Tag: John
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John Akomfrah, Isaac Julien, and Mira Nair Among Cultural Figures Who Signed an Open Letter in Support of Former Barbican Director Devyani Saltzman
As of press time, some 250 cultural figures from around the world have signed an open letter in support of Devyani Saltzman, the former director of London’s Barbican Centre. Saltzman left abruptly earlier this week, just a few weeks after Abigail Pogson was appointed chief executive. Notable signatories include artists John Akomfrah and Isaac Julien, read more
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John Altoon’s Fever Dream Drawings
Art Review After a stint in 1950s New York, the LA-based artist abandoned abstraction and painting in favor of dreamlike, sexually charged drawings. John Yau February 16, 2026 — 3 min read John Altoon, “Untitled (ABS-52)” (1965), airbrush, pastel, and ink on board (all images courtesy Franklin Parrasch Gallery) I first saw John Altoon’s paintings read more
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Prominent Collector and Navy Secretary John Phelan Rode On Jeffrey Epstein’s Private Plane
John Phelan, a prominent art collector and the current Secretary of the Navy, is revealed to have flown on the private plane of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2006, according to a report by CNN. Flight logs note that he flew from London to New York on March 3 of that year. The flight read more
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How Richard Wright Shaped John Wilson’s Protest Art
With 1940’s explosive Native Son, the novelist Richard Wright lit a fire in American literature, the embers of which still glow today. One of the most influential writers of the 20th century, he inspired many, including a young John Wilson, born in 1922 to Guyanese immigrants in the working-class neighborhood of Roxbury, Massachusetts. Wright, who read more
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John Wilson Bears Witness
New York Newsletter The Met has a union, John Wilson has a message, Ana Mendieta’s traces, and other happenings around the city this week. Wow, it’s cold out there. This morning, as I was getting absolutely wrecked by the wind on the walk to work through McCarren Park, I spotted a lone snowman, sitting upon read more
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John Wilson’s Relentlessly Humane Vision of Black Life
I was on my way to one of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s blockbuster exhibitions when something unexpected stopped me: John Wilson’s “Self-Portrait” (2002). This haunting, abraded pastel and paint work is part of the revelatory exhibition Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson. A longtime resident of Boston, a city that never developed an read more
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