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Daily Newsletter
Trump Puts His Face on the Passport
Plus, John Yau on Édouard Glissant’s collection, Sotheby’s holds a benefit auction for the Yale MFA program, and more.
The late philosopher Édouard Glissant saw the world as an archipelago, a non-hierarchical cluster of distinct but connected islands. To him, art wasn’t about ownership, but a commons — a living archive attentive to difference, but defined by relation and provisional alliances. It’s a way of thinking that is “practically unheard of in America,” critic John Yau writes in a review of an exhibition of Glissant’s collection at the Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) in New York. “We are the poorer for it.”
Yep. As if to prove that point, the Trump administration announced this week that it plans to issue passports prominently displaying the president’s portrait and signature. Rather than Glissant’s vision of freedom — of movement, of association, of kinship across difference — the so-called “Land of the Free” has chosen to brand its passport with the very symbol of violently enforced borders.
But it’s not all bad news out there — speaking of provisional alliances, Sotheby’s is holding an auction to raise funds for Yale MFA scholarships. As Yale Dean Kymberly Pinder put it, the school is “investing in a community that will continue to grow.” Amen.
—Lisa Yin Zhang, associate editor
Trump Adds His Face to the US Passport
The new passport design is an audacious escalation of the president’s attempts to tag public resources with his name and likeness. | Isa Farfan
Reclaiming the Self-Taught Artist’s Creative Identity
“Self-Made: A Century of Inventing Artists” at the American Folk Art Museum offers rare first-time views, and always-free access, to over 90 works shifting art historical narratives.
Learn more
News
- The Yale School of Art is partnering with Sotheby’s to host an auction benefiting scholarships for students in its Master of Fine Arts program, a collaboration that speaks to larger questions of affordability in higher arts education.
- George Herms, one of the founders of the West Coast Assemblage movement, dies at age 90.
Art Review
Édouard Glissant’s Museum-as-Archipelago
An exhibition of his collection finds provisional alliances between artists, rather than reiterating established hierarchies. | John Yau
NADA New York 2026 Welcomes 121 International Galleries
The 12th edition of the New Art Dealers Alliance’s signature fair presents an expanded selection of contemporary art from around the world. On view May 13–17.
Learn more
Community
Remembering Raghu Rai, Jack Thornell, and Jarvis Rockwell
This week, we honor India’s most celebrated photojournalist, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, and a multi-media artist.
Member Comment
Holly Wong on Aaron Short’s “Joan Semmel Is Doing Her Best Work at 93”
From the Archive
Édouard Glissant Sought to Undermine the European Ideological Underpinnings of Colonization
In conversations with Hans Ulrich Obrist, Glissant proposed an Art Museum of the Americas. | David Brazil
Daily Newsletter
Trump Puts His Face on the Passport
Plus, John Yau on Édouard Glissant’s collection, Sotheby’s holds a benefit auction for the Yale MFA program, and more.
The late philosopher Édouard Glissant saw the world as an archipelago, a non-hierarchical cluster of distinct but connected islands. To him, art wasn’t about ownership, but a commons — a living archive attentive to difference, but defined by relation and provisional alliances. It’s a way of thinking that is “practically unheard of in America,” critic John Yau writes in a review of an exhibition of Glissant’s collection at the Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) in New York. “We are the poorer for it.”
Yep. As if to prove that point, the Trump administration announced this week that it plans to issue passports prominently displaying the president’s portrait and signature. Rather than Glissant’s vision of freedom — of movement, of association, of kinship across difference — the so-called “Land of the Free” has chosen to brand its passport with the very symbol of violently enforced borders.
But it’s not all bad news out there — speaking of provisional alliances, Sotheby’s is holding an auction to raise funds for Yale MFA scholarships. As Yale Dean Kymberly Pinder put it, the school is “investing in a community that will continue to grow.” Amen.
—Lisa Yin Zhang, associate editor
Trump Adds His Face to the US Passport
The new passport design is an audacious escalation of the president’s attempts to tag public resources with his name and likeness. | Isa Farfan
Reclaiming the Self-Taught Artist’s Creative Identity
“Self-Made: A Century of Inventing Artists” at the American Folk Art Museum offers rare first-time views, and always-free access, to over 90 works shifting art historical narratives.
Learn more
News
- The Yale School of Art is partnering with Sotheby’s to host an auction benefiting scholarships for students in its Master of Fine Arts program, a collaboration that speaks to larger questions of affordability in higher arts education.
- George Herms, one of the founders of the West Coast Assemblage movement, dies at age 90.
Art Review
Édouard Glissant’s Museum-as-Archipelago
An exhibition of his collection finds provisional alliances between artists, rather than reiterating established hierarchies. | John Yau
NADA New York 2026 Welcomes 121 International Galleries
The 12th edition of the New Art Dealers Alliance’s signature fair presents an expanded selection of contemporary art from around the world. On view May 13–17.
Learn more
Community
Remembering Raghu Rai, Jack Thornell, and Jarvis Rockwell
This week, we honor India’s most celebrated photojournalist, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, and a multi-media artist.
Member Comment
Holly Wong on Aaron Short’s “Joan Semmel Is Doing Her Best Work at 93”
From the Archive
Édouard Glissant Sought to Undermine the European Ideological Underpinnings of Colonization
In conversations with Hans Ulrich Obrist, Glissant proposed an Art Museum of the Americas. | David Brazil
The late philosopher Édouard Glissant saw the world as an archipelago, a non-hierarchical cluster of distinct but connected islands. To him, art wasn’t about ownership, but a commons — a living archive attentive to difference, but defined by relation and provisional alliances. It’s a way of thinking that is “practically unheard of in America,” critic John Yau writes in a review of an exhibition of Glissant’s collection at the Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) in New York. “We are the poorer for it.”
Yep. As if to prove that point, the Trump administration announced this week that it plans to issue passports prominently displaying the president’s portrait and signature. Rather than Glissant’s vision of freedom — of movement, of association, of kinship across difference — the so-called “Land of the Free” has chosen to brand its passport with the very symbol of violently enforced borders.
But it’s not all bad news out there — speaking of provisional alliances, Sotheby’s is holding an auction to raise funds for Yale MFA scholarships. As Yale Dean Kymberly Pinder put it, the school is “investing in a community that will continue to grow.” Amen.
—Lisa Yin Zhang, associate editor
Trump Adds His Face to the US Passport
The new passport design is an audacious escalation of the president’s attempts to tag public resources with his name and likeness. | Isa Farfan
Reclaiming the Self-Taught Artist’s Creative Identity
“Self-Made: A Century of Inventing Artists” at the American Folk Art Museum offers rare first-time views, and always-free access, to over 90 works shifting art historical narratives.
Learn more
News
- The Yale School of Art is partnering with Sotheby’s to host an auction benefiting scholarships for students in its Master of Fine Arts program, a collaboration that speaks to larger questions of affordability in higher arts education.
- George Herms, one of the founders of the West Coast Assemblage movement, dies at age 90.
Art Review
Édouard Glissant’s Museum-as-Archipelago
An exhibition of his collection finds provisional alliances between artists, rather than reiterating established hierarchies. | John Yau
NADA New York 2026 Welcomes 121 International Galleries
The 12th edition of the New Art Dealers Alliance’s signature fair presents an expanded selection of contemporary art from around the world. On view May 13–17.
Learn more
Community
Remembering Raghu Rai, Jack Thornell, and Jarvis Rockwell
This week, we honor India’s most celebrated photojournalist, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, and a multi-media artist.
Member Comment
Holly Wong on Aaron Short’s “Joan Semmel Is Doing Her Best Work at 93”
From the Archive
Édouard Glissant Sought to Undermine the European Ideological Underpinnings of Colonization
In conversations with Hans Ulrich Obrist, Glissant proposed an Art Museum of the Americas. | David Brazil
SMFA at Tufts Presents Passages, the 2026 MFA Thesis Exhibition
On view from May 5 to 17 in Medford, Massachusetts, this exhibition represents the graduating class and their journeys through worlds visited and imaged.
Five Independent Souls: The Signers from New Jersey
This exhibition at Morven Museum & Garden in Princeton examines the lives of the Declaration’s signers, and those they enslaved, through over 100 historic artifacts.
NADA New York 2026 Welcomes 121 International Galleries
The 12th edition of the New Art Dealers Alliance’s signature fair presents an expanded selection of contemporary art from around the world. On view May 13–17.
Reclaiming the Self-Taught Artist’s Creative Identity
“Self-Made: A Century of Inventing Artists” at the American Folk Art Museum offers rare first-time views, and always-free access, to over 90 works shifting art historical narratives.
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