Art
Rethinking Kandinsky
The problem with many of Kandinsky’s abstractions is that they don’t offer enough immediate visual information to “crack” his expressive code for color and form.
David Carrier
Art
Does A Pairing With Warhol Do Marisol Any Favors?
Does an attempt to lift up the art of Marisol backfire?
Art
Ron Gorchov’s Art of the Here and Now
Gorchov is an artist whose best pieces are purely aesthetic and totally present, here and now.
Books
How War Shaped Afghanistan’s Weaving Traditions
With Afghanistan’s “war rugs” a traditional art form was updated in response to the country’s brutal invasions by other nations.
Art
Tomashi Jackson Rediscovers Long Island’s Beleaguered Past
Jackson’s exhibition The Land Claim began an extensive dialogue with local Indigenous, Black, and Latinx families on Long Island’s East End.
Art
In Henry Taylor’s Paintings, the Past Bleeds Into the Present
Taylor’s paintings emphasize that golf and horse racing, though once exclusively activities for privileged white men, depended on the support of men who were almost invariably Black.
Books
A Deep Dive Into Walter Benjamin
The Benjamin Files by Fredric Jameson explains everything by reference to everything else, in a way that often makes the narrative all but impenetrable.
Books
A Tattoo Artist’s History of Tattoos
TATTOO: 1730s-1970s. Henk Schiffmacher’s Private Collection is strong on the presentation of images, but says very little about their meaning.
Art
What a Painter Taught Me
Coming from a secular perspective, it seems strange to speak, in almost mystical terms, of being taken out of oneself.
Books
History According to the Comic Book
Where indelible images restlessly bond with the ambiguity of words.
Books
The Meanings of Minimalist Memorials
Monuments are built only when the political struggle they commemorate has been definitively won.
Books
The End of Art History
Writing a global art history demands that we give up historical thinking.