I’ve long been curious about what, exactly, leads to being canceled in the art world, since it doesn’t seem to take much. A recent psychological study offers some clarity: respondents reacted more negatively to an artist accused of sexual assault than to one accused of murder.
Against the backdrop of war, the Reina Sofía is placing art history’s most familiar anti-war image — Picasso’s “Guernica” (1937) — in conversation with other works to draw out political resonances. It is currently shown alongside South African artist Dumile Feni’s large-scale charcoal drawing “African Guernica” (1967), which Agnish Ray describes as especially timely as racial hostilities intensify in Spain.
Elsewhere, a garden is taking shape in Queens. Editor-at-Large Hrag Vartanian visits artist and poet Precious Okoyomon’s commission in the courtyard of MoMA PS1, where visitors are invited to crawl into a giant teddy bear’s butt and slide out through its mouth.
—Lisa Yin Zhang, associate editor
