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This month in Artforum:
“Douglas dissolved artificial distinctions between the ‘life of the mind’ and a ‘life of action’ by crystallizing it all into language, into beautiful prose, sumptuous simple lines, and thoughtful poise—home-cooked and served with unabashed curiosity—until the day he died.”
—Gregg Bordowitz
“Douglas did not approach art seeking his reflection. He understood that an encounter with art is an encounter with difference—really with differences, of greatly varying kinds and forces.”
—Darby English
“In his later work, Douglas discovered the pleasures of moving outside the narrow confines of his official field, letting go of the idea that he could comprehend the historical necessity of any particular kind of art and bringing his personal life into his work.”
—Rosalyn Deutsche
“Rather than avoid uncertainty, Douglas pursued it as an occasion to push his ideas further.”
—Richard Meyer
I of the Storm: Daniel Marcus on the art of Leidy Churchman
“Churchman has come to describe the task of self-unfolding (and self-othering) in their paintings as a practice of mindful self-emptying.”
—Daniel Marcus
Land of the Living: Lauren O’Neill Butler on the art of Agnes Denes
“Denes’s forensic inquiry has encompassed not only informational systems but also societal ones. She knows how deeply the two are intertwined.”
—Lauren O’Neill-Butler
The Modern Woman: Emmelyn Butterfield-Rosen on “Posing Modernity” and “Black Models”
“Denise Murrell’s exhibition placed the past blindnesses of art history on very public view, making devastatingly clear the remedial nature of the lesson in seeing required by this discipline.”
—Emmelyn Butterfield-Rosen
And: Wes Hill on Vincent Namatjira’s Queen Elizabeth and Vincent (On Country), Laura Mclean-Ferris on Megan Rooney, Du Keke on “Awakenings: Art in Society in Asia 1960s–1990s,” Barry Schwabsky on Jean Dubuffet, and Jace Clayton on Christian Marclay.
Plus: Amy Taubin on Steven Soderbergh’s The Laundromat, Kaegan Sparks on Pamela M. Lee’s The Glen Park Library, Ross Perlin on endangered languages, Melissa Gronlund on Jean Nouvel in the Arabian Peninsula, Kaelen Wilson-Goldie on “How to Reappear,” Caroline Busta on Thomas Hirschhorn’s Robert Walser—Sculpture, and Cyrus Dunham shares their Top Ten.