(Volume 108/Number 11)

ARTnews  |  December 2009

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Taking It to the Limits Linda Yablonsky

Marina Abramović’s performances, feats of endurance involving self-denial and even self-mutilation, are so influential that MoMA has asked 35 artists to re-create them for an upcoming retrospective—and so provocative that it is building a separate entrance for the show

Little Archer, Big Mystery Ann Landi

As a marble sculpture of a boy makes its debut at the Met, experts continue to debate whether it is an early Michelangelo

The Feminist Evolution Phoebe Hoban

Museums are exhibiting an increased sensitivity to collecting and presenting works by women— through new acquisitions, solo shows, and a stronger focus on artists who were previously neglected. But true gender equality, critics maintain, remains elusive

Critics Nix Obamas' Pix Mix Robin Cembalest

Searching for meaning in the art selected for the presidential residence

Bilbao Treatment for Baku? Robin Cembalest

Thomas Krens has plans for Azerbaijan

Also in this Issue

Where Women Are the Majority Hilarie M. Sheets

Collectors who focus on female artists are motivated by feminism, activism—and quality

 

Departments

Art Talk
Rob Pruitt, David Hockney, Jorge Colombo, Stéphane Kardos, Françoise Mouly, Craig Robinson, Ethan Ham, Lawrence Weschler, Shirin Neshat, Connie Simmons, David Dunlop, Michelle Forbes, Edward Bleiberg, Cindy Jackson, Suzuki Ingerslev, Alan Ball, Alexander Woo, Thomas Nozkowski, Jo Baer, Keith Edmier, Jay Bernstein, Joan Rivers

News
WASHINGTON, D.C. Critics nix Obamas' pix mix BAKU, AZERBAIJAN Getting the Bilbao treatment? MADRID Following their Sorollas PHILADELPHIA Reviewing an original copy SPOTLIGHT Carrie Rebora Barratt: Campbell's "right hand" MEXICO CITY Recipes for debate IN MEMORIAM Nancy Spero, Irving Penn, Dietrich von Bothmer

Books
The Venus Fixers: The Remarkable Story of the Allied Soldiers Who Saved Italy’s Art During World War II By Ilaria Dagnini Brey • TruthBeauty: Pictorialism and the Photograph as Art, 1845–1945 Edited by Alison Nordström and Thomas Padon • Peter Henry Emerson and American Naturalistic Photography By Christian A. Peterson • Botanica Magnifica: Portraits of the World’s Most Extraordinary Flowers and Plants Photographs by Jonathan Singer; Text by W. John Kress and Marc Hachadourian • and more

Critic's Pick
Graham Gillmore: Text Messages
Hilarie M. Sheets

 

Reviews

NEW YORK "Slash: Paper Under the Knife"; "Hanging Fire"; Robert Frank; "Dress Codes"; Janine Antoni; "Marking Modernism"; Peter Halley; Jean Paul Riopelle; Allan Kaprow; Yigal Ozeri; Matthew Weinstein; "Circa 1959"; Vivian Springford; Rosy Keyser; Virginia Martinsen; Luis Mallo; "Still Lifes"; Robert Kinmont; Elliott Green; "The Abstracted Landscape"; Keith Haring

NATIONAL Seattle "Target Practice" Chicago "Constellations" San Francisco "Echo" Santa Monica Francesca Gabbiani Boston Paul Béliveau Santa Fe Julia Barello Baltimore "Sublime Structure" Memphis Greely Myatt Ogunquit, Maine Maurice Freedman Miami Guillermo Kuitca; Vickie Pierre and Carlos de Villasante; Jason Shawn Alexander; Carmelo Niño; Luciano Goizueta

INTERNATIONAL London Claude Monet; Murray Fredericks Paris "L'Art Africain dialogue avec Francis Picabia" Zurich Pipilotti Rist Vienna Thomas Reinhold Frankfurt Att Poomtangon Mexico City Ronald Morán