What We're Reading: 7/1/24
“My father died in 1993. The day after new tenants moved into his old flat, I got an excited call: ‘We have found something of your dad’s and I think you’ll want to see it right away.’ I made a mad dash to Keeler Avenue and as I burst in, they immediately handed me Most Secret: Memoirs of a Doughboy’s Past, the visual diary he began when he landed on Guadalcanal November 11, 1943. The precious little book had gotten shoved to the back end of the tallest shelf in my old bedroom closet. As I gingerly thumbed through the pages, I entered the life of my father the soldier—a life he had kept most secret from all of us.” –Victoria Granacki, author of An Artist Goes to War: Leon Granacki in the South Pacific WWII.
Via Classic Chicago
Note: CGN interviewed Ms Granacki and her late husband Lee Wesley back in 2019. Read the collector profile here.
Indiana's Brauer Museum Shutters Amid Deaccessioning Controversy
Indiana’s Valparaiso University has shuttered the Brauer Museum of Art and dismissed its director, Jonathan Canning, amid ongoing controversy over the university’s plan to sell three artworks to fund renovations of its freshman dormitories. The school’s president, José Padilla, first notified the school of the possible sale in February 2023, citing a projected $9 million deficit for 2023–2024 and falling enrollment, from 4,500 to less than 2,800 over the past five years.
VIa Artnet
‘Stylistic Chameleon’ Nicole Eisenman Survey At MCA Chicago
She can be lewd, crude, and rude. Uproariously funny, inappropriate, or deeply insightful, all at the same time, depending on where you stand.
Taking cues from Michelangelo, Baroque painting, German Expressionism, Pop art, comics and soft porn–to name a few–Nicole Eisenman (b. 1965, Verdun, France; lives in Brooklyn, NY) proves difficult to categorize.
Via Forbes