New revelations from the Epstein files, a hilarious protest against Melania's doc, the problem with archival art, our monthly crossword, and more.
Hyperallergic
February 3, 2026
— 4 min read
Another batch of the Epstein files is out, and unsurprisingly, the art world makes an appearance. Jeff Koons confirmed that he attended a dinner party at the convicted sex trafficker's Upper East Side home in 2013. Other emails indicate that Epstein also tried to visit his studio that same year.
Staff Writer Isa Farfan has a thorough report on the documents, which are a drop in the bucket of the damning files that also implicate dozens of other art-world and public figures. It's a reminder of the justice owed to Epstein's victims, and that the commercial art sphere — whose benefactors often make millions while working artists struggle to make ends meet — demands our scrutiny as much as any institution.
—Lakshmi Rivera Amin, associate editor
Jeff Koons with his work at Qatar Museums Gallery Al Riwaq on November 20, 2021 (photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Qatar Museums)Jeff Koons Attended Dinner Party at Jeffrey Epstein’s House
"In 2013, Epstein specifically requested that Koons attend a September 4 dinner party at his Upper East Side residence, an invitation Koons and his wife accepted via email," reports Farfan, adding that the guest list also included director Woody Allen and MIT professor Neil Gershenfeld.
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For Which It Stands…
Commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States, this major loan exhibition at the Fairfield University Art Museum explores more than a century of artists taking on the American flag.
Learn moreNews
Demonstrators held signs that read "Let them eat cake" and "Melania is no Jackie O." (photo by and courtesy Jonathan Kincade)- The only notable thing about the Melania Trump documentary is the backlash against it: Protesters dressed up like Marie Antoinette and held a rally outside the film's premiere at the Kennedy Center last Thursday, "Let them eat cake" signs and all.
- Today in botched restoration, a refreshed Roman fresco now bears suspicious resemblance to Italy's far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni, but the artist maintains it's purely coincidental.
Art and Protest
John Wilson, “Study for the Mural ‘The Incident’” (1952), opaque and transparent watercolor, ink, and graphite (photo courtesy the Estate of John Woodrow Wilson / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)How Richard Wright Shaped John Wilson’s Protest Art
A.G. Sims illuminates the impact of Richard Wright's protest fiction on painter John Wilson's protest art, some of which is currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. "Walk through the retrospective, and you’ll see Wilson, like Wright before him, wrestling with the psychic toll of racial violence on Black families in his paintings and lithographs," Sims writes
Opinion
Still from New Wave: Rebellion and Reinvention in the Vietnamese Diaspora (2024), dir. Elizabeth Ai (image courtesy New Wave Documentary)Archival Art Will Not Save Us
There's a reason "archival practice" has become such a popular concept in recent years, but writer Vinh Phu Pham argues that the conversation too often stops there.
"But the conversations accompanying such remarkable works of art, as with artist talks everywhere, must also perform that generative labor rather than simply invoke a discursive shorthand to explain their own significance," he explains in an opinion. "Yes, they contribute to an archive, but then the more interesting question becomes: 'So what?'”
Member Comment
Denise Sanabria on Rob Fields's "How Trump Is Jeopardizing the US Art Market":
Trump's meddling has already infiltrated and disrupted the programing of major museums domestically. Exhibits have been canceled, censored, and meddled with, especially in DC. Everyone is under a level of threat. As for performing arts and the Kennedy Center — what he did to them is almost a death sentence. The world is watching.
The Art Crossword: Renaissance Edition
"The Triumph of Galatea" with a puzzling twist (edit Hyperallergic)What do you call the artistic technique that creates contrasts of light and dark? | Natan Last
Art Guide
Sandy Skoglund, "Revenge of the Goldfish" (1981), cibachrome print (edition 7 of 30) (©1981 Sandy Skoglund; image courtesy Hudson River Museum)10 Art Shows to See in Upstate New York This February
A seminal Vito Acconci performance, Nona Faustine and Ocean Vuong’s explorations of identity, Sita Gómez’s celebrations of womanhood, and a group show celebrating creative courage in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. are among Taliesin Thomas's recommendations this month.
From the Archive
Lavinia Fontana, "Bianca degli Utili Maselli and Six of Her Children” (c. 1604–5), oil on canvas (image via Wikimedia Commons)Lavinia Fontana, the Self-Fashioned Painter
The first woman to make her living from painting captured herself and other women in the ways they wished to be perceived. | Ed Simon
