation which supports art exhibitions and projects in Asia as well as globally. 

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at  https://www.ted.com/tedx

Pakistan in Hong Kong through Asia Society

(Source: Title, intro and magazine shots at the bottom: Gandhara-art-Space; Main section: Asia Sciety)

Guggenheim Museum NYC's exhibition 'No Country'(Art from South and South East Asia) opens at the Asia Society Museum Hong Kong. Works by Khadim Ali and Bani Abidi represent Pakistan in this exhibition, featuring works from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, India and Bangladesh.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Asia Society Hong Kong Center will present No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia, the inaugural touring exhibition of the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative, from October 30, 2013, to February 16, 2014. Featuring recent work by 13 artists from Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, No Country presents some of the most compelling and innovative voices in South and Southeast Asia today. The exhibition was first seen in New York at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (February 22–May 22, 2013) as part of the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative, a multi-year collaboration that charts contemporary art practice in three geographic regions—South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa—and encompasses curatorial residencies, international touring exhibitions, audience-driven educational programming, and acquisitions for the Guggenheim’s permanent collection.  All works have been newly acquired for the Guggenheim’s collection under the auspices of the Guggenheim UBS MAP Purchase Fund. Following its presentation in Hong Kong, the exhibition will travel to Singapore.

 

Bani Abidi

The Ghost of Mohammed Bin Qasim, 2006. Nine inkjet prints, edition 5/5, six prints: 14 1/2 × 18 1/4 inches (36.8 × 46.4 cm) each, and three prints: 18 1/4 × 14 1/2 inches (46.4 × 36.8 cm) each. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Guggenheim UBS MAP Purchase Fund, 2012, 2012.139.1. © Bani Abidi

 

This Video Is a Reenactment, 2006. Color video, silent, 58 sec. loop, and inkjet print, edition 3/5, 18 1/4 × 14 1/2 inches (46.4 × 36.8 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Guggenheim UBS MAP Purchase Fund, 2012, 2012.139.2. © Bani Abidi

Abidi explores historical and contemporary representations of the figure of bin Qasim, and the proliferation of this narrative in state history and shared culture, through her fictional depictions of the hero in his emblematic form—wearing the Arabic keffiyeh, brandishing a sword, and riding a charging horse. In The Boy Who Got Tired of Posing, the artist plays on the trend of popular studio photography in 1980s Pakistan, which saw parents encourage their sons to dress up as bin Qasim for portrait shots. In the work’s final image, the subject, tired of performing, mischievously elects to exit the frame. In This Video is a Reenactment, the artist recalls Labbaik, a televisual dramatization of the colonial founder’s conquest, by excerpting a sequence showing the hero’s momentous horseback ride.

In Abidi’s video, however, the act is slowed down, accentuating its histrionic impact on the nation. Finally, in a suite of eight monochrome photographs, The Ghost of Mohammed Bin Qasim, the artist monumentalizes the figure, who appears to haunt various sites of national significance around Karachi including the Lahore Fort, the tomb of Emperor Jahangir, and the National Mausoleum of the founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, or Mazar-e-Quaid. Yet on closer examination, these glimpses of the return of the historical figure contain various incongruities and awkwardnesses. A short fictional text reveals the story of how the haunting began with the conversion of a young man, Yusof Masih, to Islam, and his imagining himself as bin Qasim. The figure, juxtaposed with iconic contexts, raises questions of the roles of nationhood, nationalism, and narratives of origin in the trajectory of history.


The Boy Who Got Tired of Posing, 2006. Three chromogenic prints and one inkjet print, edition 3/5, three prints: 40 3/4 × 30 3/4 inches (103.5 × 78.1 cm) each and one print: 18 1/2 × 14 1/2 inches (47 × 36.8 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Guggenheim UBS MAP Purchase Fund, 2012, 2012.139.3. © Bani Abidi

 

 

Khadim Ali

Untitled 1, Rustam Series, 2011–12. Watercolor, gouache, and ink on paper, 27 1/2 × 19 5/8 inches (69.9 × 49.8 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Guggenheim UBS MAP Purchase Fund, 2012, 2012.143. © Khadim Ali

The title of Khadim Ali’s Rustam Series (2011–12) references the hero of the Persian Shahnameh (Book of kings). The protagonist of Ferdowsi’s 11th-century epic poem is recognized for his valor and strength, but Ali’s work recalls only his name; the paintings allude to the persecution of the Hazara minority in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a community that finds itself displaced on both sides of the border. The work depicts demons, and suggests that the legendary character of the Rustam has been usurped in contemporary times as justification for hostility and bloodshed, his heroism now ascribed to those who perpetrate violence and domination. In a broader sense, the work reflects on the upheavals and crises that emerge from lingering difference.


Untitled 2, Rustam Series, 2010. Watercolor, gouache, and ink on paper, 19 5/8 × 16 3/4 inches (49.8 × 42.5 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Guggenheim UBS MAP Purchase Fund, 2012, 2012.144. © Khadim Ali

Successive cycles of violence and aggression are not limited to this particular minority community, but recur in oppressive circumstances elsewhere. In its reference to the narrative and lyrical traditions of the Persian people and the region, Ali’s work recollects both the triumph of civilizations past and the turmoil and aftermath of conquest. Yet in spite of loss, there linger traces of individual and cultural memory, of which the return of the Rustam is one. Layered in these works are excerpts from epic poems and literary references to Persian and Afghan history and culture, keys to meaning that the violence of contemporary conflict cannot efface. Also depicted in the series of paintings are the silent and empty alcoves in cliffs that were once occupied by the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan. Though these 6th-century statues were destroyed in 2001, their physical absence, like that of the Rustam, has a haunting aura of its own.


Untitled 3, Rustam Series, 2011–12. Watercolor, gouache, and ink on paper, 19 7/8 × 16 15/16 inches (50.5 × 43 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Guggenheim UBS MAP Purchase Fund, 2012, 2012.145. © Khadim Ali

Following the style of miniature painting, and in particular the technique of neem rang (half-color), the artist uses traditional methods of production including pigmentation with gold and silver leaf. This traditional South Asian aesthetic, now also marked by Persian influences, is a form of Mughal painting that was once used in illustrated texts, primarily to represent royalty, battles, and legends. The rich and sensitive detailing of these historical portraits is, like the literary epic, revived in Ali’s work, which accords the traditional practice a contemporary relevance by aligning its cultural significance with the circumstances of today.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 Review of the 'No Country' Exhibition with Financial Times Today  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The best global art exhibtions of 2013 (So far)

David Bowie @ V&A (Source: Complex Art+Design)

                            
The following are the best global exhibitions adjudged by the Complex Art+Design. (Source: Complex Art+Design)

1. Jean-Michel Basquiat, Gagosian Gallery, New York
2. James Turrell, Guggenheim
3. WS: Paul McCarthy, Park Avenue Armory
4. Jeff Koons, Gagosian Gallery, New York 
5. Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui, Brooklyn Museum
6. NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star, New Museum
7. David Bowie, Victoria and Albert Museum, Lndon
8. LaToya Ruby Frazier: A Haunted Capital, Brooklyn Museum
9. Takashi Murakami: Arhat, Blum & Poe
10. Tracey Emin: I Followed You To The Sun, Lehmann Maupin
11. Yoshitomo Nara, Pace Gallery
12. Venice Biennale,  La Biennale di Venezia
13. Le Corbusier: An Atlas of Modern Landscapes, MoMA
14. Kenny Scharf: Kolors, Paul Kasmin Gallery
15. Subliming Vessel: The Drawings of Matthew Barney, The Morgan Library and Museum
16. Gary Baseman: The Door Is Always Open, Skirball

 

  Venice Biennale (Source: Complex Art+Design)

 

The above list is quite US centric and hence Artwallaa has used discretion here to add a few more favourites from around the world. (Feedback welcomed, if you think we need to take notice of some really good exhibition):

1. The Roof Garden Commission: Imran Qureshi, The Met, New York
2. Club to Catwalk: London Fashion in the 1980s at the V&A, London
3. Roy Lichtenstein, 'Une rétrospective', The Centre Pompidou, Paris
4. Frida Kahlo / Diego Rivera : L'Art en fusion, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris
5. Labyrinth of Reflections: The Art of Rashid Rana 1992 - 2012, Mohatta Palace, Karachi
6. The Roof Garden Commission: Imran Qureshi's Miniature Paintings, (July 29, 2013–February 2, 2014), Gallery 916, The Met, NY)

 

Rashid Rana's Labyrinth of Reflections is by far the best ever contemporary art exhibition put up in Pakistan; in Artwallaa's view. (Photo Source: Mohatta Palace website)

 

Khadim Ali at Guggenheim NY: No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia

February 22–May 22, 2013

No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia is the inaugural exhibition of the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative, a multi-year collaboration that will chart creative activity and contemporary art in three geographic regions—South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa. Organized by June Yap, Guggenheim UBS MAP Curator, South and Southeast Asia, the exhibition focuses on the artistic practices and cultural traditions of that region, which includes Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and India.

Themes

Khadim Ali

English / Language Arts Social Studies Visual Arts

Vincent Leong

Social Studies Technology Visual Arts

Tang Da Wu

English / Language Arts Social Studies

Shilpa Gupta Social Studies Navin Rawanchaikul

English / Language Arts Social Studies Technology Visual Arts