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“I’m from South Carolina – I don’t recall ever looking at the landscape as a pastoral scene. I’ve always encountered it as a space of work, as a space of ownership, as a space of oppression.” —Rodney McMillian

The subject of decolonization has been much on the minds of the art worlders of late, with a variety of movements addressing museums and other institutions. Artist Rodney McMillian has approached the movement from the perspective of decolonizing painting itself – a topic he addressed in a recent closed solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which featured the installation In This Land (2019).

“The exhibition features a painted abstract panorama spanning the entirety of the gallery, paired with a soundscape interweaving iconic 1980s songs performed by McMillian and the voice of a social advocate proposing radically new language and policies around the condition of homelessness. This immersive installation questions the political systems that promise freedom and equality for all, and highlights the power of the individual to affect hope and create change.”

In this video from SFMoMA, McMillian, Richard Mayhew, and Julie Mehretu discuss the ways they use abstraction to confront the colonial history and narratives of traditional Western landscapes.

Museums

Sponsor
8:04

MUSEUMS: Sarah Oppenheimer: Sensitive Machine

5:24

MUSEUMS: For Walter J. Hood, Architecture Means Power

4:28

MUSEUMS: Fabric Workshop and Museum Explores Clay and Fabric

8:08

MUSEUMS: Julie Mehretu Behind-the-Scenes With Checkerboard Films

2:09

MUSEUMS: Alice Neel Paints Life “Hot off the Griddle”

Galleries

5:24

GALLERIES: Alec Soth Takes the Measure of Photography

6:09

GALLERIES: Pablo Picasso: Seven Decades of Drawing

3:41

GALLERIES: For Landon Metz, Failure is an Option

4:17

GALLERIES: Jacob El Hanani Is a Line-Maker

1:09:20

LONGFORM: Sheila Hicks Reflects From Home in Paris

Studios

1:53

VAULT: Philip Guston Biopic Trailer (1981)

3:32

STUDIOS: Joep van Lieshout on Going Beyond Beautiful Design

5:02

STUDIOS: Peter Beard: “Nature is the best thing we’ve got”

10:34

STUDIOS: Ursula von Rydingsvard’s Material Instinct (2000)

3:00

STUDIOS: Billy Childish Gets Out of the Way of the Picture

Community

36:17

PODCAST: ‘Barbara London Calling’ Launches Season 2

Sponsor
47:07

LONGFORM: Hughie O’Donoghue in Conversation with Charles Saumarez Smith

3:31

COMMUNITY: William Eric Brown Applies New Processes to Old

58:08

PODCAST: Heidi Zuckerman in Conversation with Adam Pendleton

22:57

LONGFORM: ‘To Cast Too Bold a Shadow’ Exhibition Walkthrough

Market

3:39

MARKET: For Kimsooja, Immaterial Art Achieves Memory

15:35

MARKET: How Christie’s and Sotheby’s Dominate the Art Market

3:00

MARKET: Ghada Amer on Being a Woman Artist

4:37

MARKET: Catherine Petitgas is an Enabler

2:34

MARKET: Kunsthalle Basel Is of Its Time