Art
How the Louvre Codified Essentialism in Art History
The art historical meta-narrative canonized by the Louvre Museum converts all artworks into specimens of their cultural moment. No wall tag can fix this.
Daniel Larkin
Art
The Met Museum Misses the Mark in Recounting Its Own Complicated History
Making the Met, the anniversary exhibition chronicling the museum’s first 150 years, botched several opportunities to truly reckon with its role in defining who is and isn’t included in dominant narratives of art history.
Art
Getting Buzzed on the Color Black
Few artists unlock the optical potential of black better than Joan Witek, whose compositions hum with subtle illusions.
Art
Can Finding Joy Be Defiant in 2020?
In his drawings embellished with blossoms, artist Ronald Vill invites us to perceive 2020 as an exercise in defiant jubilance.
Art
Women Saints Who Defied the Patriarchy
As tyranny surges in 2020, imagery of these holy ladies — on view in Gothic Spirit: Medieval Art — might offer more than first expected.
Art
Eating Flowers in Search of Mysticism and Meaning
In Karen Azoulay's mesmerizing video art, the artist and her collaborators don gem-encrusted masks and sample bits of nature.
Art
The Underground Gay Art of Early 20th-Century New York
The Young and the Evil at David Zwirner casts a light on lesser-known gay artists who rejected the prevailing trend toward abstraction.
Art
Interactive Art Illuminates Our Relationship to the Sun
Daniel Rozin challenges us to explore how we interact with and perceive the sun in a fascinating new show.
Performance
A Play Casts Hercules as a Toxic Male (but Still a Hero)
A reinterpretation of a Euripides play tells a seldom staged and lesser-known side of the famous hero.
Art
Being Gay Under Trump
Ron Amato’s exhibition Gay in Trumpland explores the dark fear many gay men are internalizing as President Trump and his inner circle remove rights and protections for LGBTQ individuals.
Art
The Romantic Gloom of Delacroix
His lush paintings make you feel Romanticism in your guts.
Test 2018 posts
Some Dark and Satirical Takes on Misogyny
In Strange Girls, the mixed-media artist pokes fun at twisted gender dynamics through visual puns.