OLD NEWS

CRICKET OVIPOSITORS by Mary Holland
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Many female insects and some fish possess ovipositors. Female crickets use this tube-like structure to deposit their eggs into the ground where they will be relatively safe from predators and from drying out.
Two things to note: 1) If a cricket has an ovipositor, it is a female. 2) Although some insect ovipositors evolved over time to become stingers (bees, wasps, ants), the ovipositors of many insects can only deposit eggs (crickets, katydids, parasitic wasps, sawflies) and cannot sting you.
<https://tinyurl.com/39p279cs> _NaturallyCurious

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LOVES
<https://tinyurl.com/4b2a9myr> _DavidShrigley

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MARLOW MOSS, OVERSHADOWED DE STIJL PIONEER
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Over half a century on from her last London commercial gallery show in London, the British artist Marlow Moss (1889-1958) is the subject of an extensive exhibition ) brings together 30 paintings, works on paper and one sculpture by the Constructivist and Neoplastic artist. . A Jewish non-binary lesbian, uncompromising and exacting in her practice, Moss was before-her-time yet remains little known today.
Born Marjorie Jewel Moss in London in 1889, the daughter of a textile manufacturer, Moss studied at the Slade School of Fine Art before moving to Cornwall in 1919. It was there that she cut her hair short, changed her name to the more gender-neutral Marlow, and started dressing in riding clothes. “I destroyed my old personality and created a new one,” she later said.
In 1927, after a few years of back and forth between London and Cornwall, Moss relocated to Paris, then the centre of the avant-garde. She studied at the Académie Moderne, alongside the Cubist Fernand Léger among others, and became friends with the Constructivist and founding member of the De Stijl Movement, Georges Vantongerloo who would become a champion of her work. At the Café de Flore in 1929, Moss also met the Dutch writer Antoinette ‘Netty’ Nijhoff, who would become her lifelong partner.
It was through Nijhoff that Moss met Piet Mondrian in 1929. Mondrian’s studio was only a few doors down from Moss’s, and over the next decade (until Mondrian departed Paris for New York in 1938) they forged a close friendship, both advocates of Neoplaticism. “They were a pair of extraordinary lone wolves,” Nijhoff said of the pair.
Marlow Moss, White, Black, Yellow and Blue (1954) <https://tinyurl.com/4dtnez9s>
But the legacy of one lone wolf has long overshadowed the other; the older male artist presumed to have moulded the younger Moss. However, recent reassessments suggest that Moss’s ideas had a profound impact on Mondrian too: it was Moss who, in 1930, came up with the concept of the double line (two straight lines running either horizontally or vertically across a canvas). We know that Mondrian wrote to her, asking about this visual device, in 1932. She replied, explaining that “the double line or a multiplicity of lines renders ‘a continuity of related and inter–related rhythm in space’ possible, which makes the composition dynamic instead of static.” Mondrian responded that he “couldn’t quite follow” her letter, yet he started to incorporate the double line in his works on the 1930s. Many presumed it was his invention, and Vantongerloo urged Mondrian to correct this assumption and give credit to Moss. It appears Mondrian did not, and there was a falling out for several years—according to the catalogue introduction, it was not until 1936 that Mondrian wrote to fellow painter Jean Gorin: “I am back to usual with her.”
Moss and Nijhoff were treated with condescension by some. Ward Moretti’s scholarly catalogue, edited by the Moss expert Lucy Howarth, quotes Frank Elgar in his 1968 Mondrian biography: “One of [Mondrian’s] pupils, a young English woman, was a colourful figure among the dubious clientèle of the Montparnasse cabarets. Flanked by an excessively corpulent Dutch woman [Netty], she went about, summer and winter, dressed like a jockey.”
They split their time between Paris, Normandy and Zeeland, before Moss, being of Jewish heritage, fled the Nazis in 1940, returning to Lamorna in Cornwall on what turned out to be the last passenger ship from the continent to England. “It was the SS Bodegraven, the same ship that had Jacques Goudstikker on it, the famous Amsterdam art dealer who died after falling into the ship’s hold and breaking his neck,” says Emma Ward, the co-founder of Ward Moretti
“I've really chosen one of the hardest topics to do as a subject for a show because her output was so small, she didn't do more than about 65 or 70 paintings over her whole life,” Ward says. “Of those, maybe about a third have been destroyed or disappeared, and a third are in museums.”
The destruction of Moss’s Normandy home in the Second World War resulted in the loss of much of her pre-war work. Add to that the fact that she would destroy anything she was not entirely happy with and her technique involved meticulously painting layer upon layer of oil paint, waiting a week between each while the paint dried, and it is easy to see why the work is so scarce.
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John Russell wrote that Moss had “the will to find a mode of expression that was peculiar to herself; and it can be argued that at one point—around 1932—Mondrian may have taken something from Miss Moss.” Russell points to a 1932 “white relief with rope and string”, a work that “is not at all the work of a mere follower. Nor, for that matter, are the many untitled drawings, in which pure energy finds expression of a kind that Mondrian would never have put his hand to.” _ArtNewspaper

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THE MOUNT WASHINGTON POST
<https://tinyurl.com/5n88aemp> _LisaAnneAuerbach

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RODRIGO CASS, BRAZILIAN ARTIST WHO STROVE FOR ‘SENSITIVE GEOMETRY,’ HAS DIED AT 43
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Rodrigo Cass, a Brazilian artist whose work found spirituality in minimal forms, died at 43 in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday.
Cass died in an accident on Copacabana Beach
Cass’s work frequently featured bright hues, in particular sunshine yellow, orange, pink and blue. He borrowed motifs from classical Catholic iconography and styles derived from Brazilian Neo-Concretism. “A former Seminarian and deeply devoted to religion, he employed color in a methodical and bold manner, evoking mystical and existential dimensions,
His videos Continentes, confetes (2023) and Encontro amoroso do círculo com o quadrado (2023) were shown in a room filled with colored paper that bounced across three white walls and geometric shapes that slowly overlapped each other, respectively. “What connects the two works is this dynamic dimension: rather than static presentations of visible phenomena, they are records of actions that trigger chromatic effects and render perceptible hidden properties of matter,
In an interview with CFA, Cass said that “for me, abstraction is much closer to the Latin word from which it originates: abstrahere. Its meaning is to synthesize, separate, isolate, all part of the act of choosing.” He added that Carmelite philosophy and spirituality were his main sources of inspiration in both his life and art . “I think a lot about the relationship between spirituality and art. The great thing is that I can make these issues public in many ways and also make them political,” said the artist. _ARTnews

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T-SHIRT IDEA FOR THE LUCAS.
<https://tinyurl.com/yv3fs9wz> _CarolinaAMiranda

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I ❤️ GLENN LIGON MOON JARS by greg
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I have loved Glenn Ligon’s Moon Jars since they first appeared in “In A Year with a Black Moon” in 2019, in what turned out to be the last show at Rat Hole Gallery in Tokyo. And by love, I mean hearted them every time I’ve seen them on Instagram.
Their narrative hasn’t changed much in the intervening years, though: Ligon developed them with a Korean ceramicist in Japan over three years. They’re made with black clay instead of the kaolin white clay of Joseon originals. The rest of the discussion quickly shifts to Moon Jars themselves, and their history, and even that can be a very short conversation.
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Glenn Adamson, who posted about Ligon’s Moon Jars installed at the Fitzwilliam in 2024 went on to write for FT about the record-setting Joseon Moon Jar from Christie’s in 2023 turning up at Frieze Seoul in 2025. And that article got scraped into the lot essay glazing the next Important Moon Jar at Christie’s last spring.
Meanwhile, the Hauser & Wirth exhibition of Ligon’s Moon Jars in Seoul last month seems almost invisible—except for this video of Ligon talking about them himself for Frieze Seoul 2026. There are insights into the cultural specificities of blackness, and the celebrated imperfections of the moon jar’s fabrication, both concepts that resonate deeply with Ligon’s larger practice.
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But there’s no hint yet about Korean responses to these reworkings of an iconic national form, or to its complicated historical entanglements with western Modernism, and with Japan.
At least, Ligon’s long, personal and creative engagement with Japan appears steady and extensive, going well beyond tourism or fandom. And it’s easy to imagine an organic and productive context for the Moon Jars’ development.
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But imagining is all there is, because I don’t see any more discussion of their origins or their making. Or in the moon jars’ intersections with Japanese colonialism, and the complicated dynamics around the elevation of simplified, utilitarian ceramics in the early 20th century by Japanese craft modernists like Sōetsu Yanagi, and then by modernists in the west It feels relevant that both of the major Joseon moon jars at Christie’s came from deep in Japanese collections—and that rather than discuss their provenance at all, Christie’s rehashed the Anglo-centric story of the moon jar at the British Museum.
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In contrast, Ligon just unveiled another sculpture of fired clay, where the complex context of who made what, how, and where, feels baked right in. For Coyote Time, the triennial in St Louis organized by Counterpublic, Ligon has created Who Builds Anything In This Country? a serpentine wall of handmade bricks marked with the fingerprints and marks of local students and seniors. This, in a state and a country where, before the Civil War, most bricks were made by enslaved people.
There’s a fuller moon jar discussion to be had, and almost ten years into Ligon’s project, I cannot be the only one who’d love to have it. I’d also like to see them in person. _greg.org

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WOW- I HONESTLY HAD NO IDEA PETER HUJAR PHOTOGRAPHED GEORGE STOLL (IN 1983). INCREDIBLE
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Police in Illinois recover 650 rolls of toilet paper amid rise in homecoming week vandalism
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Would probably be a good time to introduce all of you to George Stoll's
untitled 1990s artwork where he recreated two rolls of toilet paper
out of white silk chiffon, hand-quilted & lovingly embroidered with tiny roses.
In other news, George Stoll is brother of John Waters actress Mink Stole
<https://tinyurl.com/2huhzp69> _MichaelLobel

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177. MEOW WOLF by Rainey Knudson
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When Meow Wolf first opened in Santa Fe, there was almost nothing like it for scale and ambition outside of art museums and biennials. But this was different; this wasn’t artists trying to make it in the Serious Art World, hustling to New York and Miami to schmooze. This was homegrown, a ragtag group of locals with a few intrepid leaders. They’d done a few projects—good ones, playful and inventive—securing the notice of George R.R. Martin, the Game of Thrones author. He pledged $2.7 million to renovate and lease a vacant bowling alley for the group.
They did not disappoint. In 2016, they opened the House of Eternal Return, a life-sized Victorian house that opened, through various portals, into fantastical, mini-parallel universes of normalcy turned inside out. It was spectacular, vast, a place you could get lost in, wandering for hours chasing clues to the mystery of the family that lived there. And it was in a working-class neighborhood, visited by local families—tattooed dads with wallet chains and their wide-eyed kids.
It was also a thrilling new business model: artists taking control, doing business for themselves. But they were so successful, spawning franchise installations in other cities, that the scrappy collective began collapsing under its own weight, mired in acrimonious lawsuits. They had started broke, anarchic, choosing their name by randomly drawing two words from a hat at their first meeting. Today, they’re an institution with an estimated valuation in the hundreds of millions.
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<https://tinyurl.com/8bszn8te> _TheImpatientReader

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OMG THE DELLA ROBBIA-STYLE ICE CUBE IS FANTASTIC
<https://tinyurl.com/yjbc2jah> _PeterHuestis

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ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE FORTHCOMING DOCUMENTA 16 IN KASSEL, GERMANY, SAID
that several artists have cancelled their participation in the contemporary art exhibition because they do not want to exhibit in Germany, due to the country’s stance “on the Gaza war,” and because “some have the impression that they are not free in Germany to show what they want to show.” With the exhibition, she hopes to overcome “divisive” thinking. _ARTnews

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UFFIZI REMOVES FAMED CARAVAGGIO AFTER FLASH FLOOD SOAKS GALLERY
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A flash flood in Florence yesterday saw rainwater leak into the Uffizi Galleries and directly onto the glass case protecting a prized Caravaggio painting. Bacchus (1596) was immediately removed from the gallery; museum experts said it is unharmed.
In the early afternoon of September 17, the Tuscan city experienced a sudden torrential downpour, with nearly two inches of rain recorded in just one hour. A video shared online from inside the Uffizi shows a steady stream of water pouring over the Caravaggio painting from a window directly above. Six other works in the gallery of 17th-century art were not affected by the leak.
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The Uffizi described the cascading rainwater as “a minor leak” in an emailed statement. Thanks to its protective glass covering, the painting was never directly exposed to water.
It was removed from the gallery purely as a precautionary measure, the museum told
The museum declined to comment on why the leak had happened or how similar leaks will be prevented in the future. _artnet

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MENGS AND ZURBARÁN GIFTED TO MUSEU NACIONAL D'ART DE CATALUNYA
The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
has been gifted a Anton Rafael Mengs Self Portrait
<https://tinyurl.com/5n9ynfja>
and a Still Life by Juan de Zurbarán from the Bertran family collection
<https://tinyurl.com/nutyx9mp> _ArtHistoryNews

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MUSEO NACIONAL THYSSEN-BORNEMISZA OPENS NEW CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE
Madrid’s Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (MNTB) will expand into a second venue to house more than 360 works of contemporary art, which have been donated or are on loan from the TBA21 Collection.
In 2002, the philanthropist Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza founded the TBA21 Foundation for her personal collection of contemporary art, which is described as being “at the intersection of ecology and social justice.”
She will donate roughly 180 works, which will pass fully and permanently into public ownership free of charge, adding more than $18 million in assets to public art holdings. Additionally, TBA21 will offer nearly 180 artworks on long-term loan.
“My father taught me that a collection is not a possession, but a conversation with the world; but a dialogue with the world, held only briefly, in trust,” Thyssen-Bornemisza said _Artforum

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GEORGIA O'KEEFFE, "BARN WITH SNOW", 1934
<https://tinyurl.com/msa864hy> _RabihAlameddine

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YOU’LL NEVER GUESS WHO’S SAVING THE SISTINE CHAPEL OF THE NEW DEAL
<https://tinyurl.com/3ewtrc3n>
Nearly two years after an unnoticed amendment to a water resources bill mandated the sale of the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building—a government structure facing the National Mall that contains precious murals by Ben Shahn, Philip Guston, and others, which has been called by a leading preservationist “a kind of Sistine Chapel of the New Deal”—a House committee approved Tuesday a bill that would allow the Cohen to remain in government hands. It’s the first such legislation to make any headway at all.
Now Perry is reversing himself and trying to save the Cohen. I don’t know why—my efforts to contact a spokesperson were unavailing—but I’ll take it. The measure was passed without opposition by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Perry is chairman of its Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management.
“Living New Deal welcomes news of preservation of the Cohen federal building for future generations,” said Mary Okin, assistant director of the Berkeley-based Living New Deal, a preservation group that’s been fighting to save the building. “We maintain that we would like the modernization feasibility study that charted a future for the Cohen building, which taxpayers paid for, to be released.” If the GSA makes the study public, maybe Congress will approve not just saving the Cohen but repairing it. Still, any movement on a bill to save the Cohen is excellent news. _The3NewRepublic

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JOSÉ DE ALCIBAR (BORN TEXCOCO; FL. 1751–1803),
Portrait of the 16-year-old María Anna Josefa de San Ignacio,
painted upon entering the convent, 1793,
<https://tinyurl.com/5eesm7k2> _JesseLocker

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LEON BLACK PLANS TO TURN WOOLWORTH MANSION INTO HIS OWN MUSEUM
<https://tinyurl.com/2r7ucfnp>
Billionaire art collector and MoMA board member Leon Black, whose connections to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are the subject of ongoing investigation, plans to convert an iconic Manhattan property into a foundation to display his estimated $5 billion art collection, a new book reveals.
In Money to Burn: Leon Black, Apollo and the Remaking of Wall Street (2026), veteran business journalist William D. Cohan writes that Black said he plans to turn the Woolworth Mansion on East 80th Street “into his version of the Neue Galerie.” The disgraced financier purchased the French Gothic estate last November for $38 million
Cohan’s new book lands amid deepening turmoil for Black. This week, the US House of Representatives voted to hold Black in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas in an Epstein investigation. In 2021, news broke that Black paid Epstein $158 million from 2012 to 2017 for financial advice, after Epstein’s first accusation of sex-trafficking minors in 2005 and conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008.
Shortly after resigning from Apollo Global Management, Black stepped down as chairman of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 2021l. He remains a trustee on the institution’s board, despite ongoing campaigns for the museum to completely sever ties with him. _Hyperallergic

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POULTRY SELLER, 1626. FANTASTIC WORK BY SPANISH PAINTER ALEJANDRO DE LOARTE
<https://tinyurl.com/parw9xhp> _Dr.PeterPaulRubens

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OWNING AUSCHWITZ.
Are prisoners in Nazi concentration camps not the legal owners of artworks they were forced to make by their SS persecutors? That is the argument made by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland,. The daughters of Holocaust survivor Dina Gottliebova Babbit are suing the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum for the return of watercolors that their mother was forced to paint while imprisoned in the concentration camp. Josef Mengele, also known as the Nazi “Angel of Death,” who tortured prisoners with pseudo-medical experiments, ordered Gottliebova Babbit to paint several of his victims, who were all executed. One of the museum’s surprising arguments for keeping the artworks is that: “A prisoner, by creating something on the order of the SS authorities, did not become the legal owner of the work created,” wrote a spokesman for the Auschwitz Memorial via email. This backs the plaintiff’s claim that “the Museum at times asserted that the Watercolors belonged to Dr. Mengele rather than Dina Gottliebova Babbitt, characterizing her as Dr. Mengele’s ‘worker.’” At least once, “a Museum official communicated to Dina Gottliebova Babbitt that legally, the only one who might have a claim on the paintings was Dr. Mengele, and he wasn’t likely to exercise it,” state legal documents. _ARTnews

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I PREFER THE $25,100 JEFF KOONS WATCH TO THE $448,000 JEFF KOONS WATCH
_Andrew Russeth _artnet

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JEFF KOONS IS BLOWING UP HUBLOT
<https://tinyurl.com/pdn2ucfz>
Artist Jeff Koons is rhapsodising about the properties of titanium and polished sapphire crystal in his new limited-edition MP-14 Origin collaboration with Hublot. “A central tourbillon becomes the first pulse and everything else unfolds around it like a controlled expansion. It’s the idea of a Big Bang translated through engineered motion, material tension and the physics of light.”
The Hublot x Jeff Koons collection also includes a series of timepieces inspired by the artist’s five monumental steel Balloon Dog (1994-2000) sculptures, one of which sold for $58.4mn at Christie’s New York in 2013 – a prelude to him breaking the record for the most expensive work by a living artist sold at auction with Rabbit ($91.1mn) in 2019.
<https://tinyurl.com/yvszsunm>
“It was joyful to be able to realise these watches,” he tells me, with the wide, untroubled smile that seems to be his factory setting. “It’s fantastic,” he says without a trace of false modesty. This is decidedly not a piece of wanton quick-fix gimmickry cobbled together to shift a few hundred watches in a difficult market. “These are limited editions that I’ve created,” he says, with a maker’s satisfaction. “I had choices: whether I wanted to do this, or whether I wanted to spend my time doing something else. And I was very, very happy to be involved in this endeavour.” _FinancialTimes

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JOANNE'S GARDEN
Mid September
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<https://tinyurl.com/mppmjr35> _JoanneCarson