What We're Reading 8/18/22
India and Pakistan turn 75: exhibitions on independence and partition to see around the world
As the nations of India and Pakistan celebrate 75 years of independence—and commemorate the act of partition that brought them into being—cultural institutions are hosting exhibitions and artistic interventions to mark the moment. These provide not only educational information on an important period of history, but also a chance to reflect on the state of both nations today. In doing so, artistic responses can help us to consider partition as an ongoing process; an act that is continually reperformed and still shapes the futures of both countries.
Featured is Chicago's own South Asia Institute (Unbearable Memories, Unspeakable Histories, South Asia Institute Chicago (until 10 December))
Art and medicine intersect in New York City hospitals
It's one of the largest public art collections in the country, and it's not where you might expect to see it. Artwork in New York hospitals aims to heal patients and healers.
Via PBS Newshour
Howard Carter achieved lasting fame for his discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. Now, a century later, the archaeologist’s legacy may be tainted as new evidence confirms long-held suspicions that he stole from the pharaoh’s final resting place.
“The whm amulet you showed me has been undoubtedly stolen from the tomb of Tutankhamun,” Alan Gardiner, a philologist who helped translate the site’s hieroglyphs, wrote to Carter in a previously unpublished 1934 letter. The letter will be published in full for the first time in the forthcoming book Tutankhamun and the Tomb that Changed the World.
Via Artnet
Architectural Digest appears to have scrubbed evidence of ancient Khmer artifacts from photos depicting the luxurious San Francisco home of Sloan Lindemann Barnett and husband Roger Barnett, a Washington Post investigation revealed Monday.
The photos, which appeared in the January 2021 issue, show numerous empty pedestals in Lindemann Barnett’s courtyard. However, the Post found photos on the website of the couple’s architect, Peter Marino, that showed the pedestals actually held numerous Khmer artifacts that the Cambodian government has said were looted from the country years ago.
Via Artnews