Further evidence that Portraiture has surpassed History Painting as the 21st century's leading picture genre: an exhibition devoted to the singularity of a singular genius.
Uncharacteristically, the visual art exhibition is late to the hagiography game. Scholarly anthologies devoted to the research and writing of academics (e.g. Culture in History: Essays in Honour of Paul Radin, 1960) have been around a while now, as have tribute records (I'm Your Fan: the Songs of Leonard Cohen, 1991, re-popularized tribute records and revived the career of its subject); but now, in our ostensibly one-mind-is-not-enough moment, we get the many (sixty artists, in this instance) paying tribute to the one.
The exhibition in question is divided into four sections that correspond to American author Joan Didion's most significant migrations. Sacramento and Berkeley, where she was born and schooled (1934-1956); NYC, where she did her apprenticeship in the then-glamourous world of magazines (1956-1963); California and Hawaii, where she wrote her greatest books: the essay collections Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album (1964-1988); and the scattershot that followed, which accounted for the bulk of her life and her greatest commercial success: that grief pour known as The Year of Magical Thinking (1988-2021).
Prior to this appropriately (coyly?) titled exhibition: Joan Didion: What She Means, writer/curator Hilton Als gave us "portrait exhibitions" inspired by the lives and works of James Baldwin and Toni Morrison, which has me wondering if this is a thing now, and might we see more of them. Three days ago Sacheen Littlefeather passed away, and my first thought was, What a life! More should be made of it.
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