“Invisible Sun” at The Broad

The Broad is back open to the public starting next week, and free timed tickets are going fast (the first couple weeks are already booked up as the museum reopens at limited capacity). For its new batch of exhibitions, the museum highlights its collection featuring Andy Warhol, Christopher Wool, Roy Lichtenstein, Kara Walker, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. 

“Invisible Sun,” a curated show downstairs, mines The Broad’s collection to respond to our current moment—what the press release calls an “unprecedented period of rupture and unrest.” The resulting loosely-organized exhibition attempts to respond to an array of issues: disease, death, social unrest, labor, race, class, and loss, to name a few. Some pairings—like Oscar Murillo’s painted linen series “trade today,” and a set of drawings from William Kentridge’s film “Other Faces,” both of which respond to manufacturing, protest, and labor—feel like illuminating connections. 

Others, however, such as an Alexander Calder mobile paired with a soaring El Anatsui work made from bottle caps, feel like a stretch within the exhibition’s political framework. Taken as a whole, the exhibition includes some stand out works that feel pertinent to our collective healing, yet with such a broad premise, the focus feels a bit scattered.

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Photo: El Anatsui, “Intermittent Signals,” 2009; Installation view from “Invisible Sun” at The Broad. © El Anatsui. Photo by Joshua White.