Art Review
RISD MFA Students Paint Through the Heartbreak
Each painting is like an island awash with yearning, sending out a lighthouse signal into a fractured world.
Review
Art Review
The Living World Feels Dead at the Hammer
“Several Eternities” feels overly careful and unable to combust as fully as it could have.
Book Review
The Fruitless Search for Vermeer’s Personal God
A recent biography spends too much time speculating about the Dutch artist’s religious beliefs and not enough exploring other mysteries, including his possible use of a camera obscura.
Art Review
Ellen Pau’s Elegy to a Vanishing Hong Kong
In the video art pioneer's first US exhibition, water’s changing states become a metaphor for the city.
Film Review
The Thorny Politics of Protest Photography
A new documentary follows the work of activist and photographer Misan Harriman, but risks overly aestheticizing the movements he captures.
Art Review
Why Did Rembrandt Die Poor?
Rembrandt pioneered the saleable self, but unlike his rival, Gerard Van Honthorst, failed to reconcile his personal vision with the market.
Art Review
The Shakers Weren’t Minimalists
An exhibition posits that the sect happened upon the ideals of modern design, overlooking the contradictions and vitality of its culture.
Art Review
Walter Benjamin Warned Us About AI
The philosopher believed that good photography provokes cognition while dangerous photography soothes, as seen in a jewel box show at the Jewish Museum.
Art Review
An Exhibition Lets Self-Taught Artists Speak for Themselves
At the Folk Art Museum, “Self-Made” overcomes the problem of “insiders” ventriloquizing self-taught artists.
Art Review
Sable Elyse Smith Reveals the Shapes of State Violence
The artist’s critique of the prison-industrial complex simultaneously deepens and skewers the legacies of Minimalism.
Art Review
Emory Douglas’s Lifetime of Revolutionary Art
At age 83, the former Black Panther Party culture minister continues to explore the possibilities of unapologetically political art.
Review
Giant Wieners, Drag Queens, and Curtis Sliwa at “The Most American Pageant Ever!”
The absurdist performance art event at Times Square felt more like an elegy during this national moment.