Books
“Exactly as It Was”: Ellsworth Kelly’s Basic Training
When art world luminary, Ellsworth Kelly, died in December at the age of 92, his obituaries described him as an artist who rejected the very idea of art as self-expression.
Latest
Art
Discourse, Dazzle, and Snap: Jonathan Lasker’s New Paintings
Jonathan Lasker’s approach to painting hasn't changed materially in decades, and so why would his work, which struck me as an alienating (if not irritating) closed system when I first started looking at it in the 1990s, now feel so open, urgent, and fresh?
Art
Highlighting the Invisible Labor of Art Objects
The tension between design and art derives from the utility ascribed to the former vying with the elusiveness that characterizes the latter.
In Brief
Badly Photoshopped Photo Wins Nikon Award and Internet Freaks Out
Hastily photoshopping a graphic of an airplane into a shot of some abstracted architecture could win you a Nikon prize.
News
Art Movements
This week in art news: Jeremy Deller and Fraser Muggeridge raised a smiley face flag over London, the Knoedler forgery trial began with testimony from art world heavy-hitters, and the dissident Russian performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky was sent to a psychiatric hospital.
Art
After Almost 50 Years, an African Arts Journal Adapts to Survive
Although there are grants — and generous individuals — out there in the world of academia ready to support scholarly publishing, funding an academic journal, from its creation to production to ultimate dissemination, is often still a challenge.
Art
Moving Forwards and Backwards in Time with ‘The Shining’
Picked apart and poured over by a confederacy of film-obsessed mavens with keen eyes and airtight attention spans, Stanley Kubrick’s opus The Shining (1980) has proven remarkably fecund over its 36-year lifetime.
Art
At Harlem’s First Children’s Museum, Artworks Strike Up Conversations
In October 2015 the first children’s museum in Harlem opened its doors.
News
Staff at NYC Arts Organizations Is 62% White, City Report Shows
This week, New York City's Department of Cultural Affairs released a report showing that the city's arts sector is not as diverse as the general demographics the city — the fourth most diverse municipality in the US (although still incredibly segregated).
Art
Queering the Feminine Through a Many-Layered Lens
Liss LaFleur’s work is at once in your face and delicate, choosing a mode of seduction that utilizes pastiche to lure the viewer in with a hint of familiarity — then jolting them into a world that questions the status quo.
Art
Photojournalist Steve McCurry's Romanticized Visions of India
American Magnum photographer Steve McCurry, best known for his 1984 photograph of an Afghan refugee with piercing green eyes (Sharbat Gula), is one of the most celebrated photojournalists of our time.
Art
The Design for 2 WTC and the Dangers of Building Neighborhoods in the Sky
It’s one thing for an architect to invoke a low-rise historic neighborhood on the mega-scale of a high-rise office tower, but it’s quite another to imagine that an office building can actually embody the authentic neighborhood that surrounds it — and not merely the spectacular simulation of said nei