Books
What Do Art Critics Actually Do?
Artists, collectors, curators, and dealers are all needed for the system to function, but the role of critics is up for grabs.
Holland Cotter
Art
De Blasio and the Mythology of a New Arts Populism
What will the arts look like under Mayor De Blasio? "Populist," the New York Times concluded on Monday, a full two days before Bill put his hand on FDR's old Bible and promised to champion the huddled masses.
Art
The Infantile World of Paul McCarthy
The Seventh Regiment Armory, constructed at the end of the 19th century, was and remains the only such military structure funded by private monies, a final excess of the Gilded Age. It's easy to read an obscene vulgarity into the opulence of its architecture, though we are reminded that it was meant
Art
Worker Bees of the Art World, Unite
If fairs like Frieze draw art and money into uncomfortably close proximity, all that does is state the obvious. To separate them — to pretend that the former can float free of the latter — might appear to be a clean, ethical stance, but that's a misperception.
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Required Reading
This week's edition focuses on the de Kooning retrospective at MoMA, some final essays on the 9/11 Museum, an endangered mural in Manhattan, the timeline design of Facebook and Instagram as art.
Art
MoMA’s Abramović Ends With a Bang
The last day of the Marina Abramović’s “The Artist Is Present” at MoMA was marked by a frenzy of activity both IRL and online. The veteran performance artist has proven that her art form has come of age and it can hypnotize a whole city — and art world — into believing or “unbelieving” that she’s th