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House Democrats Move to Block Trump’s Proposed Arlington ‘Triumphal Arch’

A group of House Democrats will ntroduce legislation  aimed at stopping President Donald Trump’s proposed triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery, opening a new front in the growing battle over the administration’s efforts to reshape some of the nation’s most visible public monuments. Representatives Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Dina Titus (D-Nev.) announced this week that they will introduce the Arlington National Cemetery Viewshed Protection Act, which would explicitly prohibit construction of the proposed arch and bar the use of federal funds for the project. The legislation follows a recent vote by Trump appointees on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts approving designs for the monument.  The Trump administration has argued that the arch would serve as a commemorative structure tied to celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. Critics, however, contend that the project violates the Commemorative Works Act, which generally req...
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Art Critic Anthony Haden-Guest Says Socialite–Collector Libbie Mugrabi Won’t Return His Cartoons

Anthony Haden-Guest says nearly 100 of his cartoons have spent the past 15 years hanging in a Hamptons mansion owned by socialite and collector Libbie Mugrabi. Now he wants them back. In a lawsuit filed this week in New York State Supreme Court, first reported by the  New York Post ,  the veteran critic, cartoonist, and fixture of New York society accused Mugrabi of refusing to return 97 original drawings that were allegedly entrusted to her for a planned exhibition that never took place. The complaint alleges that roughly 15 years ago Haden-Guest provided the drawings to Mugrabi for a show at her Southampton home. Under the arrangement, according to the filing, the works would be framed at Mugrabi’s expense, displayed for prospective buyers, and either sold or returned. Instead, the exhibition never happened and the drawings remained hanging in the house, according to the lawsuit. “There was no contemplation whatsoever” that Mugrab...
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SXSW London’s Art Program Spotlights Spain’s ‘Underrated’ Contemporary Art Scene

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South by Southwest (SXSW) London returns for its second edition next week, taking over more than 20 venues clustered around the Trueman Brewery in Shoreditch. Known for its mix of technology, business, and music, and its focus on navigating global uncertainty, this year’s festival will also spotlight five visual artists exploring how technology is reshaping the creative industries. After launching in Austin, Texas, in 1987 as a music industry conference and festival, SXSW has grown into a massive global event. While still centered in Austin, London became its first European edition last year. Titled “Spain in Transmission: New Digital Work,” the art program at the London event is curated by Patrick Moore, the former director of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. Five artists are involved: Enrique Agudo, Filip Custic, Jesús Moratiel, and Marina Núñez — all from Spain — while American artist Molly Gochman is bringing her  Dispersed G...
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Trump Reinstalls Monument to Founding Father, Slave Owner Removed in 2020

Last Friday, the Trump administration erected 13 statues on Freedom Plaza in downtown Washington D.C.—including an equestrian monument dedicated to the Revolutionary War figure and slave owner Caesar Rodney that was removed from view in Wilmington, Delaware amidst the Black Lives Matter movement in June, 2020. The statue depicts Rodney’s famed 1776 ride from battle in Dover, Delaware to Philadelphia, where he cast the decisive vote for the country’s Independence. Rodney died in 1784, at his home on the Byfield plantation, where he owned 200 slaves. Surrounding the statue are 12 soldiers, who “represent the collective sacrifice of those who served during the Revolutionary War, reflecting the broad range of individuals who contributed to the nation’s founding,” according to a written statement spokesperson from the Department of the Interior. The spokesperson continued, “as we approach America’s 250th anniversary, the Trump administration has been comm...
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Ren Light Pan Dramatizes the Dilemma of the Trans Artist.

The first thing I see upon entering Ren Light Pan’s tiny New York studio is a large canvas with a monochrome image of Sleeping Hermaphroditus . It’s the one that’s in the Louvre: a life-size marble Roman copy of an ancient Greek bronze from the 2nd century C.E. Pan shows me a series of smaller images on canvas, variations on this classical figure by other artists. But Pan’s big one is most arresting, in part because it’s from a photograph in which we see the legs of spectators behind the reclining marble figure.  It’s not surprising that a transgender artist would choose this subject, or that a transgender writer would immediately recognize it. Hermaphroditus is a supposedly mythical figure. He was the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, so hot he turned the head of Salmacis. She was a rather wayward naiad who tried to force herself on the boy. The gods granted her prayer to unite them forever—and they became Hermaphroditus.  In Western visual culture, Herm...
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Pioneers of Rugby in Wellington 127: Winston McCarthy

“Listen…! It’s a goal!” One of the most memorable spoken moments in New Zealand sporting sporting broadcast history, and uttered by Wellington rugby commentator Winston McCarthy Winston John McCarthy was a leading rugby personality in the middle years of the twentieth century and he remains one of the most famous rugby broadcasters in New Zealand,...
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See Inside the Belarus Free Theatre’s Venice Exhibition on Art Under Authoritarianism

When the Belarus Free Theatre opened “Official. Unofficial. Belarus.” at La Chiesa di San Giovanni Evangelista di Venezia earlier this month, it marked the first time Belarus had a presence at the Venice Biennale in six years—and the first time it appeared there not as a state, but, as curator Daniella Kaliada put it, as “a self-governing, self-authored cultural body.” The distinction matters enormously. Belarus has only appeared at the Biennale a handful of times, and not since President Alexander Lukashenko’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 2020. In exile since those protests, the Belarus Free Theatre has been at the forefront of efforts to counter the dictatorial Lukashenko regime and telling the country’s story on the international stage. In Venice, the Theatre translates its approach to visual art, stepping away from the plays and theater productions that have become its calling card, to stage an e...
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