The focus of July’s Summer Session is celebrity, and for our first installment we bring you an article from our sister publication Art Practical. Here, Anton Stuebner reviews the first single-author, book-length monograph of Jean-Michel Basquiat, written by Jordana Moore Saggese. While acknowledging the “celebrity politics” at play in Basquiat’s career, Saggese’s critical look at his oeuvre and iconography asserts the artistic merit of his work over his[…..]

“…In reimagining traditions of portraiture, the artists featured not only reinsert black subjects into the pictorial frame, they also redefine these creative traditions as inherently mutable and, as such, capable of representing complex subjectivities that exist beyond the boundaries of race, gender, sexuality, and class.” From our partners at Art Practical, today we bring you Anton Stuebner’s review of Portraits and Other Likenesses from SFMOMA. This article was[…..]

Today from our partners at Art Practical, we bring you Anton Stuebner’s consideration of Derek Jarman: Super 8, a recent monograph from Thames & Hudson. Steubner notes, “[The book] shows an artist fully coming into his own at a social and historical moment when his distinct creative voice would become more needed than ever.” This article was originally published on April 9, 2015. In his lifetime, Derek Jarman (1942–1994) was[…..]

Today from our partners at Art Practical, we bring you a review of This Is Real Life, artist Diedrick Brackens’ current solo show at Johansson Projects in Oakland. Author Anton Stuebner notes, “By invoking […] histories and their associations, Brackens acknowledges that seemingly innocuous devices can produce real and violent effects.” This article was originally published on March 31, 2015. Diedrick Brackens’ show at Johansson Projects, This Is Real[…..]

Today from our partners at Art Practical, we bring you an assessment of Jordana Moore Saggese’s new monograph, Reading Basquiat: Exploring Ambivalence in American Art. Of Basquiat’s work, reviewer Anton Stuebner notes: “[the] canvases require viewers to […] recognize that the boundaries of pictorial representation, like language, can be redefined and reformed.” This article was originally published on October 7, 2014. The mythology around Jean-Michel Basquiat continues to proliferate in[…..]