Daily Newsletter
An exclusive interview with the late performance artist, police apprehend anti-ICE demonstrators in DC, and an artist’s aromatic restrooms for Frieze London.
In 1961, Yoko Ono dedicated a renowned screaming piece to performance artist Simone Forti, who recently passed away in Los Angeles. That same year, Forti introduced her work Five Dance Constructions and Some Other Things at Ono’s loft in Manhattan. The two, separated by just two years in age, shared numerous similarities. In an interview never previously published, scholar and curator Julia Bryan-Wilson captures Forti’s reflections on her journey with Ono, her thoughts on aging, and her career, all with her signature charm and humility.
In other news, police detained 16 protesters who displayed portraits of individuals killed by ICE agents inside a US Senate building. Additionally, seven Smithsonian museums in Washington, DC, are temporarily closed due to a malfunctioning cooling system.
Today’s highlights also include artist Anna Boghiguian discussing her woven tapestries depicting Armenia’s natural history, an artist tasked with redesigning Frieze London’s restrooms, and a resurgence in the popularity of the harp. For further insights, explore our weekly columns Art Movements and Required Reading. Wishing you a Happy Friday!
—Hakim Bishara, editor-in-chief
Simone Forti Discusses Yoko Ono, Dance, and Aging in Exclusive Interview
Approximately twelve years ago, I was writing two distinct essays about two pivotal artists of the 20th century who were nearly the same age: Simone Forti (born in Italy in 1935) and Yoko Ono (born in Japan in 1933). Though their ages differed by just two years, these women shared many other commonalities. They were both transcultural migrants whose early lives were influenced by the hardships of fascism and war. Both faced discrimination — Forti’s Jewish family fled Italy due to Mussolini’s Racial Laws, while Ono was (and remains) both exoticized and vilified as an Asian woman.
As pioneers in cross-disciplinary fields, Forti and Ono blurred the lines between sound, drawing, poetry, participation, movement, new media, and sculpture. They consistently employed touch as a way of creating connections, and both integrated everyday objects as dynamic collaborators. | Julia Bryan-Wilson
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Swann Auction Galleries is holding its 7th LGBTQ+ Art Material Culture & History auction featuring works by Tom of Finland, Hugh Steers, Lorenza Böttner, Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, and more.
The auction will also feature pieces consigned by the Detroit Queer Biennial and the Leslie Lohman Museum.
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News
- Police detained 16 protesters who unfurled banners with portraits of ICE victims on the marble floor of the Hart Senate Office Building.
- Seven Smithsonian locations in Washington, DC, have temporarily shut down due to a malfunction in the cooling system.
Interview
Required Reading
This week: a Renaissance altarpiece makes its return, Yoko Ono at the Broad, the anti-AI writing movement, uncertain times for butterfly collectors, the resurgence of the harp, and more.
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From the Archive
