ian says DC statehood now

@wareian

professional library enjoyer, union member, former @UVAlibrary n other stuff / all opinions mine pls don’t take em / pfp obviousplant, banner dan flavin DC if that wasn't clear art blog:

625 Following362 Followers1,196 Posts

Bluesky

Is this your profile?Claim it and wareian.dirty.social is yours.Claim profile

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· 28d

Alex, I'll take "things that never happened" for 500

Lévy spoke to Jager about the pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University, saying that she personally confronted one protester to ask why she did not talk about the hostages taken by Hamas. (The protester responded by saying the hostages were “all AI,” according to Lévy.) “I really don’t think their protests have a clear connection to the events over there [in Gaza], because if they did, they’d be marching 10 times more for Ukraine or Somalia,” Lévy said.

Elsewhere in the Tablet article, she addressed American politicians’ response to October 7. “I think we have to give Trump his due,” she said, speaking to Jager on October 13, 2025, the day that the last living hostages were released. “So much could have gone wrong, but he knew exactly what every party needed. He knew that Egypt needed a guarantee of continuing American aid, he knew that Syria needed to be appeased, he knew that Qatar needed an apology, he knew that Netanyahu needed pressuring. Overall, I am hopeful and quite pleased. There are issues, sure, but there have been successes. The most important thing is that they are coming home.”

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· 29d

had to dig through my pics but i found it (the photos from philly are super easy to find but the brooklyn pics are only in print) i think i prefer the philly version but i appreciate the adaptive reuse

Photos from a Sam Gilliam monograph (I think?) of Seahorses, his modified outdoor Draped painting installation at the Brooklyn Museum. Two monumental canvases hang freely like towels from the rear facade of the museum.

Closer photo of one of the photographs from the book.

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· 29d

my consolation

Sam Gilliam's monumental beveled edge painting 'Restore' (1972) at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville.

Sam Gilliam's painting 'For Day One' (1974-1975) at the Speed.

Gilliam's two-part, wall-based draped painting 'My View' (1997) at the Speed, viewed from the front.

'My View', as viewed in detail from the side.

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· 29d

banging my head against the wall because they're putting this on view a week *after* i was there.

Instagram screenshot of Tyler Blackwell's post announcing the installation of a large Sam Gilliam Drape painting from 1969 at the Speed Art Museum. A photograph of the room-sized work, a monumental canvas hung in the center of the room from wires strung to the ceiling. Carousel Form II, 1969.

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· Jul 13

if you are using chat gpt to source things for your newsletter, you should probably adjust the utm codes in the links so your audience doesn't notice how little you care! every time I see this fucking code i groan.

Financial Times screenshot. Article title: "Maurizio Cattelan's $6.2mn banana drove people crazy. The artist sympathises." In the URL interface, there's a UTM code. It reads "UTM_source=chatgpt.com"

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· Jul 9

oh i also got to see the funniest early frankenthaler and my favorite mid-career frankenthaler in louisville

Helen Frankenthaler's painting 'Circus Landscape' (1951) at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville. An oil and charcoal on canvas painting featuring an all-over array of marks, doodle-like shapes and compositions in pale, dusky toned colors against a beige background. The work is a clear precedent for the compositions she would begin in earnest in the following year, with fluid textures and colors atop raw canvas.

Helen Frankenthaler's painting 'After Rubens' (1961) at the Speed Art Museum. An oil and charcoal painting on unprimed canvas. An austere composition in mustard yellow, deep brown, light brown, soft and dark blue, and greenish gray, with a pop of pink at the very top. The pools of color on an otherwise completely bare canvas gesture at the outline of a nude woman in a brown fur, an abstracted vision of a Rubens painting.

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· Jul 8

+ a few lil detail shots :) tony cokes in the back in no. 4

Detail view of Mack's installation, showing a sheer golden yellow fabric draped across a space with several pleat-like waves. A square ceiling light directly above the fabric creates waves of color and texture on the surface of the material.

A shot of a long rectangular piece of fabric flowing from the ceiling and down the window wall, creating a filter effect over the view of the outside.

Close-up shot of the place where a long stretch of red fabric is hooked to the ceiling. A wooden popsicle stick also hangs from the hook, dangling at the apex of the fabric.

View through several draped elements of Mack's work, with the ceiling lights visible through the red sheer fabric. Across the bridge, a rectangular yellow lighted panel with the text "We Must Shock This Nation With The Power Of Love!" is visible in another gallery; this is Tony Cokes's 'DFAI Rework.03' (2023).

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· Jul 8

made it, big ups to eric, quite cool to see him deploy materials again in new contexts. & really big ups to sam gilliam for making this all possible, in several ways. if you're in louisville (or like me, ohio), you should venture on over to the speed.

Wide shot of Eric N. Mack's installation 'RARE ESSENCE' (2026) at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, KY. An array of fabrics are draped from the walls and ceilings of an atrium area with a small bridge and large glass wall on one side and a staircase leading down to a seating area at the lower level. Sheer fabrics in golden yellow, pale yellow, and deep read are stretched across the room, knotted and folded to create visual patterns catching the light. A hammock-like form made of patterned fabric stretches across at left, and a column-like bunch of fabric is strung straight down from the ceiling at right.

Closer view, focused on the column-like form, made from multiple colors and patterns of fabric.

View from the lower level, looking up at the layers of fabric draped across the room, which interact with one another and the skylight and windows.

View from across the bridge, showing another hammock-like form on the back wall and bleached fabric hanging in the far back.

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· Jul 5

I did chuckle at this Arthur Danto print in their very small collection gallery. how did you end up here lol.

'Maiden' (no date) by Arthur C. Danto. A woodcut depicting a woman in thick black lines.

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· Jul 5

springfield (ohio) has a very small but very cute little art museum [i would argue more of a regional/community art center, but i digress] which i had somehow never been to. shout out to their '75 years of Haitian metalwork' survey on right now.

'Untitled (The Crucifixion)' (c. late 1960s), by Murat Briérre. A stark metal wall sculpture, depicting a spindly Christ figure on a cross, with his head hanging down at an inhuman angle and a severe gap in his stomach.

Springfield Museum of Art in Ohio. A small museum with string lights over the entrance and several manicured foliage areas.

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· Jul 5

now THIS is funny. you *know* they didn't coordinate this "emergency plan" with any of the agencies that would need to open the fucking doors lmao.

NYT screenshot:
"1 minute ago, Aishvarya Kavi, Reporting from the National Mall.

Hundreds of people have followed evacuation orders and headed to the designated federal buildings, but two of the buildings are full. At a third, the Department of Commerce, none of the doors are open. People are standing clumped around the entrances. When asked by some of them how to get in, a Secret Service officer shrugs."

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· Jul 4

lugged these all the way here for the long weekend

Two monographs on artist Martin Wong. At left, "Martin Wong: Chinatown USA", featuring a partial view of a Wong self portrait and part of his double painting of buildings in Manhattan's Chinatown. At right, "Martin Wong: Malicious Mischief", featuring a Wong painting of a corrections officer with his hand in his pants.

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· Jul 3

it’s quite moody at sunrise. just reinforcing my love of this weird place.

Picture of the same patio as above, as seen at sunrise.

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· Jul 3

the way the art institute doesn't believe the courts lmao (unless they're claiming the estate has copyrighted the collection's *photograph* of the maquette, which, fine)

Artist: Pablo Picasso
Title: Maquette for Richard J. Daley Center Sculpture
Place: Spain (Artist's nationality:)
Date: 1964
Medium: Simulated and oxidized welded steel
Dimensions: 104.8 × 69.9 × 48.3 cm (41 1/4 × 27 1/2 × 19 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Pablo Picasso
Reference Number: 1966.379
Copyright: © 2018 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· Jul 2

That American Chopper meme where they're arguing and it escalates to chairs being thrown.
1: "PICASSO GAVE THE SCULPTURE TO THE CITY OF CHICAGO, THE CITY OWNS THE COPYRIGHT"
2: "IF IT WAS A GIFT TO THE CITY THEN THE PEOPLE SHOULD OWN THE RIGHTS, NOT THE GVT"
3: "WELL TOO BAD, WE PUT UP A PLAQUE WITH A COPYRIGHT NOTICE NEXT TO THE THING, DEAL WITH IT"
4: "WHEN YOU DISPLAYED PICASSO'S MAQUETTE TO THE PRESS YOU ALLOWED THEM TO PUBLISH PHOTOS AND MADE COPIES AVAILABLE WITHOUT NOTICE, CONSTITUTING PUBLICATION WITHOUT FORMALITIES, IT'S IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN"
5: "ALL RIGHTS RESERVED"

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· Jul 1

my catholic is showing again but i really did find the de kooning crucifixion works quite moving even just as an exercise in iteration

‘Saint’, from the suite ‘For Santa Emilia–Six Tears for Six Saints’ (1972) by Willem De Kooning at the Art Institute of Chicago. An ink brush and lithographic tusche drawing on paper depicting the crucifixion, rendered minimally in loose lines and ink splatters. Each of the four drawings is a slightly different composition, with some emphasizing the head of the body and some emphasizing the torso. Most feature a gestural halo and could be mistaken for an abstraction were it not for the clear body-on-a-cross outline that triggers our “oh that’s Christ” reaction. [sorry for not going more into individual diffs between drawings, I don’t feel like doing a full formal analysis of these variations on a theme]

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· Jul 1

last one is stupid but did we not learn our lesson from Robert Indiana lol. you can't just write the word "Love" and expect copyright. www.copyright.gov/rulings-fili...

A photograph of a simple mural on a black wall. The word "love" is rendered in cursive in white paint, with no other decorations or details.

Text:
"I. DESCRIPTION OF THE WORK
The Work is a two-dimensional mural painting of the word “love” in white cursive font.
The background is painted black. The deposit of the Work is as follows:"

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· Jul 1

HA and the Oscars tried to get their logo protected, to no avail. www.copyright.gov/rulings-fili...

A black triangle with the outline of an Oscar statuette in white at the bottom edge.
Text:
"I. DESCRIPTION OF THE WORK
The Work is a black and white two-dimensional graphic consisting of a silhouette of
the Oscar statuette on a pedestal surrounded by a triangle. The Oscar statuette, or “Academy
Award of Merit,” is the trophy distributed annually by AMPAS for recognition of
achievement in motion pictures. The statuette was registered in 1941 (Reg. No. G. unp. No.
38512) and renewed by renewal registration R-443432. The Work is reproduced below."

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· Jul 1

another copyright review board classic: the Golden Globes statuette is a derivative work based on the old statuette (originally made 1952), which was itself a derivative work of *previous* statuettes. so no, HFPA cannot claim copyright over the 2018 statuette. www.copyright.gov/rulings-fili...

Screenshot of the Copyright Review Board ruling. Two photographs of the Golden Globe statue, from 2018, directly above two photographs of the old statue, from 1952 (?). The new statue is all metal with a cylindrical base, while the old statue comprises a metal globe on top of a rectangular stone / marble base. Text between the photographs: "The Work is a derivative sculpture based on an earlier work (the 'Prior Statuette'), which is as follows:"

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· Jul 1

girl, leave him. like come on lmao.

CBS News screenshot about the incident: "Incredibly, once they hit one of the lower platforms on the tower, the man dropped to one knee and appeared to be proposing to the woman. The two then embraced, the woman removed her mask, and they kissed."

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· Jul 1

i had the thought "oh i should bike over there tonight, I've never been to that island" and then i remembered

Weather app screenshot for Washington, DC. Currently sunny and 81. Today: low 75, high 98. Thursday: low 79, high 101. Friday: low 80, high 102.

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· Jun 30

conference is over so i can post this on main but huge shout out to the maintenance worker who created this composition before attendees arrived

A photo opportunity booth at ALA Conference. The backdrop says "ALA American Library Association. See yourself in A A", with the space between the As empty for a person to stand in for the L in ALA. An a-frame yellow "floor wet" sign is propped up in between the two As prior to attendees arriving, mirroring the As on the wall.

ian says DC statehood now@wareian· Jun 29

last night i learned that the Gehry-designed Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park is legally classified as a sculpture in order to get around the building height ordinances for Chicago parks. the more you know!