Art Viewer
@arthistory.bsky.social
art historian with eclectic interests
early modernist & medievalist, believe it or not
early modernist & medievalist, believe it or not
Finally made it to the Forestiere Underground Gardens A Sicilian son of citrus growers arrived in Fresno after digging the NYC subway for 3yrs, realized it was cooler underground and built himself a resort rabbit Warren of interlocking caves open to the sunshine above.
November 11, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Finally made it to the Forestiere Underground Gardens A Sicilian son of citrus growers arrived in Fresno after digging the NYC subway for 3yrs, realized it was cooler underground and built himself a resort rabbit Warren of interlocking caves open to the sunshine above.
Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch on Route 66 with a sound of chimes, birds, trucks, and train. Light illuminates the bottles like stained glass in the peaceful grove. I’d like to think Duchamp and John Cage would have recognized their descendant. Begun 2000. Elmer Long died in 2019.
November 11, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch on Route 66 with a sound of chimes, birds, trucks, and train. Light illuminates the bottles like stained glass in the peaceful grove. I’d like to think Duchamp and John Cage would have recognized their descendant. Begun 2000. Elmer Long died in 2019.
Joshua Tree, not in Joshua Tree. In case you don’t know, they grow over a wide swath of Southern California and can even be found in some lucky people’s front yards. I’ll never tire of California. Redwood trees to Joshua trees, what a range of wonders!
November 11, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Joshua Tree, not in Joshua Tree. In case you don’t know, they grow over a wide swath of Southern California and can even be found in some lucky people’s front yards. I’ll never tire of California. Redwood trees to Joshua trees, what a range of wonders!
I was charmed by these tiny houses atop wooden spikes in CAAM’s Reimagining the Black Interior show made of its permanent collection.
John Outterbridge, 22 Rhymes in a Row, 1977-78. USC, California African American Museum.
John Outterbridge, 22 Rhymes in a Row, 1977-78. USC, California African American Museum.
November 10, 2025 at 1:35 PM
I was charmed by these tiny houses atop wooden spikes in CAAM’s Reimagining the Black Interior show made of its permanent collection.
John Outterbridge, 22 Rhymes in a Row, 1977-78. USC, California African American Museum.
John Outterbridge, 22 Rhymes in a Row, 1977-78. USC, California African American Museum.
Some of John Outterbridge’s (b. 1933 North Carolina) first memories were of his mother ironing laundry for White people with a number of irons heated on the stove and a towel wrapped around their hot handles. “First Poet, Olivia” 1993. California African American Museum.
November 10, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Some of John Outterbridge’s (b. 1933 North Carolina) first memories were of his mother ironing laundry for White people with a number of irons heated on the stove and a towel wrapped around their hot handles. “First Poet, Olivia” 1993. California African American Museum.
The weight of it, yes, the monumentality at 9.5 x 11.5ft, produces overwhelmed silence. Was the cotton worth it?
Leonard Drew, No. 363, 2023. In MONUMENTS at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles
Leonard Drew, No. 363, 2023. In MONUMENTS at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles
November 9, 2025 at 2:11 PM
The weight of it, yes, the monumentality at 9.5 x 11.5ft, produces overwhelmed silence. Was the cotton worth it?
Leonard Drew, No. 363, 2023. In MONUMENTS at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles
Leonard Drew, No. 363, 2023. In MONUMENTS at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles
For example I’d never seen the Bone-Grass Boy series made during and about the AIDS crisis of Ken Gonzalez-Day’s Romancita alter ego living is up in Spanish-US colonial history made in the 90s. At USC Fisher Museum, Los Angeles
November 8, 2025 at 2:18 PM
For example I’d never seen the Bone-Grass Boy series made during and about the AIDS crisis of Ken Gonzalez-Day’s Romancita alter ego living is up in Spanish-US colonial history made in the 90s. At USC Fisher Museum, Los Angeles
USC has a wonderful retrospective of Ken Gonzalez-Day at the Fisher Museum that’s well worth the trip. It’s got best hits and deep cuts of an artist working hard to reveal American histories and what we hide.
![Untitled (After Jan Jansz, Landscape with an Episode from the Conquest of America, ca. 1535 [Rifksmuseum]),2021
Another Land: Decolonial Drawings series
Pencil, watercolor and archival ink on rag paper
Courtesy of the artist and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles
Landscape with an Episode from the Conquest of America, 1535
Jan Jansz Mostaert (1475-1555)
Oil on canvas
Collection of and image courtesy of
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:atzseybj6kr4tvtvp73bqyfh/bafkreiay6q4p2byzih2xy6mzizf54g3wm53paidflfl5pbkpjj625lzlvi@jpeg)
November 8, 2025 at 2:02 PM
USC has a wonderful retrospective of Ken Gonzalez-Day at the Fisher Museum that’s well worth the trip. It’s got best hits and deep cuts of an artist working hard to reveal American histories and what we hide.
November 8, 2025 at 1:53 PM
In addition to the monumental reconstructed equestrian Stonewall Jackson sculpture, Kara Walker also refashioned its stone plinth. The inscription faces down eith painted stars. The angels beheaded have a Black woman silhouetted, the other a hydra of sorts. The Brick, Los Angeles
November 7, 2025 at 5:43 PM
In addition to the monumental reconstructed equestrian Stonewall Jackson sculpture, Kara Walker also refashioned its stone plinth. The inscription faces down eith painted stars. The angels beheaded have a Black woman silhouetted, the other a hydra of sorts. The Brick, Los Angeles
The mood at MONUMENTS (Geffen Contemp. at MOCA, Los Angeles) is quiet, suppressed, on edge as befits galleries of Confederate imagery dismantled, marked, and yes, even intact as designed. Rejoinders by Black artists swing back but the exhibition does not declare the fight over. We have not won yet.
November 7, 2025 at 3:37 PM
The mood at MONUMENTS (Geffen Contemp. at MOCA, Los Angeles) is quiet, suppressed, on edge as befits galleries of Confederate imagery dismantled, marked, and yes, even intact as designed. Rejoinders by Black artists swing back but the exhibition does not declare the fight over. We have not won yet.
The aptly named artist Flora Yukhnovich takes a Titian turn in “Bacchanalia” at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles
November 7, 2025 at 1:52 PM
The aptly named artist Flora Yukhnovich takes a Titian turn in “Bacchanalia” at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles
Many people ask what to do with the removed Confederate monuments. Like Nazi detritus, their historical status is low. The cheaply made items are a dime a dozen but their impact remains uncalculatedly terrible. Kara Walker’s refashioning of a false hero into truth provides a productive way forward.
November 6, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Many people ask what to do with the removed Confederate monuments. Like Nazi detritus, their historical status is low. The cheaply made items are a dime a dozen but their impact remains uncalculatedly terrible. Kara Walker’s refashioning of a false hero into truth provides a productive way forward.
The White sculptor’s name of the original Stonewall Jackson monument in Charlottesville neatly stricken; Kara Walker’s artistic authorship gracefully inscribed at the base. Unmanned Drone, 2025. At The Brick, LA
November 6, 2025 at 7:49 PM
The White sculptor’s name of the original Stonewall Jackson monument in Charlottesville neatly stricken; Kara Walker’s artistic authorship gracefully inscribed at the base. Unmanned Drone, 2025. At The Brick, LA
Kara Walker employs the classical iconography of the defeated warrior: Jackson’s limp arm hangs uselessly dragging a sword it can no longer lift. He is the agent of his own demise, like the Confederacy
November 6, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Kara Walker employs the classical iconography of the defeated warrior: Jackson’s limp arm hangs uselessly dragging a sword it can no longer lift. He is the agent of his own demise, like the Confederacy
Tremendous achievement by Kara Walker in dismantling and reconstructing the Charlottesville monument to Stonewall Jackson. Its howling self-destructive demise is on full view at The Brick in Los Angeles. Now titled “Unmanned Drone” (2025)
November 6, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Tremendous achievement by Kara Walker in dismantling and reconstructing the Charlottesville monument to Stonewall Jackson. Its howling self-destructive demise is on full view at The Brick in Los Angeles. Now titled “Unmanned Drone” (2025)
Ricardo Fernandez, Noid, 2025, oil on linen, 8x10in. On view at Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
November 3, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Ricardo Fernandez, Noid, 2025, oil on linen, 8x10in. On view at Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
Rounding out my weekend of finishing overdue library books, Eve L. Ewing's Original Sins. You know at least the broad strokes, but Ewing's accumulation of history, info, details, specifics builds an irrefutable account of US original sins.
November 3, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Rounding out my weekend of finishing overdue library books, Eve L. Ewing's Original Sins. You know at least the broad strokes, but Ewing's accumulation of history, info, details, specifics builds an irrefutable account of US original sins.
Fascinating incriminating read. Well recommended. Thoughtful methodological inquiry from a Stanford prof and the woman he hired to work in his home. The IRB board returned the proposal to them saying it didn’t count as research.
November 1, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Fascinating incriminating read. Well recommended. Thoughtful methodological inquiry from a Stanford prof and the woman he hired to work in his home. The IRB board returned the proposal to them saying it didn’t count as research.
Enjoyable read with more information than one might expect from a trade book. If you're craving some info along with your boba, it's a good read.
November 1, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Enjoyable read with more information than one might expect from a trade book. If you're craving some info along with your boba, it's a good read.
One of the many portraits in Black in Berlin, a show (free entry!) of Yero Adugna Eticha’s photography at the Goethe Institut in Sam Francisco.
October 31, 2025 at 6:04 PM
One of the many portraits in Black in Berlin, a show (free entry!) of Yero Adugna Eticha’s photography at the Goethe Institut in Sam Francisco.
Delightful show of large floral collages by Jane Hammond at the Berggruen Gallery in SF. Abundant in the Dutch tradition, they’re set on Japanese textured papers.
October 30, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Delightful show of large floral collages by Jane Hammond at the Berggruen Gallery in SF. Abundant in the Dutch tradition, they’re set on Japanese textured papers.
Yero Adugna Yeticha, Black in Berlin photography exhibit at the Goethe Institut in San Francisco. Wonky opening hours so plan accordingly. It is, however, the most dust free zone I’ve seen in my life. So sauber.
October 29, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Yero Adugna Yeticha, Black in Berlin photography exhibit at the Goethe Institut in San Francisco. Wonky opening hours so plan accordingly. It is, however, the most dust free zone I’ve seen in my life. So sauber.
Such a pretty painting! It’s a nose-to-surface one. Try to avoid biting it.
Anne Vallayer (later Vallayer-Coster), Still Life with Plums and a Lemon, 1778, oil on canvas. San Francisco, Legion of Honor.
Anne Vallayer (later Vallayer-Coster), Still Life with Plums and a Lemon, 1778, oil on canvas. San Francisco, Legion of Honor.
October 29, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Such a pretty painting! It’s a nose-to-surface one. Try to avoid biting it.
Anne Vallayer (later Vallayer-Coster), Still Life with Plums and a Lemon, 1778, oil on canvas. San Francisco, Legion of Honor.
Anne Vallayer (later Vallayer-Coster), Still Life with Plums and a Lemon, 1778, oil on canvas. San Francisco, Legion of Honor.
Just found out it’s National Black Cat day, a holiday I can support. Hug a void! Peer into the fuzzy vortex! 🐈⬛
October 27, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Just found out it’s National Black Cat day, a holiday I can support. Hug a void! Peer into the fuzzy vortex! 🐈⬛