Art
How a Museum Wields Its Power in Crafting a National Identity
A look at the contradictions in how the Honduras Museum of National Identity pursues its mission.
Essays
Art
Navigating the Portals Between Works by Ligia Lewis and Firelei Baez
This summer, I saw the recent High Line commissions as portals into what Sarah Cervenak and J. Kameron Carter call “the black outdoors": a space of “gathering” for thinking about how to “hold” instead of “to have.”
Art
A Team of Curators Designs a System for Indigenous Artists to Thrive In
The term ‘decolonization’ has been used frequently to describe the exhibition yəhaw̓. But you won’t hear its curators call it a decolonial project. So what is it, if not that?
Art
In Praise of Painting's Ambiguity, Part 3
Jasper Johns breaks down the image of a broken man.
Art
In Praise of Painting's Ambiguity, Part 2
Despite all the changes that Jasper Johns’s art has undergone since the mid-1950s, he has repeatedly returned to the theme of brokenness.
Art
In Praise of Painting's Ambiguity
The literalism of 1960s Formalism has been replaced by an insistence on the factual, which leaves little room for the imagination or for speculation.
Art
The Lingering Presence of Jannis Kounellis
Pondering the legacy of Jannis Kounellis, a titan of Arte Povera, away from the crowds of Venice.
Film
Reconsidering The Jinx as Robert Durst Goes on Trial
Robert Durst will soon be tried for murder in part because of HBO's true crime series about him. What does it mean if the fact that the documentary was misleadingly edited impacts the verdict?
Art
How One Meme Reveals the Difference in How Humans and AI "See"
As AI technology grows more sophisticated, neural networks can generate pictures people are comfortable looking at. It takes a surreal reject of an image to remind us of how differently a computer perceives the world.
Film
The Pitfalls and Performance of Virtue Signaling at the Democratic Debates
Every candidate likes to boast about themselves, but there's an art to getting away with it.
Art
When Tragedy Strikes, Social Media Posts Can Become Invaluable Artifacts
As Notre-Dame burned, there was controversy over people responding by sharing selfies they'd taken at the cathedral. But there may be public value in this practice.
Art
How Tessa Boffin, One of the Leading Lesbian Artists of the AIDS Crisis, Vanished From History
Boffin explained in a 1991 radio interview that she was trying to put lesbians back on the political agenda, but her risqué performances frequently drew criticism from inside the LGBTQ community.