TABLE OF CONTENTS

December 2020

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December 2020, Vol. 59, No. 3

columns features reviews

COLUMNS

Letters

Free Speech

dominic Marak, Portrait of a Prisoner: Kelly Bodah, 2012, snack-food wrappers, glue, paper, 10 × 8". From the series “Mug Shots.”

Letters

Mug Shots

Pedro Almodóvar, The Human Voice, 2020, 4K video, color, sound, 30 minutes. Woman (Tilda Swinton). Production still.

Film: Best of 2020

John Waters on the Best Films of 2020

I May Destroy You, 2020–, still from a TV show on HBO. Season 1, episode 8. Arabella (Michaela Coel).

Film: Best of 2020

Amy Taubin on the Best Films of 2020

Jia Zhang-ke, Xiao Wu, 1997, 35 mm, color, sound, 112 minutes.

Film: Best of 2020

James Quandt on the Best Films of 2020

Ulrike Ottinger, Freak Orlando, 1981, 35 mm, color, sound, 126 minutes. From “Defiant Muses.”

Film: Best of 2020

Erika Balsom on the Best Films of 2020

Claire Denis, Beau Travail, 1999, 35 mm transferred to 4K video, color, sound, 93 minutes. Galoup (Denis Lavant) and Bruno Forestier (Michel Subor).

Film: Best of 2020

Cassie da Costa on the Best Films of 2020

Still from Yves Tumor’s 2020 Heaven to a Tortured Mind album trailer, directed by Jordan Hemingway.

Music: Best of 2020

Sasha Geffen on the Best Music of 2020

Philip Glass, Akhnaten, 1984. Rehearsal view, Metropolitan Opera, New York, October 30, 2019. Akhnaten (Anthony Roth Costanzo). Photo: Karen Almond/Met Opera.

Music: Best of 2020

George Lewis on the Best Music of 2020

Still from Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion’s 2020 video WAP, directed by Colin Tilley.

Music: Best of 2020

Honey Dijon on the Best Music of 2020

Sarah Hennies performing at the Audiograft Festival, Arnolfini, Bristol, UK, March 17, 2019. Photo: Jason Warner.

Music: Best of 2020

David Grubbs on the Best Music of 2020

Fiona Apple performing at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, New York, March 23, 2012. Photo: Chad Batka/The New York Times/Redux.

Music: Best of 2020

Perfume Genius on the Best Music of 2020

Books: Best of 2020

Rachel Kushner on Marguerite Duras's Me & Other Writing and Duras/Godard Dialogues

Photo: Brian Green

Books: Best of 2020

Tobi Haslett on Yvonne Rainer's Work 1961–73

Photo: Brian Green

Books: Best of 2020

T. J. Clark on Ciaran Carson's Still Life

Photo: Brian Green

Books: Best of 2020

Caroline A. Jones on Gene Youngblood's Expanded Cinema

Photo: Brian Green

Books: Best of 2020

Michele Wallace on Suzanne Preston Blier's Picasso’s Demoiselles: The Untold Origins of a Modern Masterpiece

Photo: Brian Green

Books: Best of 2020

Joan Kee on Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning

Photo: Brian Green

Books: Best of 2020

Gregg Bordowitz on Morgan Bassichis's The Odd Years

Photo: Brian Green

Books: Best of 2020

Aria Dean on Achille Mbembe’s Necropolitics

Photo: Brian Green

Books: Best of 2020

Richard Meyer on Svetlana Alpers’s Walker Evans: Starting from Scratch

The Artists’ Artists

23 Artists Reflect on 2020

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Jacolby Satterwhite, I Will Never Go Back, 2020, neon, 10 1/2 × 70".

BEST OF 2020

Lynne Cooke’s top ten highlights of 2020

Lynne Cooke

Akinbode Akinbiyi, Bar Beach, Victoria Island, Lagos, 2004, ink-jet print, 23 5/8 × 23 5/8".

Yvette Mutumba’s top ten highlights of 2020

Yvette Mutumba

Jutta Koether, 100% (Portrait Robert Johnson), 1990, diptych, oil on canvas, each panel 59 × 27 1/2".

Tim Griffin’s top ten highlights of 2020

Tim Griffin

Gerhard Richter

Jason Farago on “Gerhard Richter: Painting After All”

Johanna Fateman’s top ten highlights of 2020

Johanna Fateman

Mariela Scafati, Movilización (Mobilization), 2020, sixty-five paintings. Installation view, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin. Photo: Silke Briel.

Manuela Moscoso’s top ten highlights of 2020

Manuela Moscoso

Jeremy Shaw, Phase Shifting Index, 2020, seven-channel HD video, black-and-white and color, sound, 35 minutes 19 seconds.

Krist Gruijthuijsen’s top ten highlights of 2020

Krist Gruijthuijsen

Kerry James Marshall

Jack Bankowsky

Eisa Jocson, Zoo, 2020. Performance view, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong, 2020. Yang Hao and Sudhee Liao. Photo: Kwan Sheung Chi.

Pauline J. Yao’s top ten highlights of 2020

Pauline J. Yao

Iwantja Arts Young Women’s Film Project, Kungka Kunpu (Strong Women), 2019, digital video, color, sound, 4 minutes.

Brook Andrew’s top ten highlights of 2020

Brook Andrew

Myriam Ben Salah’s top ten highlights of 2020

Myriam Ben Salah

Book launch for Nicole R. Fleetwood’s Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration on Zoom, April 28, 2020. Top row, second from right: Nicole R. Fleetwood.

Thomas J. Lax’s top ten highlights of 2020

Thomas J. Lax

Alfredo Ramos Martínez, Calla Lily Vendor (detail), 1929, oil on canvas, 45 7⁄8 × 36". © Alfredo Ramos Martínez Research Project.

“Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945”

Harry Cooper

Protester breaking off the hand of a statue of Louis XVI, Louisville, KY, May 28, 2020. Photo: WDRB News.

When Statues Fall

Paul B. Preciado’s Year in Review

Go Outside

Hannah Black’s Year in Review

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (We will no longer be seen and not heard), 1985, silk screen and lithography on paper, nine parts, each 20 3/4 × 20 5/8".

Seriality, Sociability, Silence

Hal Foster on art and lockdown

Philip Guston, The Studio, 1969, oil on canvas, 73 1/4 × 71". © The Estate of Philip Guston.

Guston, Whiteness, and the Unfinished Business of the Vile World

Steve Locke

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Lucy McKenzie, Quodlibet XIII (Janette Murray), 2010, oil on canvas, 31 1⁄2 × 21 5⁄8".

Sabeth Buchmann on Lucy McKenzie

Dan Herschlein, The Hourglass Figure, 2020, wood, plaster, pigmented joint compound, epoxy putty, milk paint, wax, graphite, colored pencil, 61 1/2 × 46 1/2 × 6 1/4".

New York

Lois Dodd, Forsythia, April, 1976, oil on Masonite, 16 × 17 3/4".

Beacon

Zoë Lescaze on Lois Dodd and Shara Hughes

Charles Ross, Untitled (Beam), 1968, acrylic, oil, adhesive, 48 × 8 × 9". From the series “Prisms,” ca. 1965–68.

Denver

Dan Beachy-Quick on Charles Ross

Mildred Howard, Untitled, 1979, Xerox collage, 11 3/4 × 8 1/2".

Los Angeles

Aaron Jones, Advantage Over, 2019, collage, 21 1/2 × 14 1/2 ".

Toronto

Diego Pérez, El sabueso del Vasco (The Hound of Vasco), 2020, carved lava stone, 26 3/4 × 21 5/8 × 22 1/2".

Mexico City

Fabiola Iza on Diego Pérez

Alfredo Jaar, Oswald de Andrade VOLTA!, 2017, neon, 23 5/8 × 35 3/8 × 2". From “Nuestra América” (Our America).

São Paulo

Ela Bittencourt on “Nuestra América”

Tavares Strachan, No Name in the Street, 2020, two panels, oil, enamel, and pigment on acrylic, overall 96 × 96".

London

Elsa Guillaume, Tritons VIII, 2020, ceramic, 21 1/4 × 17 3/4 × 25 1/2". From the series “Tritons,” 2020.

Paris

Martin Disler, Untitled, 1980, acrylic on cotton, 7' 11 1/4" × 10' 4 1/2". From “Ausbruch & Rausch: Zürich 1975–1980 Frauen Kunst Punk” (Eruption and Intoxication: Zurich 1975–1980 Women Art Punk).

Zurich

Aoife Rosenmeyer on “Ausbruch & Rausch: Zürich 1975–1980 Frauen Kunst Punk”

Zbyněk Sekal, Kopf, 1962, oil on canvas, 10 × 10".

Vienna

Yuki Higashino on Zbyněk Sekal

Catherine Biocca, Red, 2020, industrial marker on hand-sewn terry cloth, cotton filling, cotton, 66 7/8 × 41 × 2".

Berlin

Martin Herbert on Catherine Biocca

Berenice Olmedo, CsO, 2020, polyurethane, plaster protectors, fiberglass bandages, 45 1/4 × 4 3/4 × 3 1/2".

Cologne

Noemi Smolik on Berenice Olmedo

Precious Okoyomon, Angel of death, 2020, raw lambswool, dirt, wire, yarn, 59 × 37 × 41 1/4".

Frankfurt

Gregor Quack on Precious Okoyomon

Matthew Wong, Stargazer, 2019, gouache on paper, 16 × 12 1/8".

Athens

Cathryn Drake on Matthew Wong

Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel, Oak chest of drawers with giant Flanders rabbit and arms, 2020, oak wood, 49 1/2 × 52 1/14 × 29 3/4".

Brussels

Amanda Sarroff on Daniel Dewar & Grégory Gicquel

View of “Rodrigo Hernández,” 2020.

Amsterdam

Huib Haye van der Werf on Rodrigo Hernández

Bouchra Khalili, Twenty-Two Hours, 2018, digital film, 4K video, color, sound, 45 minutes.

Oslo

Maria Horvei on Bouchra Khalili

Evita Vasiljeva, Impulse (J or Imp), 2020, twelve-channel sound, green lights, twelve movement sensors, electromagnetic microphones, contact microphones. Installation view. From Survival Kit 11.

Riga

Zane Onckule on Survival Kit 11

Sarkis, Red stained glass series No:1, 1/2+1 ap, 2020, glass, lead, steel, LED, 19 3/8 × 28 1/2 × 4". From “Red stained glass series,” 2020.

Istanbul

Kaya Genç on Sarkis

Wang Sishun, Apocalypse, 2016–, copper, stone, aluminum, dimensions variable. From “Study of Things.”

Guangzhou

Travis Jeppesen on “Study of Things”

Shirley Tse, Negotiated Differences (detail), 2019–20, carved wood, 3D-printed filaments in wood, metal, plastic, dimensions variable.

Hong Kong

Qu Chang on Shirley Tse

John Nixon, Untitled (polychrome), 2018, enamel, wood, MDF, 23 5/8 × 17 3/4".

Melbourne

Helen Hughes on John Nixon