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.

My book stand marks time. #caturday #BlackCat

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

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.

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.

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

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)

New sculpture on the Freedom Trail by Harmonia Rosales commemorates 219 known people who, we now know, were enslaved by members and ministers of King's Chapel (founded 1686). Dedicated today on the corner of Tremont & School Streets. @universalhub.com

Yes! Women read and wrote in the European Middle Ages! Stop transposing US chattel slavery practices to an imagined Middle Ages!

Great example. I’ve often heard people say they believe medieval people discouraged or punished female literacy, whereas Mary is usually shown reading during the Annunciation, so every medieval person constantly saw images of the #1 female role model reading. The anti-learning Middle Ages is a myth.

Well this is awful news: tinyurl.com/yr65mjkx 'All modern language and music courses are being suspended for new students at the University of Nottingham.' Nottingham friends: please be assured that we will join you in protesting against this decision in the strongest possible terms. Solidarity.

I went to see the new Hildegard opera last night and it needs a medievalist. The tamest issue: referencing “books and manuscripts” in the libretto. Bigger problems: ahistorical US gender and sexuality assumptions built into the plot. Spouse will testify I flapped hands exasperatedly throughout.

All the more important given everything to remember the past wasn’t a brutal version of current US Christian evangelical gender regime.

"should women work" but it really means "should men have to ever answer to or even encounter women who are not their wives, offspring, and/or other servile figures"

I am so upset. Last week Time Magazine solicited a piece from me on Zohran Mamdani & anti-Muslim hate. I pitched a framing re the dehumanization of Muslims & how Mamdani’s inclusive, socialist campaign in its content resists that. They agreed. I wrote the piece. 1/

It's a great day to vote 👋

Right, 'Evelyn's daughter' went on a big American late night show and talked about the Warburg and Renaissance research. So early modern studies are saved, right? RIGHT? We've got impact now and are cool again? (It *is* the most incredible place in the world.)

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.

An extraordinary discovery was made in Ibiza: a 30-centimeter wooden sculpture representing Hercules. Considering the scarcity of wooden sculptures preserved from the Roman era, this discovery is truly remarkable. The figure was found in a Roman well that was later reused as a refuse pit. 🧵1/2 🏺

Someone needs to explain to me Dodgers hate, please.

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.

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.

"After four days in custody, the two suspects detained last weekend have “partially” admitted their involvement with the robbery"

Last chance to turn it off. On Monday, November 3rd, Microsoft will start using your LinkedIn data for AI training. And remember, you're opted in by default. To toggle it off 👉 Account - Settings & Privacy > Data privacy > Data for Generative AI Improvement.

AI-generated images are the visual hallmark of 21st c. fascism.

"Under the plan... the Recreation and Parks Department would pay the estimated $4.4 million cost to have the 710-ton sculpture disassembled and moved to off-site storage for up to three years, while the artwork’s permanent fate is determined." $4.4 million to think about it! [gift link]

Minimizing COVID-19 is maximizing social harm One of the best articles I've read all year because it centers social justice and equity. Published today Gift link 🎁 www.thespec.com/opinion/cont...

Had the pleasure of introducing someone to the @themountaingoats.bsky.social. I picked "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton" and now have to go apologize to a bunch of other songs. What would you have chosen?

It's not that I want art museums to become a site of flung paint; it's that I don't want us to all die on a burning planet. It's washable paint. It's on a glass vitrine. There was no damage to art whatsoever. Epstein rapists go free and climate activists sit in jail. What a world.

🚨🚨🚨 Major announcement!!! I am extremely pleased to announce that HAA is searching for a senior, endowed position in premodern art or architecture. The subfield is wide open. Please spread the word and encourage curious scholars to write to me with questions! 🚨🚨🚨 cfopitt.taleo.net/careersectio...

Millennials always ask how your pets are doing.

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.

Turn off Gemini in Google! It's been turned on by default. Go to your Drive, click the gear icon, click settings, go to "manage apps" and uncheck that nasty "use by default" box. www.zdnet.com/article/how-...

The White House has fired all six members of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, the independent federal agency that reviews design plans for monuments, memorials, coins and federal buildings. n.pr/4ntG3PR

“This marks the first time that the Museum has resolved an ownership claim for works of art that were wrongfully taken under the conditions of slavery in the 19th-century U.S.”

“The [MFA] has reached a historic agreement with the known descendants of David Drake (also known as Dave the Potter) regarding two monumental stoneware vessels in the MFA’s collection that were made by the enslaved potter and poet…”

Outside SFMOMA on a Wednesday, I observe first hand how many visitors are surprised by its weekly midday closure. The neighborly thing would be to advertise the Museum of the African Diaspora literally around the corner or the Berggruen Gallery or YBCA, both across the street. Someone tell Lurie.

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.

Sometimes a title is the cleverest part of an artwork

Burglars stole more than 1,000 items, including jewelry and historic artifacts, from the Oakland Museum of California this month in a major art heist now being probed by a special FBI team.

Just learned Lauren Santo Domingo is a vice president of Save Venice. Of course.

It’s about time!

We should not be having a debate about Nazi symbolism tattooed on the potentially top ticket Democrat in Maine. The fact we are even willing to entertain it shows desperation within the Party, not dedication, and how far we have fallen from rational thought.