It’s been a wild week in the world of sci-fi, fantasy, superheroes, and more genre fare. The return of Doctor Who for its 60th anniversary, burning Mandalorian questions, and our epic first looks at Fallout and Furiosa all made the list of our most read stories—but here’s a few more highlights you might have missed—James Whitbrook “Even AI Rappers are Harassed by Police” | AI Unlocked 10 Original Movies That Make Prime Video a Must for Horror Fans Totally Killer Image: Prime Video If you’re a horror fan and you have a Prime Video subscription , your streaming options are vast —especially if you don’t mind ads (via Freevee ) or paying a couple bucks to rent the title of your choice. But you also shouldn’t overlook the original films gaming that get distributed through Prime Video—including these 10, a creative, artistically interesting bunch that just so happen to have the power of a massive streaming platform behind them.—Cheryl Eddy Read More Amazon’s Fallout TV Show Reveals Its Armor, Apocalypse, and Walton Ghoul-gins Image: JoJo Whilden/Prime Video Fallout makes its global premiere on Prime Video April 12, 2024—and it’s a series that fans of Bethesda’s popular post-apocalyptic video game have been eager to learn more about. Today, we finally have fresh images to share, and they’re full of jumpsuits , power suits, and at least one missing nose .—Cheryl Eddy Read More We Finally Know When the New Alien Movie Takes Place The Queen Alien from Aliens. Image: Fox When Ellen Ripley said “Get away from her, you bitch,” she apparently wasn’t talking about the latest Alien movie. Turns out, Fede Alvarez’s 2024 Alien movie is actually much, much closer to the originals than anyone could’ve guessed.—Germain Lussier Read More Damn, What Does Disney Have Against Nia DaCosta? Photo: Jesse Grant (Getty Images) The Marvels is likely going to end up one of Marvel Studios’ worst-performing films in a considerable period of time—and at a time when people are largely questioning the direction of a franchise that has dominated cinema for 15 years , that’s not an ideal bit of publicity. Also not ideal? The weirdly public way Disney has decided to paint director Nia DaCosta in the wake of its release.—James Whitbrook Read More Godzilla’s Gorgeous New Design Is Getting an Equally Gorgeous Action Figure Image: Super7 At the end of the week, Godzilla stomps back into theaters with the release of Godzilla Minus One, one of the best movies of the year . He’s doing so with a slick new look , evoking the King of the Monsters’ classic design with some gritty, grotty detailing and a whole lot of threatening dorsal fins—something captured in Super7’s slick new action figure.—James Whitbrook Read More Taika Waititi Wants His Star Wars Movie to Recapture the Joy of the Original Trilogy Image: Lucasfilm Willem Dafoe teases his Beetlejuice 2 character. Get a look at the next Doctor Who anniversary special. Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu teases its Count Orlok. Plus, Monarch teases a new monster in what’s to come. Spoilers, away!—Gordon Jackson and James Whitbrook Read More David Zaslav Says Universally Unpopular Movie Scrapping Was Brave, Actually Photo: Michael M. Santiago (Getty Images) Running a movie studio has proven to be challenging for reality television mogul turned Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav . As 2023 comes to an end, he looks to the upcoming year to continue to answer for the choices being made.—Sabina Graves Read More Oh, Doctor Who, We’re So Back Image: BBC Human drama suffused with alien weirdness? A shotgun blast of emotional sincerity to sweep you away from barely coherent sci-fi technobabble? The power of love, specifically encapsulating queer love? David Tennant and Catherine Tate running around the place having the time of their lives? Do not adjust your clocks friends: it is indeed 2023 rather than 2008. But for one November night, Doctor Who certainly made it feel that way.—James Whitbrook Read More Furiosa’s First Trailer Is Here, Oh What a Lovely Day! Furiosa is here. Image: Warner Bros. Mad Max: Fury Road was a game-changing , rip-roaring, masterpiece of filmmaking and now we finally have our first look at Furiosa, its follow-up. Today is a lovely, lovely day indeed.—Germain Lussier Read More This Mandalorian Star Doesn’t Agree Your Theories About Her Character Is the Armorer supposed to be mysterious? The actress isn’t so sure. Image: Lucasfilm From the very first episode of The Mandalorian , you wanted to know about the Armorer. She was fierce. She was mysterious. And she was wise beyond her years. As we’ve learned more about her in subsequent seasons, that mystique has only grown . Is she honest? Does she have ulterior motives? What’s her deal?—Germain Lussier Read More Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel , Star Wars , and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV , and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who .
sabato 2 dicembre 2023
33 Must-See Exhibitions to Visit This Winter – ARTnews.com
Winter is usually a sleepy season for museums across the world. Fall exhibitions remain on view with the hope of luring visitors during the cold months while curators typically prep big retrospectives for the spring. But that will not entirely be the case this time around. In Germany, a year-long celebration devoted to Caspar David Friedrich, the Romantic painter born 250 years ago, is set to kick off, and Latin America is set to get one of its biggest shows ever devoted to the Chilean-born artist Cecilia Vicuña in Buenos Aires. Retrospectives are also in the offing for Yoko Ono, Emily Kam Kngwarray, and more. New additions to the canon will also share the limelight. The little-known Renaissance master Pesellino is getting a fresh look in London, and Anu Põder, an Estonian sculptor who appeared in last year’s Venice Biennale, will receive a survey in Switzerland. And a blockbuster exhibition at the Met devoted to the Harlem Renaissance looks to initiate new understandings of African American art history. These shows and more figure on the list below, featuring 33 must-see museum shows and biennials opening across the world between the beginning of December and the end of February. “Prelude – Rayyane Tabet. Trilogy” at Mudam Luxembourg Image Credit: Photo Walid Rashid/Courtesy the artist and Sfeir-Semler, Beirut and Hamburg Technically, Rayyane Tabet’s latest exhibition is the first part in a series of three shows, each of which will continue his exploration of histories that are just barely visible. He has plans to cloak Mudam’s I. M. Pei–designed pavilion in curtaining that once appeared in his grandparents’ Beirut apartment. He’ll also cover the structure’s overhead windows in deep blue film, an allusion to a practice used by Lebanese people during the Six-Day War in 1967 to avoid being seen by those conducting air raids above. Tabet has also directed his attention toward more recent tragedies, too. In these darkened spaces, he will show jugs crafted from shards collected after the 2020 blast that rocked Beirut. December 1, 2023–May 12, 2024 “David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive” at Art Institute of Chicago Image Credit: ©The David Goldblatt Trust/Yale University Art Gallery Many bore witness to the horrors of apartheid in South Africa, but few recorded them with the clarity and precision that the photographer David Goldblatt did. He pictured racism, segregation, class differences, and more, and also created essential documents of the AIDS crisis as it impacted his home country. Some 140 of his pictures will be assembled for this show, one of the biggest devoted to Goldblatt since his death in 2018; these works will appear alongside works by other South African photographers, including Lebohang Kganye, Zanele Muholi, and Santu Mofokeng. December 2, 2023–March 25, 2024 “Karlo Kacharava: Sentimental Traveler” at S.M.A.K., Ghent, Belgium Image Credit: Courtesy Karlo Kacharava Estate, Tbilisi, and Modern Art, London Although he died of a brain aneurysm at 30 in 1994, Georgian artist Karlo Kacharava produced thousands of artworks. His paintings riff on images found in arthouse cinema and allude to a post-Soviet youth culture that was still taking hold when his career was cut short, and while these works and his writings have earned him cult status in Georgia, they have only recently found an audience outside his home country. His S.M.A.K. show—his first museum exhibition ever staged outside Georgia—will place an emphasis on Kacharava’s transnational lifestyle, which took him far beyond Tbilisi, to European metropoles like Paris, Madrid, and Cologne. December 2, 2023–April 14, 2024 Emily Kam Kngwarray at National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Image Credit: ©Emily Kam Kngwarray/Copyright Agency/National Gallery of Australia Within Australia, the Anmatyerr painter Emily Kam Kngwarray is well-known for abstractions that envision the natural world via dazzling blasts of color and coolly arranged lines. Some have sold for vast sums, both in and beyond the continent; dealer Larry Gagosian and actor and collector Steve Martin are among her fans. But beyond simply viewing her as an abstractionist with mass appeal, the curators of this retrospective—Kelli Cole of the Warumunga and Luritja peoples and Hetti Perkins of the Arrernte and Kalkadoon peoples—specifically position her as an Aboriginal artist whose work was rooted in her people’s culture. Tellingly, the show spells her name in accordance with the preferred Anmatyerr stylization, not the more widely used Anglophone one (Emily Kame Kngwarreye). December 2, 2023–April 28, 2024 “Imagined Fronts: The Great War and Global Media” at Los Angeles County Museum of Art Image Credit: Photo ©Musée de l’Armée/RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, New York These are tough times, with simultaneous conflicts in many different parts of the world making headlines regularly—and, as this exhibition goes to show, this was also the case a little over the century ago, when the Great War had engulfed the world. How that conflict was pictured in the media and art forms the basis of this 200-object show, whose offerings include posters advertising wartime efforts with an eye toward gender equality and a Félix Vallotton painting that abstracts the carnage of the Battle of Verdun. December 3, 2023–July 7, 2024 “Hernan Bas: The Conceptualists” at the Bass, Miami Image Credit: Photo Silvia Ros/Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin Among the top institutional offerings during Art Basel Miami Beach will be this solo show by Hernan Bas, a painter native to the Florida city. In the past, he has taken up 19th-century modes in service of explicitly queer tableaux that belong to our moment. He’ll return to that style for the 35 works included in this show, which focus on a character who undertakes activities that Bas believes fall under the umbrella of “conceptual art,” such as persistently chewing gum and other rituals. December 4, 2023–May 5, 2024 “Ahmed Morsi in New York: Elegy of the Sea” at Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami Image Credit: Courtesy the artist This Egyptian-born painter has been a quiet giant of New York ever since he moved there in 1974, and now his surreal imagery, featuring many-eyed humanoids and upturned horses, will find new audiences with this exhibition featuring works produced between 1983 and 2012. The show explores Morsi’s repeated use of the sea, which he uses as a symbol for the places between nations and worlds that many, including himself, have crossed. December 5, 2023–April 28, 2024 “Pesellino: A Renaissance Master Revealed” at National Gallery, London Image Credit: ©National Gallery, London Francesco Pesellino is certainly not a household name in 2023, but more than five centuries ago, in Renaissance Italy, things were very different. His commissions by the powerful Medici family made him a star, and scholars of his day prized his abilities to paint small figures that were rich in detail. Seeking to rescue Pesellino from semi-obscurity, the National Gallery’s conservators have spruced up The Story of David and Goliath (ca. 1445–55), a sprawling battle scene cramped with dueling soldiers, and are now ready to present the results of their work alongside other pieces by Pesellino, whose oeuvre is small because he died at 35. The show is among the very few major Pesellino shows ever mounted, making it a must for Renaissance fanatics. December 7, 2023–March 10, 2024 “Cecilia Vicuña: Dreaming Water” at Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires Image Credit: Courtesy the artist In the minds of many, the 2022 Venice Biennale may be synonymous with Cecilia Vicuña, the Chilean-born artist whose fantastical imagery was used to advertise the show, which that year gave her its lifetime achievement award. With their emphases on feminist cosmologies, Indigenous knowledge, and worlds beyond our own, her paintings spoke well to the exhibition’s themes—and have continued to hold the attention of many in the year since it closed. More than 200 works by Vicuña are headed to Buenos Aires for this retrospective, which aims to explore how South American politics and culture have influenced her art since the ’60s. December 8, 2023–February 26, 2024 Thailand Biennale Image Credit: Photo Stephen J. Boitano/LightRocket via Getty Images The itinerant Thailand Biennale, now in its third edition, has returned, this time in Chiang Rai, a province in the country’s northeast region. With two prominent artists—Rirkrit Tiravanija and Gridthiya Gaweewong—at the helm, the show takes its name, “The Open World,” from a Buddha sculpture at the ancient site of Wat Pa Sak, but its ambitions exceed the local. “Can we imagine the possibility of a better future?” the curators ask in a statement that alludes to centuries of shifting borders, both in Thailand and beyond. The participants include a number of acclaimed Thai artists, including the collective Baan Noorg Collaborative Arts, which memorably placed a functional half-pipe in a museum for Documenta 15 last year, but biennial superstars like Ho Tzu Nyen, Ernesto Neto, and Haegue Yang will also be on hand. December 9, 2023–April 30, 2024 Leda Papaconstantinou at EMST, Athens Image Credit: Photo Dimitris Papadimas/Courtesy the artist Within Greece, Leda Papaconstantinou is well-known for her risk-taking performances, which, during the ’60s and ’70s, destabilized the binary between male and female. Appropriately, EMST is feting her in a feminist-minded series called “What If Women Ruled the World?” But the offerings in this retrospective will extend beyond Papaconstantinou’s explicitly feminist art and will also address her work on the island of Spetses, where, between 1971 and 1979, she ran a theatre company that enlisted locals alongside professional actors in its productions, which sought to understand what truly constitutes a community. Opens December 14 “Caspar David Friedrich: Art for a New Age” at Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany Image Credit: Photo Elke Wahlford/©Hamburger Kunsthalle/bpk/Hamburger Kunsthalle To celebrate the 250th anniversary of Caspar David Friedrich’s birth, several German institutions are partnering for a series of exhibitions devoted to the Romantic painter, whose era-defining images of people standing before grand vistas evoke awe and terror in equal measure. First up is this exhibition featuring 50 paintings, including Monk by the Sea, his 1808–10 masterpiece depicting a tiny figure before a stormy ocean, which rarely leaves its home in Berlin. Some 90 works on paper by Friedrich and others in his circle will also be on hand, attesting to his influence on German art history. December 15, 2023–April 1, 2024 “John Chamberlain: THE TIGHTER THEY’RE WOUND, THE HARDER THEY UNRAVEL” at Aspen Art Museum Image Credit: ©John Chamberlain/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/Photo Don Stahl/Courtesy Dia Art Foundation, New York This exhibition, billed as the first institutional survey devoted to John Chamberlain in a decade, is a meeting of minds: the artist Urs Fischer, himself a maker of grand sculptures, has curated it. With loans from New York’s Dia Art Foundation, Fischer’s show will bring together early works and late works by Chamberlain, who is internationally recognized for his assemblages of crushed cars. Fischer, seeking to draw out some lesser-known sides of the artist’s oeuvre, has a stated focus on the folds of Chamberlain’s sculptures, with a special section devoted to his photography, which abstract interiors and his own body into wavy lines and blurs. December 15, 2023–April 7, 2024 “Ay-O: Hong Hong Hong” at M+, Hong Kong Image Credit: ©Ay-O/Courtesy the artist The endlessly creative artist Ay-O found fame in the ’60s with his rainbow-colored prints. By then, he had already helped shape the Fluxus movement with creations that ranged from lightbulb sculptures to “Tactile Boxes,” whose insides viewers were invited to finger and feel around. Assembling works from the 1950s to the 2000s, this survey for the nonagenarian is the first in a new series of monographs devoted to Asian artists of note at M+. Opens December 15, 2023 “Lacan, The Exhibition: When Art Encounters Psychoanalysis” at Centre Pompidou Metz, France Image Credit: ©Latifa Echakhch/Photo Archives Mennour/Courtesy the artist and Mennour, Paris Jacques Lacan, the famed French psychoanalyst, had a thoughtful understanding of the human subconscious, but it turns out he was a perceptive art lover, too. He once owned Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du Monde (1866), whose subject matter—a close-up of a woman’s genitals, rendered in fine detail for all to see—was so provocative that even Lacan couldn’t find the words to discuss it publicly. But discuss it publicly, many have done since the Courbet painting entered the French national collection, and it will once again become a topic of conversation when it heads to this show surveying Lacan’s impact on art history. Pieces about kinky desires and reflectivity dating from many centuries, from Caravaggio to Maurizio Cattelan, have been brought together for an ambitious look at how the ideas guiding Lacan’s theories have been visualized. December 31, 2023–May 27, fitness 2024 “Anu Põder: Space for My Body” at Muzeum Susch, Switzerland Image Credit: Photo Stanislav Stepashko/Art Museum of Estonia Split-open bodies and gangly tongues are two of the recurring elements in the sculptures of Anu Põder, an Estonian artist whose work explores corporeal states that are hard to describe via representational means. Informed by her own experience as a mother and as a woman living in a post-Soviet Estonia, Põder, who died in 2013, sculpted in ways that did not adhere to the artistic trends of her day. They still felt like objects flung out of the future when they appeared at the 2022 Venice Biennale, whose curator, Cecilia Alemani, has returned to organize this retrospective, which dwells on how Põder utilized materials that acted as surrogates for body parts and visually evoked senses beyond sight. January 3–June 30, 2024 “Tetsuya Yamada: Listening” at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Image Credit: Courtesy the artist With a stated focus on the “question of who I am and how I want to exist,” Tetsuya Yamada has worked with a light touch, producing sculptures crafted from old newspapers, thumbprints, branches strung up with knotted rope, clay, and more. Drawing on sculptures by Eva Hesse, Constantin Brancusi, Isamu Noguchi, Ron Nagle, and others, the Tokyo-born artist has proven a key figure in the Twin Cities, where he is now based, with works that explore how people shape time and nature. This 60-work show, his first major US museum exhibition, looks to cement his reputation in the Midwest. January 18–July 7, 2024 “Zanele Muholi: Eye Me” at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Image Credit: ©Zanele Muholi/Bader + Simon Collection Photographer Zanele Muholi has described themselves as a visual activist, and with good reason—their work has repeatedly shed light on the lived realities of queer people in South Africa, the country where Muholi was born and is based. The 100 works assembled for Muholi’s first West Coast museum survey will span documentary photography and other less classifiable modes of working, including their acclaimed “Somnyama Ngonyama” series, in which the artist poses in ways meant to recall—and subvert—historical portraits of Black subjects. January 18–August 11, 2024 “Tobias Spichtig: Everything No One Ever Wanted” at Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland Image Credit: Courtesy the artist; Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin; and Jan Kaps, Cologne Tobias Spichtig’s 2021 Swiss Institute show in New York was set within a mirrored gallery and lined with empty display cases that he obtained from closed stores. The show, with its off-putting air, encapsulated the creepy vibe of the Swiss artist’s work, which frequently undoes the glamour of high fashion. In new paintings, sculptures, and installations making their debut this season at the Kunsthalle Basel, Spichtig will turn his chilly gaze on the culture of the 1950s. January 19–April 28, 2024 “Loie Hollowell: Space Between, A Survey of Ten Years” at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut Image Credit: Photo Feuer Mesler Gallery/Courtesy the artist and Pace Gallery Two years ago, Loie Hollowell explained the experience of childbirth as “leaving one version of yourself behind and moving toward another”—a description that could just as well apply to her paintings, which depict fleshy forms that seem to split apart and transform anew. Working under the sign of modernists like Agnes Pelton and Neo-Tantric painters like G. R. Santosh, she has translated interior states into paint, at times even bringing her abstracted breasts and buttocks into the third dimensions via foam extensions. Those paintings will be included in her first-ever museum survey, which will mark the public debut of works on paper from her archive. January 21–August 11, 2024 Leonard Rickhard at Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo Image Credit: Photo Thomas Widerberg/Christian Bjelland Collection Leonard Rickhard, one of Norway’s most important living artists, has gained a following for his spare paintings depicting still, calm structures, sometimes with people looking on at them. Beneath these paintings’ serenity, disquietude lurks—some depict military barracks in allusion to the relics of Germany’s occupation of Norway. Seeking to explore the ways Rickhard has explored the post–World War II Norwegian consciousness, the Astrup Fearnley Museet is mounting a full-dress retrospective, marking the second time in the 21st century that the museum has done so. January 24–May 19, 2024 Lagos Biennial Image Credit: Courtesy Lagos Biennial FESTAC ’77, the 1977 arts festival held in Lagos that highlighted the richness of African culture, continues to loom large nearly 50 years on; its influence is one of the focuses of this week-long biennial in the Nigerian city, now in its fourth edition. Under the title “Refuge,” this week-long festival will focus on how African artists of all kinds can gather anew in a time when climate change is disproportionately impacting the Global South. The offerings span architectural presentations, talks, and an art exhibition called “CAPTCHA,” curated by Sarah Rifky and Kathryn Weir, which “reflects on regimes of seeing and strategies of taking refuge in plain sight,” according to its description. February 3–10, 2024 “Entangled Pasts, 1768–now: Art, Colonialism and Change” at Royal Academy of Arts, London Image Credit: Photo Stuart Whipps/Courtesy the artist and Ikon Gallery A spread of London art institutions have begun to place due attention on their role in British colonialism, most notably Tate Britain, whose rehang earlier this year put a focus on the country’s painful conquests in Africa and the Caribbean—a topic that had rarely made it into the permanent collection galleries previously. The latest museum to do so is the Royal Academy of Arts with this 100-work show, whose checklist spans multiple centuries and artists of many nations. On view will be J. M. W. Turner’s paintings of disturbed seas, Kara Walker’s provocative meditations on slavery, and Hew Locke’s Armada (2017–19), an installation composed of 45 suspended models of boats, some of which are accompanied by sculptures of Portuguese colonialists. February 3–April 28, 2024 “Harold Cohen: AARON” at Whitney Museum, New York Image Credit: Courtesy Whitney Museum The abstractions that Harold Cohen began producing with the help of a computer called AARON during the 1960s may seem quaint by today’s standards, but their squiggly lines and striped swatches were just about unthinkable before the software spit them out. The Whitney, seeking to underline Cohen’s place in the canon, will survey AARON’s output with a sampler of paintings and drawings. Yet not all of the offerings are static, fixed things. In something of a landmark moment for art-and-tech enthusiasts, AARON’s process will be enacted live in the galleries at various points in the show’s run. February 3–June 2024 “Stanley Whitney: How High the Moon” at Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York Image Credit: ©Stanley Whitney/Courtesy Stanley Whitney Studio/Photo Lisson Gallery/Private Collection Think of an artwork based on a grid, and you might conjure the colorless, austere kind that recurs throughout Minimalist art. Stanley Whitney’s grids stand in stark opposition to those ones, with bright hues, unevenly arranged forms, and divisions that slant out of alignment. The joy Whitney has taken in returning over and over to the grid, showing where order breaks down into controlled chaos, will be on full display in his 150-work retrospective, which supplements his paintings with works on paper that attest to his process. February 9–May 27, 2024 Outi Pieski at Tate St. Ives, United Kingdom Image Credit: ©Outi Pieski/Photo Tor Simen Ulstein/KUNSTDOK The Sámi artist Outi Pieski, who is based in Helsinki, has become a star of the biennial circuit, with recent showings in Venice, Sydney, and Gwangju, South Korea, under her belt. At these shows, she has exhibited textile works composed of hanging threads in bright hues and wood, all harnessed in the Sámi tradition of duodji, which holds that objects contain powers of their own. Her Tate St. Ives show, one of her biggest solo outings to date staged beyond the Baltic region, will include paintings and installations focused on Indigenous rights. February 10–May 6, 2024 “Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind” at Tate Modern, London Image Credit: ©Yoko Ono Back in 1971, Yoko Ono held a solo show at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, which she rechristened the Museum of Modern [F]art. The show didn’t really exist, even though she advertised in the Village Voice and produced a catalogue—it was mostly a performance that involved releasing butterflies into the museum’s sculpture garden. In the half-century since, Ono’s work has entered institutional galleries in sanctioned ways, and this 200-work show acts as proof. Her Tate exhibition will feature work from her Fluxus days during the ’60s, including documentation of her famed 1964 performance Cut Piece, in which spectators were invited to snip away at her clothes, as well as more recent installations and sculptures that speak out against war and urge peace. February 15–September 1, 2024 “René Treviño: Stab of Guilt” at Wellin Museum of Art, Clinton, New York Image Credit: Courtesy the artist René Treviño has researched Mayan and Aztec history, explored his own experience as queer person of Mexican-American heritage who grew up in Texas, and cast his eye toward the heavens, focusing on solar flares and more with awe. All of these interests fuse in his prints, sculptures, and paintings, which look to the past to gaze into the future. Some 200 of his artworks will figure in this survey focusing on 15 years’ worth of his art. February 17–June 14, 2024 Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Image Credit: ©Christine Fenzl This winter’s most high-profile biennial bears an ironic name, given that it is set in a desert: “After Rain,” a reference to the hope that change will come, as its curator, Uta Meta Bauer, has said. The 92 artists include a mix of locals and foreigners. Saudi Arabian artist Ahmed Mater is set to work with Armin Linke on a project that tracks the growth of the oil industry, while the Oslo-based Senegalese restaurant NJOKBOK—here participating as an artist of sorts—will set up a functioning juice and tea bar. Also on tap will be works by artists such as Ibrahim El-Salahi, Alia Farid, Sopheap Pich, Tomás Saraceno, and more. February 20–May 24, 2024 “Janet Sobel: All-Over” at Menil Collection, Houston Image Credit: ©Janet Sobel/Photo ©Museum of Modern Art, New York/Licensed by SCALA, Art Resource, New York/Museum of Modern Art A flurry of support for Ukrainian artists last year spurred new interest in Janet Sobel, an Abstract Expressionist painter who was born in what is now the Ukrainian city of Dnipro and enjoyed a fruitful career in New York—even as male critics sought to denigrate her output. A pioneer of a style known as “all-over” painting, in which drips are flung around a composition, Sobel’s embrace of unusual materials like enamel and sand have proven influential, especially among feminist scholars, who view her as a woman ahead of the men in her circle. Her work will only continue to grow in prominence with this small show, which assembles 30 paintings and drawings. February 23–August 11, 2024 “Henok Melkamzer: Telsem Symbols and Imagery” at Sharjah Art Foundation, United Arab Emirates Image Credit: Courtesy the artist and Sharjah Art Foundation The Ethiopian artist Henok Melkamzer produces abstractions that are in dialogue with telsem, a talismanic form of art-making that typically exist as scrolls or writing. But this show, curated by art historian Elizabeth Giorgis, asserts that Melkamzer’s art cannot only be couched in Ethiopian tradition, even if it does draw on the zodiac, Orthodox Christian symbolism, and other Ethiopian subject matter. It also has a lot to do with modernism, Giorgis suggests. The 100 works on view will suggest the ways that Melkamzer reinterprets non-representational painting of the 20th century. Among them will be his paintings that make use of the hareg (vine), a twisting form that snakes around and around in Melkamzer’s hands, producing eye-popping compositions that the artist has designed to be viewed by starting in the center and moving outward. February 24–June 16, 2024 “The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism” at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Image Credit: ©2023 Estate of Archibald John Motley Jr./Bridgeman Images/Howard University It has been more than three decades since the Harlem Renaissance has been surveyed by a New York museum—the Studio Museum in Harlem was the last one to do so, in 1987—and with this show, the Met aims to take a fresh look at the movement, which kicked off in the ’20s and has influenced many generations afterward. As writers like Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes were reshaping literary prose to account for new Black subjectivities, artists like Jacob Lawrence, William H. Johnson, and Meta Warrick Fuller were revolutionizing painting and sculpture, producing images of African Americans in ways they had rarely been depicted before. The movement produced a litany of memorable works, some 160 of which will be assembled here, with many on loan from museums operated by historically Black schools. Among them in will be photographs of stylish Harlemites by James Van Der Zee, whose vast archive was recently acquired by the museum in collaboration with the Studio Museum. February 25–July 28, 2024 “Isabel Quintanilla’s intimate realism. Retrospective” at Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid Image Credit: ©2023 VEGAP, Madrid/Photo ©bpk, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen/Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich Ironically, although Isabel Quintanilla was Spanish, many of her realist paintings are better known in Germany than they are in her home country. That may soon change, however, with this retrospective, the first ever devoted to a Spanish woman at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Some 100 paintings and drawings will be brought together for the show. Many will be the still lifes for which Quintanilla is fondly remembered: glasses on tables, arrangements of fruit, and small vases stuffed with flowers, all gently lit and rendered with a piercing sense of naturalism that is unusual for 20th-century painting. February 27–June 2, 2024
Britney Spears Rushes to Vet in Medical Emergency During Birthday Celebration
Britney Spears got super upset Friday night, after her dog had an apparent medical emergency … TMZ has learned. Britney was out in L.A. for a pre-birthday celebration — she turned 42 today — at her manager/best friend Cade Hudson ‘s home, along with her brother Bryan and several others. At 2 AM, Britney, Cade and Bryan left Cade’s home and got in a car. An agency photog at the scene says she had her dog in the car and they rushed to a 24-hour veterinary clinic. We never see the dog, but the photog claims they brought it in. BACKGRID Britney and crew then went to a gas station convenience store on the Sunset Strip, and from the photos you can tell this was some sort of emergency. Cade is in his PJs with no shoes. They then went back to the vet, and it’s travel unclear whether they had the dog when they left. Bryan seems to be the only family member with whom Britney has a face-to-face relationship. He’s been with her fairly regularly over the last few months.
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Only send messages to the people you know and those that have enrolled. Sending messages to people who do not have any prior relationship together with the company or perhaps your offerings may give the look of spam. The recipients is going to be reluctant to accept your mail when they don’t know you, and they also may not cherish your companies product. It’s likely that they’ll just delete your email, which simply wasted your precious time.
Target your audience. Once you have some readers, try getting them to have their friends to join up. Following every email, provide a “subscribe” button as well as a “share” button so readers can pass on your data to friends. This really is an additional way to grow an email list organically.
Each email should only contain a single topic. You need to avoid boring or overwhelming customers with marketing emails that incorporate excessive content. Create the specific message using brevity and conciseness. Audiences will certainly appreciate your willingness to limit the message just to probably the most relevant material.
Use a variety of resources to find out exactly what you possibly can concerning how to successfully utilize marketing via email. Search on the internet for information, or take a look at books from your library. You might consider attending local classes or workshops in your area for relevant local information.
Use a/B testing to improve the outcomes of the emails’ subject lines. Pick one email then send half of which with one subject line and the other half of all of them with some other subject line. This plan shows which subjects customers open, and which get ignored and delivered to trash.
Fill your marketing emails with helpful tips, don’t simply load them on top of sales pitches. Ensure your subscribers receive special articles that happen to be only accessible via email. Promote deals on goods and services inside your emails which are exclusive to your email customer. Always send holiday greeting and specials. You shouldn’t simply send emails just when you find yourself wanting something from your customer base.
In order to ensure that every single customer in your list has given their permission so that you can email them, you should have customers opt-directly into your list twice before you decide to send the 1st email. Which may seem to be a substantial amount of effort, however you are guaranteed how the person really wants your emails, which erases the possibility that you and your ISP will come across trouble.
Be sure that you come with an unsubscribe link that may be easily visible within your emails. Don’t forget to include one or affiliate marketing bury it so that it is not readily apparent. It is important that your customers feel in control and they aren’t being forced into anything.
Use passive and active feedback to create your email marketing better. Active feedback could be gained by asking your potential customers for suggestions. However, passive feedback is far more subtle and could even be invisible in your readers. Many tools and software permit you to see how many of your emails were opened and exactly how many people clicked on links.
Include a customer incentive inside your emails. If they have a good reason to perform business, they frequently will. Offering free delivery for orders over $50 is a great demonstration of incentive.
Every so often, make positive changes to layout in order to give it more of a private touch. When your messages in marketing via email have been in HTML format, try sending messages developed in text format occasionally. If your message is written well, plain text adds a private touch, making customers feel ‘connected’ towards the products and services that you just offer.
Be sure that every current email address is correct. Having erroneous emails that simply recover will just waste your time and effort. It is just a waste of time.
Always ask permission before adding anyone to your subscriber list. In the event you add individuals who have not subscribed for your e-mails, you will develop a bad reputation. There are actually perhaps you may well be banned from sending emails.
Give everyone on the subscriber list an opportunity to unsubscribe easily and instantly. Certain emails cost money, although it could be a little bit. Being considered a spammer is extremely harmful to business, and you may be blacklisted from certain websites.
Keep in mind that the point of an e-mail marketing plan is always to create a reputation with the customer base. Will not be cheap when it comes to email quality, make sure you concentrate on the right customers for your personal business, and avoid any tactics that may be considered misleading. Your reputation reaches stake, so be sure you take this under consideration.
Test your marketing via email across multiple email platforms just before sending your campaign. You ought to try out your emails on different platforms after you think of a perfect design. An email will appear much different when viewed in Gmail than it does in Microsoft Outlook, as an example.
When individuals sign up for your subscriber list, be clear regarding what they can expect. Outline the kind of emails you will be sending and just how most of the messages will probably be sent. This will assist newer subscribers be aware of your frequency and content.
It is actually your responsibility to ensure that your opt-in list is actually opt-in, so include an email confirmation as being an added security measure. When customers join your list, an automated email that confirms their subscription ought to be sent. The email should consist of a link that this person can click to verify the subscription and another hyperlink to dispute it. This will give you verification that you are currently not spamming, and respects the desires of your own client base.
If you would like have got a successful business, how you will market your products and services could make a significant difference. marketing with email campaigns have grown to be essential tools in today’s marketing environment. You can expect to become successful if one makes good use of the tips mentioned previously.
Would Like Your Business To Get More Profitable? Use Marketing With Video!
Competition between businesses may be tough, even online. You’ll need to use every trick within the book, including online video marketing, to bring in and retain customers. The piece that follows explains how online video marketing plans could be launched with respect to your organization.
Don’t be intimidated by video marketing. Creating videos is as easy as developing a tripod and video camera. You might want to provide a demonstration of the way your products are manufactured or just speak with viewers.
Video marketing is a great way to stay in touch with your audience. Ask customers to email you with queries about everything you offer, or questions about industry topics, and answer the questions you like very best in a weekly video. If you wish to generate some interest, give people a chance to win a no cost product should they provide you with a subject.
When producing video content, video marketing don’t fret too much about production values. Possessing a beautiful video without having reliable information is worthless. Take a page from your playbook of major corporations like General Mills, Dell and Apple, that have enjoyed success just by offering basic, no-frills videos.
You want a backlink to your web site built into your video. This will aid viewers navigate your site. This is useful in how-to videos. All that you should do is save a screen grab of your respective site then edit it in your video with the video editing software you employ.
Use the tool of online video marketing to share with the entire world in regards to the product you might be promoting. Potential clients will gain confidence with your products should you provide short demonstrations and the way-tos. Actually seeing it benefit themselves can help to enhance your sales.
Try to get co-workers or another employees thinking about creating videos. Find a person who seems to be comfortable in front of a camera, smiles a lot, dresses well and talks clearly. You must not hesitate to feature more than one employee or colleague with your videos.
Your opt-in choices for your mailing list must be present on the very same page since the video. Your viewers will sign up for your newsletter or subscribe to your social media updates as soon as they watch your video if mention these campaigns with your video making these links visible.
Your audience wants you to be honest. The topic of your video needs to be an issue that holds your interest and believe can last. This will allow you to speak in the heart, which viewers will immediately recognize and answer.
Analyze your video’s statistics. Discover the foundation from the traffic, some time of viewing and the amount of times the video is viewed. You can use this information to discover how to better advertise to a specific group of people.
Online video marketing can improve your web and social media marketing presences. This will assist open up your being exposed to many more potential viewers. They will start to build a feedback loop of self-promotion. Increase the number of visitors to your video websites by including links inside your social websites messages.
Don’t let being camera shy stop you from using online video marketing to advertise your small business. Sponsor a relevant video contest in which those who get the best videos receive prizes. Also, let the contestants understand that you can expect to use the best video as an element of your ad campaign.
Everyone loves stories. Do you have any idea what stories it is possible to share concerning your business or the products it sells? Be sure to share videos associated with a charitable event where your business has participated. Also, consider testimonials from satisfied customers. In this respect, real people are a lot more effective than paid actors.
How-to videos are a fun way to advertise an organization. It is wise to do videos throughoughly. There is nothing more frustrating than simply clicking a video only to find out it explains a bit bit in regards to what it promised it will educate you on each one of. When providing services and products, people will review your company.
To thrive with video marketing, you should quickly react to any comment viewers have left you. Frequently, viewers have queries about your company and what you are offering, and so they require a quick response. Therefore, observe the comments inside your video’s comment section.
The expression “make it real” relates to videos too. Viewers find speech more believable as soon as the speaker is apparently honest. In the event you seem that you aren’t trustworthy, people aren’t likely to really likely to like your video, nor share it.
Should you wish to spend any cash on a marketing and advertising campaign involving videos, you must pay to acquire featured on popular sites to do well. Don’t use services that turn your video into an annoying pop-up. Surveys could be a great tool in aiding you recognize which places your audience is frequenting.
Let viewers understand what you’re providing upfront. Incorporate a detailed description or possibly a brief summary at the beginning of the video. Should your viewers are curious about what you have to say, then they’ll likely watch the entire video and possibly click on the URL link.
Conclude each video with question for your personal viewers. This can help to permit the client feel engaged, and also curious about the subsequent video into the future.
It takes below 10 seconds for a person to consider your video will be worth watching. After you do, they’ll keep watching. What is going to it take to have their attention? This really is determined by what individuals you’re targeting and what kinds of things you’re speaking about inside the video.
Don’t stop creating videos. Don’t quit if you make merely one. You must keep making videos frequently. Consider creating a video series to create things easier. Try to think of making your video about something different that involves your company, so people get a full have a look at what you’re about.
Your marketing with video campaign may help your business succeed in all sorts of ways. You can get huge exposure online easily and cheaply. Have a seat and initiate dealing with your video marketing plan at the earliest opportunity. Your business will quickly reap benefits.
The Way To Optimize Your Presence In Search Engines
With the new website in position, you surely have a desire for drawing new visitors, but perhaps you may not understand how. You must have the website happen in the various search engines. Look to this post for excellent suggestions to help.
When using internal links in your site it is essential to use the key phrases correctly. When you are only typing “click here” and subsequently linking that term, which is doing very little for your personal search results. If you utilize the appropriate keywords with your anchor-text, internet search engine spiders can locate your content quickly.
By using a robots.txt file in your root directory can help you to tuck away content might hurt your research engine ranking. txt file that gets added in your own root directory. This prevents search engines from gaining access to certain files in your site.
Search engines may have difficulty understand dynamic language and session ID names. Take this into account when you design your URLs. Certain language can confuse the search engines, which is why each URL needs to have a meaningful name, in addition to pertinent keywords.
Market yourself as an expert within a field. Becoming an expert within your field can prove lucrative in marketing your internet business. This can be done by starting an internet site focused around your niche. You may additionally implement search engine marketing methods to attract the maximum amount of targeted traffic as possible. Maintain your customers needs in your mind and meet them don’t make assumptions about what they need.
Authoring a blog and email marketing commenting on other blogs related to your website’s niche might be a good SEO technique. Blogs are a great way to have a high ranking. Online search engine robots love blogs since they are constantly updated with new content. To rank sites highly, search engines want to see backlinks.
To increase traffic in your site, carefully review and enhance the content onto it. Men and women not continue to your blog when they cannot obtain the knowledge they are trying to find. You are able to quickly increase your site stats by enhancing your content.
When you use properly descriptive title tags, you will be making certain the major search engines know very well what content articles are in your website. Search engines like google only display 60 characters, so keep it short. Additionally, they offer words appearing right after the 60 character limit less weight.
In addition to link exchanges, check out article exchanges as well for better rankings with search engines like google. Article exchange involves posting an entire article carried out by the dog owner of some other site, giving them a web link and obtaining a similar in turn. This can be more effective than only a hyperlink exchange and gives both sites with new content.
If you listen to some individuals, they still believe that putting keywords from the comment tag section can make them more visible. Spend time making sure the main content of your internet site is tagged appropriately.
Keep the website fresh and relevant with updated content every day, or as much as they are entirely possible that you. Set an objective on your own, and follow through upon it. Search engines like google take frequency of updating into mind when they determine site rankings. Higher page rankings are awarded to sites with frequent new content.
Ensure you register your internet site with all the top search engines like google. Many people think this really is automatically done. Check back periodically to ensure your internet site is still being listed. Even when your site isn’t situated on the first couple of pages, you need to find out when it finds your website.
Don’t overextend by packing in a lot of keywords. You should target approximately 12 primary phrases and keywords that center on your own specific site and niche. Using analytical tools can assist you with knowing which keyword phrases are driving traffic to your web site by far the most.
One method to improve your SEO is by integrating videos to your website. Also, make sure to include a video sitemap. It is actually easy to utilize videos to show how the product is used or to let people know who you and your staff are. Post them to your site with keyword-rich labels. Create a sitemap and submit it through Google Webmaster Tools. Next, post the recording online, Metacafe, Yahoo as well as other video websites. This helps increase web traffic to your site.
Only make an effort to master one area of SEO at one time as an alternative to seeking to implement them all at once. As there is not enough minutes in a day to discover all SEO techniques, find one that appears promising and take full advantage of this place.
Take advantage of the SEO, or seo, services which can be found by many companies. SEO companies optimize your website to rank highly on google search result pages (SERPs). Several companies offer deals on these facilities.
Establishing a search engine with clearly defined parameters allows you to optimize your site efficiently. Use definite commands that gives you the most outcomes for whatever you are looking for when you find yourself optimizing searching.
Seo results will never occur overnight. It is perfectly normal for you to expect to see results straight away for your personal work. It may need patience, work and time to generate traffic online. It is vital that you simply keep it going, even when you feel like effects are not coming quickly enough. Over time, your commitment and work will reward you with your site climbing higher and better in the major search engines results.
Buy a pre-owned website address and acquire a greater ranking. When you have a domain name which has been around quite some time (at the very least for a couple of years), it will likely be given more attention by search engines like google. Hunt for domains that fit well along with your website on lists of expiring or expired website names.
As we discussed, SEO is useful at getting visibility for your personal site. If your website turns up during the search, you will definitely get a boost in traffic. What you’ve learned today will allow you to progress up several spots.
venerdì 1 dicembre 2023
Sandra Day O’Connor, First Woman on the Supreme Court, Is Dead at 93
“I didn’t know lawyers and judges. We were cattle ranchers. That wasn’t — we didn’t know people like that. So I didn’t know what I was getting into, and it never entered my mind that there wouldn’t be opportunities for women lawyers. It just never occurred to me. Should have.” Sandra Day O’Connor was the first woman justice on the Supreme Court. During her tenure on the high bench, she was the crucial swing vote, the decisive force in cases that shaped history — from states’ rights to sex discrimination, voting rights to religion, affirmative action to abortion. For nearly a quarter-century, the law was basically what Justice O’Connor thought it ought to be. The onetime housewife from suburban Phoenix came to be known as the most powerful woman in America. It all began one day in July 1981. O’Connor, who was just a mid-level state judge in Arizona at the time, was working in her chambers when she got a bolt from the blue, a telephone call from the White House. President Ronald Reagan wanted to appoint her to the Supreme Court. “Why do you think you were chosen?” “Well, when Ronald Reagan was running for president, he was eager to have some support from women and it was a little dicey for him. There was an abortion issue out there, so women were somewhat skeptical. And he said during the course of his campaign, if I get a chance to put a qualified woman on the Supreme Court, I would like to do that.” For nearly 200 years, the high court was a domain reserved for men. Even the mere suggestion from Reagan made front-page news. “My name surfaced on that list. I’m not sure how or why, except that there were not many Republican women judges. There weren’t many women judges anyway — federal or state. But I was a Republican, I had served in all three branches of Arizona’s government. And unbeknownst to me, they sent a couple of people to Arizona to make inquiry about me. They had a big paper trail to review and see if they thought they approved.” “Perhaps it didn’t hurt that Ronald Reagan was a cowboy at heart.” “I think that was what he most liked, was the fact that I’d grown up on the back of a horse.” Sandra Day was a trailblazer from the beginning. Born in 1930, she was raised on the Lazy B Ranch in a remote corner of Arizona. “We were 35 miles from the nearest town. An adobe house that was plastered and it had a big screen porch around it, where the cowboys slept. No indoor plumbing, no running water, no electricity. It was rather primitive.” “When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?” “A cattle rancher. I liked it. It was wonderful. That was the only thing I knew anything about. I think I was the only student in my graduating class who went away out of state to college.” At Stanford University, the cowgirl met the person who would inspire her life’s ambition, a professor named Harry Rathbun. “He had a spiritual quality almost. He was the first person to really tell the students this is a huge, complicated world we’re living in.” TV Announcer: “Let us face without panic the reality of our times. The fact that atom bombs —” “It’s a dangerous world. We have to learn how to live together in peace in this world. And a single individual, even in this complex world of ours, can make a difference. Because of Prof. Harry Rathbun, I decided to apply to law school.” “Weren’t you told that there was no way for a woman to be a lawyer back then?” “I was not told that. In fact, it was true. And if I had known that, I perhaps wouldn’t have applied.” At Stanford Law School, O’Connor met two men who’d play a big role in the rest of her life: William Rehnquist, her future colleague on the Supreme Court — “I knew him well. He loved to play a card game, or charades or go to the movies. He was really so much fun.” — and John O’Connor, her future husband. “John was a year behind me. I was graduating that year and he had another year to go. One of us had to work and that was going to be me. And I placed calls to many of the firms, and they wouldn’t talk to me. I was female. They didn’t want to talk to me. I didn’t realize that I was going to have trouble even getting an interview. I had an undergraduate friend at Stanford whose father was a partner in a big California law firm. And he said, ‘Oh, Miss Day, you have a fine resume here.’ He said, ‘The problem is this firm has never hired a woman as a lawyer and I don’t see the time when we will. Our clients wouldn’t stand for it.’ And then he said, ‘Well, how well do you type?’ I heard that the district attorney in San Mateo County, Calif., had once had a woman lawyer on his staff, so I made an appointment to go see him. He was in the old San Mateo County Courthouse, which now is an historic building. It had a big, stained glass dome. It was fabulous. But he said, ‘The fact of the matter is, I don’t have any money to hire anybody right now.’ I said, ‘I can work for nothing until you get funding.’ And I said, ‘I know you don’t have an empty space, but I met your secretary and she’s very nice. And there’s enough room in her office to put another desk, if she’s willing to have me.’ That was the deal we struck. So it all turned out for the best, but it was sure hard to get that first job as a lawyer.” “You once wrote, ‘If society does not recognize the fact that only women can bear children, then ‘equal treatment’ ends up being unequal.’ After you moved back to Arizona, how did you manage to both practice law and raise three sons?” “It’s not easy. It was 1957. I was pregnant with my first child at the time I took the Arizona bar exam, and we had a little boy. None of the law firms in Phoenix had yet decided to hire women lawyers, so we opened our own little law office out in a suburb. And it wasn’t the kind of work usually handled at news the U.S. Supreme Court. But I couldn’t go to work every day if I didn’t have adequate and reliable help at home, and I didn’t. So I had to give up my little neighborhood law firm and I stayed home for close to five years.” O’Connor’s law career stalled, but she became a rising star in local Republican politics. “The Republicans managed to elect the attorney general of Arizona and he hired me as an assistant attorney general. Well, the problem was I was the only woman and he didn’t know what to do with me. So he sent me out to the Arizona State Hospital for the mentally ill, and said you can have space out there for your office. I said, ‘What am I supposed to do?’ ‘Well, whatever they need.’ Maybe the most important thing I did there was to start legal aid clinic for the patients. They were losing their homes, their children, everything. They were locked up. The attorney general decided, gee, maybe we could use this woman back down at the headquarters. So, he brought me back. And then I had some very good clients, like the governor and the Legislature. I really enjoyed that work and I certainly got to know state government from the ground up.” When a state senator got elected to Congress in 1969, O’Connor was tapped to fill his seat. “It was great. You could decide what problems you wanted to work on and develop legislation to do something. I had enough of a voice that I could normally get those things enacted. My colleagues, to my shock, elected me as majority leader of the Arizona State Senate. That was the first time in the United States that a woman had ever held a legislative leadership post of any kind. Isn’t that amazing? It had never happened before.” State Senator O’Connor was a loyal Republican, except when it came to issues involving women, whether it was backing the Equal Rights Amendment or avoiding the anti-abortion battles taking hold across the country. After two years at the helm of the Legislature, O’Connor returned to the law, this time as a judge — first on a county court and later, a state Court of Appeals. She’d served on the bench only seven years when that fateful phone call arrived in 1981. “So today I’m pleased to announce the nomination of Judge Sandra Day O’Connor of Arizona Court of Appeals for confirmation as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court.” The press and the public were quite taken by Reagan’s revolutionary nominee, but there was opposition from right-to-life conservatives. “Some 200 of them picketed the Senate building.” “We see it as a total repudiation of the views made public by President Reagan.” “They’re already pressuring U.S. senators to vote no on Judge O’Connor to try and block her nomination to the Supreme Court.” “Judge O’Connor, there has been much discussion about your views on the subject of abortion.” “My own view in the area of abortion is that I am opposed to it as a matter of birth control or otherwise. The subject of abortion —” Despite the opposition, the Senate voted 99 to 0 to confirm the nomination. “Do you have any trepidation?” “No, it should be very interesting.” When O’Connor arrived for her first day on the bench, the world was watching to see how a female would fare. “There was neither comment nor ceremony as Mrs. O’Connor took her seat for the opening argument.” “We’ll hear arguments first this morning in No. 1464, James G. Watt, Secretary of the Interior, against the Energy Action Education —” It took almost 40 minutes before she gathered the nerve to pose a question in oral arguments. “If the government complies with what Congress intended — in other words —” “Mr. Silard, may I —” “May I just finish your thought? The congressional —” But just when it seemed the first lady on the high court might wilt under the pressure, the cowgirl found her voice. “It isn’t clear, is it, whether even if California were to win here, that the secretary would be likely to use the bidding systems that California —” With her bold stature and piercing gaze, Justice O’Connor proved herself a force to be reckoned with — not only in oral arguments, but also in chambers. “The most electrifying moment of my first week on the court was that first time I sat in our conference room at the table to actually discuss and resolve cases that had been heard and argued. That was the moment of truth, the rest was grandstanding. That was the real thing.” Right away, the divide on the court endowed O’Connor with the power that defied her position. “We were seated, nine of us, around that table discussing the merits of the cases argued that week. And the discussion starts with the chief justice. And the chief explains how he thinks the case should be resolved and why, and then the next most senior, and on around the table, ending with the junior justice. That was me. The very first case that we discussed came to me 4 to 4. It wasn’t that I was seeking that role, but very often the court was divided in that fashion.” That made the first woman justice the key pivot point, the swing vote who single-handedly decided if the four conservative justices or the four liberals prevailed in a case. In time, it became clear Justice O’Connor valued balance and pragmatism over purity. From her experience in life and local government, she believed impacts mattered. And in case after case, she was willing to reconsider preconceptions and to ally with opposing factions on the court — even on abortion. Initially, she took the side of conservatives, backing laws limiting abortions and attacking Roe v. Wade. “Whether the state may reasonably regulate in the area of abortion in a manner designed to ensure an informed decision by a pregnant woman —” “Counsel, is the city relying on all four of the alleged state interests that you described in this instance?” “That’s correct, your honor.” “OK.” But O’Connor refused to join conservatives when they tried to overturn Roe v. Wade. Twice, she single-handedly had the chance to outlaw abortions and she refused. First, in 1989 — “— require women to have abortions after so many —” “I surely do not.” And again in 1992, with Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a landmark 5 to 4 decision that Justice O’Connor delivered for the court. “We conclude that the central holding of Roe should be reaffirmed. Some of us as individuals find abortion offensive to our most basic principles of morality, but that can’t control our decision. Our obligation is to define the liberty of all, not to mandate our own moral code.” “Do you think the issues decided in Roe v. Wade are now settled a matter for the court?” “It’s always possible that the Supreme Court of the United States can conclude that in some earlier decision it made it’s — it ought to be reversed, that it’s no longer valid. The court certainly did that in a very dramatic way in the 1950s in Brown v. Board of Education, but it is not easily done or lightly done.” When it came to affirmative action, O’Connor began as a skeptic, but became a defender in 2003, with the polarizing case of Grutter v. Bollinger. “Petitioner Barbara Grutter is a white Michigan resident who was denied admission to the law school.” Justice O’Connor cast the decisive vote in the 5 to 4 decision that upheld affirmative action in university admissions. “Showing that such diversity promotes learning and better prepares students for an increasingly heterogeneous workforce, for responsible citizenship, and —” “You wrote, ‘Effective participation by members of all racial and ethnic groups in the civic life of our nation is essential if the dream of one nation, indivisible, is to be realized.’ Do you think this principle is in danger?” “I think it’s a very important principle. I hope it isn’t in danger. It shouldn’t be. We’re a nation comprised of people from many different countries, backgrounds, religions. When I went to law school, 1 percent of the law students were female — today it’s 50. We’ve had what amounts to a revolution in this country, and it’s been all to the good.” “Over the years, is it fair to say your opinions became more moderate? Did the court become more conservative? Are both things true?” “I don’t think either of them are true. The fact of the matter is the Supreme Court considers an amazing array of issues. Amazing. I just don’t think it’s accurate to say somebody has this great unified theory and that’s how everything has to be decided. It’s not that way.” When she retired from the court in 2006 to care for her husband, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, Justice O’Connor seemed to have no regrets, even about what was probably her most controversial decision: Bush v. Gore. “An election in turmoil, a presidency in the balance.” “A recount in the Sunshine State is now underway.” “Per the Secretary of State’s request to stop the recount on her term.” In December 2000, Justice O’Connor was part of the 5 to 4 majority that gave George Bush a victory in the disputed presidential election when the Supreme Court ordered four Florida counties to stop recounting votes. “Some of the ballots came out with one hanging chad, and some with two hanging chads, and some with three hanging chads. The counties didn’t have a uniform rule. They just let the vote counters do whatever they thought right. Well, that’s not equal protection. I mean voting matters, doesn’t it? It was a close election. And so we like to think that the ballots are going to be counted, according to some set rules so that it isn’t just the whim of whoever’s counting the ballot. The popular vote count went for Mr. Gore, the Electoral College went the other way. And I think that’s what really bothers people. The Supreme Court didn’t change that.” But O’Connor always remained willing to rethink her preconceptions. In 2013, she told the Chicago Tribune editorial board she had misgivings about the Bush v. Gore decision. She said it ‘stirred up the public’ and ‘gave the court a less than perfect reputation.’ “We were hearing more unfortunate remarks about judges than I remembered in my very long lifetime. Activist judges — godless, secular humanists trying to impose their will on the rest of us. It’s shocking to me because when the framers created our form of government, they created three branches of government. And the framers thought it was terribly important to have a judicial branch that had the capacity, ability and independence to enable them to impartially decide issues of law, even if it meant holding a law unconstitutional or an act of Congress unconstitutional. That was their vision.” “I’m going to ask you a question you were asked at your Senate confirmation, which is: How you would like to be remembered?” “Oh, I said the tombstone question. And I said I would like it to say, ‘Here lies a good judge,’ and I haven’t changed my mind.”