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Dismantling the Narrative of Soviet Socialist Realism Versus American Abstract Expressionism
A new book injects nuance into reductive historical interpretations of how the Cold War affected global art in the second half of the 20th century.
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An Uncompromising Look at Photography and Gender
In Photography after Photography Abigail Solomon-Godeau’s overarching goal is to offer a feminist critique of the art world.
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Knausgaard Finds a Soulmate in Edvard Munch
Knausgaard's monomaniacal excavation of the self and soul probably finds its closest counterpart in the work of Munch, his countryman.
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A Novelist’s Beautiful, Unusual Tribute to Her Parents, Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman
Linn Ullmann shows that it is difficult but possible to carve out one’s own identity while honoring and loving one’s mother and father.
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A Graphic Novel Revives a Script by Salvador Dalí and the Marx Brothers
A new book shows it is time to realize a movie script conceived by Salvador Dalí and the Marx brothers in 1937.
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Layering Vintage Slides to Create Strange New Narratives
Artist Ian Trask delved into a collection of thousands of 35mm slide photographs to juxtapose the found imagery into surreal scenes.
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Why Landscape Painting Is Thriving in the 21st Century
Art critic Barry Schwabsky's new book presents a global survey of contemporary landscape painting.
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America's Racist War on Drugs Explored in Comics
Philadelphia cartoonist Box Brown examines marijuana — where it came from, its life in the US, and, importantly, the breathless national campaign to demonize a certain segment of its users.
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A New Biography Paints a Colorful Portrait of Bauhaus Founder Walter Gropius
In Walter Gropius: Visionary Founder of the Bauhaus, author Fiona MacCarthy attempts to debunk the myth that the German pioneer of modernist architecture is somehow an unsexy subject for biographical study.
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How Painting Survives in the Digital Era
In her new book, The Love of Painting: Genealogy of a Success Medium, critic Isabelle Graw ruminates on how painting remains omnipresent within the contemporary capitalist system and digital economy.
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When Will Ralph Eugene Meatyard Get the Retrospective He Deserves?
Meatyard’s use of masks, shadows, abandoned houses, and figures in motion open up a deep and multi-layered place of feeling that we have yet to fully address.
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A Palestinian Poet’s Elegiac Musings on Exile and Neurosis
Hala Alyan’s new book of poetry, The Twenty-Ninth Year, explores a shattered woman’s psyche.