Art in America’s Fall Issue Features Five “Icons,” Thoughts on Cringe Culture, and More

Critic Bob Nickas, in a recent essay on the musician Steven Stapleton, took the temperature of contemporary art and found it tepid. “Increasingly, since the pandemic and the rightward (wrongward) tilt in global politics,” he wrote, “we have witnessed an unfortunate shift in art—from works with more seriousness of purpose to works of palliative escapism, art in which there is scant danger of disturbance.” Those words came back to me as this issue was going to press. At Art in America, we pick our annual list of Icon artists because they speak to the times. The five artists profiled in these pages offer the opposite of palliative escapism—and there is much danger of disturbance.

Each of these artists disturbs in their own special way, but Exhibit A is the cover of the issue: Janine Antoni’s long-echo allusion to a famous scene in Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí’s 1929 film Un Chien Andalou tells us to keep our eyes open, no matter what accosts them. Walid Raad’s recent installation project (in collaboration with graphic designer Pierre Huyghebaert) initially looks like festive ribbons of paper affixed to the wall, until you get closer and see that they are statements associated with exhibitions canceled due to their affiliation with Palestine. William T. Williams’s bold approach to abstraction in the 1970s helped carve out a space for Black artists to develop individual approaches that were viewed as innovative within the wider context of avant-garde art. Mary Miss has taken public art into unexplored territory with her unapologetic interventions into urban settings. Finally, don’t look for anything remotely palliative in Jutta Koether’s paintings—they are storms of images that refuse to cohere.

To come back to Nickas, I believe our challenging times demand works with “seriousness of purpose”—and it is artists like these Icons who can show the way.

FEATURES

Stranger Than Fiction
Walid Raad turns history’s absences into artworks.
by Emily Watlington
 
Heady Hand
Jutta Koether’s big ideas grace the canvas with a light touch.
by Barry Schwabsky
 
Material World
William T. Williams has stayed curious on the canvas for six decades.
by Maximilíano Durón
 
Sensual Surrogates
Janine Antoni solidifies the history of feminist performance art.
by Nicole Kaack

Negative Space
For Mary Miss, whose public art has changed with the times, resourcefulness is resilience.
by Eleanor Heartney

Cringe Culture
You know “cringe” when you see—but what exactly does it look like?
by Eugenie Brinkema

DEPARTMENTS

Datebook
A highly discerning list of things to experience this fall.
by the Editors of A.i.A.

Hard Truths
An artist anguishes over the prospect of grants, and an art handler ponders a dropped painting. Plus, an interactive quiz.
by Chen & Lampert

Sightlines
Curator Jordan Carter tells us what he likes.

Battle Royale
Frieze London vs. Art Basel Paris—two fall art fairs go head-to-head.
by the Editors of A.i.A.

Inquiry
Lucy Sante talks about what collages enables that writing can’t.
by Andy Battaglia

Revelations
A writer singles out John Frederick Kensett’s Mount Chocorua.
by Benjamin Moser

Syllabus
A reading list for a crash course on Pop art.
by Kelly Montana

Appreciation
A tribute to VALIE EXPORT, who was ahead of her time and as subtle as she was provocative.
by Nathan Stobaugh

Issues & Commentary
The world’s first AI art museum has a strange way of honoring the rainforest.
by Louis Bury

Spotlight
Leonor Fini provoked Surrealism’s fascination with youthful femininity.
by Eliza Goodpasture

Book Review
A reading of What Was America?: Art, Culture, and Politics in the Bicentennial Era.
by Anna Kornbluh

New Talent
Abi Palmer takes play seriously.
by Emily Watlington

Cover Artist
Janine Antoni talks about her artwork on the cover of A.i.A.

REVIEWS

Venice
Venice Diary
by Joseph L. Underwood

Annandale-on-Hudson
Betty Parsons
by John Yau

London
Ana Mendieta
by Eliza Goodpasture

New York
“Democracy Matters”
by Cat Dawson

Marcel Duchamp
by Ara H. Merjian

Reykjavík
Björk
by Andy Battaglia