Burn the white flag, indeed

Good morning, arts writers and Rabkin community.

Where were you when you started getting alerts about the NEA? I was at a concert with Ken, my partner. He flashed a headline my way from his smartphone. It was all so predictable, the proposed elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts. Still, it stung, coming on the heels of proposed changes and cuts to the NEH, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Kennedy Center, and the Smithsonian.

The band Joseph, from the other Portland, took to the stage with “White Flag,” which felt like a would-be anthem, a song beckoning to non-surrender. Burn the white flag, indeed.

We’ll see how this latest attack on the arts plays out with Congress and in the courts, but with grants abruptly rescinded or denied, artists and arts organizations across the U.S. have been effectively destabilized.

With an inbox and DMs flowing with pleas and worried messages, one of the things that’s steadied my hope is simply reading all of you. Some arts writers are producing urgent work, and not because the art itself is of the moment or opportune.

I am reminded that art is a slow medium, as artist Rashid Johnson has said. Sometimes, meaning accumulates over years and coalesces – just in time.

A case in point is an invitation from Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times art critic, to revisit Bruce Nauman’s Dark, from 1968, a year that “shattered America.” Knight describes the iconic, minimalist slab as a “blunt exercise in artistic faith” for a new era of “advancing darkness.”

Ben Davis’s invitation to reconsider Jack Whitten’s 9.11.01, part of the artist’s acclaimed show at MoMA, is another. Ben, national art critic for Artnet, describes the glassy, mosaic-like painting as a lasting but misunderstood memorial. Look closer, he says, for themes of trauma-induced political manipulation.

The artists rafa esparza and Beatriz Cortez have for years been creating work that on a material and conceptual level brings Earth time to bear on issues of migration, man-made borders and the misdeeds of Empire builders. You don’t want to miss Aruna D’Souza’s incisive review of their show at the Americas Society.

We know Laila Lalami didn’t write her gripping new novel, The Dream Hotel, in a matter of days or weeks, in response to the news. That’s not how novels work. But, as the rave from Carolina Miranda makes clear, the story of a museum archivist being imperiled by algorithms and incarcerated without due process, is prescient nonetheless.

Emily Watlington takes the occasion of a 2024 book, Disabled Ecologies, by Sunaura Taylor, to unpack the work of artists who have been pointing us toward a new “age of disability,” an era of lasting impacts on human health ushered in by climate disasters.

Or consider Siddhartha Mitter’s interview with museum directors Thelma Golden of the Studio Museum in Harlem and Lisa Phillips of the New Museum. The long legacies and pioneering work of these women were made for – and are shaping – this moment. Both museums are poised to reopen this fall.

This coalescence of insight begins with artists, of course, but it is often realized thanks to the labors of arts writers.

Danielle Yovino, our curator, at a gathering of scholars, curators and artists in April.

GATHERING HERE

Recently, in the midst of all of this tumult, we stepped back and gathered our minds around questions of the future. We held our first foundation retreat. We explored how we can sustain and support arts writers into the future, grounding our conversations in the feedback we hear from you, our community. Watch this space, and expect our work to evolve with care and intention.

The culmination of our retreat was a public lecture by Susan C. Larsen, my predecessor, for a packed room at Mechanics’ Hall. She shared our backstory with our hometown and talked about the legacy of Leo Rabkin in ways both scholarly and personal (we’ll post the lecture soon).

We also organized a special pre-retreat gathering of curators, scholars and artists. The conversations that unfolded under the guidance of Danielle Yovino, our curator, have opened new associations and areas for research.

A NEW CRITIC IN OUR HOMETOWN

A couple of newsletters ago, we told you about how our local paper’s only art critic, Jorge Arango, told a packed room of art-interested people that his columns had been cut in half and that, in response to the audible groan from the audience, Megan Gray, who’s on staff at the paper, encouraged those gathered to speak out. That led to a community response and a change of heart at the Press Herald, which has just hired a second freelance art critic, Jon Calame. It’s been exciting to watch these two voices at play. Jon’s latest, on the iconography of the U-Haul truck and a three-hour, pop-up exhibit, was a pleasure to read. Our foundation is proud to support this arts writing, and we encourage you to join us by supporting local arts writing wherever you are.

REGIONAL BUT NOT PROVINCIAL

The algorithms do not reward local writing on art, you know, which makes the dedication to place by publications such as Carla, the Boston Art Review, Glasstire, Art Papers, Variable West, KC Studio, Burnaway, BmoreArt and, yes, some legacy publications as well, especially worth celebrating and intentionally seeking out. Going deep in a local arts ecosystem while remaining responsive to global art world dialogues, is harder than it looks. These publications challenge the idea that important art only happens in New York, LA and Berlin, and they often operate independently of academic and market-driven gatekeeping, too. There is a lot of promise and wisdom coming from those who do it well. I will find a way to report back from The Future of Regional Art Publishing panel at the Arrival Art Fair on June 13.

OUT OF THE PICTURE

Many of you know about my labor of love, a documentary film about art critics called Out of the Picture. I followed writers I love with cameras for more than a decade, documenting a period of profound change. The film, which has won awards and screened in more than 60 cities worldwide, will finally get a New York premiere on Monday night. Thank you to the Ford Foundation and Critical Minded, an initiative to amplify critics of color, for the warm welcome. Today is the very last day to register.

The film will be followed by a conversation with independent critic Carolina Miranda (moderator), Editor-in-Chief of Hyperallergic Hrag Vartanian, Boston Globe Deputy Managing Editor Jeneé Osterheldt and Jupiter co-founder Camille Bacon.

Out of the Picture will also get a Los Angeles premiere at the Japanese American National Museum, on June 10. This wonderful museum is home to the Irene Yamamoto Arts Writers Fellowship, which provides unrestricted support to emerging cultural critics of color. Grab your tickets for that screening, and come and meet some of the fellows.

FOR THE MAINERS

I love the way Maine arts organizations conspire to heighten the visibility of artists, especially women. This includes a trio of shows dedicated to Ann Craven, detailed by The New York Times, and two shows of work by Nicole Wittenberg, one at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art and the other at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. Something similar happened for Alison Hildreth last year. We’re also excited to see the Beverly Hallam show at the York Public Library (if you’re going to Ogunquit anyway), Emily Hass at the Jewish Museum and the latest show at SPACE. A reminder, too, that our state, rich with writers, will have an important awards announcement soon.

AND NOW, THE LIST

Finally, here is my big list of worthy arts writing. Poke around, peruse, enjoy.

Jorge Arango on John Hultberg and Richard Wilson
Sasha Cordingly on Coleman Collins
Allison Noelle Conner on María Magdalena Campos-Pons
Holland Cotter on Rashid Johnson
Jerry Cullum on unwritten reviews
Cultured Critics’ Table first L.A. edition
Ben Davis on images of recent protests
Travis Diehl on Jon Rafsman
Sarah Driver on Waste Scenes
Jarrett Earnest with Leigha Mason and Salman Toor
Lauren Moya Ford on Toshiko Takaezu
Quinn Foster on Prairie Stories
Jessica Fuentes with Loli Kantor
Coco Fusco et al with a second edition of The Siren
Eileen G’Sell on David Cronenberg
Eileen G’Sell on Emergent City
Robin Givhan on the political implications of tattoos
Robin Givhan on Superfine at the Met
Robin Givhan on Pope Francis
Jen Graves on Dawn Cerny
Tyler Green on Elizabeth Catlett and Beatriz Cortez
Cristela Guerra on Fabiola Méndez
Natalie Haddad on The Book of Marvels
Sarah Hotchkiss on Marco Cochrane
Ravi Howard on Mobile’s banana docks
Christopher Knight on Don Bachardy
Christopher Knight on Lewis W. Hine’s child labor photography
Annette LePique on Cristina Rivera Garza
Alej Martinez on Isaiah Vazquez
Alexandra Martinez on Bad Bunny and Félix Rodríguez Báez
AX Mina on our Tarot fascination
Carolina Miranda on Trump’s rococo Oval Office
Darla Migan on Hugh Hayden
Siddhartha Mitter on Jennie C. Jones
Michaela Murry on 30x30x30
Shana Nys Dambrot on Diego Rivera
Bill O’Driscoll on the Maxo Vanka murals
Cara Ober and Inés Sanchez de Lozada on Jonna McKone and Elena Volkova
Jeneé Osterheldt on Black dandyism
Ella Ray on Nia Musiba
Ray Mark Rinaldi on the history of photography in Colorado
Seph Rodney on America’s Cultural Treasures
Sebastian Smee on Robert Frank
Sebastian Smee on a reopened Glenstone
Rebecca Solnit on collective action
Margo Vansynghel on arts funding in Seattle
Hrag Vartanian on Aaron Gilbert
Hrag Vartanian on the new Frick
Emily Watlington on Bob Flanagan
Lori Waxman on the Great Migration
Lori Waxman on Muchen Wang
Lori Waxman on Xiaohan Jiang
Jasmine Weber on Amy Sherald
Lauren Wetmore with Nizan Shaked
John Yau on Suellen Rocca
John Yau on Lori Larusso

Thank you for being here and for the work you do. We love hearing from you, so hit “reply” anytime. Also, art worlders, we know many of you come to Maine, often to disappear for a while. But as you slip quietly through, please know our door is open. Our Portland gallery is the only place on the planet to experience the experimental work of Leo Rabkin in a deep way.

Warmly,
Mary Louise Schumacher
Executive Director
The Dorotha and Leo Rabkin Foundation