Pride Journey: Atlanta
Almost everyone has been to Atlanta at some point or another. Whether for a conference or just passing through the Hartsfield-Jackson airport, the busiest airport in the world, Atlanta sees more than 100 million visitors per year. As the largest city in Georgia and one of the largest in the country by population, Atlanta has exploded to become an economic powerhouse. Skyscrapers are popping up in many areas of the city and many Fortune 500 companies have a presence in the region. Of course, the city is known for their hometown favorites: Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines and Turner Broadcasting System, which was founded by none other than Ted Turner, who’s name is everywhere in Atlanta. Turner has a downtown street named after him as well as 3 namesake restaurants – Ted’s Montana Grill – just in the Atlanta city limits.
A boy joins the crowd of mobile phone users in the installation Absorbed by Light, by artist Gali May Lucas, in Liverpool, England on March 22, 2021. PAUL ELLIS/AFP/Getty Images
It s pretty easy to spot an Impressionist painting or tell the difference between a Renaissance sculpture and a modern one. But when we try to categorize 21st-century art, it seems defined by diversity and pluralism more than similarity, which begs the question – what art movement are we living through now? There are no art movements today, says Michael Rooks, Wieland Family curator of modern & contemporary art at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. There is no one dominant philosophy or ideology. Contemporary art is characterized by its global nature. It is also not media dependent. Today s art crosses boundaries in terms of discipline. For example, artists can be designers, focus on mass consumption, work in fashion or even collaborate with industrial designers.
Karl Wirsum
The Chicago-born artist Karl Wirsum, a member of the legendary Hairy Who art group, died on 6 May, aged 81. Spending most of his career in the Windy City, Wirsum became a beloved artist and professor of painting and drawing at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, as evidenced by the outpouring of appreciation on social media from scores of former students and fans. “Karl was an artist of major consequence,” says James Rondeau, the president and director of the Art Institute of Chicago. “His visionary, imaginative, utterly original take on figuration both epitomized a Chicago school and registered in a national and international consciousness.”
Harvie and Charles Abney, a local art collector couple, have donated 47 paintings, sketches, and statues by traditional and self-taught Southern artists to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.
The gift included 17 works from Nellie Mae Rowe, an African American artist, noted for her bright, colorful drawings and decorative designs.
According to a museum official, the Abneys’ Rowe drawings would complement the museum’s extensive collection of the artist’s work. Over 200 of Rowe’s sketches and mixed-media works are now owned. They will be inherited by the museum, which plans to mount an exhibition of the artist’s works.