The Walker Curates the News: 09.21.15

Kalup Linzy views Édouard Manet's Young Man in the Costume of a Majo (1863)

Kalup Linzy views Édouard Manet’s Young Man in the Costume of a Majo (1863)

Likening Manet’s process to his own video/performance art practice, Kalup Linzy shared his thoughts on the painter’s matador portraits for The Met’s Artist Project. “He was experimenting,” he says, noting that the paintings were done in Manet’s Paris studio and that two subjects wore the identical bullfighter suit. “I love the idea of him having the clothes in the studio, and the models would just come in and put them on and pose as the characters or the personae. That sounds so contemporary.”

  • The UK’s largest art prize, the biennial Artes Mundi, has announced its seven-artist shortlist, which includes Hito Steyerl and Nástio Mosquito, filmmaker John Akomfrah (The Stuart Hall Project), and Amy Franceschini of Futurefarmers. On October 21, an exhibition at National Museum Cardiff and Chapter will open, showcasing each finalist’s work. The winner of the £40,000 prize will be announced in January.
  • Despite opposition from Dan Flavin’s estate over whether they have permission, Allora & Calzadilla are going through with plans to install a 1965 Flavin work in a limestone cave on Puerto Rico’s southern coast. Opening September 23 in a cave within Puerto Rico’s El Convento Natural Protected Area, Puerto Rican Light (Cueva Vientos) uses a solar cell to power Flavin’s Puerto Rican Light (to Jeanie Blake) (1965).
  • Swiss type designer Adrian Frutiger has died at age 87. Maker of typefaces including Univers, Avenir, and Frutiger, his work has been used on everything from London street signs to the identity for the 1972 Munich Olympics.
  • “I love the idea of art in unexpected places, as long as the artwork can be kept as a distinct work”: Maya Lin on her foray into fashion, a Fashion Week installation of seven mounds of toxin-free compost at Pier 94, the backdrop for the debut of Phillip Lim’s Spring collection.
  • This summer, global graphic designers—including Erik Brandt, Dante Carlos, and Sarah Boris—are leaving their mark via Backsides, “a parasitic poster exhibition that capitalises on the highly-visible empty space provided by the derrières of Britain’s road signs.”

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