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How Surrealism’s Playful Aesthetic Was Deeply Political
The Surrealists’ insistence on irrationality was not a sport, but an attempt to engage in the political debates of their time.
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A Feminist British Illustrator Who Satirized the British Middle Class
Posy Simmonds was known for her particularly wry voice, but Paul Gravett's book gives its namesake short shrift, not placing her clearly enough in the context of other illustrators.
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A Graphic Novel Looks at the Limits of Freedom in Revolutionary Cuba
By approaching Castro’s Cuba from the margins, author Anna Veltfort creates a unique lens through which to observe the mechanisms by which a political system acts upon those who live within it.
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The Liberating Power of Conversations About Art
When I got to know Bill Berkson, my life as a writer was completely changed.
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Bridget Riley’s Razzle-Dazzle Career
A first-ever biography of the pioneering British modernist charts the creative path of an intense and deeply sensitive painter.
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The Horrors of the Atomic Age Through Artists' Eyes
The art and literature in Invisible Colors turn our gaze toward the blinding fury of the atom’s explosion in its singular purpose to raze and slaughter.
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Recreating Artemisia Gentileschi's Life in Graphic Form
I Know What I Am: The Life and Times of Artemisia Gentileschi weaves together known facts of Gentileschi’s life with the politics of art patronage.
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Considering the Weight and Worth of Gold
Through a range of visual and poetic essays, Lisa Barnard’s The Canary and The Hammer offers a heady examination of our enduring fascination with the element.
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Capturing the Timeless Drawings of Milein Cosman
Ines Schlenker’s illustrated biography, Milein Cosman: Capturing Time, proves Cosman’s importance both as an artist and as a chronicler of her period in artistic history.
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A Former Museum of Modern Art Director's Meticulous Eye for Detail
As a non-specialist Rene d’Harnoncourt had a rare ability to engage deeply with objects across time, cultural specificity, and form.
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Italian Poet Amelia Rosselli's Diary Examines and Reexamines the Self
In her diary, Rosselli experimented with what she described as “wild” writing to explore trauma and loss.
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When a Poet Becomes Invisible
Facing her mortality, Mary Ruefle does not ask for pity or sympathy, because death is democratic.