Letter From Richmond, VA: ‘The Silent Strength of Liu Xia: Photographs’” Amanda Dalla Villa Adams People recognize the name Ai Weiwei. From major museum retrospectives, such as Ai Weiwei: According to What? at the Hirshhorn, pop cultural asides, including Anish Kapoor’s mass staging of Gangam Style in support of Weiwei, and global media coverage, Weiwei […]
Pairing the work of Judith Godwin and Arlene Shechet seems odd. But that’s just what Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts has done in Judith Godwin: Early Abstractions and Arlene Shechet: That Time at the Anderson Gallery in Richmond, Virginia. The two rooms on the first floor feature Shechet’s work while Godwin garners the […]
By: Amanda Dalla Villa Adams German philosopher Walter Benjamin’s angel of history surveys the past and “sees one single catastrophe, which unceasingly piles rubble on top of rubble and hurls it before his feet.” But instead of turning away, the angel is swiftly driven by an irresistible force – the storm of progress – […]
By: Amanda Dalla Villa Adams Photographs courtesy of Eric R Greiner Faced with the end of modernism, art historian Hal Foster attempted to define the role of the critic within post-modern art in “Re: Post” (1982). Ultimately, he suggested that postmodernism allows art to go “beyond the limits of critique,” because there is no longer […]
French sociologist Pierre Bordieu contended that all art functions as coded meaning for his study on art museums and their visitors in The Love of Art (1990). Differentiating between lower level of meanings – “superficial [and] fragmentary” – and higher level of meanings – which “incorporate and transform” – Bordieu maintained that both responses created […]
Admittedly, authenticity is a word I know well. As a specialist at a local auction house, I am often asked to verify a work of art. Usually, I consult a variety of resources and other experts who help to conclusively argue for or against the veracity of an object. The most difficult items often get […]
