Introducing Rakewell, Apollo’s wandering eye on the art world. Look out for regular posts taking a rakish perspective on art and museum stories.
You (sort of) have to feel sorry for President Trump. The art world has been heaping opprobrium on the Donald ever since he became the Republican frontrunner for last year’s elections. Artists such as Richard Prince have wasted no small amount of energy in attacking Trump, and nary a day has passed without the appearance of a new image satirising his worldview and appearance.
As revealed by Nate Freeman’s story for Art News, the art world’s attacks don’t stop with the president himself. An Instagram account called @dear_ivanka has been relentlessly taking aim at his art-collecting daughter, too. The account, which was started by an action collective co-founded by curator Alison Gingeras, began as a series of posts juxtaposing Ms Trump’s glamous lifestyle with pleas from groups likely to lose out from her father’s presidency.
A post shared by Halt Action Group (@dear_ivanka) on
The account led artist Alex Da Corte, whose art has been purchased by Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, to distance himself from any association with her. Spotting his own work in one of @dear_ivanka’s posts, he wrote: ‘Dear @ivankatrump, please get my art off your walls. I am embarrassed to be seen with you.’
And in one post, Ivanka has been reimagined as a Demoiselle d’Avignon, ‘greeting us as you usher us into the contemporary world enshrined at the pinnacle of Trump Tower.’
This episode explores an ancient funeral stele, Marie Antoinette’s breast bowl, and how digital technologies are helping to preserve Egyptian heritage sites
The many faces of Mary Magdalene