Museum acquisitions round-up: Andy Warhol in an apron, a solid-silver relief and Christo's luggage rack

Major international institutions have secured significant new acquisitions, ranging from intimate photographic archives to monumental silver reliefs. The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art received over 400 stereoscopic slides by Ronnie Cutrone documenting Andy Warhol’s Factory, while the Germanisches Nationalmuseum acquired Luigi Valadier’s final silver masterpiece, 'Lamentation of Christ'. Additionally, the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation donated 14 works to the City of Paris, including the early sculpture 'Package on a Luggage Rack' for the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris.

‘Depraved in all the right ways’: why forgotten no wave visionary Gordon Stevenson is about to take off

The article profiles Gordon Stevenson, a forgotten visionary of the no wave movement in late-1970s New York, who was an artist, jewelry designer, musician, and filmmaker best known for the notorious film *Ecstatic Stigmatic*. Decades after his death from AIDS, a storage unit full of his lost work has been discovered, including jewelry, mail-art collaborations with Ray Johnson, and clues to a surviving print of his film. His family has also recovered hundreds of letters he wrote to his parents, chronicling his life in downtown New York and his experiences as one of the city's first AIDS patients. The piece traces his journey from a small town in Georgia, where he met his wife Mirielle Cervenka (who later renamed Exene Cervenka), to their punk-era jewelry brand LHOOQ and his lasting influence on gothic fashion.

Julia Heyward “Voices of Many Voices” at Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster

The Westfälischer Kunstverein in Münster is presenting "Voices of Many Voices," a significant exhibition dedicated to the pioneering work of Julia Heyward. The show highlights Heyward’s multidisciplinary practice, which emerged from the 1970s New York performance scene, blending vocal experimentation, monologues, and complex multimedia orchestrations. By juxtaposing music, image, and language, the exhibition captures the artist's unique ability to navigate emotional extremes and the "simultaneity of opposites."

Red Grooms, Mimi Gross, and The Ruckus Construction Co.: Excerpts from “Ruckus Manhattan”

The Brooklyn Museum is presenting "Red Grooms, Mimi Gross, and The Ruckus Construction Co.: Excerpts from 'Ruckus Manhattan'," a focused exhibition drawn from the original 1976 installation "Ruckus Manhattan." The show, on view from June 13, 2025 to June 5, 2026, marks the first time in over 30 years that elements of this sprawling, 6,400-square-foot "sculptural comic book" are being publicly displayed. Created by artists Red Grooms and Mimi Gross with their collaborative team, the original work satirized 1970s New York City through a vibrant mix of painting, sculpture, performance, and puppetry. Key pieces on view include "Dame of the Narrows" (returning for the first time since 1994) and "42nd Street Porno Bookstore," both offering a playful yet critical look at urban life.

Stephanie Chernikowski, 84, Dies; Photographed the ‘Rough Magic’ of Punk

Stephanie Chernikowski, a photographer who documented the raw energy of New York City's punk scene in the 1970s, has died at age 84. She captured iconic images of bands like the Ramones, Blondie, and the Patti Smith Group performing at legendary clubs such as CBGB, preserving the "rough magic" of that era.

Shirley Gorelick: Figuring It Out

The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) is presenting "Shirley Gorelick: Figuring It Out," an exhibition running from March 27 to June 28, 2026, that centers on three large-scale paintings by the American realist artist Shirley Gorelick (1924–2000). The show brings together these works from NMWA’s collection for the first time, including the first canvas in her "Three Graces" series, a triple portrait of activist Libby Ourlicht, and a depiction of longtime friends Gunny and Lee Benson. More than 30 additional paintings, drawings, and prints further illuminate Gorelick’s practice and her subjects. Gorelick, who was active in New York artist-run women’s cooperative galleries in the 1970s, developed a bold realist style that combined vigorous brushwork, heightened shadows, and vivid patterns, yet she was largely omitted from art historical narratives that focused on Pop art, Minimalism, and conceptual art.

On the MUBI platform arrives the story of the great New York photographer Peter Hujar

Sulla piattaforma Mubi arriva la storia del grande fotografo newyorchese Peter Hujar

MUBI has announced the exclusive streaming release of "Peter Hujar's Day," a film directed by Ira Sachs, set to premiere on May 22. The film is based on a 1974 conversation between photographer Peter Hujar and author Linda Rosenkrantz, and stars Ben Whishaw as Hujar and Rebecca Hall. It reconstructs a single day in Hujar's life, capturing the creative energy and precariousness of 1970s New York, with appearances from figures like Allen Ginsberg and Susan Sontag.

ira sachs director peter hujars day interview

Ira Sachs's new film *Peter Hujar's Day* dramatizes a 1974 interview in which photographer Peter Hujar recounted his day to journalist Linda Rosenkrantz. The transcript, originally intended for a book project, was rediscovered and published by Magic Hour Press in 2021. Starring Ben Whishaw as Hujar and Rebecca Hall as Rosenkrantz, the film is set entirely in a Westbeth apartment, capturing the texture of New York's downtown art scene through Hujar's anecdotes about figures like Susan Sontag, William Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg.