Art
Egregious Renaissance Maleness, From the Inside Out
An up-close look at the codpiece.
Essays
Art
What Do Artists Need to Make Their Work?
For artists and writers, self-isolation means doing what they have always done — which is work at home.
Art
The Quality of Mercy, From Caravaggio to Conceptual Art
Like art, morality persists despite dramatic cultural transformations.
Art
Let Us Now Praise Humble Artists
In this time of self-isolation and social distancing, shouldn’t the art world consider celebrating artists who don’t require expensive materials or run up high production costs?
Art
Botticelli’s Perfect Beauty
A new series explores intimate encounters with a single work of art. This week, we look at Sandro Botticelli's "Paradiso" (1480–1495).
Art
The End of the Art World as We Know It
An international art world that has called persistently for radical socioeconomic change is now faced with it.
Art
When a Square Is Not Just a Square
Like his best works, Sean Scully’s “Black Square” is oddly exhilarating, especially because it is initially grim.
Art
Ways of Traveling
“MARFA,” a wall piece by Greg Colson, is a street map in the purest sense, and highly impractical.
Art
When Disaster Can't Be Pictured
To represent the world is to understand it, and to understand it might, hopefully, help cope with a plague.
Art
Free Renty! Reparations, Photography, and the Imperial Premise of Scholarship
Many scholars write about imperial crimes as their object of study — that is, as something sealed in the past that can be separated from the reparations due.
Art
My Meetings With Donald Judd
Judd hated the cult of the artist.
Art
Volunteering With a Land Artist to Make Laborious, Ethereal "Snow Drawings"
The impermanence of Simon Beck's land art, which cuts beautiful and massive patterns into fresh snowfall, made the experience all the more gratifying.