Of this season’s strong exhibitions, “Murillo: From Heaven to Earth” At the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth (September 18-January 29), that title alone tops my list. Bartolome, a 17th-century Spanish Baroque painterIn the world of his Esteban Murillo paintings, angels and saints appear to radiate light to save ordinary people and touch grace. Highly sophisticated and popular art at a one-stop-only show.
God’s protection and healing also “Bamigboye: Master Sculptor of the Yoruba Tradition” Yale University Museum of Art (September 9 – January 8). Collected from international collections, the show showcases the monumental, fantastically complex ceremonial sculptures carved by Nigerian artist Moshood Orsomo in his Bamigboe (c. 1885-1975) and his workshop. Pick up sculptures and masks. We always get museum solos dedicated to Western “masters”. Few are dedicated to African artists. Do not miss it.
Less modest in scale but of equal spiritual utility is the “Ibrahim el-Salahi: Pain Relief Paintings” Drawing Center in Manhattan (October 7 to January 15). The drawings produced by the 91-year-old Sudanese-born, UK-based artist over the past few years have been his way of psychologically coping with chronic pain in his later years. Everything was done with scraps of paper I had on hand, including the back of the drug label. El-Salahi’s grandeur His 2013 London retrospective failed to cross the Atlantic, but here we have the opportunity to sample him deeply, if not broadly.
“Jimmy Desana: Obedience” The Brooklyn Museum (November 11-April 16) also gives you the chance to catch up with another great artist (this photographer is a photographer). Born in Detroit in 1949, her DeSana landed in New York City just in time to document the intertwined punk, no-wave, and LGBTQ scenes with portraits of underground stars. Before her death in 1990, Dessana began creating surreal tableaus of mutants and ephemeral objects as AIDS loomed over her subculture and herself.
In 1994, I first saw the work of Cuban artist Juan Francisco Erso at a traveling group exhibition of contemporary Latin American art. His statue of the revolutionary Cuban poet José Marti, his body caked in mud, his glass eyes glistening and his hands clenching like machetes. Since then he has been haunted by Diogenes’ lamp. This work is a cross between a Christian Santo and an African power man. “Juan Francisco Erso: Po America” Retrospective exhibition at El Museo del Barrio (27 October – 26 March). Erso, who died of leukemia in 1988 at the age of 32, was one of those greats. So should a show hosted by Olga Viso.
Erso shines like a roadster in the fall season, which brings the constellation of Latin American and Latinx art showcases. “Sin Autorización: Contemporary Cuban Art” It will be held at Columbia University’s Wallach Art Gallery (October 21-January 15). The title “Without Authorization” refers to the “Decree 349” issued by the Cuban government in 2018, which prohibits the production of works of art without official authorization. Wallach’s group exhibition includes several young Cubans on the road to oppression and the artists Tania Bruguera and Luis Manuel, who confront it head on, and the art historian Yaneris Nunez.
Get a major landmark at the Whitney Museum of American Art “No Existe un Mundo Poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art Influenced by Hurricane Maria” (November 23 – April 23), a group show that spotlights island territories politically insulted and culturally neglected by the United States. His devastating 2017 event created an outrageous news image that cannot be erased. President Trump threw his roll of paper towels at the storm-ravaged populace. Whitney’s show promises a tough, complex multi-vocal response to it.
Finally, I am very intrigued by something called “Indecencia” The Leslie Roman Museum in Manhattan (September 16-January 15). A collective of queer Latino and Latino artists who specialize in performance art, it focuses on the intersection of religion and sexuality, or what the museum describes as “underwearless theology.” Interior Beauty Salon founder Dumit Estevez Lafleur Espejoo Barrez is sure to be interesting at a time when religious beliefs threaten to sway public policy on his LGBTQ issues.
In contrast to this bounty of Latin American and Latino material, art from other parts of the Global South has had a much lesser presence. There have been fairly regular museum loan exhibitions of the work. Not now. “Wonderful Land: Royal Paintings of Udaipur” At the Smithsonian National Asian Art Museum in Washington, DC, a rare exception. (November 19th to May 14th). The 18th-century and his 19th-century panoramic images, including detailed human figures, moody landscapes and otherworldly skies, all come directly from India, some of them being published for the first time.
Just a few decades ago, African-American artists Eversley and Simmons were unlikely to have an exhibition in a museum. That might still be the case, except in 1974 her art dealer Linda Goodbryant opened her Midtown Black-owned gallery and experimental space, Just Abab Her Midtown, on her 57th Street in Manhattan. “Just Above Midtown: A Changing Space” This fall (October 9th to February 18th), the Museum of Modern Art will be showcasing her exhibited materials and work in honor of her and the gallery. JAM Bryant’s enthusiastic support of her artist life and career has had immeasurable benefits for American art itself.
Talk about angels.