Artnet Bulletin is our new daily digest of five items from around the art world that are worth knowing. A different writer will do it every morning. This is Ben, and my tastes run to art theory, art reviews, curiosities, and the art-and-politics beat.
Great news for the Met.
Not that it was in doubt, but the New York museum is bragging that its much–lauded “Raphael: Sublime Poetry” exhibition was a blockbuster, wowing more than half a million visitors. That’s about 6,800 per day, the equivalent of selling out Radio City Music Hall (and then some) for three months straight. It’s the Met’s biggest hit since the pandemic—indeed, since Catholic fashion-mania in 2018.
Not-so-great news at the Guggenheim.
The museum was one of the 31 Upper East Side properties identified as being part of New York’s concerning Legionella bacteria outbreak. It’s been disinfected, though, and the museum said that there is “no risk to anyone inside the building.” Go in peace to see “Guggenheim Pop.”
Outside the new Peter Zumthor-designed David Geffen Galleries at LACMA. Photo by Ben Davis.
A review people are sharing is…
Juliana Halpert’s pan of the new Los Angeles County Museum of Art at e-flux Criticism. Halpert takes out the double-barreled shotgun and unloads on the new Peter Zumthor–designed David Geffen building, blasting both its design and the curating as the death of civic life and historical thought, respectively.
If you want to start an argument at an art party…
Bring up psychologist Adam Mastroianni’s Atlantic-approved “grand unified theory of cultural stagnation” next time someone says “art is bad now.” In his much-shared essay, he argues that risk-taking art declined for the same reason that violent crime has been in long-term decline—not because life is worse than in the past but because it’s better, so people take fewer risks. (It’s on my mind because Mastroianni just published a sequel, “The Decline of Deviance 2,” replying to his critics.)
A show I saw and liked was…
“David Byrne/Saul Steinberg: Influence and Affinity” at 125 Newbury in Tribeca. You’ve got most of the rest of the month to see how the protean Talking Head has made art alongside and literally around works by the always delightful New Yorker cartoon legend at the gallery. Here’s a pic I took.
Installation view of “David Byrne/Saul Steinberg: Influence and Affinity” at 125 Newbury. Photo: Ben Davis.
See you tomorrow, when my colleague Min Chen will be at the helm.
