A Riot of Color Arrives at the Broad

Welcome to The Curator, a newsletter companion to The Grand Tourist with Dan Rubinstein podcast. Sign up to get added to the list. Have news to share? Reach us at hello@thegrandtourist.net.

Los Angeles, “Jeffrey Gibson: the space in which to place me” (Until Sept. 28)
Last year, Jeffrey Gibson was the first Indigenous artist to represent the United States at the 60th Venice Biennale. In a riot of bright beautiful colors, his paintings, beaded sculptures, flags, murals, and video highlighted Indigenous culture and history on a national stage, while reckoning with the meaning of national representation. For Gibson, his unapologetically bold work expands the expectations placed on him as a Native American artist. 30 of those works now come to Los Angeles for the first time. thebroad.org

New York, “Elegance and Wonder: Masterpieces from the Collections of Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders II (Highlights Exhibition May 1-15, Full Exhibition May 17-20)
The Wall Street banker Thomas Saunders III and his wife Jordan fell in love with the work of the old masters. “Is it not remarkable the sheer beauty and freshness they all have, even after being on a canvas for hundreds of years?” once asked Thomas. Over 25 years of collecting, they amassed practically a small museum’s worth of works, including those by Francesco Guardi, Frans Pobst, Sir Thomas Lawrence, and Frans Hals. Ahead of the collection’s auction, which Sotheby’s is calling one of the greatest like it to come to market, 56 works will be on view. A highlights exhibition is up until the 15th, while the full exhibition can be seen from May 17–20. sothebys.com

New York, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” (Until Oct. 26)
Ahead of the Met Gala, Monica Miller, whose research inspired this year’s theme, described dandyism as “dressing wisely and well.” It’s “a strategy and a tool to rethink identity, to reimagine the self in a different context,” she explains in her 2009 book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity. “To really push a boundary—especially during the time of enslavement, to really push a boundary on who and what counts as human, even.” This year’s Costume Institute exhibition, guest curated by Miller, explores how fashion shaped Black identity in the Atlantic diaspora in the past 300 years up to today. metmuseum.org

Montreal, “Berthe Weill, Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-garde” (Until Sept. 7)
When Berthe Weil opened her gallery in 1901, she was the only art dealer in Paris specializing in young artists. Weil was the first to sell Pablo Picasso’s work, the first to exhibit Henri Matisse and Diego Rivera in Paris, and the only one to exhibit Amedeo Modigliani in his lifetime. Yet, her discerning eye never received its well-deserved appreciation. Here it is, belatedly, in a show bringing together 100 works by the artists who first hung on her walls, some who went on to be world-famous and others, most of whom were women, yet to be known. mbam.qc.ca

New York, “Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers” (Until Sept. 27)
“The more we discover the wonders of nature, the more we become aware of ourselves,” wrote Hilma af Klint. “I shall start with the world’s flowers.” In 1919, the painter, known for her mesmerizing abstractions discovered only after her death, started to paint flowers as the winter in Sweden began to thaw. For the next two summers, she drew flowers almost every day. In the drawings and watercolors from this portfolio, she juxtaposes flowers with mathematical diagrams, trying to read the soul through petals. Perhaps the key to life lies in the 46 of these meditations on natural forms, on show here. moma.org