The fallout of theArtforumletter continues.
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The letter did not originate withArtforums editors.
So I thought,This is the beginning of a coalition, he said.
Velasco signed it himself.
By the next morning, the publishers were getting calls.
Political correctness is like a religion here, the dealer Amalia Dayan recently toldHaaretz.
You have to be cautious all of the time.
Now, these resentments have spilled out into the open.
This Palestine-Israel thing strips the Band-Aid off that toxicity.
This is actually how fucking ugly it really is in the art world, said the collector Stefan Simchowitz.
Do I like the educators?
Do I in fact even like the fucking artists Ive dedicated my life to supporting?
It creates a real existential crisis for the art world.
On both sides are those who would prefer the other be seen and not heard.
Artforum,in some ways, embodies many of the art worlds contradictions.
Its breezy, all-over-the-world website mixes criticism with party coverage.
He had been running artforum.com when he was promoted.
His magazine took activist stances that kept it relevant beyond its art criticism and top-ten lists.
In 2020, Velasco personally posted onArtforums Instagram a call to support protesters with the caption Defund Police.
It cannot right all the ills of an unjust world, nor is that its role.
(Eisenberg declined to comment; Cayre did not respond.)
Eisenman, Katharina Grosse, Joan Jonas, and Peter Doig were among those who removed their names.
He maintains his support, however, for its call for a cease-fire.
Empathy cannot and must not be selective.
But there were other repercussions.
A fourth said he was considering burning it.
Im just tired of being instrumentalized this way, she said.
(She told me in a follow-up email that they came to an amicable resolution.)
The superiors of these institutions need to be advised not once but numerous times by many voices.
(Shani currently has a show at the KM21 museum in The Hague.)
Boesky said collectors have reached out to her to ask what certain artists positions are on the issue.
She said she has heard of other gallerists setting up meetings with artists to talk politics.
We need to do an alternative.
What it really did was show its divisions.
They later updated the post to express the signatories shared revulsion at the horrific massacres perpetrated by Hamas.
That wasnt enough for Jay Penske, whose media company boughtArtforumlast year.
Velasco told Penske he needed time to think about it.
By the end of the day, Velasco was fired.
Three editors immediately quit.
We have to be assured of editorial independence.
As a result, omissions have become the message.
A sign-on letter should be brief.
People are searching for gotchas, she said.
Theyre looking for ways to dismiss this letter.
I think the underlying issue is the disagreement about whether Israel should be able to do whatever it wants.
In the case of the letterArtforumpublished, omitting the Hamas attack was intentional.
The letter was explicit in condemning violence against civilians of every identity.
The genies out of the bottle on this, said Black.
I dont think its anymore possible to reconstitute a depoliticized art world.
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