news D.C. Mayor Commissions Mural Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, D.C., commissioned eight artists to paint a mural of fiftyfoot-high letters spelling out “Black Lives Matter”. The project spans two blocks of 16th Street, a central axis that leads southward straight to the White House. All 16 bold yellow letters span the width of the two-lane street, making it easy to spot by aerial cameras and virtually anyone within a few blocks. The Washington, D.C., chapter of Black Lives Matter condemned the mural project and stated: “This is a performative distraction from real policy changes. Bowser has consistently been on the wrong side of BLMDC history. This is to appease white liberals while ignoring our demands. Black Lives Matter means defund the police.” The mural has inspired other artists, community activists, and local officials across the nation who are looking for ways to express themselves in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pinned his knee to Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes. Similar murals have been painted in big public spaces in Raleigh, N.C. and Oakland, Calif.” Mary Bauermeister Awarded Germany’s Highest Honor Mary Bauermeister has been awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit, the highest honor that can be bestowed on a German individual. The award is in recognition of achievements in the political, economic, humanitarian, and cultural realms. Bauermeister’s practices span drawing, installation, sculpture,
A team of eight artists and a band of ad-hoc volunteers joined to create the Black Lives Matter street mural in Washington, D.C.Photograph by Khalid Naji-Allah / Executive Office of the Mayor / AP.
and music. Specifically, she was selected for her significant contributions to Germany’s postwar art scene. “Her work as a determining and sustainable initiator in the art world and her great commitment to young artists deserve special recognition,” said NordrheinWestfalen’s Minister of Culture and Science, Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen in a statement. Previous recipients in the cultural field include Anselm Kiefer, Josef Albers, and Wolfgang Tillmans. David Kordansky Gallery Takes on Deana Lawson David Kordansky Gallery basd in Los Angeles has taken on photographer Deana Lawson. Lawson will continue to be represented by her New York gallery Sikkema Jenkins & Co., and Fox will be co-represented with Canada gallery in New York. New York-based Lawson creates portraits of Black people who look directly at the camera without the hint of a flinch. Her subjects are people she meets while walking around the streets of the various countries she’s visited, including the Democratic Republic of the ArtDiction | 6| May/June 2020
Congo, Haiti, Jamaica, and Ghana, as well as the United States. Although Lawson’s images include a layer of fiction they offer a level of intimacy that makes them feel real. Gallerist David Kordansky said that it was Lawson’s 2018 exhibition at L.A.’s Underground Museum that brought to light the breadth of her photography. “Lawson constantly reorients the viewer: seemingly straightforward documentation of the Black experience gives way to constructions and abstractions— of Blackness as a global idea,” Kordansky said in an email. “It’s no surprise the brilliance and importance of her work is rapidly being recognized. Deana is depicting Black lives and Black spaces—not only domestic arrangements, but also psychology, spirituality, and the cosmos.” Lawson is currently the subject of a major solo show at the Kunsthalle Basel in Switzerland. The exhibition was curated by the institution’s director Elena Filipovic and co-produced with with the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo as part of the 2020 Bienal de São Paulo, in which Lawson is a participant. Featuring photographs taken in Salvador, in
