Opinion
Looking at Chuck Close Through His Portrait of Bill Clinton
Something inside Clinton’s and Close’s psyche compartmentalized too much, echoing the grid of the portrait. Both inflicted far more harm than each realized.
Daniel Larkin
A man once knocked Daniel Larkin off his bar stool and flung mean words. He got up, smiled, and laughed as the bouncer showed him out. He doesn't give anyone the power to rain on his parade. It's more important for Daniel to be happy than famous.
Music
When Live Music Brings the Beat Back Into Your Body
A concert at the Cloisters shed the Met’s stuffiness, broadening what performance can be.
Art
The Anti-capitalist Candor of Alice Neel
Neel’s approach defied the conventions of both schlocky social realism and traditional portraiture.
Art
The Starkly Poignant Prints of William Kentridge
Viewed in 2021, Kentridge’s preference for black and white strikes as an urging to see issues of morality more clearly.
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.
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.