LOLA KRAMER

Very proud to share that Dorothea Rockburne’s Egyptian Painting, Scribe (1979) has entered the permanent collection of the @guggenheim ! Initiated in 1979, in anticipation of her first visit to Egypt, Rockburne’s Egyptian Paintings use two dimensions to push the wall-bound into a third, sculptural dimension.¹ Scribe is composed of folded pieces of gessoed linen attached to the wall with Velcro. (Rockburne has said that each section can measure up to forty feet before folding.) Precise lines in Conté crayon drawn directly onto the wall and across the canvas dissolve the boundary between painting and architecture. The late, great Brian O’Doherty spoke of them as riddles, writing that the Egyptian Paintings “lie a little uneasily on the wall, as if they had peeled off part of its surface and then returned it folded into a conundrum.” Scribe (1979) reflects Rockburne’s lifelong exploration of mathematical concepts of topology and complex dimensionality, first introduced to her at Black Mountain College. It’s worth noting that her love of Egyptian art was encouraged while she helped catalogue Egyptian antiquities from the Morgan Expedition at the @metmuseum (oddly, while she was a bookkeeper there). She would also spend afternoons at the @brooklynmuseum studying their extensive 18th Dynasty collection from Tel el Amarna. The final image of her bookshelf comes after a photo showing the terraced geometries found in the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, built during Dynasty 18 (ca. 1473–1458 B.C.)—the first important female ruler known to history. This acquisition follows the work’s presentation in my exhibition at Bernheim in London in 2024. My deepest gratitude to Katherine Brinson, the Guggenheim’s Constellation Council, and David Nolan Gallery. Egyptian Painting, Scribe, 1979 Gesso, oil paint, glue, and pencil on linen 93 × 56 ½ in. (236.2 × 143.5 cm) ——— 1. See: Eva Díaz, “Topologies of the Fold,”in Dorothea Rockburne (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2024).

📂 Tropical Tan, 1967, is the earliest work in my exhibition on Dorothea Rockburne’s work @bernheimgallery and it is also the first in her series of “Wrinkle-Finish Paintings” (1967- 1969). It’s the first time it has been on display in Europe, so catch it while you can (Jan. 25th!)✨👁️✨ In 1977 a group of Wrinkle-Finish Paintings debuted in Marcia Tucker’s first exhibition @newmuseum located at 65 Fifth Ave. in the Graduate Center of the New School for Social Research, featured alongside new work by #RonGorchov, #ElizabethMurray, #DennisOppenheim and #JoelShapiro. In critic @jasonfarago ’s words, Tropical Tan “comprises four panels of black steel [pig iron], each of which bulges very slightly from the sides into a modestly sloping pyramid. You only notice their three-dimensionality when looking from an angle; viewed frontally, like a painting, they resolve into a series of flattened ‘X’s. Rockburne has overlaid these panels with a strip of wrinkle-finish paint in the titular beige. It looks like felt or fur, while the unpainted sections have a lacquered appearance.” Each work from this series is titled after the spray color used. Among them are British Brown (Coll. Lannan Foundation), Ivory Black (Coll. Carnegie Museum of Art), Fire Engine Red (Coll. University of Michigan Museum of Art), and Moss Green. (Tropical Tan is the only one from the series made with pig iron and is leaning, while the others use aluminum and are fixed to the wall.) In the @brooklynrail in 2004, critic Klauss Kertess asked Rockburne what she was thinking of when she made this series… Rockburne replied: “Outdoor signs—I had a subscription to a sign painters’ magazine called ‘Signs of the Times.’ I didn’t want to paint on canvas because I felt some previous art school history had formed habits I didn’t want to continue. They weren’t bad habits—I just needed to make a break.” Slides 1-3: Photo by Eva Herzog. Courtesy of the Artist and Bernheim London/Zurich Slide 4-6: “Early Work By Five Contemporary Artists: A re-examination and analysis of rarely seen work,”Marcia Tucker, 1977 Slide 7: Fire Engine Red, 1967. Courtesy Michigan Museum of Art Slide 8-9: Courtesy Craig Starr

📁 Revisiting my portrait of @rachelrossin for @curamagazine ‘s issue 37 f/w 21-22. Rachel’s show, including works made when this was published, and spanning two floors of @ysl by @anthonyvaccarello , opens tomorrow 🩷 “‘Ours is indeed an age of extremity,’ Sontag told us in her essay on sci-fi films, The Imagination of Disaster. ‘For we live under continual threat of two equally fearful, but seemingly opposed, destinies: unremitting banality and inconceivable terror. It is fantasy, served out in large rations by the popular arts, allowing most people to cope with these twin specters.’ Rossin has a gift for plumbing the depths of technological experience to create worlds corresponding with the amputating qualities of the media.” “…Unlike much of the figurative painting by her peers, in which the whole canvas is consistent, Rossin approaches each layer differently—as if building a virtual world.” Fruits Basket, 2023 Oil stick, charcoal, acrylic oil and UV ink on canvas 36 x 48 x 1 1/2 in. 91.4 x 121.9 x 3.8 cm.

My review of Berlin-based, Bulgarian painter, Milko Pavlov’s (b. 1956, Sofia) first exhibition in the United States, organized by Villa Magdalena and the Julian Schnabel Foundation, is now published in the @brooklynrail . Thank you @phong.h.bui for the invitation to think so deeply about the unfolding of painted abstraction! Only on view for a few more days, at 360 West 11th St, New York, NY 10014 @villamagdalena33 @julianschnabelstudio #MilkoPavlov

Revisiting my cover feature on Jamian’s @gagosian show for @artforum ‘s April 2024 issue — it’s still a real kick in the pants… “THE REASON I DO WHAT I DO is because I love art and I love ideas. I’m trying to make the most of the time that I have. Seeing Ashley [Bickerton] go through physical decline, knowing that his time was limited, and watching him prepare his last show changed my entire perspective. He was stuck in a wheelchair, looking at the future, knowing that his next show would happen without him. It was inspiring to see someone in this position continue to use their mind and every last ounce of strength to make art. I saw this, and I was like, “What the fuck am I doing?” You never know when this [life] is all going to end. If you don’t have your body or your physical faculties, what are you going to do? How do you do it? My show “It” is basically dedicated to him.” … @psychojonkanoo cc: @lloydwise @rachelwetzler

For my final @artforum Diary of the year, I spent December dashing around New York asking artists, writers, and colleagues a simple question: what does it feel like to be at the threshold of 2026? Given the news cycle, I expected pessimism. But what I found instead was a surprising amount of hope. Asking people what they’ll remember from 2025, and what they wish for next turned out to be a genuine way to connect. I recommend it. I know as much about the future as you do. But it seems we all want the same things. Link in bio. With thanks to my editor @mom_innovations_plus —especially for editing across time zones and holidays—and @tinariversryan

While covering the season’s first openings for Artforum, amidst numerous strong solo exhibitions across the city, I found two artists grappling with brutal aesthetics and the unsettling bleed between virtual worlds and reality. We constantly read about "alarming new features," "hallucinations," and "counterfeit people" creeping deeper into our lives—and artists are contending with this shift head-on. From a one-night-only dystopian film installation staged in a dark garage full of hot dog stands to a gallery recast as an after-hours strip club—guards lingering, the radio rambling—I wanted to capture how artists are reckoning with (this phase of) virtual life seeping into the material world. As Nicolas Bourriaud notes, “the issue is no longer how to transition from online to offline but how humans can negotiate their relationships with machines that transform reality.” Link in 🎮 Thank you @mom_innovations_plus and @tinariversryan ❣️ @artforum

I wrote about @hannahslevy for @curamagazine ’s Generational Issue ♥️ Honored to reflect on the depth of the objects she’s created over the last decade, and to be featured alongside so many inspiring peers. Thank you @hannahslevy and congrats to the editors on a seriously talented lineup @curamagazine

Christopher, Sanya, Sonja, Pablo (security)

🛋️Opening tomorrow🛋️ May 8 Thursday Aki Goto /// video installation @europa.nyc 6-9pm I've been putting all sorts of 🔅 in here– Please come by bc this is my best one ever. So emo. I hope I'm not crying thru the opening but if I am you hug me🌀means I hug you🌀 Can't thank this team enough - @europa.nyc @pali_lagoon @billybgrant @lolakramer + @kentaro.takashina @👦🏽 @🧒🏽 Life is 🌈

“Cheese is made from milk, get it?”

“…But she persisted, and the paintings, sculptures, and installations she has produced over the last seven decades have cemented her status as a leading, if undersung, figure of contemporary American art.” This week, in @voguemagazine 🖇️ @graceedquist #DorotheaRockburne @bernheimgallery