#facsimile objects

Sunday June 28 2026 is the last day for the knowable future to be able to see this reunited pair of incredible abstract paintings by Raphael, which he painted at least in part with his fingers, and which have figure paintings for religious devotion on the other side.

Me, I will miss it, and so will be left to experience the Facsimile Objects I'm about to make instead.

The Beyeler Foundation in Basel is a fundraising edition powerhouse. Just in time for Art Basel they've announced two Wade Guyton editions, full-scale inkjet prints of paintings which are on view in the gallery atm. The paintings, ofc, are also inkjet prints.

Gerhard Richter BIRKENAU opened last month in the Polish village of Oświęcim. The permanent exhibition pavilion includes full-scale facsimile editions of Richter's 2014 Birkenau series of abstract paintings; reproductions of the photos of the Birkenau extermination camp taken by Jewish Sonderkommandos in 1944, which served as Richter's basis for his paintings; and facsimile editions of a 1991 series of Grey Mirror paintings. Which in press coverage so far just get dismissed as grey mirrors, though they are actually photo reproductions of glass mirror paintings, in face-mounted acrylic on aluminum.

By compelling visitors to see themselves in a mirror while surrounded by evidence and repetitions of a genocide, I think these are the most significant works in this show.

[s/o @csantdotinfo for the heads up on the Guardian's review]