News From Around the Art World: January 21, 2020
Behind the Lens of a Trailblazing Chicago Photojournalist
More than 50 years after his death, the little-known photographer of Chicago’s most historic moments is finally getting his due. From January 24 to March 31, the Poetry Foundation and Newberry Library will celebrate the life of photographer and poet Jun Fujita with a new exhibit entitled Jun Fujita: American Visionary. Believed to be the first Japanese-American photojournalist, Fujita photographed the 1919 race riots, the St. Valentine’s Day massacre, the Eastland Disaster, the 1910 garment workers’ strike, and other pivotal events. His harrowing images have shaped and preserved our understanding of what it means to live in Chicago, warts and all.
By Taylor Moore, Chicago Magazine
EXPO Chicago boosting art collector outreach with new hire
EXPO Chicago, the city’s annual international exposition of contemporary and modern art, is adding a new position, head of VIP Relations and Strategic Initiatives, which will be filled immediately by Eboni Gates. She will be tasked with a job that has become increasingly important in the world of art expositions — cultivating deeper relationships with the fair's most important customer base, serious art collectors.
By Lewis Lazare, Chicago Business Journal
Where to Go to Watch the Paint Dry
In the never-ending quest for engagement in a short attention-span world, museums around the world have long looked for ways to spice up visitor experiences. But as after-hours gatherings and dedicated Instagram experiences continue to take off, a time-honored practice has surprisingly gained traction, and become a destination-worthy draw: conservation, or art restoration, done in the public eye.
By Lauren Sloss, The New York Times
How Käthe Kollwitz Invented a New Art of Protest
In the days following the death of Qasem Soleimani, protestors scrambled to organize demonstrations against possible war between Iran and the United States. Posters, texts and graphics disseminated across social media. One image, attributed to the Iranian graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi, depicted scores of angry agitators in concise black-and-white lines. ‘NO WAR IN IRAN!’ it read. Shortly thereafter, a friend shared a much older image on his Instagram upon which Satrapi’s drawing could have been based: a 1924 lithograph by the German artist Käthe Kollwitz, first published in an issue of the magazine Socialist Worker Youth. In the print, a boy raises his hands, his mouth agape, as German words in tactile cursive slide over a stark, neutral background: ‘Nie wieder Krieg’ – ‘Never War Again.’
By Joseph Henry, Frieze