{"id":2067568,"date":"2026-07-28T19:16:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T16:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2067568"},"modified":"2026-07-28T19:16:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T16:16:00","slug":"in-boston-robert-lazzarini-will-show-works-intended-for-us-pavilion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2067568","title":{"rendered":"In Boston, Robert Lazzarini Will Show Works Intended for US Pavilion"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Robert-Lazzarini-US-Pavillion-with-eagle.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\n\tA Boston exhibition this fall will reveal works by New York\u2013based artist Robert Lazzarini that were intended to represent the country at the hotly contested US Pavilion at the current Venice Biennale. The show, as yet untitled, opens on September 30 at Boston\u2019s MassArt Art Museum (MAAM), at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and will allow the public to see works that employ the artist\u2019s trademark distortions to comment on American symbolism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe current US Pavilion is one of the most talked-about in art circles in recent memory, having been arranged by a newly formed organization headed up by a Donald Trump\u2013supporting former pet food purveyor with no art world experience. The process that led to the selection of an artist departed from the customary procedure by which art curators and institutions, not allies of the US president, pitch candidates to represent the country in what\u2019s sometimes called the art world Olympics. The pavilion ultimately went to Alma Allen. <\/p>\n

\n\tBut, how the US State Department, which oversees the selection process, got there is the subject of some debate and mystery. According to an April report in the New York Times<\/em>, the State Department had \u201cseriously considered\u201d a presentation of works by Lazzarini, who \u201cwanted to fill the US Pavilion with quivering American flags and mathematically distorted sculptures of patriotic symbols like George Washington and the bald eagle\u201d as a way \u201cto question the role that American identity plays in today\u2019s world.\u201d The project was to be organized by John Ravenal, former director of the deCordova Sculpture Park in Massachusetts. Per the Times<\/em>, the project fell apart when the planned institutional sponsor, the University of South Florida, pulled out, \u201cciting a short timeline and its inability to raise the estimated $5 million to mount it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the Baer Faxt<\/em> in June, Ravenal offered a rival account, saying that the State Department had in fact awarded the project to him and Lazzarini. The show, titled \u201cHistory Maker,\u201d was meant to take on the State Department\u2019s new call for proposals that would center \u201cAmerican values,\u201d but in a critical way. Featuring Lazzarini\u2019s trademark distorted imagery, the project was meant to address colonialism, imperialism, militarism, religion and the state, and isolationism. Imagery was to include a 16-foot-tall eagle (based on a Civil War\u2013era flag finial), drooping in a way that would \u201cimply sovereignty\u2019s decline.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLazzarini would have represented a thoroughly vetted choice for the Pavilion. His works are represented in collections including those of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.; the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; and the Whitney Museum in New York. He\u2019s had solo exhibitions at venues including the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas; and the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut. He declined to be interviewed for this article.<\/p>\n

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Robert Lazzarini.<\/span>courtesy Tom Haynes Studio<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tDespite risks of \u201clooking like a mouthpiece for the current administration,\u201d Ravenal said, \u201cSitting it out seemed like caving in.\u201d Awarded the proposal September 9, Ravenal then found out that USF\u2019s provost refused to let the school sign on as institutional partner, \u201cissuing a misleading statement about funding and timing concerns.\u201d Ravenal said that he and his team had committed to raising the funds, and that the school \u201cknew the time frame from the start.\u201d (In an email to ARTnews<\/em>, USF also declined to comment on Ravenal\u2019s account.) <\/p>\n

\n\tIn any event, Ravenal said that the State Department soon informed him that it had \u201cfound a way forward with another candidate.\u201d That would be Mexico-based artist Alma Allen, whose contribution was widely panned. (ARTnews<\/em>\u2019s Alex Greenberger called the choice \u201cdeeply dispiriting,\u201d while Maximil\u00edano Dur\u00f3n called the US Pavilion \u201cone of the emptiest shows at the Venice Biennale.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\n\tThe MAAM show will feature two new works commissioned by the institution and now in production, alongside several works initially developed as part of his Venice proposal.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne commissioned piece, The Waldseem\u00fcller Map<\/em>, refers to a significant example from cartographic history, from 1507, said to be the first known map to use the term \u201cAmerica.\u201d It broke with tradition by rendering the Americas as a separate continent from Asia, with an ocean between. Lazzarini\u2019s distortions, according to press materials, \u201cincrease the separation of the Americas from the rest of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe other, lectern<\/em>, is based on a church pulpit. Pointing to the centrality of religion in American history, it represents the pulpit as the locus of both church and state power. \u201cAnimated by mathematical distortion, Lazzarini\u2019s lectern alludes to longstanding tensions in this dynamic,\u201d reads a press release of the exhibition.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso on view will be a piece based on the US flag, its shape altered \u201cthrough the introduction of compound sine waves\u201d to \u201cconvey an uncanny impression of motion.\u201d Based on the version that is draped over the casket or urn of deceased veterans, a choice that \u201cunderscores the special bond between the body and the American flag.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Robert-Lazzarini-US-Pavillion-with-eagle.jpg?w=1024″] A Boston exhibition this fall will reveal works by New York\u2013based artist Robert Lazzarini that were intended to represent the country at the hotly contested US Pavilion at the current Venice Biennale. The show, as yet untitled, opens on September 30 at Boston\u2019s MassArt Art Museum (MAAM), at the Massachusetts College of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2067568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2067568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2067568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2067568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2067568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}