What's a photograph, anyway?
Art & Culture News for the week starting 2/10/2025
Welcome to La Miccia! Arts & Culture News is a weekly roundup of what’s happening in the world, through the lens of art. Thanks for reading!
If it doesn’t stop snowing and raining soon I might lose my mind. I hope the weather is less miserable where you are.
In today’s letter I talk about the debate around AI-generated art and update you on Trump’s relentless push to gain control of the arts.
Christie’s is planning an auction of AI-generated art, and the response has been divisive. Over 6,000 artists have signed an open letter demanding the auction’s cancellation, arguing that “many of the artworks you plan to auction were created using AI models that are known to be trained on copyrighted work without a license.” Meanwhile, artists working with AI have pushed back, with Refik Anadol dismissing the letter as “the result of lazy critic practices and doomsday hysteria driven by dark minds.”
Tweet from artist Refik Anadol Meanwhile, the Getty museum has acquired its first AI-generated artwork - a photograph by Costa Rican photographer Matias Sauter Morera titled Cristian en el Amor de Calle (2024). The piece references the queer history of pegamachos, cowboys from the Guanacaste Coast known for their secret affairs with men. Morera used AI to obscure the identities of the pegamachos, who lived in secrecy.
Cristian en el Amor de Calle, Matias Sauter Morera (2024) There are two things that I find interesting about this.
1) This is a strategic acquisition. The Getty didn’t just pick any AI-generated artwork - it chose one with an intentional function. Morera didn’t use AI solely as an artistic tool, but as a means of protecting a marginalized group. It makes me wonder: Could this have been done without AI? What would that look like? Could it have been a painting? A photograph of masked figures? Or was AI truly the most powerful way to tell the story of the pegamachos?
2) The artwork is being referred to as a photograph, despite the fact that, by definition, a photograph is “a picture produced using a camera”. Morera’s work is definitely photorealistic, yet he didn’t use a camera. It’s curious to see how AI artworks are subverting the definitions of art.
A man attacked the main altar of the St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.
Qatar will have its own permanent pavilion at the Giardini for the Venice Biennale, the first new national pavilion added there in 30 years. That’s because securing a spot in the Giardini is notoriously difficult, costly, and politically complex. Historically, the Giardini has been home to those nations that have shaped global power structures through colonialism - like the US, the UK, and Spain. Meanwhile, other nations either exhibit in a large communal space in the Arsenale, or are relegated to temporary spaces scattered throughout Venice, where access to visibility is less guaranteed. I’ve written about this before.
Christo and Jeanne Claude’s installation The Gates is getting an exhibition and a VR experience.
I haven’t stopped thinking about Otessa Moshfegh’s collaboration with Prada since it was released. She also gave a really fun interview discussing the process of writing the stories, collaborating with Carey Mulligan, and hinting at plans for her new book. Who’s going to make this playlist?
Nicolaia Rips interviewed Otessa Moshfegh for i-D Trump took over the Kennedy Center. During his first term, Trump did not attend the Kennedy Center Honors for three consecutive years, making him the first sitting president in history to do so.
Trump’s post on Truth Social Mentions of ‘transgender’ and ‘queer’ have been removed from the Stonewall monument website - the acronym LGBTQ+ has been shortened to LGB. A move as insane as it is inaccurate, considering that many transgender people, including Marsha P. Johnson, were on the front lines of the Stonewall uprising.
Activist Marsha P. Johnson ArtNews is celebrating Black History Month with a series of essays spotlighting Black artists. This feels like a small act of defiance amidst the wave of anti-diversity exec orders. It is also an act of resistance that is easily actionable at a smaller scale. You don’t want us to say certain words and discuss certain topics? We will anyway. Just because some people are deciding to erase parts of history, doesn’t mean that they cease to exist.
Artwork of the week
The Gates, Christo and Jeanne Claude (2005)
Didn't know about the prada x ottessa moshfegh collab , that's very cool . We need more things like this