If you could look directly into the curatorial zeitgeist in the United States, what would you see? It occurs to me that one way to think about that question is to look at which artists are being shown simultaneously in temporary shows at museums across the country.
I’ve spent the last few weeks sifting through the exhibition programs of 200 U.S. museums, trying to discover the names that recur most in terms of who was on view in the month of September. It’s near impossible to be totally comprehensive, and the exercise involves plenty of subjectivity on my part when it comes to measuring importance. Because I’m most interested in breadth of influence, I don’t make any distinctions between bigger and smaller institutions. I rank career retrospectives highly, followed by solo exhibitions, special commissions, biennial appearances, and then inclusions in thematic group shows.
Despite the inevitable limitations of the exercise, it felt worthwhile to me. It makes visible the status of artists whose influence I might otherwise not have noticed. I decided to highlight 5 because it seemed like there was the clearest case to be made for them as concentrating attention.
What do the results suggest about the curatorial zeitgeist? Museums right now continue to be very focused on elevating minority voices—this is probably the central theme here. A rhetoric of community engagement and historical education dominates. Notably, neither traditional painting-on-canvas nor new media are central here; these artists mainly lean towards installation and sculpture, working with materials that have symbolic connections to community and tradition.
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No artist is having a museum moment right now like Marie Watt (b. 1967). Art lovers can see her work on view across the country right now, literally from Anchorage to Austin.
A member of the Seneca Nation, the Yale-trained, Portland, Oregon-based artist makes art about Indigenous history and knowledge, often working with blankets and textiles. She’s particularly known for working in collaboration, sometimes convening sewing circles. “As an Indigenous person, I think it is important to share that there is no word for ‘art’ in our language, but it is an activity—the activity of being creative and inventive,” she once explained to the Art in Embassies program.
EXHIBITIONS:
—“Storywork: The Prints of Marie Watt” at the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California, through October 20, 2024
—“Marie Watt: Land Stitches Water Sky” at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, through September 22, 2024
—“Marie Watt: Sky Dances Light,” at the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, through October 20, 2024
GROUP SHOWS:
—“Soft Power” at the Tacoma Art Museum, Washington, closed September 1, 2024
—“The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans” at the New Britain Museum of Art, New Britain, Connecticut, closed September 15, 2024
—“Time Travelers: Foundations, Transformations, and Expansions at the Centennial” at the Tucson Museum of Art, through October 6, 2024
—“Future Dreaming… A Path Forward” at the Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, California, through November 10, 2024
—“Finding Home” at the Baltimore Museum of Art, through December 1, 2024
—“How to Survive” at the Anchorage Museum, through January 19, 2025
—“Broken Boxes: A Decade of Art, Action, and Dialogue” at the Albuquerque Museum, through March 2, 2025
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