Congratulations to Yayoi Kusama on the fantastic installation across the gardens, conservatory and library of New York Botanical Garden. The show, curated by my friend and colleague Mika Yoshitake, makes the strongest case ever that Kusama’s infinity-inspired art has always been about COSMIC NATURE. My catalogue essay, Forget Yourself and become One with Nature, argues that Kusama is, after all, a panpsychist. #mustsee #yayoikusama #kusama #kusamanybg #cosmos #cosmicconsciousness #yayoikusamamuseum #nybg @mikayoshitake @davidzwirner @victoriamirogallery @otafinearts #panpsychism
The recent article in the @NYPost highlights the timeline of Kusama’s success beginning with her early years in NYC. I shed some light on my fierce conviction in the historical power of her work leading to the 1989 exhibition “Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective” presented at the Center for International Contemporary Arts, New York, which was the first critical survey of her work. It is extraordinary to see how deeply she reaches people all over the world now. Check out my story to read the article. — Photo: Getty Images — @melissamalamut #yayoikusama #kusama #nyc #nycart #nycartist #japaneseartist #artinnyc #artofinstagram #artoftheday #kusamayayoi
In Iceland, Robert and I are celebrating our wedding anniversary. Here we are at the volcano, 500m from the erupting molten lava fires of the caldera. The cold air is singed with molten heat, and the river of lava flows beneath us, at bullet train speed. A geologist tells us we are looking into the future, 400 to 500 years, when the geothermal vestiges of this eruption today will warm the planet then. The rugged landscape, giant waterfalls, cracked mountains, vast lava fields and of course, the endless light have captured our imagination. It’s a magical place. #iceland #volcano #anniversary #lava #bluelagoon #dalur @robertrosenkranz
On Wednesday, April 28 at 3:00pm ET, join us for a one-day online international symposium/scholarly gathering jointly organized by the University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA and the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. The scholars, critics, artists, curators, and architects/designers will respond critically to the symposium’s theme, “Rethinking the Curation of Chinese Contemporary Art.” I look forward to speaking specifically about staging contemporary Chinese art as global history. Register via the link in my website / story. #JasonKUO #PaulGLADSTON #LynneHOWARTHGLADSTON #AlecTZANNES #CHANGTsongZung #AlecTZANNES #JackieMENZIES #MeiqinWANG #FrankVIGNERON #JaneDeBEVOISE #HongweiBAO #DavidJOSELIT #ChineseArt #ContemporaryArt #GlobalHistory #ChineseContemporaryArt Photo: #ChenZhen (1955 Shanghai, China – 2000 Paris, France), “Precipitous Parturition,” 1999 Rubber bicycle inner tubes and sheeting, bicycles, steel, aluminum and plastic toy cars, and acrylic paint, length: approximately 26 m, diameter: approximately 150 cm. Pinault Collection, Paris. Installation view: “Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World,” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, October 6, 2017–January 7, 2018.
Today, I led a tour for Guggenheim patrons to Kusama’s “Cosmic Nature” show at #nybg. The summer has settled in, offering a rich living environment for Kusama’s art to thrive. It was our first in-person gathering in over a year! And, the catalogues just arrived, featuring my essay on Kusama and panpsychism, “Forget Yourself and Become One with Nature!” Please order and enjoy! #nybgkusama #cosmic #kusama #guggenheim #thankyou
In Aspen, best show is Cerith Wyn Evans at Aspen Art Museum…this installation, called S-T-U-P-A (2017) draws from Islamic and Buddhist sacred architectural forms, transformed by light and Murano glass into a mesmerizing work, part festival, part temple. Congratulations to Director Nicola Lees for literally turning the lights on at @aspenartmuseum. #cerithwynevans #cerithwynevansexhibition #whitecubegallery #mariangoodmangallery #takaishiigallery #light #aspen #artcrush @nicolaleesm
The Guggenheim rotunda is transformed in ways we have never experienced by the moving majesty of Wu Tsang’s Anthem, a film projection of performer and activist Beverly Glenn-Copeland signing, among other works, a chant-like rendition of “Deep River.” This installation culminates the Guggenheim’s Re-Projections series of video and performance works to activate an empty rotunda over the eery pandemic months. See @nytimes review by @hollandcotter on how the Guggenheim pivoted to experimental and alternative programming in response to the multiple crises we faced over the last year. Congratulations to @xzhunowell, @wu_tsang for brilliant collaboration. #guggenheim #newyorkcity #wutsang #anthem #nytimes
In my twenties, I visited Elsa in her village in Sant Martí Vell, stayed at her Roma apartment, and years later, took my husband to meet her at her tower in Porto Ercole. In these medieval spaces, she lived with Zen calligraphy, Indonesian textiles, modern Italian furniture mixed with farmer’s tools as sculpture, a rustic Spanish chair, collections of animal bones, feathers, rocks, and her own timeless tableware designs in silver, colored glass, lacquer, and leather. She wore kaftans and her own necklaces; she’d place a flower picked from the roadside in her famous silver vase pendent. No one has style like Elsa. We stayed in touch until we didn’t. I am so sad these weeks because I let this friendship glide away. And the NYT obituary is a sexist sensationalist piece of shit. Elsa Peretti is the most important force in jewelry design in a century – and the first woman ever to reach such heights. Her genius shall live on for as long as people adorn themselves, and for as long as they have an imagination for style. #ElsaPeretti #TiffanyAndCo #Fashion #Style #LacquerBracelet #Lacquer #Tiffanys #StyleIcon #Icon #Jewelry #JewelryDesigner #Design #FashionStyle
In London, after being away from my home away from home for two years! Thrilled to spend ACTUAL time together with my Guggenheim Abu Dhabi colleagues @jessicacerasi and @sandhini.poddar. Here, we are visiting @ranabegumstudio and celebrating her many public commissions, dissolving “monuments” into swaths of diaphanous form and color. #ranabegum #london #contemporaryart #amritajhaverigallery #best #guggenheim
I am mourning the recent loss of my remarkable friend, Elsa Peretti. I knew her from our Kyoto days in the late 1970s, when she came to work with Japanese craftspeople for designs she was developing for Tiffany’s. Many were 14th or 15th generation artisans, steeped in centuries of tradition. Elsa blew them all away with radical re-inventions of timeless material and form. She sat on the floor with them and talked in the language only artists know—gestures, drawings, running a hand over a crafted surface. These old men loved her, and recognized a kindred spirit. She turned temple banner silk cords into woven belts. Tea lacquerware into bangles. Old basket-weave lunch boxes into evening purses, licked in silver leaf. Issey Miyake was creating his own revolution, looking to Japanese kimono and farming gear for inspiration. They were great friends. I have never worn Miyake without an Elsa. There were legends of Elsa and Halston and Warhol and cocaine in Studio 54 days, but what I saw was a generous Tuscan genius. One night, at two in the morning at our friend David Kidd’s Kyoto house, she dug into her purse and gave me $1000 in six different currencies and said that, before moving back from years in Japan to New York for my first job (at Japan Society), I needed to travel to Asia. It was my first grant. I went to Hong Kong and Taiwan, expanding and deepening my connection to East Asia. All thanks to Elsa. She changed the world of jewelry design as much as my other great friend who just left this world, Jack Lenor Larsen, who changed the world of textile design. And both changed those worlds because they were changed by Japan. #ElsaPeretti #TiffanyAndCo #JewelryDesign #Kyoto #Japan #Fashion #Style #LacquerBracelet #Lacquer #Tiffanys #StyleIcon #Icon #Jewelry #JewelryDesigner #Design #FashionStyle
In March 2011, I went to Iraq and Afghanistan with the Council on Foreign Relations. We met with US and NATO military, NGO workers, diplomats, and at my request, artists and writers. It was clear then that what was becoming the forever war was a colossal catastrophe on every conceivable front. I remember what the Taliban Pashtuns were telling us: “You have the watches, but we have the time.” These are dark days of tragedy, betrayal and chaos. #kabul #afghanistan #tragedy @cfr_org
And here is Bob Wilson. @LaurieAnderson had visited the day before and dropped off the new book, “I AM YOUR MIRROR”, an anthology of Lou Reed’s lyrics. So many loves, so many lifetimes. @watermillcenter #loureed #loureedforever #love #laurieanderson
Congratulations to the organizers and speakers of the Culture Summit Abu Dhabi! We have learned a lot and feel we have lots to hope for, too. The pandemic and its “global pause” has compelled us all to rethink, recalibrate and re-invent our practices and world views. We are different citizens, now. Here is Rayyane Tabet’s installation drawing the form of a disembodied pipeline in the Saudi desert. He was one of several artists, architects, thought-leaders and activists who shared his criticality, thinking process, and creative vision for our future worlds. Tune in now for the final sessions! #culturesummitad2021 #rayyanetabet @culturesummitad
JUSTICE! It was the 9 minute video taken by bystander, 17-year old Darnella Frazier, which changed history last year as the country and the world rose in empathy, rage and protest in the visceral wake of George Floyd’s murder, and the murder verdict today handed down against Derek Chauvin. JUSTICE. Darnella is pictured here receiving PEN America’s 2020 Courage Award. #blacklivesmatter @darnella_frazier03 #justiceforgeorgefloyd
Join me and @marikomori on Instagram Live on Sunday, April 4 at 9pm ET. #teaceremony #teaceremonywithmariko
“Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective” presented at the Center for International Contemporary Arts, New York in 1989, was the first critical survey of Yayoi Kusama. I had the pleasure of curating this show and working on this catalogue with Reiko Tomii, who researched and compiled crucial biographical and bibliographic information on Kusama and her activities in Japan, the United States, and Europe until 1989. The catalogue is a treasure, and we are proud to see it in The Art Newspaper’s recent guide for Kusama’s “must-read” books. – Speaking of Kusama catalogues—I recently contributed an essay to the catalogue which will be published by Rizzoli Electa on the occasion of “KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature,” presented by the New York Botanical Garden. Stay tuned, and make sure to book your tickets to see this show! #YayoiKusama #Kusama #ReikoTomii #NYBGKusama #KusamaNYBG #CosmicNature #NYBG @nybg @rizzolibooks @theartnewspaper
@LaurieAndersonOfficial will present the 2021 Norton Lectures, “Spending the War Without You: Virtual Backgrounds,” at Mahindra Humanities Center at @Harvard. The first lecture, “The River”, will be presented tomorrow at 5pm! Register via the link in my story. – #LaurieAnderson #Harvard #HarvardEvents #Humanities
Reykjavík’s #Fagradalshraun volcano and it’s lava fountains shooting hundreds of meters high.
I look forward to speaking with KACF president Kyung B. Yoon and ABC Night-line co-anchor Juju Chang about the significance of circulating awareness on anti-Asian discrimination as well as the role of art and cultural institutions in building solidarity and empathy through programs and outreach. Tune in on Monday, May 3, 2021 at 12pm ET. RSVP via the link on my website or story. #antiasianracism #antiasianhatecrimes #frieze #friezeartfair #friezeny #abc #abcnews @abcnews @tinakimgallery #culture #art #jujuchang #kyungyoon @jujuchangabc @kyungyoonnyc
So pleased to post this interview with the brilliant artist, Ding Yi. #DingYi #ArtAndChina #ChineseContemporaryArt #ContemporaryChina #China #Art #ContemporaryChineseArt #ContemporaryArt #InstaArt #ArtistOfTheDay #Artist #Paintings
Nico Muhly and I went on a pilgrimage to Watermill to see Bob Wilson, back from nearly a year in Europe. We were talking about “megastructures” – how each of them, director and composer, structures the drama and cadence of their work as it unfolds in time on a stage. Here, Nico draws and explains how he maps out a choral mass, whose elements are inviolable but whose grace and wonder can lead us anywhere. We are sitting in Bob’s think room, surrounded by his vast collection of totems from all times and all cultures. We are famished for such conversation. Audio on! @watermillcenter #nicomuhly #robertwilson @nicomuhly #wonder #brilliance #lunarnewyear
The events in Myanmar are tragic and desperate. — Here is a Statement by Myanmar Artists, 1 March 2021: — The free and fair general elections were held successfully in Myanmar on 8th November 2020 and the National League for Democracy (NLD) party has won another landslide victory. — However, Myanmar Military staged a coup on 1st February 2021 by allegations of election fraud (without providing or having strong evidence). We believe that it was an attempt of bringing a military dictatorship alive again by completely ignoring over 30 million people’ democratically decided votes. — Until today 1st March, most people across Myanmar are still expressing their true desires by several forms of peaceful protests, with no sign of ending, against the coup. We, Myanmar Artists, are also standing with all these people and the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) to continue expressing our desires. — Accordingly, we hereby would like to appeal all our friends and institutions abroad as follows for your consideration and actions: 1. Do not recognize the military junta as a legitimate government, by any means. 2. Do not cooperate (individually or institutionally) with the military junta for any projects. 3. Do not support or make any acts that may support the military junta materially or mentally, by any means. 4. Spread all above mentioned messages to other institutions and bodies within your reach. Artists Tun Win Aung, Wah Nu, Aung Ko, Min Thein Sung, Po Po — #prayformyanmar #myanmar Photo: Getty Images via @guardian
I look forward to participating in the 4th Edition of the Culture Summit Abu Dhabi, organized by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, which will take place virtually on March 8-10, 2021. This year we host cultural thought leaders across the fields of art, heritage, museums, media, and technology under the theme of ‘The Cultural Economy and the Economy of Culture’. I will be speaking on the panels “Reckoning with Globalism” with Hoor Al Qasimi, Gabi Ngcobo, ruangrupa, and Sunjung Kim on March 9 at 10am ET and “Making the Local” with Michael Armitage, Philip Tinari, Reem Fadda, and Storm Janse van Rensburg on March 10 at 7:30am ET. Please join us and other Guggenheim events. Register via the link on my website. — @culturesummitad @guggenheim @hooralq @gabingcobo @sunjungkim @michael_armitage_studio @philiptinari @reemfadda @stormjvr @ruangrupa
