Book Review
For Sophie Lewis, Femininity Is Not the Enemy of Feminism
In “Femmephilia,” the author reclaims femininity, sexual pleasure, and adornment from patriarchal narratives in art and theorizes their liberatory powers.
Book Review
Book Review
In “Whistler,” Ann Patchett Tackles Loss and Art
The beloved author’s new novel tells a story of familial loss and reconnection, beginning with a chance encounter at The Met. But why does it seem to imply that grief and art are at odds?
Book Review
Jennifer Higgie’s Empathetic Elegy for Richard Dadd
In “Bedlam,” the author and art critic does not describe the English painter’s often-sensationalized mental deterioration. Instead, she writes the novel in his voice.
Book Review
Can We Stop Calling South Asian Painting "Miniature"?
A book on 18th-century Pahari painting warns against thinking of these works as “miniatures,” a Western term, instead illuminating the artistic collaboration and ways of life at their heart.
Book Review
Maria Martins Was More Than Just Duchamp’s Lover
A new book by leading Duchamp scholar Francis M. Naumann chronicles the artist’s affair with the Brazilian sculptor, but frequently reduces her influence and career to sexual allure.
Book Review
Haroutiun Galentz’s True Colors
A new book traces the function of color as both a mask and a mirror in psychological portraits by the modernist painter, who lost his parents during the Armenian Genocide.
Book Review
Why Won’t Britain Return Looted Gold to Ghana?
In “The African Kingdom of Gold,” Barnaby Phillips explores how British colonial forces plundered the Asante people and expertly traces the stolen artifacts’ afterlives in museum storage.
Book Review
The Fruitless Search for Vermeer’s Personal God
A recent biography spends too much time speculating about the Dutch artist’s religious beliefs and not enough exploring other mysteries, including his possible use of a camera obscura.
Book Review
Helen Levitt Captured the Poetry of New York City
A new survey publication serves as a testament to the photographer’s belief that the city’s working-class communities of color possessed a beauty and drama all their own.
Book Review
The Many Lives of Frederic Edwin Church
Victoria Johnson’s biography is a nuanced portrait of the artist, whose landscapes conveyed the anxieties of a nation struggling over slavery, war, and disunion.
Book Review
The Story of Printmaking Is the Story of Democracy
Holly EJ Black deftly weaves a narrative that integrates varied geographical and cultural perspectives, centering figures who may not have been artists themselves.
Book Review
The Hidden History of Stock Photography
In her first book, scholar Simona Supekar mines the history of stock imagery as a vessel for racism and sexism and considers its role in the age of AI.