Queen of performance
art Marina Abramović
(above) will be the first
woman to take over
the Royal Academy’s
main galleries with an
exhibition next
autumn. Reports
suggest that the
Serbian artist, who
favours extreme acts
of endurance, is
working on creating a
truly spectacular
performance for her
London show which
involves charging
herself with one million
volts of electricity to
snuff out a candle with
a wave of her finger.
Expect to be shocked
and awed.In 1982 the
Hungarian-born artist
Agnes Denes planted
a two-acre field of
wheat on a landfill
site in lower
Manhattan. The
installation which, in
the words of the
artist, “referred to
mismanagement,
waste and world
hunger”, established
her as a visionary
figure in the
conceptual and
environmental art
movements. Denes,
now 88, has been
largely forgotten
outside the art world,
but The Shed, a new
multi-disciplinary arts
space in New York,
will help restore her
reputation with an
exhibition of around
150 works including
new pieces (October
9-January 19, 2020).ELECTRIC
DREAMSLEFTFIELDHEY JUDY
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST, SALON 94, NEW YORK, AND JESSICA SILVERMAN GALLERY, SAN FRANCISCO © JUDY CHICAGO/ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY, NEW YORK. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THROUGH THE FLOWER ARCHIVES. IMAGE COURTESY OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS OF SAN FRANCISCO JUDY CHICAGO, IMMOLATION, FROM ‘WOMEN AND SMOKE’, 1972. FIREWORKS PERFORMANCE, PERFORMED IN CALIFORNIA DESERT£; COURTESY OF THE MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ ARCHIVES © MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, ARTIST PORTRAIT WITH A CANDLE C£, FROM THE SERIES PLACES OF POWER, 2013£; JASON WYCHE © KARA WALKER KARA WALKER, A SUBTLETY OR THE MARVELOUS SUGAR BABY, DOMINO SUGAR REFINERY, BROOKLYN, NY, 2014£; COURTESY THE ARTIST AND LESLIE TONKONOW ARATWORKS + PROJECTS AGNES DENES, THE HUMAN ARGUMENT IV - LIGHT MATRIX, 1987/2012£; © YAYOI KUSAMA. COURTESY DAVID ZWIRNER, NEW YORK; OTA FINE ARTS, TOKYO/SINGAPORE/SHANGHAI; VICTORIA MIRO, LONDON/VENICE KUSAMA PICTURED WITH LOVE IS CALLING, 2013 DURING HER EXHIBITION ‘I WHO HAVE ARRIVED IN HEAVEN’ AT DAVID ZWIRNER, NEW YORK, 2013£
,
£;
,
,
,
,
,
£;
,
NEW YORK. GIFT OF CANDACE KING WEIR THROUGH THE MODERN WOMEN’S FUND, AND COMMITTEE ON PAINTING AND SCULPTURE FUNDS. © 2019 BETYE SAAR, COURTESY THE ARTIST AND ROBERTS PROJECTS, LOS ANGELES. DIGITAL IMAGE © 2018 THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK, PHOTO BY ROB GERHARDT BETYE SAAR, BLACK GIRL’S WINDOW, 1969£This month, the U.S. artist Kara Walker takes
on the challenge of lling Tate Modern’s
Turbine Hall (October 2-April 5, 2020). Details
of the installation are under wraps, but a clue
might be found in her massive sphinx-like
sculpture from 2014 (below), which addresses
slavery and the history of sugar production.
Might she return to this theme at Tate, a
museum founded by a man who made his
fortune in the sugar trade?Ê
While many of her female peers have struggled for recognition, the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, 90, is the most
popular artist in the world by number of exhibitions, quantity of visitors they attract and multitude of social media posts.
The public’s favourite pieces are the artist’s trademark “In inity Rooms”, small spaces which intimate an endless universe
through mirrors and lights. A brand new “In inity Mirror Room” goes on show next month at Kusama’s New York gallery,
David Zwirner (November 9-December 14) where you can expect timed tickets and competitive instagramming. Meanwhile,
in Boston, the ICA has just inaugurated a two-year display of its own “In inity Mirror Room”, Love is Calling (above, with
Kusama), complete with polka-dot in latable tentacles (until February 7, 2021). Outdoors, more Kusama polka dots, pumpkins
and mirrored environments go on display across the New York Botanical Gardens next year (May 2-November 1, 2020).Ê
Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party (1974-79), a triangular
table with 39 place settings commemorating women from history,
is a keystone of feminist art. Despite this, Chicago has never been
honoured with a museum show which explores the entire span of
her 50-year career. Next year, San Francisco’s de Young Museum
is rectifying this with a full-blown retrospective (May 9-September
5, 2020). Meanwhile, the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art,
Gateshead, is hosting the irst major U.K. exhibition of Chicago’s
art, including her early Women and Smoke series (above) (November
16-April 19, 2020).Ininity and Beyond
Don’t Sugar
THE PILL
NOVEMBER 2019 VANITY FAIR ON ART11-19-News-Women.indd 23 24/09/2019 10:0323