14 MARCH 2016
Contributors
ERIC FISCHL
Art fair characters gather on this month’s cover,
a digital photo-collage by Eric Fischl. Recent
paintings based on such vignettes will appear in
his solo exhibition at Skarstedt, New York, in May.
Fischl’s figurative work has been widely exhibited
in the U.S. and abroad since the early ’80s. The
traveling show “Dive Deep: Eric Fischl and the
Process of Painting” premiered at the Pennsylvania
Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, in 2012.
Fischl’s autobiography,Bad Boy: My Life On and
Off the Canvas, coauthored with Michael Stone,
was released by Crown Publishers in 2013.CAROL BECKER
Dean of the Columbia University School of the
Arts in New York, Carol Becker has written
many books of cultural criticism, including
The Invisible Drama: Women and the Anxiety of
Change(2014, second edition),Thinking in Place:
Art, Action, and Cultural Production(2009) and
Surpassing the Spectacle: Global Transformations
and the Changing Politics of Art(2001). She also
is a member of the Global Agenda Council
on the Role of Art in Society for the World
Economic Forum. In this issue, Becker profiles
Dutch artist Daan Roosegarde, who helms the
interactive design lab Studio Roosegaarde.ERIKAVOGTand
SHANNON EBNER
Our Portfolio this issue culls stage-set images by
Erika Vogt and Shannon Ebner fromLava Plus
Knives, a collaborative group performance that was
part of the Artist Theater Program series, organized
by Vogt.Lava Plus Kniveswas commissioned by
Performa 15, New York, and the Fondation Galeries
Lafayette, Paris, and staged in a black box theater in
Brooklyn. Ebner’s solo show “A Public Character”
opened at the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami
in October 2015, and Vogt’s videoThe Engraved
Plane(2012) is currently on view in “Reconstructions:
Recent Photographs and Video from the Met
Collection” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, through Mar. 13.JENNIE C. JONES
This month, Muse contributor Jennie C. Jones
weighs her admiration for the late Ellsworth Kelly
against her concern over the marginalization of
African-American art. In “Compilation,” the
Brooklyn-based artist’s midcareer survey at the
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (through
Mar. 27), modernist abstraction meets black avant-
garde music in a range of artistic mediums. Her
awards include the Joyce Alexander Wein Prize
(2012), presented by the Studio Museum in Harlem,
and the Robert Rauschenberg Award (2016), given
by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Jones is
currently a visiting critic at Yale University.ROBERT REID-PHARR
With a dual-venue Robert Mapplethorpe survey
opening this month in L.A., Robert Reid-
Pharr, distinguished professor of English and
American studies at the Graduate Center of the
City University of New York, reexamines the
provocative nature of the photographer’s work.
In addition to numerous articles, Reid-Pharr has
authored three books on race and sexuality. His
latest work,Archives of Flesh: African America,
Spain, and Post-Humanist Critique, is forthcoming
from New York University Press. He has received
grants from the Humboldt, Ford and Mellon
foundations, as well as the National Endowment
for the Humanities.KEVIN KILLIAN
San Francisco-based poet, author and playwright
Kevin Killian is one of five recipients of the
inaugural Robert Rauschenberg Foundation/
Art in America Arts Writing Fellowship, a
pilot program launched in 2015. The California
College of the Arts faculty member is the author
of many works. His short story collections have
won the PEN Oakland Award and the Lambda
Literary Award. Killian is also cofounder of the
San Francisco Poets Theater, for which he has
authored more than 30 plays. Here, he recalls
dealer David Cunningham’s influence on art and
culture in the City by the Bay.