Renoir, Matisse, and the Temptation of Spectacle

Renoir, Matisse, et la tentation du spectacle

The article criticizes two major Parisian exhibitions scheduled for 2026: "Renoir et l'amour. La modernité heureuse (1865-1885)" and "Renoir dessinateur" at the Musée d'Orsay, and "Matisse 1941-1954" at the Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. The author argues that these shows prioritize spectacle and audience appeal over scholarly rigor, using flashy titles and famous names to attract crowds like movie releases.

Haegue Yang’s Constellations for a Divided Korea

Haegue Yang's exhibition "Star-Crossed Rendezvous" at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles features two large-scale Venetian blind installations that explore themes of division, exile, and reunification. The works draw on the arbitrary 1945 division of Korea by U.S. military officers and the life of composer Isang Yun, who was tortured and imprisoned by South Korean authorities. One installation mirrors and inverts a cube of white blinds inspired by Sol LeWitt, while the other uses colored blinds, projections, and Yun's "Double Concerto" to create a fragmented, shadow-filled meditation on longing and separation.

Split decision: The Art Museum’s missed opportunity with its new ‘Rocky’ exhibition | Opinion

The Philadelphia Museum of Art's new exhibition, "Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments," celebrates the 50th anniversary of the film *Rocky* and highlights Philadelphia's boxing history, including figures like Joe Frazier and Bernard Hopkins. However, the author, a street reporter who wrote a book about people running the museum steps, argues the exhibit missed a key opportunity by focusing on the Rocky statue and monuments rather than centering on the film's transformative power and the iconic steps-running ritual that has drawn visitors for decades.

Criminal review – homelessness show delivers a rage-making punch in the gut

The article reviews "Criminal: An Untold Story of Homelessness, Resistance and Survival," an installation at London's Museum of Homelessness. The show features works by Romany Gypsy poet and artist Gemma Lees, including a caravan installation with china decorated with hostile Sun newspaper headlines about Gypsy and Traveller encampments, and festive bunting printed with historical state proscriptions against nomadic communities dating from the Egyptians Act of 1530 to the 2022 Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act. The exhibition, set largely in the garden of the museum's new home at Finsbury Park's Manor House Lodge, explores how homeless people and nomadic communities have been criminalized over 400 years.

Joan Semmel Roars at The Jewish Museum

The article reviews Joan Semmel: In the Flesh, a retrospective exhibition at The Jewish Museum in New York (December 2025 – May 2026). The author describes an initial discomfort with Semmel's graphic nude paintings of aging female bodies, but after researching the artist's significance in feminist art, comes to appreciate her unapologetic honesty. The show is arranged chronologically, tracing Semmel's evolution from works like Erotic Yellow (1973) to later paintings that grow in confidence and freedom, all while maintaining a focus on female embodiment and pleasure from a female perspective.