Comics
My Mother-in-law, the Docent
A very special kind of tour.
Latest
Opinion
Required Reading
This week, the new SFMOMA, artist-gallery breakups, Obama and the Churchill bust, portraits out of data, Moscow's tacky art problem, and more.
Opinion
Weekend Words: Alliance
"Alliance: In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third."
Books
Reader’s Diary: Edward St. Aubyn’s ‘The Patrick Melrose Novels’ (Continued)
When I left off last week I was halfway through this quartet of low-life-in-the-midst-of-high-life novels, dissatisfied with the series’ prelude, Never Mind, but encouraged by the relative superiority of book two, Bad News.
Art
David Reed’s Panorama
The last time David Reed showed paintings in New York was in 2007, nearly a decade ago.
Art
Lui Shtini’s Enigmatic Paintings
I imagine that Lui Shtini has a growing group of admirers – many of them painters – just as Myron Stout, Christina Ramberg, Barbara Rossi, and Thomas Nozkowski did before him.
Art
A Throw of the Dice: On The Risks and Rewards of Art
Stereotypically, artists take inspired, even foolish, chances for the sake of their work, while critics judge that work without as much risk to their professional reputation or financial well-being.
Art
Robert Mapplethorpe: Beauty, Power, and Sex from the Outside
LOS ANGELES — The remarkable two-museum show Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Medium, gathering hundreds of photographs, collages, installations and other objects at both the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Getty Center, represents just a portion of the spectacular gift of the Mapplethorpe
Music
Hip-Hop Report: Kendrick Lamar, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Azealia Banks, 2 Chainz
The big question in hip-hop this season: which megaartiste made the superior album, Kanye West or Kendrick Lamar?
Art
Flesh and Bones: Philip Guston’s “Thingness”
The idea of an abrupt transition between the abstract work and the late figuration has become so ingrained in the narrative of Guston’s career that a view suggesting a more gradual evolution might meet with resistance.
In Brief
Documents Hint at BP's Undue Influence on UK Museums It Sponsors
A number of major museums in the UK, including the British Museum and National Portrait Gallery, may undergo investigation over claims that oil giant BP had sway over their operations.
Art
An Old Master Spin on Hip-Hop Video Bacchanals
With their paintings of bacchanalian revelry and swaggery Dionysus, Old Masters like Caravaggio, Poussin, and Rubens were a bit like the hip-hop videographers of their day.