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What Is Bad Art?
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What Is Bad Art?

Nina Childress sits down with Thomas Chatterton Williams to discuss painting, punk, and the politics of bad taste. The French-American artist Nina Childress has built a decades-spanning career around the indefatigable interrogation of ‘bad’ art and taste. Shaped by the rebellious spirit of punk rock, her approach has always been heterodox and fluid. Since the...

One Work: Error by Fabrice Hyber
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One Work: Error by Fabrice Hyber

As his solo exhibition opened at the Fondation Cartier in Paris, the artist explains his fascination with the evolution of living species. ‘I made Error (2022) this summer, for a group exhibition at the CENTQUATRE-PARIS, focusing on the theme of seeds. As in all my work, I wanted to tell a story: the story of seeds, from...

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Nick Cave Welcomes Us to Facility, His Multifunction Space in Chicago

Nick Cave: ‘When I realized that I was a messenger, that liberated me from everything.’ The Chicago-based artist on working from a place of purpose In this episode of ‘Meet the artists’, Art Basel visits Nick Cave in his Chicago live-work and exhibition space. Named Facility, it serves as a cultural capsule, a place for...

5 Facts to Take You Deeper into Botticelli’s “Allegory of Spring”
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5 Facts to Take You Deeper into Botticelli’s “Allegory of Spring”

Sando Botticelli’s Primavera, or Allegory of Spring, painted in the ‎late fifteenth century, is one of the most admired, yet controversial, paintings in the world. A perennial celebration of the most vibrant season, it evokes the spirit of spring through its depictions of figures from classical mythology. Standing in a grove, from left to right, we can see...

Security Guards Curate Exhibit at Baltimore Museum of Art
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Security Guards Curate Exhibit at Baltimore Museum of Art

Museums don’t usually need seventeen curators to mount one exhibit, but that’s how many worked on an eclectic new show at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA). Exclusively curated by museum guards, Guarding the Art features nearly thirty works of art handpicked from the BMA’s collection. “Our security officers spend more time in our galleries and living among our...

Sidney Poitier – Hollywood’s First Black Leading Man Reflected the Civil Rights Movement on Screen
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Sidney Poitier – Hollywood’s First Black Leading Man Reflected the Civil Rights Movement on Screen

In the summer of 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. introduced the keynote speaker for the 10th-anniversary convention banquet of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Their guest, he said, was his “soul brother.” “He has carved for himself an imperishable niche in the annals of our nation’s history,” King told the audience of 2,000 delegates. “I...

Germany Is Returning Nigeria’s Looted Benin Bronzes: Why It’s Not Nearly Enough
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Germany Is Returning Nigeria’s Looted Benin Bronzes: Why It’s Not Nearly Enough

After years of pressure, Germany recently announced that an agreement had been reached to return hundreds of priceless artefacts and artworks that had been looted from Nigeria in colonial times and were on display in German museums. Commonly called the Benin Bronzes, these beautiful and technically remarkable artworks have come to symbolise the broader restitution...

Women ‘Risk’ Grey Hair to Feel Authentic
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Women ‘Risk’ Grey Hair to Feel Authentic

Many women “risk” allowing natural grey hair to show in order to feel authentic, a new study shows. Researchers from the University of Exeter surveyed women who chose not to dye their grey hair, and found a “conflict” between looking natural and being seen as competent. Participants in the study – mostly from English-speaking countries...

America’s Hidden World of Handmade Pornography
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America’s Hidden World of Handmade Pornography

“To live among the handmade,” philosopher and antiques dealer Leon Rosenstein once said, “is to live among the human.” Well, there’s nothing more human than handmade pornography. When you hear “pornography,” you might think of Playboy and Penthouse, X-rated movies and internet porn. But one type that has been largely hidden and forgotten is the...