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Gerhard Richter Lobby Art

the blade runner 2049 ass lobby of the jp morgan chase giga headquarters has a central limestone stair past the glass security gates, and massive steel beams at angles supporting the 3 billion dollar tower. on the sides of the elevator banks are two monumental square shiny enamel on aluminum paintings by gerhard richter, each a jumble of angled, cropped and collaged pieces of bright monochrome colors, as if he cut up pictures of his own color chart paintings and reassembled them at random until he got two compositions he liked enough to fabricate. — Gerhard Richter, Color Chase One and Color Chase Two, installed at 270 Park Avenue, image via JPMC

A review of Gerhard Richter’s 2023 show at Zwirner was built on a decade-old anecdote where the reviewer’s non-art savvy date dismissed his art for looking “like something that would be in the lobby of a bank.”

Zwirner presented that show as Richter’s last paintings. Which, last squeegee paintings, maybe, but we now know Zwirner had to know there were more paintings in the queue. He had to have known of the commission for Richter to make at least two more massive paintings—for the lobby of a bank. Not just any bank, though, or any lobby: JP Morgan Chase’s menacing, new giga-headquarters at 270 Park Avenue. Color Chase One and Color Chase Two, jagged compositions of enamel on interlocking aluminum panels, recently unveiled with no creation date, were not a quick project.

a 7 meter square of 4900 squares in like 27 different colors randomly arranged in a grid, hanging on a white gallery wall at the fondation louiis vuitton. a work by gerhard richter — Gerhard Richter, 4900 Farben, Version XI, 2007, 196 enamel on aluminum on dibond panels, 680 x 680 cm, installation view via the Fondation Louis Vuitton

Andrew Russeth saw a connection to Richter’s color chart paintings, and I’d zoom in on the mega-chart, 4900 Farben/4900 Colours (2007) whose 196 reconfigurable aluminum panels match the Chase works in scale, material, process, and corporate sponsorship [It was made for LVMH.] I’d even guess that 93yo Richter began these works à la Matisse, by cutting up reproductions of 4900 Colours and rearranging the shards. [This project, these works, could be the subject of a show, or a book. 4900 Colors has its own micro-site. But since the dawn of the Zwirner era, Richter’s once exhaustive website looks like it stopped trying to keep up.]

Anyway, Andrew Russeth not incorrectly judged the Chase paintings to be “punchy, pleasantly awkward, and ultimately forgettable: perfect corporate-lobby art.” To which Richter trueheads can only respond, “Hell, yeah!” Lobby art is actually an entire subcategory of Richter’s work.

Cy Trombly Drawings Paintings Sculpture

a detail of a yellowed newspaper from nov 8, 1953, the princeton town topics, showing an ad for a cy trombly exhibition at the little gallery, in between ads for clothing [top] and used rugs [below] — cy trombly drawings paintings sculpture, detail from the princeton town topics, nov. 7, 1953

This weekend I heard from George Lyle, who has been researching one of the least known aspects of Cy Twombly’s early career: a 1953 “retrospective” of “drawings, paintings & sculpture” at The Little Gallery in Princeton, NJ.

Twombly’s two-artist show with Robert Rauschenberg at Stable Gallery in New York opened at almost the same time, in the fall of 1953, and was extensively documented and reviewed—mostly negatively, but at least people noticed. The Princeton show, meanwhile, left almost no trace, except for a couple of letters at the AAA, in the papers of Larom “Larry” Munson, the fresh Princeton grad who ran The Little Gallery with his wife.

a full page of a yellowed 1953 local newspaper from princeton, which is mostly ads for local businesses, including one from the little gallery, for a show by cy trombly, the misspelled name of cy twombly, via princeton town topics — page 13 of the nov. 8, 1953 issue of the princeton town topics, with the little gallery’s ad for a cy trombly exhibition

But Lyle found advertisements for the show in the Princeton Town Topics, a free weekly newspaper, in both the Nov. 8 and 15, 1953. Which is interesting because the Twombly Foundation lists the show as ending on Nov. 7. What’s more interesting, of course, is that the ad misspelled Twombly’s name, two weeks in a row.

[next morning update: turns out the ads for the weeks preceding Trombly’s show are for picture framing, and encouraging folks to order their Christmas cards, so however embedded in the cultural life of Princeton, I’m gonna guess The Little Gallery was not much involved in the heated discourse of the Manhattan art village.]

Kusama Infinity Frock

a medium green cotton top with a round neck and full, ruffly sleeves set above the elbow, with pink infinity net loops around the neckline and in tendrils curling down across the bust, and also along the bottom edge, with tendril curling up a few inches. some blobs of net loops in pale blue float across the upper section of the green background. a garment made by yayo kusama being sold at rago in nov 2025 — Yayoi Kusama, Untitled blouse, 1968, acrylic on cotton, 32 1/4 x 48 in., selling at Rago Arts

There’s rare, and there’s actually rare, and this, I think, is the latter. Yayoi Kusama’s version of her fashion career is almost certainly a fantasy: that in the 1960s she sold a collection of clothing to Bloomingdale’s as part of her overarching artistic mission to cover the universe with polka dots.

What’s real, though, is that she made several pieces of clothing, including for herself. And, it turns out, including for some lady who’s selling her Kusama top at Rago this month:

The garment was commissioned by the husband of the present owner, who asked Kusama if she might make a dress for his wife. The fabric was selected by the dress’s owner, who was fitted personally by Kusama, who did not use a pattern. “The design was entirely [Kusama’s], she recalls, “created while she was deeply absorbed in the process. She asked for little input and never measured or drafted. The painting was done by hand, while we were there. Kusama used bright pink and blue acrylic paint in her recognizable, organic forms.”

It’s actually kind of incredible, as a story and an art object. It’s covered, not with the polka dots Kusama was painting on everyone in 1968, but with her Infinity Net motif, which she’d begun a full decade earlier. It’s also kind of weird, though, because the Infinity Net loops are painted around the neck and hem of the blouse in a decorative way, as if they were lace or embroidery. Which might undercut the Infinity Net concept, while making for a very pretty top.

Fashion-wise, or in terms of what goes on the body, I do think Kusama’s most important model is herself. The way she has systematically photographed herself alongside, in front of, and as a part of her artworks is worth a show, a book, and a PhD. And it’d put some deeper historical context around the art alien obāsan persona that led to her emergence as a global icon.

12 Nov 2025, Lot 159: Yayoi Kusama, Untitled, 1968, est. $30-50,000 [ragoarts]

Thai Three Sons

a black and white snapshot of two young thai children, a girl with long black hair closer to the camera and slightly out of focus, and a boy with short hair and a t-shirt, wearing handmade clay spock ears that are a bit too tall, so maybe they're actually elf ears or something, but now they're spock ears, we're told. the photo is framed in pale walnut and the etched outlines of indistinct calligraphic letters on the glass. the photo hangs on the white wall of the chantal crousel gallery in paris. by rirkrit tiravanija — Rirkrit Tiravanija, *untitled 2025*, 2025, photogravure, McNamara walnut frame, engraved glass by Phung Vo, installation photo at Chantal Crousel by Jiayun Deng

In 1968 in Addis Ababa, Rirkrit Tiravanija’s father took a photo of the young artist and his sister. As Christopher Wierling’s press release text explains, Rirkrit Tiravanija has used the photo in his work at least twice: for self-portrait (1993), and untitled 1968 (Mr. Spock) (1968/1998). The latter was actually/also the title of a 2023 exhibition in Hamburg surveying Tiravanija’s long collaboration with Klosterfelde Edition. Of the homemade Spock ears, Wierling writes, “Spock was the only extraterrestrial crew member aboard the Starship USS Enterprise—he is described as half-human, half-Vulcan—and it’s precisely his pointy ears that signify his otherness. The artist would later cheekily refer to those pieces he made from modelling clay at age six or seven, as his first sculpture.”

[Update: There is another. Tiravanija made an edition of the photo as untitled (silver Mr. Spock) (1968) in My Kid Could Do That, a 2017 fundraising exhibit of artists’ childhood work. AND THERE WAS A T-SHIRT.]

a white t-shirt with a large, grainy detail of a snapshot of 7yo rirkrit tiravanija, wearing homemade spock ears that are really quite long and pointy. a benefit t-shirt for projectart by assembly new york — Rirkrit Tiravanija, untitled (silver Mr. Spock) t-shirt, 2017-18, for Assembly NY X ProjectArt via Garmentory

Tiravanija presents the photo again, as untitled 2025 (2025), in his current show at Chantal Crousel in Paris is titled, IN ALIENS WE TRUST. It is a collaboration of sorts with Danh Vo. He “added elements.” Tiravanija’s photogravure is framed in “McNamara walnut wood,” from trees planted by the US Defense Secretary who drove the Vietnam War, Robert McNamara, which Vo obtained from his son Craig McNamara. The glazing is engraved with the show’s title, IN ALIENS WE TRUST, in the calligraphic script of Phung Vo, Danh’s father.

We all try to live in the present, making more or less sense of the world created by those who came before us. But I honestly do not know what to make of this work. Maybe I should have had my dad write this blog post instead.

100 Artists For Gaza, If You Count Henry Codax

a laser print of a color picture of a curled sheet of photo paper, dark red on one side and white on the other, with the curled edges and corners forming an abstract graphic composition, in a black and grey cardboard box, a 2011 edition by wolfgang tillmans — Wolfgang Tillmans, Chisenhale Edition, 2011, laser print floated in custom box, ed. 44/100+50AP? I can’t tell via 100 Artists for Gaza

100 Artists For Gaza has launched an online auction to raise money to support Médecins san Frontieres’ activities in Gaza. Most of the work is small and, so far, very affordable.

The images are all massive png files and load slowly, so I only saw what I looked for so far: Wolfgang Tillmans has contributed a print from his early edition for the Chisenhale Gallery, which was a foundational show for him. Olafur Eliasson has donated an A4 drawing I think he made during a relationship coaching session? I am not clear, tbqh, but a generous gesture.

Olivier Mosset also donated a work, an exploration of taped edges.

an a4 painting by olivier mosset is two equilateral triangles touching in the center of the page, like a bowtie, donated to 100 artists for gaza in 2025 — Olivier Mosset, Untitled, 2025, spray paint on paper, A4, also at 100 Artists for Gaza

And oh, hey, Henry Codax also donated a work,

an a4 painting by the fictional artist henry codax, a fictional artist, is a yellow monochrome of the same color as oliver mosset's, which is not a coincidence — Henry Codax, Untitled, 2025, spray paint on paper, A4, at 100 Artists for Gaza

and he used the same can of spray paint as Mosset. What are the odds?

This is a Parfois dit Pompon Blog Now

a delamarre painting of a shaved ass black and white lapdog sitting on a desk next to an inkpot and quill, with a notecard propped on it, in raking light, one of an ever-growing number of paintings which have an undocumented and increasingly implausible association with marie antoinette, or at least her dogs, this one selling at dreweatts in nov 2025 — [indistinctly signed] DeLamarre, 19th c., 9 1/2 x 13 3/4 in., being sold 17 Nov 2025 at Dreweatt’s

Fear not, from now on no auctioneer or dealer will ever forget to mention that in May 2023, one of an innumerable supply of Jacques Barthélémy DeLamarre paintings of a shivering, shaved-ass little lion dog, sold for $279,400.

And until we can somehow find proof otherwise, despite the absence of any evidence to support it, they’ll similarly never not mention that this dog, «parfois dit Pompon [sometimes called Pompon]», was a purported favorite of Marie Antoinette.

a small gilt framed painting of a tiny dog with a shaved butt and black and white mane-like haircut seated on a desk next to a quill pen and ink pot and a calling card with the letter A written in calligraphic hand, no real background to speak of, but definitely a space. this de lamarre painting of a dog often called pompon is being sold in may 2023 at sothebys — the Sotheby’s 2023 parfois dit Pompon

And so it is, with the example that just turned up in Berkshire, England, where this little dog painting, identical in many large details to the Sotheby’s version, but missing the exuberant eyebrows, will be sold from the august halls of Dreweatt’s Donnington Priory, on November 18th.

At some point I’ll have to reckon with the fact I made a facsimile object of a facsimile object. In the mean time, I guess I’ll just keep blogging every Pompon I see.

Lot 6: JACQUES-BARTHELEMY DELAMARRE (FRENCH, 19TH CENTURY), PORTRAIT OF A SMALL POODLE, est. GBP 4-6,000 [dreweatts]
Previously, related: Somehow Pompon Returned [and sold for just EUR 9274]
Did anyone make more Pompon Facsimile Obects than DeLamarre himself? Non.

Open Call Me: Leave Your Art Text Reading After The Beep

The world’s going to hell. I’ve got a deadline piece I’m stuck on. And my Google Voice number is set to expire unless I use it. So there’s no better time to put out a call for you to call in and share a bit of art-related writing or text that’s sticking with you right now.

When I first tried this exercise last spring, I thought it’d be a great way to find amazing or thought-provoking writing people have been saving up. But I also found it a good way to share something as I came across it, just placing a quick call, and leaving a voicemail. So.

Call the greg.org voicemail at 34-SOUVENIR (347-688-3647) and leave a message with:
* your name or handle [optional],
* you reading one brief art-related text [e.g., a sentence or two, 200 hundred or so words, a paragraph max, not a whole thing]
* the writer and source.

You can quote yourself, and if you’re sitting on a gold mine of great texts, you can call more than once, but please keep it to one quote per call. And no slop, bots or twitter.

When I get enough recordings, I’ll compile them into one mixtape and put it out here. So your recording may be used [unless it’s hateful or absolutely sucks, obv, editor’s call], but any other info goes nowhere and nothing is done with it.

Call 34-SOUVENIR today, tonight, whenever you read something good.

Previously: Phone It In, Vol. 1: An Art Writing Mixtape

Update: Andrea Fraser’s Work Still Making Me Cry

I had a long drive this week, and put Andrea Fraser’s 2004 Dia Artists on Artists talk on again, “Why Does Fred Sandback’s Work Make Me Cry?” because someone recently mentioned the video version of the talk she gave at MAMFW in 2012.

And it still makes me cry.

Previously, related: Why does Andrea Fraser’s work make me cry?

Second Deposition Blanket Readings

a screenshot of richard prince, an older white guy with short receding brown hair, in a white shirt and dark blazer, sitting at an office chair against a blue chroma backdrop, with a bottle of water next to him. time codes in this video screenshot indicate the date and hour in 2018 when he was recorded giving a deposition in his second and third big copyright infringement lawsuits, a supertitle, watch the full deposition, is left over from the very brief moment in 2023 when this video was viewable online at deposition row dot com

BLANKET READINGS

FRIDAY, OCT 24 @ 1PM
STAY FROSTY/ERIC DOERINGER’S FLEA MARKET
128th & Convent Ave

In addition to the softcover debut of The Second Deposition of Richard Prince, the Stay Frosty event this weekend will also feature readings of several excerpts from the deposition, beginning at 1PM tomorrow, Friday, 10/24.

The excerpts vary in subject, but all are juicy, whether gossiply, legally, or art historically. They run from 5-10 pages, and participants will be able to choose to read the part of either the artist or the lawyers. I hope SAG/AFTRA has some waivers for this kind of thing, because I want to hear your best Richard Prince.

Look for the blanket!

Stay Frosty/Eric Doeringer’s Flea Market, 24-26 Oct 2025, at 128th & Convent Avenue, in Harlem

Replacement Theory

screenshot from instagram of maxwell graham gallery posting a photo taken from the ground of an angled cornice of the palais de tokyo with a red, green and black martinique flag against a pale grey blue sky, an artwork by cameron rowland that supposedly replaced the french flag — Screenshot of Maxwell Graham’s IG post from Oct 2022 showing Cameron Rowland’s Replacement, 2025, the Martinique flag, installed over the entrance to the Palais de Tokyo

Sometimes the institutional implications of Cameron Rowland’s work takes years, decades, even centuries to manifest. And sometimes it takes less than a day.

a screnshot of an instagram post by maxwell graham gallery from 23 oct 2025 showing the angled cornice of the palais de tokyo photographed from the ground, and no flag or flagpole at all, intended as documentation of the removal of cameron rowland's artwork, replacement, because it was determined to possibly be illegal. — a screenshot of Maxwell Graham’s Oct 23 instagram post showing no flag, not Martinique, not France, over the entrance of the Palais de Tokyo

As documented by their dealer Maxwell Graham on IG, Rowland’s work, Replacement (2025), replaced the French flag with the flag of Martinique on the Palais de Tokyo, as part of ECHO DELAY REVERB: art americain, pensées francophones, which opened yesterday. Today the flag was removed. A wall text reads, “Palais de Tokyo has determined that Cameron Rowland’s artwork, Replacement, could be considered illegal. As a result it is no longer included in the exhibition.”

A couple of quick thoughts: the French says it is, “n’est donc plus presentée dans l’exposition,” which, yes it’s no longer being presented. But the work—which now involves an apparently unprompted, anticipatory determination and removal—might still be part of the show.

a google street view screenshot of the cornice of the palais de tokyo in paris from november 2022 with the french flag installed on a pole on a balcony/setback — Google Streetview image from November 2022 showing the Palais de Tokyo’s French flag as it was typically installed

In the absence of more information, the rest of my ruminations aren’t worth typing out. Rowland’s work typically unleashes cascades of thought by surrounding objects with profound depths of historical and contextual information. So maybe they’re trying out silence, gaps, and nondisclosure.

Until we know more, I’m left toggling between exasperation at a Palais obeying in advance, and envy for a state bureaucratic apparatus sufficiently powerful to hold institutional operations within the rule of a law.

[After some reportage later update]: Ian points to le Quotidien de l’Art’s reporting, which finds that the Palais sought a legal opinion from the Ministry of the Interior, which found that public institutions must maintain political neutrality and not fly non-French flags. Rowland, meanwhile, found lawyers arguing that the official flag of a French departement is not non-French. And that Palestinian flags flying over French city halls draw fines, while Ukrainian flags seem fine.

The kicker, though not recognized as such, is that the Palais agreed to let Rowland’s flag be installed for one day, for photographic and “performatif” purposes, “afin d’éviter d’être légalement tenu de réimprimer le catalogue de l’exposition. [in order to avoid being legally required to reprint the exhibition catalogue.]” I expect that Rowland demanded this, and if their work was excluded from the show, the Palais would be misrepresenting their involvement, and using their name and work in a misleading way. If so, Rowland seems to have rope-a-doped the Palais to make their work’s point for them.

Hesse’s Lewitt Table & Lewitt’s Hesse Table

a black and white photo of eva hesse, a young white woman with dark straight hair lying on a velvet divan in an art studio, with her arms at her sides, and she is covered with what looks like cord or spaghetti. above her is a ziggurat-shaped sculpture sticking out from the wall. at the bottom of the image is a clutterd coffee table, painted white with a grid on it, and a buch of stuff. hermann landshoff took this pic for harper's bazaar, and kirsten swenson used it on the cover of her 2015 book on hesse, irrational judgments — Eva Hesse photographed by Harper’s Bazaar’s Hermann Landshoff in her Bowery studio, 1968-69

After the immediate bafflement of whatever Eva Hesse is covered with, I find my eye rushing to the isolated, geometric certainty of Robert Smithson’s untitled ziggurat sculpture. And only then does it head to the cluttered table, filled with items obscuring a painted grid, which turns out to be a gift from Hesse’s friend, Sol Lewitt.

Anna M. Chave made a close read of the objects, works, studies, and models on the table in her 1996 book, Three Artists (Three Women): Modernism and the Art of Hesse, Krasner, and O’Keeffe. I’m gonna be real, right now I’m here for the table itself, and mostly for the table it replaced.

a black and white photo of geometric artworks in a gallery, including a table-shaped sculpture painted with a grid of squares, with three open cubes on it, a 1964 work by sol lewitt — Installation view of Sol Lewitt’s Table Piece with Three Cubes, 1964, since destroyed, at Kaymar Gallery, published in Irrational Judgments

In 1967, Hesse made Washer Table out of a low-slung, plywood table that had been given to her by Lewitt. It began as part of a Lewitt table/sculpture he made for a group show in 1964. After that show—curated by Dan Flavin—Lewitt tried it in another sculpture, then cut it down to coffee table height and gave it to Hesse. She, in turn, covered its grid-painted surface with thousands of rubber washers and a sheet of glass, and gave it back.

It’s recognized as one of Hesse’s first sculptural objects now, and one of the first to use rubber, but Hesse herself considered the placement of around 5,700 washers to be a form of drawing. Lewitt explained to art historian Kirsten Swenson that Hesse “only used the surface of the table as a drawing surface before returning it to me.”

a black and white photo of sol lewitt's loft, with a low glass topped coffee table on an old wood floor, in front of a low bench with some pillows and a bookcase behind. the coffee table has a bunch of stuff neatly lined up across it, but it is actually, or eventually, an artwork by eva hesse — Eva Hesse’s Washer Table, 1967, in a 1968 photo of Sol Lewitt’s studio from the Lewitt Archive, as published in 2015 in Irrational Judgments by Kirsten Swenson

The timeline is not clear here, but the table sure is. Swenson opens her 2015 book, Irrational Judgments: Eva Hesse, Sol Lewitt, and 1960s New York, with this 1968 snapshot of Washer Table being used as a table in Lewitt’s Hester St. studio. It, too, is covered with studies, models, objets, tchotchkes, an ashtray arranged, as Swenson puts it, “as if fixed to points on an invisible grid.”

a taupe walled townhouse gallery with a wrought iron stair rail along the back has a cluster of framed drawings on one wall, and a dark grey square table-like sculpture on the hardwood floor, washer table by eva hesse is covered with 5700 rubber washers. the craig starr gallery showed it in 2011 — 2011 installation view of *Washer Table* in *Eva Hesse & Sol Lewitt* at Craig Starr Gallery

The tchotchkes—and the glass—were gone by 2011, when Washer Table was shown at Craig Starr Gallery in 2011, in a Hesse/Lewitt exhibition curated by Veronica Roberts. Amy Whitaker has a nice account of visiting the show on art21, and meeting Lewitt’s widow and Hesse’s sister.

Eva Hesse, Washer Table, 1967, 8 1/2 x 49 1/2 x 49 1/2 in., rubber washers, painted wood, metal, silver gelatin print in the Eva Hesse Archive, Allen Art Collection, Oberlin College

Among the Eva Hesse Archive at Oberlin’s Allen Art Museum [donated by Hesse’s sister Helen Hesse Charash] is the best photo of Washer Table. Where it looks even less painted than in Lewitt’s studio. In fact, it looks downright unpainted. Lewitt had already painted or stripped it at least twice, and some time after 1968, it seems someone painted it again.

As Different As Clouds In The Sky

an animated gif toggling between two 2x3 meter photo editions of paintings of clouds by gerhard richter, one blue and one pink, as presented by david zwirner in 2025 — Gerhard Richter, Wolken (rosa), 2025 and Wolken (blau), 2025, 200 x 300 cm, facemounted on Diasec chromogenic print on aluminum, ed. 12+3AP, via David Zwirner, via @mentaltimetraveller

Imagine owning one of the 1970 Clouds triptychs that Richter decides to make fifteen more of. Do you get one? In Paris? From David Zwirner?

Richter’s expansive body of editioned works has consistently allowed the artist to experiment with the production of visual facsimiles and the iterative translation and interplay of mediums.

…

These editions are monumental objects in their own right: chromogenic prints face-mounted to an acrylic surface and on aluminum panels, each created on the same scale as the painted triptychs. To make these works, Richter photographed the original oil paintings and altered the colors of the resulting image—thus investigating the existence of a subjective visual reality that somehow exceeds the bounds of real-world perception. Through this process of recursive image transformation across mediums and domains both analog and digital, Richter approaches a new kind of abstraction that radically collapses the distinctions between painting, photography, and the printed image.

I am an unwavering admirer of Richter’s investigations of the photo copy. But I am pretty sure that this process of recursive image transformation radically enhances, not collapses, the distinctions between painting, photography, and the printed image. And if I had one of those Wolken triptychs I would definitely get a matching full-scale edition to prove it.

Exceptional Works: Gerhard Richter, Wolken (Clouds), 2025 [davidzwirner]
Wolken (rosa), CR 267, 1970 [gerhard-richter.com]
Wolken (blau), CR 268, 1970 [gerhard-richter.com]

Previously, related (2014): Cage Grid: Gerhard Richter and The Photo Copy

How Art, History Are Made

an installation view of a small gallery with heartwood floors and white walls, with a tall, narrow watercolor of a young korean guy in white shirt and dark pants wearing a backpack; a light white table in front of a closed double doorway with two books and two cards laid on it; and a cream merino wool sweater folded into a vacuum storage bag and hanging on the wall, all by christian alborz oldham at society in portland in fall 2025 — Installation view of Untitled (Figure with backpack), 2020; Writings 1973-1983 on Works 1969-1979 by Michael Asher and Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, 2016; Self portrait at 31, 2023; It is a luxury to be understood, 2022; High School Moon, 2025; and Comme des Garçons F/W 1983: Gloves, Skirts, Quilted Big Coats (Performance ephemera), 2018– , at Society

A Chinese Paint Mill rendering of a watercolor seen and lost at a Korean flea market. A meticulous bootleg of Michael Asher’s collected writings. A multiyear collab to reverse engineer a 1983 Commes des Garçons sweater from runway photos.

an installation photo of a small gallery in portland, where a pair of dark wood scraper like objects sit on a low tv tray sized white platform, below a narrow window, and on the wall hangs a white poster with multiple blocks of colored text, each in a different language, both works by christian alborz oldham at society in portland in 2025 — Installation view of Tools for Kogetsudai/Moon Viewing Platform, 2019; and How is Art History Made? by Seth Siegelaub, 2025, all works by Christian Alborz Oldham at Society

A woodworker’s interpretation of the scrapers used to tend 500-year-old sand sculptures in a Kyoto temple garden. A new edition of Seth Siegelaub’s Kunsthalle Basel poster, “How is Art History Made?” now with Japanese text, domestically printed to dodge prohibitive tariffs. A 200,000-word florilegium of accumulated texts and banned tumblrs.

The press release [pdf] describes each object in Christian Alborz Oldham’s show at Society in Portland as “a double: bootleg, replication, edition, pair.” They also represent Oldham’s individual and collective efforts to pull objects lost to memory, distance, and time, into the discourse of the present. They index the difference between a physical object and an image, a reference, or an idea. How is art history made? The answer is different now because these works exist and will be in the world.

Christian Alborz Oldham: Having no talent is not enough, 23 Aug–15 Nov 2025 at Society in Portland [societysocietysociety] [lore-filled checklist pdf]
Oldham’s Updates archive [itsawowthing]

Previously, related: Statement as Question: How did you get here? From How Is Art History Made? [I love this woman’s question so much]

Olafur Eliasson Big Stones

a square photo of the sliced, polished center of an agate with blue and milky white whorls in a black frame, by olafur eliasson, selling at bukowski's in oct 2025 — Olafur Eliasson, Big Stone, 1995, 100 x 100 cm, c-print on aluminum, ed. 3/3, selling 22-23 Oct 2025 at Bukowski’s [update: sold for SEK30000 hammer, plus 25% buyer’s premium and 5% droit de suite =39K]

I’ve never quite figured out these early Olafur Eliasson photos of agates. They’re from 1995. The first one I saw, in 2007, was called Big Stone. So’s the one selling this week in Stockholm.

a square photo of the sliced, polished center of an agate with black, caramel, and milky white whorls, by olafur eliasson, not selling at sotheby's in 2007 — Olafur Eliasson, *Big Stone*, 1995, 100 x 100 cm, c-print on aluminum, ed. 2/3, came up for sale at Sotheby’s in 2007

But one in between, at Bruun-Rasmussen in 2019, was called Stenbillede, Stone Picture.

a square photo of the sliced, polished center of an agate with amber and piss yellow whorls , by olafur eliasson, selling at bruun rasmussen in 2019, to an old friend, if i recall correctly — Olafur Eliasson, Stone Picture, 1995, 100 x 100 cm, c-print on aluminum, ed. 2/3, sold at Bruun-Rasmussen in 2019

They feel like paintings, found abstraction, which is not abstract at all. And for that matter, not found, either. Agates only look like this when they’re cut open and polished.

They feel like part of Eliasson’s exploration of photography, something aside or before he developed his photo series based on taxonomies and moving through the landscape.

a grid of 18 horizontal and two vertical photos of a non-systematic documentary stroll through a house museum filled with rocks, and a garden ringed with tables filled with rocks, a 1994 grid by olafur eliasson titled petrun's garden series via olafur eliasson dot net — Olafur Eliasson, Petrun’s Garden Series, 1994, image via olafureliasson.net

Or maybe it developed alongside. One of the first photo grid/series was already done: Petrun’s Garden Series, 1994, is a 20-image documentation [sic] of a visit to an apparently famous-in-Iceland private museum of a rock collection. In his 2004 exhibition essay, Matt Drutt noted that Olafur took pictures in walkthrough snapshot mode, and visited with his father, also a rock collector.

Are these large photos details of Petrun’s rocks? Or Olafur’s dad’s? Is there unacknowledged indexical or autobiographical content here? Or a deeper backstory connecting these sumptuous photos to Olafur’s earlier paintings? So far the only thing for sure is they are what they say they are: big stone pictures.

an installation view of a kind of dark, low-ceilinged gallery space with a single row of harsh track lighting trained on a row of seven colorful abstract-seeming square photos on aluminum of the swirling polished interiors of cut agates, one of the first exhibitions of olafur eliasson, the stone series, in 1993, via the artist's website — Installation view, Olafur Eliasson, Stenserie, 1993, Stalke Galleri, with seven c-prints on aluminum, image via olafureliasson.net

[Next morning update]: I was stymied by not being able to find references I remembered being on Eliasson’s site. But this morning I found the 1993 Stalke Gallery show Stenserie, Stone Series, which is considered his first photo series. The 1995 date must be the printed/realized date for later numbers in the edition. It sounds like there were originally seven images in the series, and in 2005, there was a(nother?) series of eight.

Manet’s First Dog Portrait

a brushy oil sketch portrait by manet of an older white french guy in 19th century light colored summer suit and straw hat, sitting in a garden of green trees and grass and brown dirt underfoot, with a black and white dog curled up on his lap. selling at christies paris in oct 2025 — Édouard Manet, Portrait de Plydie, aka Ambroise Adam dans le jardin à Pressagny, aka Portrait de M. Adam, Sénateur de Seine-et-Marne, 1861, 16 x 12 3/4 in., oil on canvas, at Christie’s Paris 24 Oct 2025

In 1984 when Juliet Wilson Bareau published her research on this small Manet, which had remained in the sitter’s family, and had not been included in either catalogue raisonné, and had only been seen in public once, she did note that it was the artist’s first plein air painting, but she did not note that it was the artist’s first portrait of a dog.

By cross-referencing a letter from the human sitter, Ambroise Adam, a relative of Manet’s uncle, whose son was a close friend of the then 29-yo artist, Wilson Bareau determined the painting was made in the late afternoon of Friday, July 19, 1861: « Édouard m’a fait asseoir pour un portrait avec Plydie sur mes genoux. » “Édouard had me sit for a portrait with Plydie on my lap.”

Weirdly, Christie’s, which is selling the painting next week in Paris, published an image of the letter, and the quote in the lot essay AND the magazine is not quite what the letter says: «pour gagner le diner, Édouard m’as fais poser avec Plydie sur les genoux pour un portrait.» “To earn dinner, Édouard had me pose with Plydie on my lap for a portrait.”

a detail of a manet painting of a older guy sitting in the leafy garden, showing just the black and white dog on his lap, which is rendered with readily identifiable and discreet brushstrokes, mostly in black or white, with a bit of grey underneath. the man's hands can be identified by the peach colored brushstrokes on the dog's back. — Édouard Manet, Portrait de Plydie (detail), 4 x 5 in.

It’s not entirely clear that Manet’s portrait subject was not, in fact, Plydie. And just look at it. It’s so sparely executed, you can almost count the number of brushstrokes. And just look at that little face.

I was ready to call this Manet’s first dog painting, until I checked the CR. There’s a painting with a grab bag of Rubens elements in it, including a dog, called la Pêche, (Fishing), that’s dated 1861. But the Met says it’s related to Manet’s wedding, and so from 1862-3.

manet's painting of a youngish white boy with fine features and short dark hair, wearing a black sweater over a white collared shirt, and holding a market basket under his right arm while his left hand is inserted into the basket. at the bottom right corner of the painting, near the kid's trousers, is the head of a somewhat shaggy dog. the background is blue sky and white clouds, but the whole thing feels assembled in a studio. — Édouard Manet, some Gamin au Chien, 1860 or 1861, 92 x 72 cm,

And there’s a painting of a kid with a basket and a dog called, le Gamin, Enfant au Chien, or le Gamin au Chien, which the CR says is from 1861. But the CR also says it depicts Alexandre, a 15-yo model who worked for Manet, and who hanged himself in Manet’s studio. It does not say that happened in 1859. And the CR also says Alexandre posed for an 1858 painting, Gamin avec Cerises (Boy with Cherries), and it does not note they look nothing alike. And then Alexandre is also supposed to have been the model for this 1862-64 etching & aquatint of a boy with a dog. Put me down as unpersuaded.

And put Plydie down as the first dog whose portrait Manet painted. Given that it’ll be on view during Art Basel Paris, I am unconvinced of the idea a facsimile object is useful or necessary.

24 Oct 2025, Lot 125: Édouard Manet, Ambroise Adam dans le jardin à Pressagny, 1861, est EUR 100-150,000 [update: sold for EUR 895,340 wow] [christies]
Previously, related: Manet Paints Dog