Dear Readers,

 

I am pleased to report that we are now in the eighth year of The Art Section. In this spring issue, we have three features. We have a wonderful essay by Anna Leung on The Adventures of the Black Square at Whitechapel Gallery in London. This was an amazing exhibition I am sorry not to have seen, but at least we can experience it vicariously through Anna’s reportage and insightful analysis.

 

The Art Section is always delighted to present poetry, and we are very lucky to have a series of works by New York poet Roger Aplon. We appreciate his generosity in sharing his work with us in both written and spoken forms.

 

Finally, I have just returned from the 56th Venice Biennale, and I am reporting on the women artists in the national pavilions, the curated exhibition All the World’s Futures, and the auxiliary exhibitions. Perhaps the fact that women are so well represented in this major international overview of contemporary art will finally cause Georg Baselitz to rethink his loathsome comments on women artists. For those who have missed his outburst, Baselitz told Der Spiegel in an interview. “Women don’t paint very well,” “It’s a fact.” And then he goes on in the Guardian's to Kate Connolly, “The market doesn't lie," “Even though the painting classes in art academies are more than 90% made up by women, it's a fact that very few of them succeed. It's nothing to do with education, or chances, or male gallery owners. It's to do with something else and it's not my job to answer why it's so." It is unbelievable that Baselitz was allowed to teach painting for so many years, or perhaps I believe it only too well. I hope my article will make many realize that woman artists do make great art and are indeed part of the marketplace if you need that kind of proof. Perhaps Baselitz is afraid that history will erase him.

 

I am very grateful to Missi McMorries for many of the photographs of the Biennale.

 

In our Summer Issue, we will focus in greater depth on selected national pavilions, including the British, American, Australian, and Romanian.

 

Many thanks!

 

Deanna

 

Deanna Sirlin

Editor-in-Chief